R ANGER
An independent forum of free voices serving San Antonio College since 1926 and the Alamo Colleges since 1945 Volume 92 • Issue 12
THE
feb. 26,
2 0 1 8 Journalism-photography program at San Antonio College
www.theranger.org
FINALIST
Dr. Mike Flores, finalist for the chancellor position, will address employees at Town Hall meetings. The Feb. 22 session at this college was the only session within the legally required 21-day delay in hiring the new chancellor, which ends March 1. • 1-3 p.m. April 6 in the auditorium of the performing arts center at
Northeast Lakeview College. • 2-4 p.m. April 19 in the Legacy Room, Room 100 of Ozuna Library and Learning Center at Palo Alto College. • 9-11 a.m. April 20 in Lago Vista, Room 121 of Cypress Campus Center at Northeast Lakeview College. • 2-4 p.m. May 2 in the Heritage Room at St. Philip’s College. A meeting at Killen Center is pending. Alison Graef
Fluorescent markers replace chalk in lectures using lightboard Biology teachers test the technology with positive results. By Sergio Medina
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
A lightboard will be a resource for faculty at this college to present class material in a new way after ongoing development in the creative multimedia department. Unlike a chalkboard and dry erase board, the lightboard is made of architectural glass and framed with extruded aluminum and LED lights. “You use fluorescent markers,” senior multimedia specialist Sean Ryan said in an interview Feb. 7. “You stand behind the board and write on it just like you would on a chalkboard or dry erase board.” He came up with the idea to follow the footsteps of faculty at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., who created a lightboard for instructional use, Ryan said. Using open-source instructions from faculty at Northwestern University on the website lightboard.info, Ryan built a lightboard for the creative multimedia department from scratch. “I took elements from many of the open source contributors and compiled them to create my own version of the lightboard,” he said. While the 8-by-4-foot board has been built and is ready to use, its implementation is still in development. The overall concept is to record instructors giving lessons on the lightboard. These recordings will then be made available to students through Canvas modules or
this college’s Mediasite catalog. “(Mediasite) is a lecture-capture system that captures audio and video of the lecture,” Ryan said. “It allows the student to watch it on-demand wherever they want.” The media site catalog for this college is available at sacms.alamo.edu. For recording, the lightboard is housed in the creative multimedia department’s studio in Room 632 of Moody Learning Center and is used in conjunction with the studio’s cameras, microphones, speakers and studio lamps. The lightboard’s utility stands out because of the way sessions are recorded. Instead of an instructor standing between the board and the camera, similar to a classroom setting, the instructor stands behind it and faces the camera. This is where instructor-student engagement benefits. “It eliminates the fact that when you’re in a big classroom, he (the instructor) is typically standing in between you and the blackboard,” Ryan said. “So by the time he finishes all the writing and work and discussion, you don’t get to see what he’s writing until he moves. This eliminates that problem. You have an unobstructed view of what he’s writing. Plus, he’s also looking right into the camera so when you watch the presentation, it really feels like he’s engaging you.” Furthermore, lightboard sessions are recorded with a Canon XA10 camera that horizontally flips the live feed, otherwise students would be looking at writing that is backwards.
See LIGHTBOARD, Page 2
Environmental science freshman Joshua Vasquez pulls a trash bag out of Alazan Creek. This is his third time participating in the 24th annual Basura Bash waterway cleanup Feb. 17. Laura Gonzales
Student almost arrested as others debate abortion rights By Sasha D. Robinson
Communications sophomore Nicholas Delunay, right, debates with an anti-abortion advocate, who refused to give his name, about the ethics of abortion rights Feb. 19 in the mall. Delunay said the posted signs are not accurate and were intentionally provocative. Shamar Mims
srobinson26@student.alamo.edu
Daryl Rodriguez, president of Love of Truth Ministries, said he saw someone spray painting one of his anti-abortion posters during a free speech event Feb. 17 so he began to videorecord for evidence. “I told him to stop, and he did not stop,” Rodriguez said. “We told him that it was not his property, and he kept saying ‘this is hate,’ then he walked away. Then a girl came by and knocked over some of our signs and threw water on the signs and in my face.”
