Multicultural Student Affairs (MSA) hosted the Native American Heritage Month Kickoff in Talley Student Union on Wednesday to promote Native American culture among the student population.

MSA and the Native American Student Association (NASA) at NC State are both participating in the month with several events aimed to educate all students about Native American culture. NASA is an organization that aims to establish a community among students with Native American heritage at NC State.

Amberlina Alston, a third-year studying psychology and chair for Native American Heritage Month, discussed the importance of the month.

“The significance is to just teach people and to encourage them to learn more about Native American history and culture,” Alston said. “It’s not a very widely talked about thing, especially in history books. I feel like it’s very important for people to at least know some part of what happened to the people that were here before colonization. It’s still relevant and it’s still alive today.” 

Alston said that there will be at least 13 events throughout the month that bring awareness to Native American culture and history. Some of these events include the Native American History Trivia Bowl, a dreamcatcher workshop and a Native Art Show at the Gregg Museum.

Alston discussed the importance of informing students about Native American heritage on NC State’s campus.

“Native Americans are one of the smallest populations here,” Alston said. “I’ve actually heard people say they didn’t know that Native Americans still existed and I think that’s really bad because North Carolina alone has the largest population east of the Mississippi River.”

North Carolina has the eighth-largest Native American population in the U.S. with about 122,000 people. NC State is also the first university in the state to recognize Indigenous People’s Day in place of Columbus Day.

Shelby Saboo, a second-year studying animal science, is a member of NASA.

“I am Native American as well, I’m from the Ojibwe tribe in Michigan,” Saboo said. “I just started coming to Native American Student Association meetings and kind of got sucked in; they’re my family now.”

Saboo said Native American Heritage Month is dedicated to celebrating the culture and educating others.

“There are so many students on campus, they’re all diverse culturally,” Saboo said. “We just like to help, in a way, kind of expose to the students that Native Americans are on campus even though we might not be identifiable, we’re here and this is our culture.”

Alston encouraged students with Native American heritage to get involved on campus.

“On a campus this huge with this many people, they can feel very alone and like there’s no one else that they can connect with so we’re here to show that you do have someone,” Alston said.

The next event for Native American Heritage Month is a Native Voices Student Panel and Quiz Bowl held on Nov. 6 from 4:30-6 p.m. in Parks Shops 210. More events can be located on MSA’s website.