During the week of July 25-28, 2023, a group of 84 Native youth participated in IndigeSTEAM; a weeklong summer engagement program where 9-12th grade students accelerate their academic preparation for college, explore Indigenous-led, culturally relevant and immersive programming in science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM), along with exploring careers in health sciences and medicine.

The University of Utah American Indian Resource Center (AIRC) in partnership with the U’s Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine and Honors College hosted IndigeSTEAM, part of larger institutional efforts to build sustainable pathway programs for Native/Indigenous students to study at the university. The program helps advance the health, well-being, and academic success of tribal communities across the state. These efforts ensure tribal sovereignty through collaboration with tribal nations and further the institution’s commitment to the University of Utah land acknowledgment.

“The goal of the program is to ensure college readiness, provide an on-campus experience to motivate students to complete high school, and strengthen cultural identity and belonging by emphasizing cultural knowledge and traditional ways of learning,” said AIRC Director Samantha Eldridge.

IndigeSTEAM is funded by the 1U4U grant and in partnership with American Indian Services summer enrichment preparatory program. AIS PREP is a free educational preparatory program for Native American youth who live on or near reservations. Students experience three summers of rigorous science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) instruction, which has been proven to raise test scores by 30% and help students become ready to pursue advanced high school courses. Students traveled to the university and stayed at Kahlert Village to celebrate the completion of the AIS PREP program. This summer, the program was expanded under IndigeSTEAM to include students along the Wasatch Front. 

“AIS PREP is happy to partner with the American Indian Resource Center to bring STEAM education opportunities to our students. This is our third year bringing students to the U, and the highlight of our summer. We look forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come,” said AIS PREP Director Kevin Sekaquaptewa.

“We envision IndigeSTEAM will attract more Native/Indigenous students into medicine to improve healthcare for all,” said Donna Eldridge, director of Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine Office of Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. She leads OHEDI’s tribal outreach and engagement initiatives to address the under-representation of Native/Indigenous students in STEM disciplines and increase the number of AI/ANs in health careers and medicine.

“I would like to acknowledge that the program allows indigenous high school students to explore degrees/careers at the University of Utah and connect to indigenous college students in STEAM,” said Dylan Bia of the Native American Research Internship (NARI) and Medical Admissions Preparatory Program (MAPP). “IndigeSTEAM embodies native ideologies of a strong community focus and holistic perspective to support every student’s journey in higher education.”

A hands-on suturing workshop helped students learn about basic suturing techniques from second-year medical students, Jenna Murray and Caroline Nelson, co-founders of the university’s first formal chapter of the Association of Native American Medical Students.

“Programs like IndigeSTEAM are invaluable as they not only show students how fun science and medicine can be, but they also connect them with Native role models who have pursued higher education,” said Jenna Murray. “The goal of our workshop was to show students that they can grow up to be physicians just like us, and that there is support for them along the way.” 

“Providing avenues for young indigenous students to see representation in historically underrepresented fields, though thoughtfully constructed and culturally conscious programs such as IndigeSTEAM, is an incredible way to encourage students to believe in themselves,” added Caroline Nelson.

Students visited the Department of Anesthesiology Center for Patient Simulation with hands-on practice on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), intubation, and ultrasounds with Dr. Ken Johnson.

“We are grateful to the IndigeSTEAM program organizers for their initiative to bring students to learn about some of the many educational opportunities the University of Utah has to offer,” he said.

The experience for many was the first step to seeing themselves on a college campus. Students also visited the Crocker Science Center Laboratory, Honors College, Rice-Eccles Stadium and participated in workshops facilitated by Turtle Island Art Collective and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The event instilled a sense of belonging for many as they began to imagine post-secondary possibilities. 

“It is always refreshing to see young Indigenous youth on campus, it is a good reminder of how important our work as the AIRC is in fostering community and a sense of belonging for the next generation of young Indigenous scholars,” said AIRC program manager Tashina Barber.

SALAMANCA — For the first time in 45 years, the Salamanca “Warrior” logo is going to look a little different.

The traditional school logo of a Seneca male, originally designed by Carson Waterman and introduced in 1978, has received an update from the Seneca artist. The Board of Education adopted the updated design as the district’s official logo Tuesday.

The Seneca Nation granted the Salamanca City Central School District permission to continue using the logo and Warrior nickname in May after the New York State Board of Regents announced in 2022 that public schools with Indigenous nicknames, logos or mascots must change them. The only exception was if a federally recognized tribe residing in New York gave a district permission.

