The general sentiment on campus Oct. 12 was one of not wanting to be at school. It was a day when most college campuses and businesses were celebrating Columbus Day as a day off. Instead, Sacramento State was celebrating Indigenous People’s Day with an annual event.

Trevor Super, junior business administration major and president of the campus club Ensuring Native Indian Traditions, said the club is striving to get a better commemorating plaque that explains the history of the Tree of Peace. Super said the club is displeased with how the current plaque is covered in the grass.

“We as a club are making a stand because there is a monument to this tree that students can’t see,” Super said. “We want to bring it out of the ground.”

Vince La Pena, a local Native American, was preparing to teach the audience a traditional gambling game when the unexpected happened.

E. Nathan Jones, adjunct faculty for the Theatre and Dance Department, stepped out of the audience and presented the club with the original, smaller plaque that accompanied the tree. The plaque had come into his possession some years before when a new irrigation system was installed to prevent the tree from dying.

Jones said he had kept the original memorial in his office since then, but felt it should go to the club.

Super, who was surprised when Jones gave him the plaque, said he was glad that Jones had been saving the plaque in his office.

“We thought it was a good gesture that he made,” Super said. “He actually took it and saved it, rather than disregard it, so that it would get back to the tree. I was happy that he saw us, understood what we were there for, and that he felt we could put it back.”

The club also has more plans for the tree itself.

“We are going to clean the tree up, get rid of the dead branches, (and) get more water,” Super said. “The tree doesn’t sit on a water supply area. It’s separated from a water supply, so we need to get extra attention on that.”

Ricardo Torres, an adviser for ENIT, said the event was created to celebrate indigenous people instead of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America.

The group at the event, consisting primarily of Native Americans, gathered to celebrate the day and their culture by having a workshop on empowerment.

Maggie Steele, a self-proclaimed peacemaker and community activist, was the presenter for the workshop. The workshop focused on the Native American symbol of the medicine wheel, representing knowledge and rebirth. The medicine wheel is a circle of life and a passing of knowledge to future generations.Steele said two things destroyed the Native American people when Columbus came.

“The white man brought the liquid and the black book – alcohol and the Bible,” Steele said. “They called us heathens, for our worship of ‘idols’ such as the eagle, really only a manifest of creation. It turned Native Americans into non-humans.”

Steele said the presentation was meant to better people and to raise cultural awareness.

“It’s to create awareness, motivation, and inspiration, to see how it is, what we are as a society,” Steele said. “We can’t really be a better nation or society until we look at our history. It’s not to create guilt, but create awareness – to have healing. It’s for education. It’s to feel more united as human beings and that takes getting to know each other.”

After the workshop, the audience was taken to the Tree of Peace located in front of Shasta Hall.

Viola Brooks, graduate student in public policy and administration, better known by her Native American name Chummykianee or “Chummy,” burned sage and angelica root as a way of making prayers to the tree as she waved smoke from the burning plants over participants.

Kenneth Christenson, a high school student, said he enjoyed the entire event.

“The presentation really made me think about my future,” Christenson said.

Cole Mayer can be reached at [email protected]