Silver City, N.M. – Native American Week is back! On Monday evening, the Native American Club dedicated a Native American Flag to the Miller Library as part of celebrating Native American Week at Western New Mexico University.
While there are many flags that portray individual Native American tribes, the flag given to the library represents Native Americans as a whole and gives a bigger picture to all of the tribes. The Lakota Flag Song was played during the hanging of the flag. The song has two parts: one is the flag song, while the other is a victory song which gives acknowledgement to the warriors whom fought for the flag. The flag, which is of Apache descent, was donated to the club from Luis Armijo who is a native of Santa Clara, New Mexico and served as a code talker during the second World War.
“This is the biggest event that we are celebrating this week,” said Native American Club President Benita Harry. “The flag lets Natives Americans not feel left out or alone here at WNMU.”
The Native American Club is one of the longest standing clubs at WNMU and provides events on campus to spread cultural awareness. “The club is a self-sustaining organization where students provide support to one another and help students transition into college life”, said Co-advisor Paulo Veltri.
Native American Week continues all through the week with other events that involve Native American culture. On Tuesday, Indian tacos will be sold in front of the Cultural Center with visitors invited to see what the club is about in an open house. The money will be donated to the North Dakota pipeline protests. On Wednesday in the Mustang Dining Hall, there will be food provided from different tribes such as mutton posole, buffalo burgers, Pueblo bread, Navajo cobbler and more. Thursday, Native American students will be wearing moccasins while Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace plays in the Navajo language throughout the day in the Miller Library.
