The Wild Horse Butte Tokala Intertribal Color Guard. PHOTO BY/Christina Rose
Family members place the plumes in the hair of the graduates. Left to right, back row, Sandra LeBeau, Harriet Brings, Connie Steen, Stella Heron, Bruce Heron, and Abena Songbird. Front row: Graduates Diedre Brandenburger-Wolfe (Oglala), Chelsea Steen (Oglala), Melissa Heron (Dine).
Where tradition meets future
Feathering ceremony at School of Mines
By Christina Rose
Native Sun News
Associate Editor RAPID CITY – A celebratory “Liliilililililiil!” rang out through the Surbeck Ballroom for the four School of Mines Native graduates. The occasion was the Spring Graduation Feathering Ceremony held on Friday. Families and friends gathered and heard the words of wisdom from many speakers including a prayer from Gerald Yellow Hawk (Mniconjou). Harriet Brings, (Oglala) of the Rapid City School District Cultural Research Specialist, welcomed all at the start of the honoring ceremony. Brings began her address by describing a world gone by. “I was raised on the reservation and I saw my grandparents living with dirt floors. I actually seen cars winded up, and I remember these big phonographs with a record that was that thick. We rode in wagons, and I always used to wonder, what’s on the other side of those hills?” Speaking of her many childhood memories, Brings described herself as an 8-year-old girl talking with her nearly 100-year-old grandmother who remembered Crazy Horse and witnessed a major battle. “One day she told me, ‘You better go to school and work real hard because one day you are going to work with that wasicu.” I thought, gramma why am I gonna go over there? But little did I know when I graduated...” Raised in a very traditional, Lakota speaking, household on Pine Ridge, she now lives and works in Rapid City, just as her grandmother said she would. Brings reminded the students that they will always walk in two worlds, and said she is so proud of the young people who graduated from the School of Mines. According to Brings, honoring is an important part of Lakota tradition and the feathering ceremony has a long history. “I tell my students every time they walk into that class, we are Lakota. I am a gramma and honorings are such a big thing; it is part of our culture. We put on those quilts, and we put on those plumes, and put a medicine wheel on there too. It makes me feel very good. You carry that feather and that plume in a very positive way. We have been honored so we have to walk like that. We are so proud of them.” Other speakers such as the school’s Acting President Dr. Duane Hrncir and Professor Arden Davis offered their congratulations for the student’s hard work, reminding the families and friends that graduating from the School of Mines was not an easy thing to do. The keynote address was given by School of Mines 2011 Graduate Jacqueline DeMent Auker, who also chose to share her own childhood memories. Telling of a small contest at work, co-workers were asked what made them become engineers. “I shared how a little Lakota girl grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation.” Describing the pot holed roads and the frequent collapse of Water Pump Number Four, DeMent Auker said, “There was frequently no running water and when a system shut down it took days and days to repair it.” The family lived in a cottage a few miles away from the family ranch house and when the pumps broke, the family drove to gramma and granpas house to fill up water jugs from the well. DeMent-Auker said, “I remember times when I could hear mom doing the laundry and she would be outside yelling, ‘That damn #4 pump!’” As a child growing up in Pine Ridge, DeMent-Auker learned all too quickly how valuable these resources were. These and other childhood experiences inspired DeMent-Auker to want to become a civil engineer. “I wanted to improve the quality of life for the people by engineering better roads and improving resources.” By the way, DeMent-Auker won the contest at work. The four students who graduated from the South Dakota School of Mines on Friday were:
Melissa Heron, (Dine) who graduated with Bachelors of Science in Geological Engineering. She graduated with honors and made dean’s list. Heron grew up in Northern Arizona, the youngest in a family of seven. She was described as being inspired by her love of the outdoors and a knack for math. Chelsea Steen, (Oglala) graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Sciences in Health. She is from the small town of Fairburn, SD, and was active in 4H. She has been accepted into the Rapid City Radiography Program and will seek to receive MRI certification. Deidre Brandenburger-Wolf, (Cheyenne River) received her Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Sciences- Health. She was raised in Eagle Butte, graduated from St Thomas More High School in Rapid City with Honors, and won the Lakota Language Bowl during her senior year at the Lakota Nation Invitational. She has also spent five years in the Navy Corps. She received several scholarships, was on the Dean’s List, was a Tiospaye Scholar, and will be applying for medical school. Shane Herrod, (Oglala) who graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Civil Engineering. He is a Tiospaye Scholar and did his senior design with the campus wind turbine.Abena Songbird, (Abenaki) OMA Program Assistant and Feathering Ceremony Coordinator, said, “Ceremonies such as our Graduation Honoring for American Indian students, many who are first generation college students, affirms tribal cultural lifeways, families, and Indian communities through the Drum, Color Guard, and speakers and elders from community, which ultimately helps directly impact retention.” Songbird believes that when learning institutions sustain and support their students in such a way, it directly bolsters and affirms the youth. “We are sending them off in a good way into paths as young professionals, in both global careers in STEM; and sending some home - to give back to their respective and others' reservations,” she said. Honor songs were performed by Mid-Noon Singers and the Wild Horse Butte Tokala Inter-Tribal Color Guard established the circle. There were others who played an instrumental role in the ceremony, including Jesse Herrera, Director of Multi-Cultural Affairs. The beautiful blue and yellow Star Quilts were created by Natalie Pourier. Special thanks were also given to Robert Cook, managing director, Dee LeBeau-Hein program mentor of the Tiospaye Scholar Program, Dr. Robb Winter; co-advisor AISES, and congratulations and thanks was offered to all of the graduates and their families. (Contact Christina Rose at Christinarose.sd@gmail.com) Copyright permission by Native Sun News
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