Students and faculty are inviting everyone on campus to celebrate American Indian history and tradition this month.
The Bookstore is working with organizations such as the Kiva Club and the Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group to host a series of events in honor of National American Indian Heritage Month.
"All in all, although November has been declared Native American Heritage month, it is important to emphasize that Native American cultures are unique, and the celebration of our heritage is something that occurs on a daily basis," said Jonathan Pino, a member of NASIRG.
Pino said the groups aim to redefine American Indian culture and break down stereotypes.
"The redefinition comes from the reaffirmation of our cultural identity," he said. "There is a cultural heritage so rich that the only way you can really experience it is to be involved. There are things that Natives understand and see from a Native perspective that not everyone understands all the time."
Wyndsor Yazzie, a member of Kiva Club, said the groups hold social events to strengthen community bonds and host outreach events.
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"We have a lot of ideas to promote our own identity," Yazzie said. "We want to give information instead of just showcasing aspects of our culture."
The first event at the Bookstore was a lecture by Louise Lamphere, an anthropology professor at UNM.
Lamphere spoke about her book, Weaving Women's Lives, which tells the stories of three generations of women in an American Indian family from northern New Mexico.
The second event, a lecture by Janet Chapman on her book Kenneth Milton Chapman: A Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists, will take place at the Bookstore on Thursday at 2 p.m.
Kenneth Chapman was the first American to champion pueblo pottery as an art in the 1920s, and he taught classes on how to appraise the pots. He was also the first instructor of American Indian art in the UNM Anthropology Department when it was established in 1926.
The last event, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m., is a joint reading featuring poets Erika Wurth and Marianne Aweagon Broyles, who will read from their poetry collections.
Wurth's collection, titled Indian Trains, is a composition that reflects her perspective of her heritage and the people in her life.
"All my work is portraits on people I knew growing up," she said. "The poems are all focused on individual people and meant to be portraits of them and about where I grew up."
Broyles said the poetry in her book, The Red Window, echoes her love for storytelling.
"Traditional storytelling is so much a part of being Native, and I try to keep that alive," Broyles said. "It is about keeping the voice of our ancestors and other great cultures and revering elderly people and a reverence for tradition."
Broyles said education is at the heart of every issue minorities face.
"My hope is that we're becoming stronger and people are becoming more capable of realizing their dreams," she said. "My heritage is so important to me, but it makes me so happy that the world is becoming less aware of color. I think it's a wonderful thing when we look at each other's humanity."
