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It’s approaching the end of graduation season, and for some families it is a momentous occasion.
For some students, being able to decorate their cap and gown in their traditional garb is one of the most important things they need as they graduate – to be connected to their journey, culture, and ancestors.
This year in Broken Arrow, Okla., a graduate wanted to do just that, when educational staff took her cultural item and damaged it.
Now, the student who’s an enrolled member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe and of Osage descent, is pressing charges.
Hannah Bissett from our flagship station KNBA has more.
For Lena’ Black, her graduation at Broken Arrow High School was something she was anticipating.
With her eagle plum attached to her cap where a tassel would be.
On the day, Black says she saw several staff who had no issues – until one teacher stopped her.
Black says the teacher told her she needed to remove the eagle plum. And when Black explained, the teacher allegedly started to yell and attempted to pull it off her cap.
“At that point Lena’ actually ended up sort of falling or collapsing to the ground… because everything (the plum) was pinned to her cap and her cap was pinned to her hair, she actually ended up being the one to take the cap off. In an attempt to protect the plum.”
That was one of the people on Black’s legal team, Morgan Saunders.
Saunders works for the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) who is in partnership with Pipestem Law Firm, P.C.
The lawsuit brings a claim on the conduct toward Lena’ and her first amendment rights.
In Oklahoma, a recent law was vetoed by the governor that would have prohibited discriminatory graduation dress codes and make the language loose for all students who have different cultural backgrounds.
The right to decorate one’s cap and gown with their cultural items is one that has been tested in recent years not only in Oklahoma, but across the country.
According to NARF, 11 states have laws explicitly stating the rights for cultural items at graduation.
Saunders says that if the lawsuit goes to trial, the proceeds could continue with the next year.
The Broken Arrow School District did not respond by deadline for comment about the lawsuit.
(Photo courtesy: MSNBC / The Culture Is: Indigenous Women)
Indigenous women were featured on MSNBC Sunday night.
As KNBA’s Rhonda McBride reports, Alyssa London hosted the one-hour special.
London is a former Miss Alaska USA and the first person of Tlingit heritage to wear the crown.
London recently became MSNBC’s first Native American contributor.
(Photo courtesy: MSNBC / The Culture Is: Indigenous Women)
In one of her first assignments, MSNBC tapped her to host an episode in a four-part series called the “Culture Is,” highlighting women from Black, Latina, Asian and Pacific Islander, as well as Indigenous cultures.
London’s program The Culture Is: Indigenous Women features a one-on-one conversation with U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola (Yup’ik/D-AK).
London: “I don’t think that the civil rights or the racism that took place in Alaska is as known in the lower 48.”
Rep. Peltola: “But one of the things I don’t think most Americans know is that the civil rights movement was alive and well in Southeast Alaska long before it took hold in the lower 48.”
The mainstay of the show is a roundtable with seven prominent Native American women.
London guides the conversation, an experience she says is hard to describe.
“Pretty surreal sitting there with the seven trailblazing Indigenous women who it is difficult to even get one of them in the room. I just felt tremendous amount of respect for the position I was in and the desire to do a good job and also a lot of just trying to be present and appreciate each of those moments.”
Some of the topics on Sunday’s program include: Native boarding schools, missing and murdered Indigenous women, Native identity, and stereotypes.
MSNBC & NBC News Contributor Alyssa London crosses the Puget Sound to Squamish, Wash. (Photo courtesy: MSNBC / “The Culture Is: Indigenous Women”)
The line-up of guests includes Crystal Echo-Hawk, executive director of IllumiNative, Amber Midthunder, the first Indigenous actress to lead an action franchise, and Kimberly Teehee, Cherokee Nation’s first delegate to Congress.
Also in the mix: an Emmy award winning producer and a 2024 Olympic hopeful.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland also makes an appearance.
So how did London become a contributor to MSNBC?
Her business Culture Story caught the attention of network producers.
They liked her concept for producing videos that tell the stories of Indigenous cultures.
“Culture story is really a way for any person to explore their own culture story, which is really their story of their culture and heritage, their identity as a human being, which seems to be an intrinsic need that everyone has know who they are and where they come from.”
London’s interest in telling the stories about culture comes from her upbringing in Seattle, where she found herself constantly having to explain what it means to be Tlingit.
Later, when she moved to Anchorage to take a marketing job, she embraced the role of a “professional explainer.”
London’s Native roots are in Sitka.
If you missed her show, The Culture Is: Indigenous Women, you can watch online.
The show also plans to stream on Peacock.
The All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents 19 Pueblos in New Mexico, is celebrating the Department of the Interior’s decision to protect a sacred landscape in the state.
On Friday, Sec. Deb Haaland took action to protect the cultural and historic resources surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from new oil and gas leasing and mining claims.
A new public land order withdraws public lands within a 10 mile radius of the park for 20 years.
The Interior Department says the action included significant consultation from tribes.
All Pueblo Council of Governors chairman Mark Mitchell called the action a resounding triumph for their communities, sacred lands, and future generations.
In a statement, he went on to say the decision demonstrates the power of unity and collaboration in the pursuit of preserving cultural heritage.
The withdrawal applies only to public lands and federal mineral estate and does not apply to minerals owned by private, state or tribal entities.
Navajo Nation allottees can continue to lease their minerals.
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