Month: October 2023

People gathered on Old Main lawn on Monday afternoon to celebrate and recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Flags representing different tribal nations waved on the lawn just below the steps of Old Main, where speakers and performers stood to celebrate.

Tim Benally opened the rally with a speech which included a land acknowledgement.

Penn State’s campuses are located on the original homelands of the Erie, Haudenosaunee (Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk and Tuscarora), Lenape (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe, Stockbridge-Munsee), Monongahela, Shawnee (Absentee, Eastern and Oklahoma), Susquehannock and Wahzhazhe (Osage) Nations.

“We mark a historical occasion where we recognize the legacy and contributions of Indigenous peoples from around the country,” Benally, a graduate student studying recreation, parks and tourism management, said. “The very structures that once sought to erase us still persist in today’s educational systems.”

“I’ve been grateful for the opportunities that its presented, but it’s also a poignant reminder that I,” Benally said, “like most of you, are visitors to this land, and we are missing its original stewards.”

Several speakers talked about the importance of this day to the community, including Al George, a Cayuga faith keeper in the Allegany Seneca territory.

“Native Americans all over Turtle Island have a customary responsibility to give thanks to their creator for all the things that he provided us, sustain us in our lives and keep us happy as we walk this earth,” George said.

Akwesasne Women Singers, Las Cafeteras and the Jake George family performed music and traditional dances.

Errol Wizda, an assistant program director with the Millennium Scholars Program, was in attendance at the rally.

“I think this sort of thing is really important for the university (to acknowledge) everything that’s happening,” Wizda said. “I think it’s important for … advocacy to happen on campus.”

Erica Brown said “it was a really good opportunity.”

“It’s something I have never seen before, so…

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by Cari Carpenter

The City of Morgantown, one of hundreds of places proclaiming the second Tuesday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, is the site of the Oct. 9-10 free public forum “This Land Was Already Loved.”

WVU’s Native American Studies Program welcomes esteemed leaders from the Shawnee Tribe, Eastern Shawnee Tribe, Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, Cherokee Nation and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy for this historic forum. They will discuss their nations’ ancestral connections to West Virginia, providing Indigenous perspectives on history, culture and outlooks for the future.

We are so fortunate to have these important leaders visit our town for this pivotal occasion. Their presentations will help answer some of the lingering questions everyday West Virginians have about the state’s first peoples.

The Haudenosaunee nations, the Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Cherokee and other historic tribes regard West Virginia as being within their ancestral lands, and there are still individual descendants living here today. The U.S. has more than 570 federally-recognized Native Nations, and the 2020 Census cites nearly 10 million Native people nationwide.

Indigenous people, also referred to collectively in the U.S. as Native Americans or American Indians and Alaska Natives, have lived upon this land since time immemorial. This is evidenced by both oral history and archaeological sites in Morgantown and throughout our state. The nearby 2,000-year-old Hopewell Earthworks in Ohio were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site just last month.

As a professor who has taught Native American literature for 20 years, I cannot express how excited I am to have the opportunity to witness this event firsthand. I am especially eager to hear renowned Haudenosaunee Faithkeeper Oren Lyons give the keynote, “Truth to power: History from Indigenous perspectives” tomorrow, Oct. 9, at 6 p.m. in the Gluck Theater of the Student Union.

I also look forward…

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