Wendy Hernandez, junior nursing major, shares about being a part of a traditional indigenous longhouse ceremony and a tour of Pokagon Health Services with the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. After a rather chilly night of camping at the Pokagon Campgrounds, we attended a traditional longhouse ceremony at Zagbëgon Early Learning and Development Academy. Zagbëgon means … Keep reading »
Local Indigenous Cultures
The Local Indigenous Cultures SST is replacing the Navajo Nation SST for 2025 due to a fire that affected our primary partner. The 2025 students will focus on the Potawatomi and Miami Nations in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana.
Shared Paths: Uncovering Common Ground
On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to listen to and interact with Luke Gascho, who retired in 2019 after spending 22 years as the executive director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center. He currently runs a fruit, nut, and berry orchard and garden at his home, called Half-Moon Rising. He started his presentation by handing … Keep reading »
Insights from Miami culture and craft
By Crystal Edson, senior environmental & marine science major and sustainability minor, and member of the Local Indigenous Cultures and Perspectives May Term course. On May 3, our class traveled to the northwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and had the honor of meeting Jared Nally (Ahsapa), of the Miami (Myaamia) Tribe of Oklahoma. He … Keep reading »
The Power of Womanhood in Miami Culture
Fernando Daza shares about his experience exploring Chief Richardville House, a Historical Myaamia (Miami) treaty house in Fort Wayne, Indiana. On a surprisingly chilly May morning, our class boarded the iconic Goshen College bus at Camp Friedenswald, our home for the first two weeks of our class. We headed to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to the … Keep reading »
Restoring relationships with water and land
By Rosemary Baer, sophomore art education major We started our second full day with a morning hike through a portion of the Dowagiac River Restoration Project. While on our expedition we learned about the River re-meandering, saw lots of native and invasive plants, and interacted with some woodland critters. Our hike was led by the … Keep reading »
Relationships with our Indigenous neighbors
We left Goshen College Wednesday afternoon and settled in at Camp Friedenswald, our new home and host for the first half of May Term. Our group of eight students and two leaders have already experienced anticipation and disappointment together before we even left campus, given the significant changes to our course. Our group was originally … Keep reading »
To Serve or Not to Serve
Craig Elias reflects on several of the service projects, or “community-engaged learning” activities, that our indigenous hosts invited us to participate in during the final weeks of our Navajo Hopi Study Service Term (SST): Today we talked as a group about the term service in SST, and the tension was high. Each person was set … Keep reading »
Waking Up on a Mesa
Jonathan Orjala shares about the early morning hike that came at the end of a five-day “camp meeting” at our host church on the Navajo Nation: The Sunday we left Black Mountain Mennonite Church, about ten of us woke up at 6 am and piled into two pickup trucks with the intention of climbing the … Keep reading »
Hospitality
Alex Koscher shares his thoughts about the hospitality our group has received during our time in the Navajo Nation, contrasting it to what he encountered while stopping for lunch on the way to Grand Canyon National Park: Hospitality has often been a key feature within Indigenous culture. Over the past few weeks, this trip has … Keep reading »
The Chuska Mountains Welcome Me Back
Estefania Soto shares what she learned about the land from our Navajo teachers, beginning with the creation myth and applying this to an experience that connected her to this place: During my time with the Navajo I’ve listened, learned, and experienced what it is to have a connection to the land. I’ll start by recounting … Keep reading »