TAHLEQUAH, Okla. - A group of 37 students from K-State, K-State-Salina and Fort Hays State traveled to Tahlequah last week to participate in activities that immersed them in an unfamiliar culture.
The three-day lesson on American Indian culture and traditions was planned to help them learn in a way no textbook could.
The 36th-annual Symposium on the American Indian took place April 16-19 at Northeastern State University. The symposium featured various speakers and workshops on a range of topics from indigenous astronomy and languages to basket weaving.
Students also participated in the annual NSU Alumni Powwow, where they were invited to take part in intertribal dancing and watch dancers compete for prizes.
Leslie Hannah, NSU alumnus and assistant professor of English at K-State-Salina, said he has attended the event for years. This was the third time he has made the trip with students.
"I think what I am doing is important, because for three days, students saw what life was like from the Indian side of the fence," he said. "It's a way to build those bridges between cultures that normally don't trust each other very much for different reasons."
Hannah said he hoped to take even more students to the event next year.
Students ate traditional food, participated in storytelling, received powwow dance lessons and toured the Cherokee Nation Tribal Complex, Cherokee Nation Heritage Center and an ancient Cherokee village.
Some students had the opportunity to meet the principal and deputy chiefs of the Cherokee Nation.
Oladipo Fajimolu, sophomore in accounting, attended the trip so he could receive extra credit in his American ethnic studies class. He said he also wanted to learn about American Indian culture and history.
"It's important to learn their history because they were the first people here," he said.
He said he enjoyed the Trail of Tears museum and ancient village tour at the Cherokee Nation Heritage Center, where students were able to learn about the traditional Cherokee way of life.
"It was a very different way of looking at life," said Kate Haggerty, junior in English. "Like the storytelling - those were so much better than the stories when I was a kid."
Haggerty said she went on the trip to fulfill a requirement for an English class. She said before the trip she did not understand what the Cherokee Nation was, but attending the trip gave her a better understanding of their culture.
"I hope the students can take what they've experienced in the last few days and think about it and see that as many differences as there are between this culture and their own, there are also many similarities," Hannah said. "The main thing is we're all human."
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