The woman, sophomore Taylor Humphrey, was accused of splashing water in Rodriguez’s face and was close to being arrested by the Alamo Colleges police department. Rodriguez refused to press charges because he made an agreement with
Humphrey to apologize on camera. “We put her in front of our camera and had her apologize for what she did,” he said. Rodriguez said he will use her apology for an anti-abortion video and will upload it on the website. Roughly 25 students attended what was advertised as a free speech event in the mall. Love of Truth Ministries displayed images of aborted fetuses to raise awareness, which caused debates about human rights among students.
See ABORTION, Page 2
Sophomore only Texan to receive national scholarship A sophomore will graduate with three associate degrees. By Kimberly Caballero
kcaballero3@student.alamo.edu
Nursing sophomore Kristen Teneyuque, who will graduate in May with three associate degrees, is one of six students nationwide chosen to receive a Seed to Tree Scholarship from the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators. The 29-year-old with a 3.14 grade-point average is the only student from Texas to receive the $1,000 scholarship.
The Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators “exists to support the work of the nation’s Hispanic-serving institutions as they seek to provide quality, relevant educational opportunities to large and growing numbers of underserved populations, particularly Hispanic students,” according to the organization’s website at www.ahsie.org. She will attend the alliance’s 10th annual Best Practices Conference March 25-28 in Chicago to accept the scholarship. “I’ll be giving a speech about coming to a Hispanic-serving institute and how that’s influ-
enced my education,” she said in a Feb. 19 interview. Nursing Instructor Tonya Maunsell said Teneyuque did well in classes and was a leader during labs. “In the clinical courses, she would kind of step up and take the lead to help all of her classmates through whatever process it was we were doing,” she said. In December, Teneyuque set aside time from studying for finals to apply for the scholarship, an application process that took about four days. It is the first major scholarship she has sought.
The application required three essays, a letter of recommendation and a letter of good standing from the nursing program, along with other documents. On the morning of Jan. 17, Teneyuque checked her email for AHSIE announcements to discover she was one of six Seed to Tree Scholarship Teneyuque recipients. She and her boyfriend, Jacob Herrera, were excited when they found out she had won the
scholarship, Teneyuque said. A first-generation college student, she comes from a family that did not prioritize education. “Nobody really cared if I went to college or not. My mom wasn’t like, ‘You better go to college,’” she said. “I didn’t have that pressure from my family. I think I just saw how hard I lived and how we struggled day-to-day.” Dressed in black scrubs and prepared to embark on hours
of clinicals Feb. 19, Teneyuque stressed the importance of education, which she also stresses to her daughter, 10-year-old Kaylie Cruz. “The only way I’m going to get ahead in life is by going to school,” she said. “College education means everything. You look at the statistics, you look at everything as far as income levels, and a high school diploma really won’t get you far these days.” Raised by her mother and grandmother, she has seen her father only a few times throughout her life.
