{"id":1184,"date":"2020-05-20T19:57:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T19:57:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/?p=1184"},"modified":"2020-05-27T18:56:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T18:56:37","slug":"creating-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/creating-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Participants in a moccasin workshop show off their style. The Native American Program hosted a series of activities like this to celebrate Native American Heritage Month in November 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Native American Program at EOU is the reason Katie Harris-Murphy, \u201916, stuck around to complete her chemistry degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, she\u2019s the reason Jordan Patt hasn\u2019t given up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the Director of the Native American Program on campus, Murphy said getting involved in clubs like Speel-Ya kept her engaged with her education. Students in the club now look to Murphy for the same kind of mentorship and encouragement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patt, who was president of Speel-Ya in 2019-20, said a constant cycle of activities, fundraisers and events keep club members busy year-round. Speel-Ya is the oldest Native American student club in the West, and its legacy is a testament to the longstanding partnership between EOU and nearby tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club\u2019s largest annual event, the spring Pow Wow and Indian Arts Festival, would have seen its 50th anniversary in May. The event was canceled as part of state and university efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople come from Montana, Washington and Idaho for the pow wow,\u201d Patt said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A junior studying business, Patt grew up on the Warm Springs Reservation. In addition to her presidential duties, she also has two on-campus jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speel-Ya\u2019s presence on campus has grown recently, with Native American Heritage Month programs, exhibitions in the Nightingale Gallery, and partnerships with other student clubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re learning how to stand up and push ourselves out so others will see us,\u201d Patt said. \u201cThere\u2019s still assumptions that we don\u2019t do a lot, even though the door of our office is covered in posters of our events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posters for fry bread sales, craft nights, art exhibits, film showings, and activism to raise awareness about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) were designed by Joseph O\u2019Brien, who is the student Native American Program Assistant and Indian Arts Coordinator for 2019-20, and a junior on a pre-nursing track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patt created an eye-catching poster for MMIW, which became a Facebook post that got 500,000 views and was shared 7,500 times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an EOU student whose mother went missing in the 1980s,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cNatives know about this issue, but the general public isn\u2019t aware.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Brien is a member of the Pit River Tribe, and is also heavily involved on campus. Murphy said co-curricular activities equip students for success in their lives and careers, while keeping them connected to an on-campus community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \"\"
    Speel-Ya Club members make fry bread for a fundraiser.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"\"
    Speel-Ya members pose with club advisers Katie Harris-Murphy (far left) and Linda Reed-Jerofke (second from right). Joseph O’Brien stands in the back row center, Jordan Patt is at the far right.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI always suggest that students get out of their comfort zones,\u201d she said. \u201cMy students know how to show up and try new things, they\u2019re not afraid to volunteer, and that\u2019s important when you get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A member of Nez Perce, Cayuse, Umatilla and Karuk tribes, Murphy has helped students enroll in tribal membership. Her small office is frequented by students seeking an understanding ear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One of the very first peers Patt shared an EOU classroom with had never met a Native American person before. O\u2019Brien said his identity has been met with skepticism because his appearance is different from stereotyped images of Native Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI was fighting stereotypes on the daily [as a student], with people thinking my ethnicity didn\u2019t exist,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cThe Native American Program helps students find their community and subtly teaches others who we are and that we\u2019re proud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Special recognition at the 50th annual Spring Pow Wow was planned to draw attention to the ongoing partnership between EOU and the region\u2019s indigenous people. Murphy said many EOU alumni typically reunite at the event, and online students who study from their homes on nearby reservations often choose the occasion to visit campus. Club members now look toward spring 2021 to celebrate this auspicious anniversary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWe\u2019ve always been here,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cPow Wow is a great way to exhibit the diversity on campus and to see something different.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    EOU’s Native American Program, led by alumna Katie Harris-Murphy, ’16, connects Native students with one another while providing cultural opportunities for all members of the campus community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":380,"featured_media":1186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,49,3],"tags":[23,54,52,45],"class_list":["post-1184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","category-spring-2020","category-university-news","tag-alumni","tag-club","tag-multicultural","tag-student"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/380"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1191,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184\/revisions\/1191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eou.edu\/mountaineer-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}