By Chang Liu | Focus/Design Editor
Better Together, an interfaith group, hosted Neighbor Night with the Society for Advancement of Chicanos, Hispanics and Native Americans in Science to celebrate Native American Heritage Month at the Bobo Spiritual Life Center on Tuesday night.
Sophia Hoffman, service chair of Better Together and Kansas, Mo., senior said anyone from a different faith is welcome to discuss their experience and share stories.
“On a monthly basis, we host this event, which is Neighbor Night,” Hoffman said. “It’s about highlighting different groups on campus and getting to learn more about culture. Throughout the event, we can combine with the cultural organization to celebrate something that’s unique to SACNAS’s culture.”
Julianna Canas, vice president of SACNAS at Baylor and Pasadena, Calif., junior, said SACNAS is the only Native American student organization at Baylor, and they joined to throw a Neighbor Night to celebrate Native Americans and their heritage.
“Native Americans can trace their ancestry back to the people who came before the Europeans came over, so the Native Americans have been living in this land for thousands of years,” Canas said.
Conrad Barrozo, SACNAS treasurer and Rapid, S.D., senior, said the organization displayed photos from Native American artists with descriptions on each table.
“A lot of the photos that we’re displaying are from Native American artists — [from] all over the United States,” Barrozo said. “They’re curated by museums that specifically have collections of Native American art, and they’re kind of representative of the different tribes that we have all across the U.S.”
Canas said food and language are integral to culture, so the organization brought wild rice from Minnesota and frybread. Canas also voiced disappointment that the U.S. government dictates who’s Native American.
“A lot of times they use what’s called the blood quantum rule, so it dictates whatever percentage you are of Native American,” Canas said. “There’s also the tragedy of a lot of tribes nowadays. After the next generation, they will not be considered Native anymore. The whole philosophy and the identity behind it is dictated by the U.S. government, but currently, there is a big push between us to kind of build the identity for ourselves.”