See TEXAN, Page 2
2NEWS
www.theranger.org/NEWS
F E B . 26, 2018
Senior multimedia specialist Sean Ryan and biology Adjunct Thomas Yingst demonstrate the lightboard Feb. 9 in Moody. Sergio Medina
LIGHTBOARD from Page 1 “There’s only two cameras we could find in the open market that will actually flip the image horizontally,” Ryan said. In recent months, the lightboard has already had users. “We’ve had a couple of early adopters,” Ryan said. “They use it often.” Biology Adjuncts Laura Mery and Thomas Yingst are two of them. Mery instructs BIOL 2420, Microbiology for Nursing and Allied Health, a hybrid course offered in Flex 2. In an interview Feb. 8, Mery said she first heard about the lightboard at Project Tenaces’ 2017 STEM Faculty Summer Institute, which was at this college May 29-June 1. It was there Ryan first showcased the lightboard. “It was the first time that I publicly presented the lightboard to faculty to demonstrate how it worked and provide examples of how they could integrate it into their teaching methods,” Ryan said. Mery said she found it interesting. “I became accustomed to the lightboard by first recording five-minute lectures,” she said. Mery sees advantages in recording her lectures as she’s able to be concise. “With the lightboard, I could actually stand there for five minutes, give them (students) examples and map it out for them without getting bogged down with other marginally related material,” Mery said. “Now I’m comfortable doing a whole chapter,” she said. “I’m averaging close to 30 minutes.” Mery agrees with Ryan about not obstructing the student’s view. She said recording lectures in the classroom is not comparable to recording lectures in the lightboard studio. “To me, there’s no compari-
son (to the chalkboard) because you walk and you turn. It’s not a very good visual experience,” Mery said. Currently, Mery has not used the recordings for the online portion of her course. She said she will begin implementing her recorded sessions for Flex 2 in March. Additionally, she shared enthusiasm for using the recorded lectures for future face-to-face classes as her current hybrid classes meet only for labs. “I’m definitely going to use some of my videos and just post them as supplemental (material) because students can go back over the concept,” Mery said. Similarly, Yingst, who teaches BIOL 2401, Human Anatomy and Physiology 1, and BIOL 2402, Human Anatomy and Physiology 2, sees advantages to being able to revisit recorded lightboard lectures online. “That’s the biggest advantage,” he said in an interview Feb. 9. “You can revisit it. This is all memorization.” He shared his students’ positive feedback. “They’re happy with it,” he said. “If somebody misses a class, it’s there for students.” For Ryan, the ultimate goal is to create a virtual classroom. “One of the things I’m proposing is a virtual lightboard classroom,” he said. The idea is to have a twoway communication system installed in both the classroom and the lightboard’s studio. “They (students) would be looking at the output of the camera, which is already flipped, on the (classroom’s) projector screen,” Ryan said. Similarly, a camera would be placed inside the classroom, with output visible to the instructor back at the studio via a monitor, he said. Both instructors and class-
TEXAN from Page 1 The support system she had throughout college has helped her stay committed to her journey. There are times Teneyuque’s mom babysits Kaylie when she has exams to study for or her boyfriend provides words of encouragement. Her mom is “really excited” her daughter is pursuing three degrees and reminds her to “keep moving forward, get it done and hang in there,” she said. “My mom is really happy I got this energy of wanting to pursue higher education,” she said. Graduation is around the corner for Teneyuque. She will graduate with an Associate of Arts,
rooms would have a microphone to communicate back and forth. “The classroom would be looking at the projection and asking questions real-time to the professor who’d be standing behind the lightboard,” Ryan added. To begin making this a reality, creative multimedia department Chair Barbara Knotts said they are refitting a room to function as a studio solely for the lightboard. Knotts approved department funding for the lightboard project. Ryan said $3,500 was allocated for the budget. Ryan sees this resource benefitting STEM and language instructors most, as these courses demand a lot of notetaking. “They have to do a lot of diagrams and equations. Even in the languages, they write sentences and diagram sentences, and those all require kind of old technology,” he said. Ryan then referred to the lightboard as a bridge between the old and the new and how that worked as inspiration. “My biggest inspiration was to figure out a way to join these two technologies, to convert analog (writing) into a digital environment and improve the student’s experience,” he said. Ryan estimates the full services of the lightboard will be ready by fall. “We’re hoping that we can have the construction done on the actual facility by the summer,” he said. Knotts commented on Ryan’s project in an interview Feb. 7. “He took the challenge of wanting to incorporate that as something our professors could use,” she said. “It’s a visual way of enhancing the student’s learning.” Call 210-486-0597.
Associate of Science and an Associate in Applied Science in nursing. She plans to enter the RN to BSN program this fall at Texas Tech University to earn a bachelor’s degree and potentially go for a master’s degree in nursing. Teneyuque shared advice for students who may feel overwhelmed juggling school and work. “Don’t give up,” she said. “There’s been times I get off of work at 10 o’clock at night and then I have assignments due at 8 o’clock in the morning and tests the next morning. It’s a lot, but you’ve got to get through it. The sacrifices we make today are going to be for (our) future.”
