November is a time which marks many events and occasions. Thanksgiving immediately comes to mind, as does the changing of the leaves. November is when Yuletide spirit perks its head up out of the woodwork and the coming of winter permeates in the air.

For Native Americans, November is especially important, as it is also Native American Heritage Month. In response, City College launched its own Native American Week, spearheaded by a film festival focused exclusively on Native American themes.

The film festival, which took place from November 17-20 was part of a Student Group Service Learning Project for the course Native American Culture and the Impact of Federal Policy, offered this semester.

There were four movies shown throughout the course of the school week- each one touching on different elements of Native American culture.

“It’s extremely important to me because I think that if you take a look around, you find so many different groups and cultures,” says Joe Perez, a social services major who was in attendance for the final film, Dance Me Outside. “You have Black History Month, Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day but you really don’t see much that
shows Native Americans. Its like we’re a dying breed.”

The premise of the film centered on prevalent social injustices and discrimination that Native Americans have and continue to endure. The movie depicts the shock of a a small-town native community when a local girl is killed by a drunken hooligan-who just so happens to be white. The individual is subsequently released from his imprisonment, further infuriating the local native people and prompting an environment hungry for revenge.

“I liked it because it touched up on what really does happen. They do call us wagon burners or longhairs and other derogatory terms,” says Perez. “The fact is that some of the old prejudice still exists.”

However, Perez also felt that the movie based itself on tired and worn out clichés of Native American life. “I wish they would do something new. There’s nothing that shows today’s Indian in the city. A lot of times you won’t even recognize us. Every time someone thinks of a Native American they think of a giant chief hat. It’s not always like that.”

Maria Alcocer, a child development major, was also in attendance and was part of the group that decided to launch the film festival. According to Alcocer, the films served as an opportune medium for promoting wider cultural awareness.

“By showing these movies, it opens others to different cultures and helps destroy stereotypes,” says Alcocer. “Natives have a very rich and beautiful culture but people don’t know it because it is not promoted.”

According to Tamara Cheshire, catalyst of the Native American Week Film Festival, as well as Anthropology and Social Sciences professor at City College, it is very important that Native American culture is promoted in today’s society.

“It is a community that is impacted by American society as well as impacting,” says Cheshire “If you look at American culture, American Indians are just as important as any other ethnic group that has made America what it is today.”

For those students with an interest in Native American studies or even just social sciences and anthropology, Native American studies will be offered again next spring as well as Native Peoples of California, an Anthropology class.