Native Feathering Ceremony

Office of Multicultural Affairs Native Feathering Ceremony

The SDSM&T Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) Native Feathering Ceremony is a bi-annual event (December, May) established in December 2008 by OMA to celebrate and honor the School of Mines & Technology's Native graduates by providing a traditional eagle feathering graduation ceremony.

Graduates march into Surbeck Ballroom in Grand Entry style led by an InterTribal Tokala Color Guard.  They then sit on chairs and are draped in star quilts sewn in the school colors by the best in area Lakota quilters.  Their families'relatives who have been invited forward provide their feather or plume. The students receive an eagle feather or plume which are blessed by a traditional elder member of the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota community during the Yu'onihan or Lakota-style honoring ceremony.

Grand Entry, Flag Songs, Honor songs and Hunakpi songs are provided by a various community drums. Guest speakers from among the SDSMT faculty, staff and invited speakers from the Rapid City Native community and beyond are presented to offer stories, words of encouragement, praise and strength to the graduates.

SDSM&T President Robert A. Wharton offered words of encouragement and support while Dr. Patricia Nez Henderson, Dine, (Navajo) Vice President of Black Hills Center for American Indian Health was the 2011 Spring Feathering Graduation Ceremony Guest Speaker. Dr. Henderson was the first female Native American to graduate from Yale Medical School and she spoke of challenges and victories on the road to receiving her Ph.D. and on the importance of Native students in the STEM fields.  She also shared in the important research she does with her husband, Dr. Jeff Henderson (Cheyenne River Lakota) for Natives nationswide at BHCAIH.

In past graduation feathering ceremonies we've had past National Indian Education Association President, Robert Cook (Oglala Lakota) as our Guest Speaker. Otuhan Waste Win, (She Gives Away, Generous Woman) Harriet Brings, (Oglala Lakota) Rapid City School District Cultural Specialist conducts an explaination of the tying of the feathers/plumes which have been prior blessed for the last several graduations by revered Cheyenne River Sioux Lakota elder, Gerald Yellowhawk, who among many other things, is a prestigious Northern Plains artist, traditional dancer, Lakota language translator, and pastor.

From a traditional family of Singers and Sundancers, Harriet is the granddaughter of revered medicine man George Plenty Wolf and a descendant of Man Afraid of His Horse. In December 2008, former Porcupine Lakota Language instructor and Vietnam Veteran, Dave West, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, also conducted the blessing of the feathers while Harriet explained the Yu'onihan ceremony.

Following the ceremony the graduates, their families, faculty, staff and invited guests enjoy a traditional meal of buffalo stew, fry bread and wojapi.  Families also share gifts, quilts and cakes they have brought.  An open micraphone is provided during that time for any honorings of faculty or friends on behalf of students or parents.

To date the Office of Multicultural Affairs has proudly honored the stellar achievements of twenty one graduates (including two Graduate students, one a Ph.D. candidate) in four ceremonies with a diverse selection of tribal affiliation (Sicangu Lakota, Oglala Lakota, Dine/Hopi, Apache, Cherokee, Chippewa, Stockbridge-Munsee/Mohican, and Yankton/Ponca) and scientific and engineering fields: Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mettalurgical Engineering, Geological Engineering, Robotic Autonomous Intelligent Systems, Computer Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Sciences.

Our ceremony draws on the best of Lakota/Dakota/Nakota educators, guest speakers, traditional drums and cultural resource persons as well as the strong support of SDSM&T faculty and staff. It is coordinated by OMA Program Assistant, Abena Songbird,(Abenaki) poet/freelance journalist (Native Legacy Magazine) and former staff reporter for the Dakota Lakota Journal newspaper in Rapid City with the support and assistance of Scott Wiley, OMA Director, counselor and Rapid City minister (Word of Hope Wesleyan Church) and input/support of many in the Rapid City Native American community and area tribal communities and businesses. SDSM&T's AISES chapter also is a prime supporter of our feathering ceremony.

We in the Office of Multicultural Affairs are proud to continue to present and help preserve these traditional cultural lifeways within our institution to so honor all of our Native graduates; to promote and help ensure their future successes.