Occom's Heirs Get a Home
THEY GATHERED THIS MAY ON THE Green, at the center of Dartmouth, on the ancestral lands of the Abenaki Nation. Lakota and Crow, Navajo and Ojibway Mohegan and Wampanoag and many more. Elders, their sons, and their daughters came to Pow-Wow, to follow the spirit of the drum, dance with old friends and new, honor tradition, and celebrate what many Native Americans call the Hoop of Life.
Native students at Dartmouth had particular reason to celebrate at this year's Pow-Wow, Dartmouth's 23rd. A new Native American House was dedicated May 12, the evening before Pow-Wow. The former Occom Inn has been refurbished to house 17 students and provide a communal home for the 150 Native Americans currently enrolled at the College. "This is a significant and very improbable moment," declared dedication speaker and adjunct professor Michael Dorris, who fought to gain an institutional foothold for the fledgling Native American Program at Dartmouth 25 years ago. "Whoever would have thought we would take over the Occom Inn without firing a shot?"
Another kind of rare dedication opened Pow-Wow the following day. To honor Dartmouth's 21 graduates who died in the Vietnam War, Trudell Guerue Jr '74 crafted and presented a Lakota-style eagle staff to the College. The staff bears 21 purple-heart ribbons, and each of its feathers touches bands of yellow, red, and green, the military symbol for the Vietnam campaign. The gift from Guerue a Vietnam veteran, lakota Native American legal rights activist, and tribal court judge for several reservations in the Dakotas - will be cared for by Native Americans at Dartmouth. "Each feather represents so much," says John Sirois '91, former acting director of the Native American Program. "The eagle is the bird that soars the highest. When we pray, prayers rest on the feathers of eagles, who take prayers to the Creator."
Taking to the Greenfor the 23rd annual Pow-Wow, Native Americanscelebrated a newcenter for Dartmouthactivities.
Lakota elder Marvin Burnettedances in eagle feathers tohonor those who went before.
Clockwise, fromupper left: men's traditional dance; redcloth dress with elkteeth; men's traditional regalia; fromleft, Trudell GuerueJr. '74, MarvinBurnette Ty Tengan '97 and John Sirois '91 dedicate eagle-feather staff; MarvinBurnette's regalia;Ojibway studentAthena Pheasant '97.
Whoever thought we would take over the Occom Inn Without firing a shot said Dorris.
Karen Endicott is faculty editor of thismagazine.
