In celebration of National Native American Heritage Month, the Committee for Institutional Diversity and Equity (CIDE) and Cultural Affairs are bringing Native singer/dancer/storyteller/educator Matoaka Little Eagle to present

The Rejoicing Song and Continuity.

Come to the Gilman Center, Library room 130, at 11am on Thursday, November 21, 2024 to learn through her personal and traditional stories and songs.  Matoaka Little Eagle will examine the diversity and history of Native peoples while explaining Native cultures.

“One of my goals is to dispel stereotypes and to humanize Native peoples, who have been misperceived and our history and existence distorted since 1492,” she states.

Her parents came from different parts of the country - her mother from the Chickahominy people of Virginia and her father from the Tewa people of Kewa Pueblo in New Mexico. Matoaka Little Eagle’s family has a history of involvement with assimilation and acculturation, intergenerational trauma, and resilience. Her mother was subject to the effects of racism and attempts at forcing the integration of her Native community's private school during the 1930's. Her father was a boarding school Indian. Residential schools as they were sometimes called, were part of the US Government’s forced integration programs. These institutions existed between 1790 and 1920 for cultural assimilation of Native Americans into the mainstream of European-American culture. 

Despite these difficult backgrounds, family was the strength of their lives. Matoaka Little Eagle’s life has been filled with the joy of music, dance, and storytelling through the generations and she continues these traditions. Be prepared for a lively session filled with the joy of the resilience of her ancestry as she shares her heritage set in the context of the stark reality of the varied history of the Indigenous peoples of this country.

Questions may be addressed to Cultural Affairs at cultural@sunyorange.edu.