{"id":97518,"date":"2018-10-09T16:47:29","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T22:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day-2\/"},"modified":"2018-10-09T16:47:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-09T22:47:29","slug":"fort-lewis-college-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fort-lewis-college-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lewis College celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"FLC
FLC student Joi Lynch listens to the welcoming and opening statements for this year\u2019s events Monday in the Student Union Ballroom.<\/span>Courtesy of Benjamin Brashear<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Indigenous Peoples Day, which has been celebrated at Fort Lewis College in place of Columbus Day since 2016, included a Parade of Nations with some Native American students in traditional clothing celebrating their cultures.<\/p>\n

Ken Walker, who presented one of several workshops Monday in the Student Union, also noted that this year Native American students will be able to wear their traditional clothing in place of the cap and gown during commencement ceremonies.<\/p>\n

As a student, FLC alumna Ruthie Edd advocated for the recognition of the holiday with the aim of giving students, teachers and the community an opportunity to talk about Native American history and the history of indigenous people around the world.<\/p>\n

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College President Tom Stritikus and Ruthie Edd, who advocated for the observance of Indigenous Peoples Day as a student at Fort Lewis College, discuss Indigenous Peoples Day during welcoming statements at the Student Union Ballroom.<\/span>Courtesy of Benjamin Brashear<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The holiday, which began as a counter to Columbus Day, celebrates the indigenous peoples of America and commemorates their shared history and culture. It is celebrated in many cities, including Durango, Denver, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Salt Lake City and Norman, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

FLC<\/a> student Alicia Nequatewa, a Hopi and Navajo artist who designed this year\u2019s Indigenous Peoples Day poster, drew a distinction between \u201cinspired Native art\u201d and \u201cNative-inspired art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired Native American artists have a rich tradition of purposefully using symbols, materials and colors compared with the harmful practice by chain stores and fashion houses of using copies of Native American art for their own profit, a practice she called \u201cNative-inspired art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvertising anything as Indian-made when it\u2019s not, when a big chain places a tribal name in a product, none of that is appropriate. It is appropriation of culture,\u201d Nequatewa said.<\/p>\n

Going through her own jewelry box, she realized everyone to some extent unwittingly falls into supporting cultural appropriation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got rid of everything that was not handmade,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jeneda Benally, a member of the sister-brother Navajo singing group Sihasin<\/a>, which performed during the day\u2019s events, told Native American students it is important to follow her father\u2019s advice and not think of the world as divided between the modern world and the traditional cultural world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad always told us there\u2019s not two worlds. There\u2019s not a traditional world and a modern world. There\u2019s one world, and as Native people, we should cherish our traditions and cherish that we now have all these modern tools to continue our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student-artist warns about falling for cultural appropriation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[120,132,13,912],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-colorado","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-national-or-ethnic-minority"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97518"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}