Criminal justice freshman Michael Merchant, liberal arts freshman Caleb Bonilla and kinesiology freshman JT Kamps II swarm a Trinity player. The Rangers won 84-69 Feb. 21 in Webster Gymnasium. Brianna Rodrigue
Rangers declaw Tigers 84-69 Team hopes to build on success as they prepare second road game. By Dillon Holloway
dholloway12@student.alamo.edu
The Rangers got back on the winning track, defeating the Trinity University Tigers 84-69 Feb. 21 in Webster Gymnasium at Trinity University. The Rangers led by as many as 22 points and never trailed in the second half. Rangers’ head coach Sam Casey said before the game, he challenged the team to focus on controlling their effort, energy and attitude to achieve success both on and off the court. “Sometimes we take things for granted,” he said. “Every possession matters, every play matters, every rep matters … everything you do matters; and they played with that sense of urgency tonight.” Psychology freshman Hyshoné Fisher, team captain and Rangers guard, led all scorers with 38 points. Fisher finished the game with a successful nine of 12 free throw attempts and 13 field goals, including three from 3-point range. “His game speaks for itself,” Casey said. “I’m really happy for him, and he’s really grown into that role as our team captain.” Criminal justice freshman Michael Merchant, Rangers guard, also had a big night offensively, finishing the game with 27 points. Merchant made two of three free throws and converted 10 field goals with a game high of five 3-pointers made. Merchant’s biggest play of the game came when he converted a 4-point play in the second half. “He’s not afraid to shoot it,” Casey said. “We try to give our players the confidence, you know,
ABORTION from Page 1 Some of the posters on display showed body parts, a quarter with a bloody fetus hand on it and a bloody body with a quarter where the head should be. Rodriguez said the day started OK but got a little hectic as students debated. “We believe this is an injustice to human kind and it is an evil,” Rodriguez said. “We liken this to the Jews in Nazi Germany and slavery here in America and England. They had abolitionists who wanted to abolish slavery because it was evil and an injustice against humanity. We believe that it is an injustice against humanity, and I want to abolish abortion, and I want to educate people about what it is.” During the event, students
Psychology freshman Hyshoné Fisher drives past a Trinity defender. Fisher led all scorers with 38 points. Brianna Rodrigue if you’re open and it’s in rhythm, take that shot.” While Merchant and Fisher may have led the charge offensively for the Rangers, the entire team had a hand in clamping down defensively against the Tigers. Rangers’ assistant coach Nick Padron was a man of few words when expressing his thoughts after the game. “Here’s the quote: The team stepped up huge on defense,” he said. Casey said maintaining a winning attitude and believing in each other would take the team where they need to go. “Positive energy breeds positive results,” he said. The team’s record stands at 8-17 after the win. The Rangers next game is on the road against the Cowboys of Southwest Texas Junior College at 8 p.m. Feb. 28 in La Forge Hall Gym in Uvalde.
were involved in a heated debate about whether it should be compared to murder. Other debated topics at the event were adoption, religious views and what should be considered a human being. Communications sophomore Nicholas Delunay, who supports abortion rights, said students should talk about different viewpoints as long as they keep it civil. “Some people were calling each other ignorant,” Delunay said. “When it crosses that personal boundary, that is what I do not like. “When this happens, people are angry, angry, angry,” Delunay said. “Things like this promote people to get angry.” Delunay said the photos of dead fetuses and fetus parts are inappropriate and should not be shown on campus.
“Those photos are completely explicit,” he said. “I do not agree they should have these type of photos out there. It is bloody, and it may not be what it really looks like.” Liberal arts freshman Sheyar Jiwani held a sign at the event that read “Don’t like abortion? Don’t have one.” “A guy in a baseball cap called me a pro slave lover because I would not argue with him,” Jiwani said. “What does slavery have to do with this?” Rodriguez said his ministries have come to this college for several years to educate students on abortion. For more information on Love of Truth Ministries, visit the group’s website loveoftruthministries.com or call Rodriguez at 210-867-7268 or email him at daryl@loveoftruthministries.com.
EDITORIAL 3
www.theranger.org/EDITORIAL
Feb. 26, 2018
Pay lab instructors what they deserve Administrators don’t understand the quality of work instructors do in labs.
