Native American Heritage Day: Rock Your Moc’s with USU Blanding
Holding up a red ribbon skirt, USU advisor of Utah State’s Blanding campus, Shilo Martinez, explained the significance of the traditional Navajo skirt she plans to wear for National Native American Heritage month.
“It’s handmade, you don’t go to Walmart or Target to buy these kinds of things,” Martinez said. “This one was made by someone in the community.”
According to the USU Statewide website, 68% of USU Blanding’s students are Native American, with 90% of those students identifying as Navajo. A week of events has been planned to celebrate Indigenous peoples and their traditions. This includes encouraging students to wear their traditional dress.
Hunter Warren, USUSA executive vice president of the Blanding campus, explained that everything the Navajo wear has a meaning.
“Everything we wear isn’t just for show, we’re connecting with our creator, our ancestors, providing protection for ourselves,” Warren said.
He plans to wear a button-up shirt with a horse picture in the middle, native designs on each side of the shirt, turquoise jewelry and his moccasins.
Heritage week aligns with nationwide “Rock Your Moc’s” week, where Indigenous peoples celebrate their traditions by wearing their moccasins all week long.
Aside from dressing traditionally, Blanding campus also plans to help their students eat traditionally.
In a campus-wide event, all students from all backgrounds are invited to partake in sheep butchering.
“We start early in the morning, we butcher the sheep,” Martinez said. “We use every single piece of the sheep, whether it’s eating it or using it for something else. Nothing goes to waste.”
The sheep is prepared outside with grills and a fire, and students are involved in preparing the sheep and vegetables.
“We all gather together, take all the meat, and make other sides like fry bread or tortillas, and other traditional foods like blue mush,” Martinez said. “It’s kind of like a celebration.”
The wool from the sheep is used to make mats that stay in the new Hogan, a place made to feel like a home away from home for the students.
This week, a special shoe game will be played in the Hogan. The game can only be played inside, at night, during the winter.
“It’s a cultural game where you hide a ball inside of some shoes, and the other team has to come find the ball,” Warren said. “It goes back and forth, and the score is kept with Yucca plants.”
The game was inspired by a story involving animals. The song of these animals is sung during the game by the participants.
There will also be beading and jewelry making, and cultural bags with sweet grass. Sage and Navajo tea will be given to students. Each element sends different blessings, a sense of belonging and appreciation.
Warren said Native American people are very family oriented, and he hopes that these events will help bring the campus community together to feel like a family.
“At any of our events, we aren’t going to push anybody away,” Warren said. “It’s a time for us to educate people, there are a lot of stereotypes.”
Warren and Martinez said they are excited about the upcoming events, and feel grateful that, although they are Navajo every day, they have a month to celebrate it.
You can follow their events taking place from Nov. 14-19 on Instagram @usublanding.