Titla: Inauguration reflection
By
Mary Kim Titla, Today correspondent
|
| My mother remarked that she had not felt this way about another president since John F. Kennedy. |
What I witnessed on Capitol Hill and at the National Mall that day was America once again embracing not only the message of change, but America embracing diversity. Worth noting: the feelings of pride and hope President Obama instills in young people, especially those of color.
The throng of people at the inauguration included a fair number of young Natives. Among them 25-year-old Carl Stevens and 17-year-old Lanea Burdette, 18-year-old Lena Moses, all San Carlos Apaches, and Malachai Martinez, a teenager, from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Like the masses, they recorded history on their digital cameras and camera phones.
I was with Stevens two days before the inauguration when he unexpectedly received tickets to the swearing-in ceremony at Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick’s office. Elated, he immediately sent a text to his friends to tell them the good news. Burdette and Moses, who are tribal queens, proudly wore traditional outfits as they watched from the fourth floor of the National Museum of the American Indian.
I wondered if the euphoria shared among these young Natives was in contrast to the feelings of the young Native cadets from Carlisle Indian School who marched in inaugural parades in the early 1900s. The most notable being the 1905 inaugural parade of President Theodore Roosevelt when a marching band and 350 cadets from Carlisle followed six famous Indian chiefs including Geronimo, Apache and Quanah Parker, Comanche. An exhibition commemorating their participation in the parade is on display at the NMAI. At that time, the chiefs were dealing with the destruction of their land base and full-blown acculturation. I can only imagine the emotions they must’ve felt riding in that parade.
Most of the young Natives attending this year’s inauguration gladly followed their chiefs to Washington. Hundreds of tribal leaders converged on Washington, D.C. to attend inauguration festivities, including Wendsler Nosie, chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and Wallace Coffey, chairman of the Comanche Nation.
Many tribes gave significant contributions to Obama’s campaign; Renee Holt, Nez Perce/Navajo/Delaware, volunteered in Washington State to get him elected. “Seeing him on stage as he was being sworn in was a historical world event and it was certainly one of the most blissful feelings I have had in relation to a presidential campaign or inauguration. In all my years of voting, even during the Clinton campaign, I was not as excited or motivated to work tireless hours for a presidential candidate,” Holt said.
Carlyle Begay, Navajo, campaigned for Obama in Arizona. He too witnessed Obama take his oath. “Truly a historic moment for the country, especially for Native Americans as President Barack Obama and his administration represents the only true hope in achieving the kind of foundational transformation we so desperately need in policy and practices affecting native peoples across the country.”
While at the swearing-in ceremony I saw other Natives scurrying in the crowd, identified by their Pendleton coats or the Native designs on their clothing. I took a photo of a Native man wearing a Northwest coast design on his jacket sitting on top of a Port-o-John. I chose to wear an eagle feather plume in my hair. Our ancestors’ struggle for survival is the reason our people are here today, so it seemed fitting to wear an eagle plume for all Native people, past and present.
Just a week before the inauguration, I asked students at the San Carlos Jr. High School where I substitute teach to write an essay about themselves and their goals for the future.
“I want to be president,” wrote a seventh grader from the San Carlos Apache Reservation. I believe the student, like many others, has been inspired to dream big because of President Obama.
His inauguration was also meaningful for those who couldn’t be there in person. Like 40 million other viewers, my 67-year-old mother Charlotte watched the coverage on television. “Michelle (Obama) looks beautiful. She’s wearing yellow,” she said when I finally got through the jammed cell phone airwaves. As we talked I thought about election night, when I watched the results with my parents on the reservation. My mother remarked that she had not felt this way about another president since John F. Kennedy. Standing in front of the television, she clasped her hands and prayed, “Please Lord, don’t let anything happen to him.”
Our new commander-in-chief gives hope to the young and old. Inauguration Day 2009 is a day I’ll never forget.
Mary Kim Titla is a journalist living in Arizona. She can be reached at mtitla@hotmail.com.
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Tuesday, Feb 3 at 4:41 PM C.SNOW wrote ...
Profound expression, What a great story!! "Talk about euphoria" this tell alot about our history as native american and eye opening for all who read this aricle. rock on.........
15946129Monday, Feb 2 at 12:49 PM Ricardo Sneezy, San Carlos Apache, San Carlos, Arizona wrote ...
Native Americans Tribes need to realize that the Black People supported President Obama in becoming the first Black President. Now if we as Native Americans can come together and support one of our own, we can began to make history ourselves. What is it going take to make that happen?
15871024Monday, Feb 2 at 10:58 AM Walter Lamar wrote ...
Very well done. The feeling throughout the country of hope and new beginnings is palpable. In Indian Country we are blessed with our own who have continued to advocate so diligently through the "dead years." Now their voices can be heard - they are, as I write grinding away on initiatives that will make our communities safe and secure. Only when we are safe and secure can we truly concentrate on revitalizing our Native economies. Hats off to the worker bees behind the scenes. Good words MK!!!
15864634Friday, Jan 30 at 5:33 PM John Martin, Oglala, Lakota wrote ...
Mary, What an eloquent and powerful description of the inaugural swearing in. Most notably from a Native America woman who I supported in your run for political office. Your heart is in the right place. President Obama is a once in a generation superlative public speaker. He had my support in that of all candidates, he was the only one who uttered the word, Native American, at the end of his speeches. Your grandmother is a wise woman. There is much of her wisdom in you. Pilamaya!
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