Video Gallery

Cultural Recognitions: Indigenous Heritage

Go to Video Gallery Added Dec 10, 2020 •

Copy this URL:
Embed code:	<iframe class="edlio-embed-player" type="text/html" width="640" height="360" src="//www.hartdistrict.org/apps/embed/?v=302988" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Change dimensions

Go HD

Indigenous Canyon High School Student, Samuel Sierra discusses his heritage and cultural celebrations with Canyon News Network.

Show Transcript

Many of us have fallen into a traditional way of life, but there are many of us that celebrate and show our ancestral heritage as well. Sam Sierra, a junior at Canyon High School, has roots from two very different places. So, I'm part Indigenous and part Filipino my mom she's a originally born from the Philippines, and on my father's side, his great grandpa's name was Long Horn, actually. That was his name was Long Horn. He lived in El Paso Texas which is where my tribal, my tribe comes from, the Ysleta. Since Sam was young, his father taught him, as well as his sister, the traditions of their tribe and the gift of dance. I'm actually a Pueblo so Pueblo is from down south so there's Northern tribes, Eastern tribes, Southern tribes, all four directions of tribes. So, I'm from the Pueblo tribe. My tribe, we mainly don't dance. We only dance for ceremonial purposes or for food, but my father, he was gifted in dance Which is a more of a traditional dance for the Northern Plains people. He then passed it down to me. And overtime, you know I was given the right to dance and wear those Eagle feathers, and those plumes, and those war sticks. I was gifted that right to dance, that tradition of the Powow right, basically. These practices have always played a big part in Sam's life, and have helped him tell the stories of his culture and his people. Back then, the uh, the dance style I dance is the Northern traditional dance, it's a War Plains dance. So back then men come back from war raids or hunting and they would come back in each other's free Spirit then that's why, you know we we danced with our war clubs or sticks and feathers that would represent life or would represent what happened at that battle since, so when we dance as men's traditional, we dance to tell story to the people, to know what happened at battle, or what happened to that hunter. Sam has been dancing since he was three and wants to continue and even his practice after he leaves Canyon. My plan is when I'm done with High School and College, I plan to move back to my reservation, where you know, where my bloodline comes from. Learn the traditional heritage and maybe help my people out but the same time one of those things as youth is we have to maintain, you know, our heritage and the American way of life. That, which is really hard because we want to stay up with our heritage but, so yeah, going to include that in our modern American life. Not only does Sam dance, but his older sister Emily does as well. As Sam said, it's important to learn more about shared as well as our unique heritages and continue to tell our own stories. For Canyon News Network, I'm Rylee DeLeon.

Listed in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Video Gallery

Cultural Recognitions: Indigenous Heritage

Popular Videos