Last Tuesday, fresh frybread and other foods filled the table next to a dome-shaped structure on Clark Street, where members of the Northwestern community gathered for Northwestern’s Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance potluck.
[natural sound: honor song]
May 5th is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives. It was established to bring awareness to the disappearances and murders of Native women, honor the lives lost, and work toward justice and accountability — and this potluck did just that. This year, the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance (NAISA) highlighted the crisis through a community potluck meant to promote community healing.
Medill first-year and WNUR reporter Dallas Downey is a member of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. He organized the event after going to the annual Big Ten Native Alliance Conference at the University of Oregon. He heard that student groups at other schools raised awareness through potlucks and wanted to create a similar space for the Northwestern community.
DALLAS DOWNEY: A lot of Indigenous people have relatives, you know, family members, sisters, cousins, aunties, nieces, who may be a part of the statistics. And so I believe that a community alternative was necessary for us to be able to come together and have joy, laughter on a tough day like today.
According to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, homicide is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women between the ages of 10 and 24. And because of racial misclassification and lack of media coverage, among other causes, there are huge gaps in data.
KAREN WASHINAWATOK: Because of our status as Native People, it’s hard to bring justice to the perpetrators of these incidents because of the way the laws are set up. And usually it’s done in an area where there’s not a lot of people or, you know, not a lot of activity, so the crimes go uninvestigated and unsolved and the people are just missing.
That was Karen Washinawatok, a member of the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. Karen and her husband, Allen Washinawatok, are the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR) Spring Elders-in-Residence and share their knowledge and practices. On the weekend before the potluck, they harvested saplings with students and constructed a teaching lodge — an interdisciplinary space where students, elders and faculty gathered to eat and heal together last Tuesday.
WASHINAWATOK: Although it was built by us as Indigenous people, it’s for everybody, you know, the neighbors, the campus population. A lot of people need this kind of environment, you know, to feel connected and to feel good about going forward with their education.
The lodge’s insides are decorated with sacred medicines in Ojibwe culture — tobacco, sweet grass, cedar, and sage.
DOWNEY: These four medicines are the highest of plants that are used to heal the mind, the body, the spirit, the soul. They’re used to call upon the ancestors to honor ourselves, those on this earth, those not, those in the spirit world.
While everyone was inside the lodge, they smudged and burned sage, then Elder-in-Resident Allen Washinawatok — who had lost a relative to the crisis — was wrapped in a healing blanket. Downey says it’s important for the community to prioritize the needs of their elders, especially during difficult times.
DOWNEY: No one can succeed if they are not whole, if they are not healed.
To honor the victims, Indigenous families often hang red dresses in public spaces to call back the spirits of those who disappeared or were murdered. At the potluck, some students and elders painted a red handprint over their mouths — a symbol for silenced voices and advocacy — like Medill first-year Monica Riley, a member of the White Mountain Apache.
The potluck featured a large spread that included traditional Indigenous food, like homemade frybread and wild rice. Riley says the potluck reminded her of community dinners back in Arizona.
MONICA RILEY: It makes me miss home, but I’m glad I have another home here.
For many students, leaving for college means leaving their families and communities. NAISA gives Indigenous students a community to feel supported as they go through university. Downey says NAISA took the weight of finding his people off his shoulders.
DOWNEY: It’s really important for spaces like NAISA to exist because we need a space for us to exist in a university that has undermined us and that was founded by someone who did not believe in our sovereignty and our right to live. And us coming together as NAISA is us upholding our sovereignty as youth who are going through academia, and that’s truly important.
For WNUR News, I’m Evelyn Won.