“We went through a rather rigorous process for several months gathering community feedback,” said Dr. Mark Beehler, district superintendent. During one a public feedback session, Waterman presented an updated version of the logo for the school if the district were granted permission to continue using it, Beehler said.

“We then collaborated and worked with the Seneca Nation, and through their efforts they endorsed that, and we continue to use the logo that we have, what we refer to as our Warrior logo, and continue to be the Warriors,” he said.

The updated logo is very similar to the logo the district has used since the 1970s, Beehler said, but there are also several notable changes in the design. He said the district’s Native American Curriculum Team has developed some informational material around the logo to go with it.

“Information that can be used and will be shared not only with community members but everywhere our logo goes so we have a better understanding of the logo itself,” Beehler added.

As with the original logo, the Senecas, or the Onöndowa’ga:’ people, are the “Keepers of the Western Door,” which is why the male in the logo faces west. The man in the logo also continues to wear his hair in a long braid. It is common in indigenous communities to see both men and women wear long hair in resistance to the boarding school experience of the 19th and 20th centuries when children were forced to have short haircuts.

Among the changes are to the gasto:wä’, or feathered headdress, worn only by Hodinöhsö:ni’ (Iroquois) men to identify their nation. The logo’s headdress shows one feather sticking up to indicate the Onöndowa’ga:’.

Additionally, the skin tone for the man in the logo was at Waterman’s discretion, noting that it’s an inaccurate stereotype to assume all indigenous people have the same skin tone and look alike. Waterman’s signature is also incorporated into the logo itself.

“Historically, Native American art has had the artist’s name taken away, and we wanted to do our best to try to undo that,” Beehler said. “Since this is (Waterman’s) design, we want to make sure that he was associated with it.”

Before Waterman’s original design in the mid-1970s, the district used a caricatured “American Indian” logo featuring the profile of a stereotyped indigenous person. The headdress style depicted most closely resembled that of Plains tribes in the central United States, whose homelands are more than 1,000 miles east of New York.

Most of the Salamanca school district lies within the Allegany Territory of the Seneca Nation. At least 30% of Salamanca students identify as Native American, with one recent poll at 38%. Additionally, many athletics teams in Salamanca have a large number of Seneca students on their rosters, with some teams, such as boys and girls lacrosse, consisting mostly of Seneca players.

The Regents board voted unanimously on the decision without discussion. The proposal was announced by the state Education Department in November 2022, and education officials began urging school boards to begin the process to change mascot images and names ever since.

The “Warriors” name has been used by Salamanca High School since at least the 1930s, with the name used several times in a 1937 yearbook. The district’s logo and identity was reaffirmed in 2001 when a similar statement made by the state Education Department required districts to decide whether to change when an initial ban on utilizing Native American name and imagery was implemented.

The BU Global Music Festival, now in its sixth year, offers members of the University community, and the general public, a chance to see the world from Comm Ave. The free event gives audiences a unique opportunity to hear music from places they’ve never been, sit in on workshops with the musicians, and even shop at a global bazaar.

The popular daylong festival returns this Saturday, September 16, on the BU Beach, featuring musicians from Ukraine via Canada, Malawi, San Salvador, Iran, Cape Verde, and New Orleans, starting at 1 pm. Find a full schedule here.

“Some people have been going for years, some people are attending for the first time,” says Elana Harris (MET’23), assistant director of the BU Arts Initiative, the festival’s primary sponsor. “It’s one of the first major events of the school year that students can just pull up to, relax, and have a great time.”

This is Harris’ first year as assistant director of the fest; she’s the point of contact for all things contracts, scheduling, promotion, and communications. The heart and soul of the event continues to be Marié Abe, a former College of Fine Arts associate professor of music, musicology, and ethnomusicology, now an associate professor of ethnomusicology at the University of California, Berkeley. Though no longer at BU, Abe remains at the helm of curating the yearly lineup and will return to campus for this weekend’s program. “It’s sort of become my baby,” she says of the festival. “I feel like the word has finally gotten around in our sixth year, and I’d love for it to keep going as long as possible.”

The acts Abe looks for need to represent not only their countries of origin, but also an array of female, queer, and indigenous artists in order to break up what she calls “decades of a ‘world music’ industry that has mostly been dominated by male stars.”

And their sounds must be diverse, as well.

