The Chadron State College community is coming together tomorrow for a special program on Thanksgiving and Native Americans.
A Thanksgiving Tribute to Indigenous Peoples runs from 10-2:00 in the Student Center.
It will include traditional foods, cultural presentations, and educational displays on several current indigenous topics.
The Thanksgiving Tribute grew out of new CSC President Ron Patterson’s September visit to 3 schools on the Pine Ridge Reservation
Academic Adviser LuAnn Werdel, herself Native American, says President Patterson told her he was in awe of the beauty of the landscape and of the wonderful administrators, staff, counselors, and students he met.
Patterson, the first Black college president in Nebraska, says the Tribute is a celebration with gratitude to the nation’s Indigenous Peoples and how they’ve “endured and thrived generation after generation.”
President Patterson also says he’s “resolved to see that we work with our Native American partners toward providing access to higher education, “ and calls the Thanksgiving Tribute “the first step towards realizing that vision.”
Traditional foods including stew, fry bread, and wojapi (pudding) will be served by the cafeteria with the public invited to join the campus community in buying a meal.
Hoop dancer Tara Kingi of Rapid City and student dancers from Lakota Tech High School in Pine Ridge will perform in the Dining Hall.
Art by the students will be displayed in the Student Center Ballroom along with educational posters and articles about a variety of topics including myths about Thanksgiving, food sovereignty, and the “three sisters” of Native American cooking – beans, corn, and squash.
Evans Flammond Sr, a member of the Sicangu Lakota tribe, will be in the Ballroom to demonstrate his art in the Ballroom and meet with those interested. He’s best known for his ledger art, hide paintings, and ceremonial and reproduction pieces
Other tables will feature CSC students working on native art, English students of Dr Matt Evertson reading Braiding Sweetgrass, and Indigenous Recognition and Reconciliation Committee members available to discuss creation of a land acknowledgment statement
. Campus entities supporting the event include the administration, the START Office, Admissions, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, the IRRC, the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, the Teaching, Learning and Professional Education Center, and Conferencing.