SUNY Buffalo State celebrated Native American Awareness Week last week, where many events brought attention to the issues facing Native American society while also celebrating their rich tradition and history.

Local radio talk show host John Kane appeared on Monday, April 21 in Bulger Communication Center to discuss current issues facing Native Americans nationally. Kane hosts the talk show “Let’s Talk Native” on ESPN 1520 AM and is the area’s only talk show that specifically addresses Native American issues.

Currently the Native population is leading the fight against construction of the Keystone Pipeline System, which will connect Canada’s oil sands to Texan refineries.

“It’s easy to draw a line connecting Native people to environmentalism,” Kane said. “But for us this isn’t about a preference or a philosophical stance. It is about how our land defines us.”

Brandon Scott VanEvery, president of the Native American Student Organization, said there are plenty of issues on reservations that are for the most part unheard of outside of the community. There is a push to eliminate business on territories of indigenous peoples, and there is the ongoing mascot problem in sports and the racism behind it.

Also presented by NASO was a screening of the short film “Guswenta.” The film documented the 28-day paddling journey from the Onondaga Nation to the United Nations in New York City over the summer of 2013.

These events were sponsored by NASO on campus to bring attention to the issues not only in November, Native American History month, but during the rest of the year as well, VanEvery said.

“Growing up on a reservation is an entire different culture than what everyone else is used to. It’s a completely overlooked community, it’s like they don’t exist,” Robert LaComb, a University at Buffalo alum, said.

LaComb attended a private Christian school and had trouble identifying with his predominantly white schoolmates. He didn’t celebrate American holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Independence Day, and thought that he didn’t have a comparable home life.

Though there are only 26 students who self-identified at registration as Native American, Western New York itself is rich with Iroquois culture, particularly from the nearby Seneca and Tuscarora Nations.

Native American Awareness Month concludes on Wednesday, April 30 when Daniel Wildcat, a member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma and a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, will speak as part of Buffalo State’s “Year of the Teacher.” The speech, sponsored by NASO and the Department of Education, goes from 1:30- 2:30 p.m. in the Campbell Student Union.

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