Creativity beamed on Oct. 14 in the American Indian Student Center (AISC) with the Crazy Clay event hosted by the United Native American Organization (UNAO). The event was the second in a series of events on the New Mexico State University campus celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Week, hosted by the American Indian Programs.
Students who attended were offered free pizza, drinks, snacks, and enough clay to let their imaginations run rampant. While there were no constraints to what students could create with the clay, this event was picked for Indigenous Peoples’ Week to represent the significance of pottery in Native American culture.
“Pottery is one of those things that Native Americans are known for. It’s one of their cultural arts, so having an event that’s tied to [Indigenous Peoples’ Day] is pretty important,” Joseph Legah, a UNAO volunteer, said.
Cultural relevance is not the only reason this event was run, according to volunteer, Samuel Gruber. With a stream of uncertainty facing Native tribes around the U.S. due to the government shutdown, and recent news about President Trump’s denouncement of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Oct. 9. He stated Oct. 13 will be recognized as Columbus Day due to the alleged “woke” nature of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Gruber said he believed that a relaxing event was exactly what the students of NMSU needed to celebrate and honor the history of Native Americans.
“It’s just providing a space to come sit in here. Get to know everyone, get to know each other. I feel like now, it’s relevant to just keep stress off the time,” Gruber said. “We continue to de-stress where we can when the world can be so disorganized and everything’s unbalanced, right now especially. I want this to be like a home away from home, I guess, and in events like these, we just give them a casualness to make sure that [students] can come here to de-stress.”
Throughout the event, students molded clay into various shapes and forms. Some crafted traditional-style pots and emblems, while others experimented with the shapes of animals or plants. The room buzzed with conversation and laughter as participants shared their creations with one another, embodying the sense of community and connection that Gruber hoped to foster through the event.
Gruber also spoke on how important it is for NMSU students to attend events like the ones offered by the American Indian Programs, highlighting their collaborations with the LGBTQ+, Latin American, and Black programs in the past. He thought that students needed to attend these events to show solidarity, and that regardless of who you are, we stand with each other.
Students attending the event, including Sage Griego-Acuna, agreed with that sentiment, articulating the necessity to come to other cultural events, whether it’s for a class or not. She was attending the event for credit in an honors course, but said she would’ve attended regardless due to the necessity of cultural events and out of respect for Native American history.
“Events like these are absolutely important, especially now, especially with everything happening in the U.S. So many cultures are under-represented and repressed because of the government or previous stigma, so people should come to these for sure,” Griego-Acuna said.
For students looking to engage with diverse cultural programs on campus, the American Indian Programs regularly host events throughout the year.
