Although many students will take time today to recognize Columbus Day, the North American Indian Student Organization will be honoring Native Americans whose lives were lost throughout history.
NAISO will be holding a vigil for Indigenous People’s Day at 8 p.m. today at the rock on Farm Lane. The event will begin with a prayer and feature Native American speakers, songs and drum beating by Blue Lake, a Native American drum group from Lansing.
Bryan Newland, who co-chairs NAISO, said the vigil was designed in remembrance of Native Americans, not as an anti-Columbus Day event.
“The purpose is to be an alternative celebration honoring the original Americans and honoring their lives and the culture that was lost,” the social relations junior said. “Our message is that Christopher Columbus is not a person who should be honored with a holiday due to the atrocities that people participated in.”
Newland said it is important to keep the history of Native Americans in mind.
“There were millions of people with advanced cultures in this hemisphere that go uncelebrated,” he said.
The organization placed fliers on buildings to rename them with native names Sunday night - an action to “reclaim” campus.
Pamela Hincka, a member of NAISO and human resource management junior, said the reclaiming event was necessary for the group to express its feelings about Columbus Day.
“We are going out to discover what was already there, which is what Columbus did,” she said. “We realize that we have to do something now and take action.”
Nasbah Hill, who also co-chairs NAISO, said the purpose of the vigil is to promote awareness to everyone about Columbus Day. Everyone is invited, not just Native Americans.
“It’s for us to go out there and let them know that it’s not something that’s supposed to be celebrated, to remember the unnecessary deaths that happened and to remember those who died,” the psychology freshman said. “They need to learn why it is called that and why Columbus Day shouldn’t be celebrated.”
And Hill said school teachers often neglect to mention the truth about what occurred.
“All these years, you learn that he is some hero and that he discovered America,” she said. “How can he discover something that is already here?
“They forget to mention that he killed Indians and took the land and put them on reservations. They remember a false image of him being some hero. It’s nothing great to celebrate at all.”
