NC State is the first university in North Carolina to replace what was originally celebrated as Columbus Day on the second Monday in October with Indigenous Peoples Day.
University organizations such as the Native American Student Association and the Zeta Phi Beta sorority held a celebration for Indigenous Peoples Day Monday in Talley Student Union. The event included a show from Miskwa Waya, NC State’s Native American drum group and a presentation from guest speaker Raven Dial-Stanley.
Raven Dial-Stanley is a third-year at UNC Greensboro studying consumer apparel and retail studies. She is a member of the Lumbee Tribe and was crowned Miss Indian North Carolina for 2018-19. Dial-Stanley described the significance of Indigenous Peoples Day to her, as well as her objectives as Miss Indian North Carolina.
“Indigenous Peoples Day, to me, is marking the celebration of the trials and tribulations that my ancestors went through,” Dial-Stanley said. “My goal is to build a good relationship with different tribes and also build a relationship with the non-native community and with our non-native allies as well so that they have a better understanding of who indigenous people are.”
She addressed why she feels it was necessary to recognize Oct. 8 as Indigenous Peoples Day as opposed to Columbus Day.
“I don’t feel like [Christopher Columbus] deserves a whole day of recognition,” Dial-Stanley said. “Instead we replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day to show that these people are a strong and humble group of people that have prevailed through so many things that have happened in the past, but we are still here and our fire still burns.”
Dial-Stanley described the contemporary issues that Native Americans face such as the destruction of native reservations through the construction of pipelines.
“[The Atlantic Coast Pipeline] is not even a mile from my own people,” Dial-Stanley said. “When I was driving down there this summer and saw them doing construction, I was mortified because I realized that this isn’t something just happening in south North Dakota, this is happening in my backyard.”
President of the Native American Student Association Amberlina Alston, a fourth-year studying psychology, said that Indigenous Peoples Day is a way to represent the Native American culture.
“Today is important because it showcases that our culture is still alive and prevalent in America,” Alston said. “My people and people like me have been here for a very long time and our culture is still here.”
Alston said she believes that the celebration of this day brings together the community of NC State students who identify as indigenous.
“I know many times, myself included, there have been students who are the only native in their class and so they don’t have anyone else they can look up to or be like ‘hey you get me, you understand where I’m coming from,’” Alston said. “It’s a good day to make sure people know that, even though we are a really small percentage, we are still here.”
Isaiah Maher, a second-year in exploratory studies, is the lead singer of the Miskwa Waya drum group at NC State. Miskwa Waya means “red wolf” in Algonquian and Cherokee and is the only student-led Native American drum group at any college campus in North Carolina.
“To me, Indigenous Peoples Day is just about taking time to honor our ancestors… ancestors that may have died fighting for where we are today,” Maher said. “It’s all about taking time to recognize that we are still here, we aren’t extinct and our people do still exist.”
Meredith Bain, a fourth-year studying mathematics, attended the Indigenous Peoples Day event after hearing about the event from a friend.
“I think people should just know more about indigenous culture in general,” Bain said. “We’re on this land and we’re stealing all the wealth and we’ve taken advantage of these cultures for so long. I think students should be more aware of that.”
