By Caroline Averitt | Life Editor and Laila Casiano | Staff Writer

November is Native American Heritage Month: a time to celebrate the customs, language and culture of Native Americans in the United States.

Only 45 students of Native American heritage attend Arkansas State University this year. With a total of 14,032 undergraduate and graduate students, Native Americans account for about 0.32% of the A-State student population. 

Christopher Jackson

For Christopher Jackson, an A-State online graduate who received his doctorate in nursing practice for nursing education from Globe, Arizona, this month is a somber time. 

 “I feel like (Native American Heritage Month was created) to make up for the mistakes of Columbus Day being in the same month and Thanksgiving. It’s kind of a slap in the face,” Jackson said. 

Jackson is from the San Carlos Apache tribe and is an enrolled tribal citizen of the Navajo Nation. 

When he was a child, Jackson frequently traveled to powwows all over the country to participate as a Men’s Fancy Dancer. 

Jackson said many people do not understand the culture of reservations. 

“You don’t have to go around the world or to another country to experience poverty and what a third-world environment would be,” he said. “All you have to do is go to a reservation that is still here.” 

Hailey Needham

Hailey Needham, a junior nursing student from Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, comes from the Ojibwe tribe. She said it is important to preserve Native American culture. 

“Our tribe people and the elders, they’re all dying or building up walls to where they don’t want anyone else in. If they don’t pass on that culture, it’s going to be gone,” Needham said. 

Needham continues to uphold her family heritage by collecting bald eagle feathers and having cleansing ceremonies with burning sage, also known as smudging. 

Needham often cooks traditional Native American dishes, such as fry bread and wild rice soup. She said wild rice soup is difficult to make because of how it is harvested. 

“It’s not like the wild rice you can buy in the store, it’s a dark black long grain, and they harvest it out of canoes and they hit the base with a stick and it’s ridiculously expensive and hard to get.”

Needham said she struggles with people not believing her Native American heritage. 

“It used to bother me, and now it rarely does. You can believe what you want,” Needham said.

The “Indian” Mascot 

A-State has a history of using Native American imagery, as the retired trio mascot was the “ASU Indian Family.” The family consisted of Chief Big Track, an unnamed brave and an unnamed princess. 

In 2005, the Nation Collegiate Athletic Association banned “ethnically or racially derogatory mascots.” In response, A-State changed its mascot to the Red Wolves in 2008. 

“I find it comical, but I think my personal view on this, just from looking at other professional sports is like, what if this was a representation or a stereotypical image of a Jewish person, or an Islamic person?” Jackson said. “Or maybe somebody who comes from a very specific South Pacific Island or community? That would definitely change the whole conversation.”

Needham said she does not find the previous mascot offensive. 

“People choose a school or mascot because I think that (symbolizes) something strong,” Needham said. “Honestly, I kind of wish it was the Indians.”

Martha Spack, vice chancellor of student affairs, said since the mascot was changed, most imagery related to the Indian mascot has been put in storage or donated to the A-State Museum. 

“We have had issues in the past with displaying some of our historical memorabilia that had an ‘Indian’ theme to them because we were the “Indians,” Spack said.

Currently, the third floor of the Reng Student Union has a glass display case with nine bronze statues of Native Americans made by artist Mark Hopkins.

Spack said she has not received any formal complaints about the display. 

Pictured above (from left to right) is a bust of a Native American on display on the third floor of the Reng Student Union, the street sign for Cherokee Ave. and an A-State yearbook from 1967.

Native American Awareness

Needham said she wants more Native American history to be taught because she feels like it is being forgotten. 

Jackson said he wants people to remember Native American people still exist and the population is strong and lively. 

“We’re still people. We have our voices small, but we’re still here,” Jackson said. “I think it would just be fundamentally important for people to have a better education and a better knowledge base on Indigenous people in this country that were here before them.” 

Categories: Life