Pottery, storytelling, dance, song and other more contemporary aspects of pueblo culture were celebrated Friday at the third annual Pueblo Feast Day at Fort Lewis College.
“We just want to show people we are still thriving,” said founder Mariah Gachupin.
The number of students at Fort Lewis from the 22 pueblos in New Mexico, Arizona and Texas has grown, and the event, as well the Pueblo Alliance, was founded for these students.
“I really felt that pueblo people weren’t really represented on campus,” she said.
The daylong event drew hundreds of people and focused on honoring pueblo women. Feast Day is separate from Hozhoni Days, now in its 52nd year, which includes a pageant and powwow.
“It is important for us to highlight our women because I feel like they are the glue that holds our people together,” Gachupin said.
Keynote speaker Debra Haaland of Laguna Pueblo urged the students to be active in their communities and to use the skills learned at school to help their people.
“When you all see that’s something wrong, it’s your responsibility to stand up and do something about it,” she said.
Haaland, chairwoman of the Democratic Party in New Mexico, urged them to consider degrees in law and public administration so they can maintain the relationship between their tribe and the federal government. She also stressed the importance of keeping their culture alive. Haaland lived with her grandparents in Winslow, Arizona, while they worked on the railroad, but they celebrated feast days and cooked in a traditional way.
“No matter where you are, you take your culture with you because there is always someone to teach,” she said.
To celebrate pueblo culture, attendants learned about pinch pots, storytelling, Zumba and pine needle basketry from pueblo students.
A Cochiti Pueblo student, Justice Suina of Denver taught a workshop on pinch pots, a skill he learned as a child, to a class of all ages.
Karen Cheama of the Zuni Pueblo had learned to make ceramics with her grandmother, and the workshop brought back good memories.
“It’s the first time I’ve touched clay in a long time,” she said.
Courtney Lastiyano shared a Zuni story called Turkey Girl, which is similar to Cinderella but more realistic.
“The girl doesn’t get what she wants in the end – it’s all about consequences,” she said.
After the story, her students painted a scene they imagined as the story was being told.
Lastiyano, an aspiring early-childhood teacher, wanted to tell the stories passed down from her family to the young children and others who attended the event.
“It’s nice to have the chance to share them with the people who haven’t heard them yet,” Lastiyano said.
Storytelling and art were two of the main themes covered by speaker Rose Simpson, an influential mixed-media artist from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico.
Simpson learned ceramics from her mom and how to fix cars and many other skills, which made Western gender roles confusing.
“I didn’t believe in what Western society projected,” she said.
After studying in Japan and at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where she received her master’s degree in fine art, she returned home and enrolled in an automotive science program.
Her art reflects her education and ranges from modern busts of Native people to classic cars.
For example, she restored a 1985 El Camino using a black-on-black finish developed by a San Ildefonso Pueblo artist.
As a symbol of rejecting Western gender roles and exotification of Native symbols, she also has built armor based on Native American styles.
To survive post-colonial stress disorder and the associated trauma, she encouraged her audience to know themselves and be able to tell their own story. “Let’s love ourselves, let’s make really good decisions,” she said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