Amanda Graef
Students: Use the advocacy center Ask for help when you need it. The student advocacy center in Room 323 of Chance Academic Center, provides an invaluable service to students at this campus. The center features a food pantry called The Store, case management services, a clothing closet and a diverse selection of personal care products, all of which are available to faculty, staff and students in need of assistance. To everyone who has worked hard to make this resource possible: Thank you for fulfilling a need and for doing it with respect and compassion. The center touches on very basic needs that can be the difference between a student completing college and dropping out. This free resource is conveniently on campus and has a bit of everything, be it refrigerated or frozen perishables, canned goods, baby food, dresses, jeans, baby clothes, shampoos or razors. Students who qualify can pick out two bags of food and two bags of
clothing twice per month. The center relies primarily on donations from faculty, staff and students to stock its shelves and fill its hangers. Donations can be dropped off at the center, or placed in barrels around campus labeled “The Store thanks you for your kind donations.” The resource is there. Now all a student needs to do is ask for help. The people at the center have made it clear they want to clear any stigma around asking for help and encourage students to use the resource when they need it. There is a sense of genuine respect found in Room 323. If you need help, then know that there are people on this campus who want to help you succeed. The center is there to help you reach your goals by taking care of the more basic needs that may arise in college. It’s OK to struggle. Just don’t struggle alone. The center is open 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. the first Saturday of the month.
At the Alamo Colleges, instructors are not paid a fair rate for labs. A professor of biology will come in early to begin setting up materials (with any luck, they will have the help of the department’s only lab technician), ensure the proper disposal of materials and create a comprehensive lesson around the lab. The professor will teach this lab for the majority of the school day. Over the course of the day, professors will ensure students are following directions, answer questions, make sure students are safe, clean the classroom and then repeat the process for the next class. For this, the professor receives hourly pay at a rate of two-thirds of their hourly pay for lecture hours. Compensating instructors less for labs does not make any sense, and it is wrong. Labs are offered in the sciences, fine arts, English, mathematics, reading, journalism-photography, radio-television broadcasting, foreign languages and professional technical programs. Labs are not optional for some disciplines. For every set number of lecture hours, instructors must fulfill a certain number of lab hours. The technical programs at St. Philip’s College are lab-intensive.
When the district refuses to fund lab hours the same as lecture hours, they are telling instructors that their time, work and lessons are valued less than those of an instructor reading from a textbook. The advanced courses offered in this district use labs to give instruction on complex subjects, ensuring students can practice theory they are being taught in lecture. Even in courses that can use labs as a way to help students catch up on work and ask questions about lecture materials, the work done during a lab is important. Labs give students time to work on assignments. They allow students who need help to get one-on-one time with their instructors. These opportunities are not worth less than a lecture. As of right now, the only obstacle keeping the district from raising lab pay is the required $6.7 million to do so. Where could the Alamo Colleges, the district that approved the spending of $55 million for a new headquarters, find the money to pay for the lab hours raise? If the Alamo Colleges want to continue to claim they put students first, they need to actually place value on the education being provided. Find the money and correct this travesty now.
ONLINE NOW www.theranger.org Alamo Colleges is one of four districts in Texas to providing free dual credit.
iPad Air pilot program continues to expand
By Alison Graef
By Sergio Medina
Dr. Don Hudson, director of business performance, made a presentation on the Alamo Colleges dual credit program at the Feb. 20 Audit, Budget and Finance Committee meeting at Killen Center. Hudson said Alamo Colleges is one of four districts in Texas that waives all fees for both in- and out-ofdistrict dual credit students. “The burden of all the extra things that Alamo Colleges District is doing
is really being shouldered by Bexar County residents,” Hudson said. He said the small contributions individuals make through property taxes adds up to big differences for Alamo Colleges dual credit students. High school students who take dual credit courses are given a preview of what college will look like and are more likely to graduate college. This gives students opportunity to earn college credits at no cost and creates a culture of college attendance within families, he said.
