USD Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

Native Student Services hosted Native American Heritage Month at USD. They put together a month-long celebration for Native American USD students and community members. 

Native Student Services held several events during the month of November. They also paired up with Marcus Destin, the Multicultural Affairs coordinator on campus. 

Brooke Jackson, Coordinator of Native Student Services, said they wanted to make as many students as included. 

“The number one goal is to make students feel seen and heard. Like they feel like they belong on this campus. So they feel like they’re connected to it. And like a piece of it and not just a part of it,” Jackson said. 

Some of the events that were put on were lectures, socials and workshop classes. Some of the special guests that were welcomed were Sarah Deer, Daniel French and Anthony Anaya-Gormann. 

Certain events were more popular on campus such as the Unity Ball. However, Jackson said there was good attendance of students throughout the month. 

“I’d say we’re pretty close to like 75-to-100 (students) for almost all the events actually,”  Jackson said. 

Jackson said the reason for the good turnout was due to advertising and planning on the Native Students Services. 

“We’ve actually figured out (the events) we wanted to do in the summer, so we can invite everybody and get their contracts done,” Jackson said. “We have put on a Facebook event where things can be more popular on campus… We put those in about like three-to-four weeks ahead of time. That way the community knows and they can feel welcome to come.” 

Within Jackson’s time at USD, she said they have learned what students like and adapted to make the events more successful on campus. 

“I think that we’ve learned a lot. In 2019, when I started, we had a lot of quantity. We had like 17 events during the one month and now we have like seven. We’ve learned that quality is better than quantity because students can’t attend everything,” Jackson said. 

If interested in more events hosted by Native Student Services, visit their USD involved site at https://usdinvolved.usd.edu/organization/nacc