Dressed in regalia from another ceremony he had earlier in the day, Hugh Burnam stumbled through the door of the SkyBarn on South Campus, where the welcome reception for the Haudenosaunee Promise Scholars was being held. He was immediately met by the smiling face of Bea González.

“She comes up to me and says, ‘Hugh, I think you’re going to like some of the stuff that the chancellor’s going to say right now,’” said Burnam, a Ph.D. student in the School of Education and an academic consultant for the Native Student Program.

At this year’s reception, held on Aug. 20, Chancellor Kent Syverud shared with the indigenous student community that the Haudenosaunee flags would be flown on Manley Field House, the Quad and at the Carrier Dome, alongside the United States and Syracuse University flags.

It was also the first time Burnam and other indigenous students found out that the university would now be recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 10.

The official announcement, sent to the entire SU community on Friday, comes a year after Burnam and a group of other indigenous graduate students publicly sent to Bea González, dean of University College and a member of the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion, a proposal detailing why the second Monday of October should be recognized by the university as Indigenous Peoples Day.

Columbus Day is all about the U.S. government not being able to admit its own mistakes, and not incorporating the correct moments of history into general education, said Rob Carrier, a senior information management and technology major who is also a member of the Native Student Program at SU.

“I don’t really understand why it was Columbus Day in the first place,” Carrier said. “You’re celebrating someone who is responsible for the genocide of millions of people and the United States government still has that in their curriculum for these kids, when they’re most impressionable.”

In interviews with The Daily Orange, many indigenous students at SU explained the most common remarks directed at them.

You still exist?

I thought you were all extinct.

“We learn that these people existed 300 years ago, but no one taught that these people still exist today,” Carrier added.

The university does not officially recognize Columbus Day. Burnam said despite this lack of recognition, each year he notices some departments still have signs, posters or calendars acknowledging Columbus Day — and therefore still appropriate that culture.

“We don’t want Columbus Day — we want Indigenous Peoples Day,” Burnam said. “We want to use it to discuss the atrocities of colonization in a way that is productive and to incorporate inclusivity of indigenous students on campus.”

Around this time last year, Burnam and the group of indigenous graduate students sat in a room on 113 Euclid Ave., the Native Student Building, and drafted their proposal. They sent it to González, put it out publicly on social media and contacted local news outlets to spread the word.

“It’ll lessen the microaggressions we experience because people will already know that you can’t be saying sh*t like that,” Burnam said. “‘Do you guys still live in teepees?’ Well, our people actually never did. They call us people of the Longhouse for a reason — we build houses.”

Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, a graduate student majoring in magazine, newspaper and online journalism, was one of the students who worked with Burnam to draft the proposal to the university.

They were invited to speak with González regarding their proposal, but the end of the meeting left them feeling confused and disappointed.

“It was like they were acknowledging us but they weren’t supporting us,” Bennett-Begaye said. “Kind of like, ‘OK, we met with them. We’re being inclusive. Check the box.’”

Burnam said González wasn’t clear as to whether or not the day’s acknowledgment would be happening. She listened to everything they said and commended them for their work.

But no progress was made, he added. They were simply told to keep doing the work they were doing.

“We’re looking at each other like, ‘oh my God, we are graduate students, we don’t have time to do this. We’re so busy, that’s so messed up,’” Burnam said. “We left with a bitter taste in our mouth.”

One year later, the university has given them the victory they wanted.

Regina Jones, an assistant director with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Native Student Program, said acknowledging the day as Indigenous Peoples Day is significant for the university to show that it is committed to native issues.

“When I look at SU, it is like a Little America. We’re pretty close to 1 percent. Our goal is to be 1 percent, but that’s the same as the whole country,” Jones said. “I look at it like a Little America, and it’s going in the right direction. Baby steps.”

Wearing a shirt with the words, “Straight Outta the Rez,” Honni David, a senior illustration major, said movements like the indigenous movement or Black Lives Matter are all interwoven with a common struggle of being oppressed.
“We’ve stopped calling it Columbus Day within our communities because it’s such a scornful name that a man that, upon initially discovering a group of people, decided to exploit them, to rape their women, to murder their men — to do all this heinous sh*t,” David said.

For Burnam, engaging students who wanted this acknowledgment of Indigenous Peoples Day is the very reason that university gave them what they wanted. He added that he never thought this acknowledgment was possible, but having a really good core group of students made all the difference.

“Now after this change is made, I can see the fruits of our labor,” Burnam said. “It’s been really good to know that the university will listen to you.”

Published on October 10, 2016 at 3:05 am

Contact Rachel: rcgilber@syr.edu