STAFF Editor Alison Graef Managing Editor Kimberly Caballero News Editor Shamona Wali Sports Editor Dillon Holloway Calendar Editor Sasha D. Robinson Staff Writers Alfred Allen, Kathya Anguiano, Blanca Granados, Katya Harmel, Thomas Macias, Sergio Medina, Andrea Moreno, Sarah F. Morgan, Frank Piedra, Jeff Riley, Alexis Terrazas, Kenneth L. Williams, Maya R. Williams, Victoria L. Zamora
The number of iPad Air tablets and academic departments that use them has been steadily growing over the past few years under the oversight of information technology Director Usha Venkat.
Don Hudson, director of business performance, said dual credit programs are a great investment at the Feb. 20 committee meeting at Killen. Brianna Rodrigue
Visuals Editor V. Finster
Board of trustees accepting applications for new student trustee
New coordinator is happy to be part of college family By Sasha D. Robinson Cpl. Colton McCombs was promoted to campus coordinator Jan. 16. In an interview Feb. 3, McCombs and Deputy Chief Joe Pabon talked about McComb’s promotion, why he joined the police and his future in law enforcement. McCombs acts as a liaison between Chief Don Adams’ office at Northeast Campus and police at this college.
©2018 by The Ranger staff, San Antonio College, 1819 N. Main
views by writing letters to the editor. Space limitations force
Ave., San Antonio, TX 78212-3941. All rights reserved. No part
the paper to limit letters to two double-spaced, typewritten
of this publication may be reproduced without permission.
pages. Letters will be edited for spelling, style, grammar, libel
The Ranger news outlets, which serve the Alamo Community
and length. Editors reserve the right to deny publication of
College District, are laboratory projects of classes in the
any letter. Letters should be emailed to sac-ranger@alamo.
journalism-photography program at San Antonio College. The
edu or submitted online. Letters also may be brought to
Ranger is published Mondays except during summer, holidays
the newspaper office in Room 212 of Loftin Student Center,
and examinations.
mailed to The Ranger, journalism-photography program, San
The Ranger Online is available at www.theranger.org. News
Antonio College, 1819 N. Main Ave., San Antonio TX 78212-
Photo Team
contributions accepted by telephone (210-486-1773), by
3941 or faxed to 210-486-9292.
Sandra Huron-Dixon, Monica Avila Edman Joshua Garcia, Laura Gonzales, Shamar Mims Jonathon Rudd, Solomon Wilson, J. Del Valle
fax (210-486-9292), by email (sac-ranger@alamo.edu) or
Letters must be signed and must include the printed name
at the editorial office (Room 212 of Loftin Student Center).
and telephone number. Students should include classifica-
Advertising rates available by phone 210-486-1765 or as a
tion, major, campus and Banner ID. Employees should
download at www.theranger.org.
include title and telephone number. For more information,
The Ranger is a member of the Texas Intercollegiate Press
call 210-486-1773.
Association, the Associated Collegiate Press and the Texas
Single Copy Policy: Members of the Alamo
Community College Journalism Association.
Community College District community are permitted one
Guest Viewpoints: Faculty, staff, students and com-
free copy per issue because of high production costs.
munity members are welcome to contribute guest viewpoints
Where available, additional copies may be purchased with
of up to 450 words. Writers should focus on campus or current
prior approval for 50 cents each by contacting The Ranger
events in a critical, persuasive or interpretative style. All view-
business office. Those who violate the single-copy rule may
points must be published with a photo portrait of the writer.
be subject to civil and criminal prosecution and college
Letters Policy: The Ranger invites readers to share
discipline.
Multimedia Editor Nicole M. Bautista Photographer Brianna Rodrigue
Deandra Gonzalez, Lorena Torres Romero
Illustrator Amanda Graef
Web Editor Austin P. Taylor Copy Editor Zachary-Taylor Wright
@sacranger @therangerSAC /readtheranger /therangervideo
4FEATURES www.theranger.org/premiere
Native Americans celebrate culture
Calvin Osife, 41, owns the Navajo Nation northern traditional bustle seen Feb. 18 at the 20th annual United San Antonio Pow Wow at Mission County Park No. 1. The bustle weighs about 8 pounds and is made of eagle feathers. American Indians can use eagle feathers with a permit for religious and cultural purposes. The powwow is an official San Antonio Tricentennial event hosted by the United San Antonio Pow Wow Inc. M. Avila Edman
M
f e b . 26, 2018
Andrew De Luna from the Taos Pueblo Tribe of the Navajo Nation performs the Eagle Dance at the 20th annual United San Antonio Pow Wow Feb. 17. Navajo tradition says the eagle can take their thoughts and prayers to the Great Above and bring the blessings back to Earth.
