Cal Poly celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day alongside the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe of San Luis Obispo County and Region this Monday. The event consisted of several booths organized by families of the tribe and the Native American and Indigenous Cultural Center (NAICC), from 5-7 p.m. on the yakʔitʸutʸu lawn.
Students and faculty were able to freely observe different Indigenous ceremonial objects: tools, toys, instruments, jewelry and regalia at each of the booths. There was also a program of speakers and a musical performance by members of the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Tribe, organized by NAICC coordinator Cheryl Flores, who is of Wixárika (Indigenous people of Mexico) descent.
Indigenous Peoples Day replaced Columbus Day in San Luis Obispo on Oct. 3, 2017, when SLO mayor at the time, Heidi Harmon, adopted a proclamation that recognizes the city as being built on tiłhini homeland, traditionally stewarded by the Indigenous people of the region. It acknowledges the ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples, but also the thriving history and culture of the community who inhabit the land.
Indigenous Peoples Day was first proposed at the UN Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas in 1977 and was federally recognized in 2021 by President Biden, the first U.S. President to do so, according to a PBS article.
“This is a really special day for us to be able to share with the community – share pieces of our culture, pieces of our language, pieces of our family’s history and pieces of our homeland with everyone here who calls San Luis Obispo and the surrounding areas their home,” yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribal Member Kelsey Shaffer said during the program.
The musical performance consisted of Grandmother’s Songs, generational songs which come from Rosario Cooper. Cooper is the last speaker of tiłhini, the language of the Chumash Tribes along the coast of California.
Her songs, along with details of yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Tribe history, were recorded by ethnographer John P. Harrington on wax cylinders in the early 20th century, which are now archived at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C, according to the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Tribe’s website.
“Now it’s our job to pick [the songs and language] up, keep going and teach it to the next generation. Our responsibility is to make sure it keeps going. It’s huge for us,” Shaffer said. “That’s what this day is about – honoring our families, the struggles that they went through for us to be here.”
One of the booths had pine nut jewelry made by yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Tribal Council Member Claribel Holguin Terrill and her family, a feat that yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Tribal Chair Mona Olivas Tucker says is not an easy one.
“They go collect big pine cones and get the pine nuts out, crack them open and then process them,” Tucker said. “It’s a lot of work whenever you see a pine nut necklace like this – we’re talking about a lot of work.”
Assistant Vice President for DEI Strategic Planning Beya Makekau said it is important to note that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not a celebration of the past or a notion used to distract from the existing fight to preserve Indigenous culture.
“We must interrogate how we move indigenous history, knowledge, scholarship, art and culture out from the shadows and into the very fabric of how we operate as an institution of higher learning,” Makekau said during the program.