Yale Daily News

Joy is taking center stage as Indigenous student groups on campus herald a week of Indigenous Peoples’ Day programming.

This year’s schedule features meals, speaker panels and events — such as beading and smudging — hosted by the Native and Indigenous Student Association at Yale and the Native American Cultural Center. 

“Something about Indigenous communities that I think most people don’t realize is that we laugh a lot and we tease each other a lot,” said Assistant Dean of Yale College Matthew Makomenaw, who also serves as the director of NACC. 

For Makomenaw, this joy is not something one can read in a book or see in a panel. It comes with interpersonal interactions and collective laughter. The celebrations have greatly expanded in recent years, Makomenaw said, noting the full week’s worth of programming beyond Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 10. 

He said that in the ongoing journey to make Indigenous identities in America more visible, “happy celebration” should come hand-in-hand with academic education on the colonial genocide and systemic struggles that some Indigenous Americans have faced.

Makomenaw praised students for heralding the initiative and creating an interactive experience that transcends such academic structures and the preconceptions people have of Indigenous culture based on “westernized movies and books.”

NISAY chairperson Joaquín M. Lara Midkiff ’24 underscored joy as an integral part of the healing process. 

“When I ask myself what it means to be Indigenous — and what it means to live and continue on [as] faithfully, fully and vividly as I can … it’s for all the millions of people who were robbed of the opportunity to do so,” Lara Midkiff said.

Lara Midkiff acknowledged the tension that comes with celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day in a city that has historically honored Columbus Day each fall. 

Debate over the celebration of Columbus Day has ricocheted throughout New Haven in the last two years, with the city’s Board of Education voting in 2020 to redesignate Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day and remove Columbus’ name from a local school. 

Lara Midkiff hopes that this week’s programming — beyond recognizing Indigenous “pride and patrimony” — will approach Columbus Day from a corrective lens and instead celebrate the people who have suffered most at the hands of American colonial projects.

“Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day cannot coexist,” agreed Nyché Andrew ’25, who is on the house staff at the NACC. “The latter has no honorable means of celebration given the history of colonialism.”

Both Makomenaw and Kala’i Anderson ’25, a peer liaison for the NACC, said that while events like Indigenous Peoples’ Day and other cultural heritage months are important in centering marginalized voices, there remains a need for a more persistent inclusion of those voices in the mainstream narrative.

Yale should continue to educate itself on its colonial history, Anderson said. He mentioned a recent trip to Vassar College during which he and a group of Native Hawaiian students, along with Native and Indigenous Studies Assistant Professor Hi’ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart, returned iwi kūpuna — native Hawaiian skeletal remains — that had been in Yale’s possession to a repatriation group that met them in New York.

Makomenaw urged students to take advantage of the year-round programs offered by the University’s cultural centers, which provide them with opportunities to connect with each other as well as to get a glimpse into Yale’s diverse communities. The events, similar to this week’s programming, welcome students of all backgrounds, Indigenous or not. 

“Visibility is important,” Makomenaw said. “Part of the role of students and myself is to push towards having more representation of Indigenous identities in the curriculum, the faculty, and the staff. But just as important is smiling and having a good laugh. Seeing students gather today to eat cake prepared by an Indigenous staff member, taking pictures and enjoying the time with one another, that made me really proud.” 

The Yale University Press’ 2022 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Reading List can be found here.