Native Americans attend from across country. Story by Sasha D. Robinson • Photos by V. Finster sac-ranger@alamo.edu
ore than 100 people showed up at the 20th annual United San Antonio Pow Wow Feb. 17 at Mission County Park No. 1 to experience and learn about Native American heritage. Dr. Lee Eagleboy Walters of the Blackfeet Nation of Northwest Montana said when tribes come together in the spring, they talk about newborn babies, people who died and what the tribe is up to, and they bring plenty of food. Walters, powwow arena director, said he was excited to be here for the event. “Powwows are not like this setting,” Walters said. “It was a gathering, but usually it was dancing and every-
thing, but it was your own nation. Now it is intertribal where people come from every tribe.” Walters said he was 4 years old when he started taking part in powwows. “I am 57 now, and I have danced everywhere like Europe, lived in Japan and on reservations,” Walters said. “I can come to Texas and knock out a dozen in a year. After a while, I stopped counting.” Powwow is a Native American ceremony involving feasting, singing and dancing. Juan Soliz Garcia, secretary of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, and his cousin Hector Soliz came from McAllen. “The weather is too cold
Maeve Keller, 6, high fives Irwin De Luna, president of the group. De Luna belongs to the Taos Pueblo Tribe of the Navajo Nation. for this Indian,” Garcia said. “We came in from McAllen and it was about 81 degrees and now it is 66.” Garcia said he wants people to know Native Americans are not bloodthirsty savages; he encourages mainstream Americans to learn more about Native American heritage. “We have engineers, doctors, professors and people in mainstream America,” Garcia said. “Our heritage is not dead and on display in a glass case in a museum.” The Lipan Apaches began the ceremony with the Gourd Dance. According to the article “The Kiowa began ‘Gourd Dance’” by Dennis W. Zotigh at zotigh.com, the Gourd Dance originated among the Kiowa Indians in the 1700s. A Kiowa warrior, weak and separated from his camp, learned the dance from a red
Second from right, Matthew Davila, board chair of Great Promise for American-Indians, drums with his son Kenyon Davila, 16, at the powwow. Davila and his son, part of Standing Rock Tribe of the Sioux Nation, encourage individuals interested in becoming involved with the Native American community to reach out. wolf, which stood on its hind legs and danced. After each song, the wolf let out a strong howl. When the warrior regained strength, the wolf instructed him to take the song and dance back to his people as a gift. At the end of each dance, the participants let out a howl to recognize the red wolf that gave the Kiowas the dance. Madison Banda, 12, who has been dancing in the powwow since she was 1 year old, did the Jingle Dress Dance. The Jingle Dress Dance is a prayer dance, according to the article; “Origins of the Jingle Dress Dance” from indiancountrymedianetwork.com. The dance came from a young woman named Maggie White who was sick with no signs of recovering. Maggie’s father received a vision of a dress and dance in a dream. When he made the dress and put his daughter in it, he instructed her to perform the dance, which cured her.
Dakota Osife, 11, of the Navajo Nation and Four Winds intertribal princess, stands still while her mother, Jennifer Osife, adjusts her costume at the powwow. The role of an intertribal princess is to act as an ambassador and represent not only the Navajo but other tribes as well. Though the event was festive, Soliz remembered the sad events of history. “The biggest genocide in history did not happen in Nazi Germany, but it happened on American soil,” Soliz said. “Ninety million Native
Americans were slaughtered. We talk about the genocide in Germany but not about the one in the United States.” Call Erwin De Luna, president of the United San Antonio Pow Wow, at 210-736-3702 or visit unitedsanantoniopowwow.org.