“I don’t want it to be just a traditionalist, folkloric acoustic sound,” she says. Global music “is not just untouched tradition; there are lots of artists that are doing super creative stuff—and towards the end of the day, we want some pumping party music.”

In years past, Abe has also made sure to include artists who represent countries that have been in the news, like Puerto Rico’s Orquesta El Macabeo, who played the fest in 2018 after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. This year is no exception, with Ukrainian and Iranian artists on the roster.

“It’s a way of offering an opportunity for students, faculty, and everybody to have a chance to understand who’s behind the headlines,” Abe explains. “We always have workshops during the festival that are a way for the audience to ask [the artists] any questions they may have and get a chance to actually talk to them.”

Below is a preview of the six musical acts featured in the 2023 Global Music Festival, from Ukrainian EDM (electronic dance music) to New Orleans jazz funk and a range in between. Which one will be your favorite?

Ukrainian-Canadian Balaklava Blues is the fest’s headliner, and Abe makes it clear that audiences should expect a lot from them. “They have been closing other big music festivals in Europe,” she says, “So we should be in for a treat.” Before forming the group, Mark and Marichka Marczyk were no strangers to creating music out of disparate, and sometimes clashing, elements. Balaklava Blues is the husband-and-wife duo’s third project, coming on the heels of their successful Lemon Bucket Orkestra, a boozy Balkan 12-piece punk ensemble, and Counting Sheep, proudly billed as a “guerilla folk opera.” Balaklava Blues stays true to the Marczyks’ more-is-more conceptual formula, combining traditional Ukrainian polyphony with skronky EDM beats to create a cultural melange worthy of its name.

For centuries, Mardi Gras Indians—Black and indigenous artists who perform rhythmic call-and-response sections in elaborate costume—have been the cornerstone of New Orleans culture. Big Chief Juan Pardo’s Tribal Gold is a riff on that tradition, with the longtime performer backed up by The New Orleans Suspects, a jazz-funk quartet, in “a mix of indigenous music coming together with that Second Line sound you hear during Mardi Gras,” according to Harris. Blending the Suspects’ funk-inflected grooves with Pardo’s exuberant stage presence, Tribal Gold is a rollicking, over-the-top tour of the bayou and a crash course in New Orleans culture rolled into one.

“Why should we buy our instruments when we can build our own and get the sound we want?” is the ethos of Josefe and Yobu, the duo behind Madalitso. Discovered busking with handmade instruments in Lilongwe, the capital city of their native Malawi, the two soon found themselves touring Europe, and later the United States. Praised for its raw, unpolished instrumentation and joyful authenticity, Madalitso is a medley of strumming, picking, and foot-tapping that gets a lot of mileage out of sparse materials. “They are pure exuberance, pure joy,” says Abe.

Mehrnam Rastegari lives in two worlds: one steeped in traditional music and ancient instruments, and one that holds the old ways up to the light of modernity, melding them with contemporary influences. Rastegari, who hails from Iran but now lives in the United States full time, is a singer, violinist, and composer, but she is best known for her performances using a kamancheh, an Iranian bowed instrument dating back to the 10th century. Certified as a master kamancheh player and hailed as one of the foremost players in the world, Rastegari’s music is snaky, seductive, and dizzyingly intricate. “You get transported as you hear her play,” says Harris.

Like a Cape Verdean Billie Holiday, Fantcha’s wheelhouse is the wistful torch song. Unlike the other acts in this year’s fest, her sound is “melancholic; the opposite of a party vibe,” according to Abe. There are strong influences in Fantcha’s sound, which borrows from Cape Verdean musical traditions with a heavy dose of Portuguese and Cuban flavor. Fantcha’s presence at the Global Music Festival speaks to the sizable Cape Verdean community in Boston; though she is not a resident of the city, her performance will be “backed by New England–based Cape Verdean musicians,” to ground the global

“It’s not [typical] European music—it’s a Mediterranean, folkloric sound,” Abe says of southwest France’s San Salvador. “They’re searching for their roots.” The group’s lyrics are in Occitan, a lesser-known Romance language spoken in the south of France, Monaco, Italy, and Catalonia, and their sound marries the ancient language to the ancient sounds of the area’s troubadours. A sextet of vocals and percussion, San Salvador is hard to characterize as a cappella, but they are not particularly easy to characterize as anything else. “You just want to move when you hear them,” says Harris. “They have so much energy.”