We have had so many things going on this semester. We took a trip to visit several earthworks in Southwest Ohio. We went to Serpent Mound, Sunwatch Indian Village, and the Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
We are celebrating American Indian/Indigenous Awareness Week. On Monday we watched the ‘No More Smoke Signals’ a documentary about Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and their KiLi radio station. It was a really powerful movie with some irony which I’m pretty sure was intentional. On Tuesday we had our guest lecturer, Dwanna Robertson, (Muscoge- Creek)from the Sociology Department of the University of Massachuessetts. Her focus is on social inequality and indigenous identity. She talked about the American Indian Identity. She made me tear up a little. For so long I have struggled with my identity and she stood there and told me that is was ok, that I am indigenous, I am Cherokee, and I should embrace that identity. It was refreshing to hear this from her. And today we finished our week with an identity dialogue. We talked about everything you could ever think of for this identity and the issues that surround it. Blood quantum, legal identity, cultural identity, racial identity, stereotypes, etc. It was one of the best discussions that we have ever had. I’m so glad to have seen people engaged in a healthy discussion about these issues.
I’d say we had a successful awareness week and I’m glad that those who participated could have a discussion about contemporary issues and to have them be excited to come and learn.