The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology held a Spring Feathering Ceremony to honor graduating Native American students Friday, May 7.
The students receiving their feathers at this ceremony were Kathryn Buchy (Cherokee), an industrial engineering student from Martin; Jessica Chretian (Oglala Lakota), an industrial engineering student from Rapid City; Adam Dell (Oglala Lakota), an interdisciplinary sciences student from Rapid City; Stewart Fryslie (Faraones Llanera Apache), an electrical engineering and physics student from Fountain Valley, Calif.; Deanna Shoup (Sicangu Lakota), an interdisciplinary sciences student from Rapid City; Channing Thompson (Turtle Mountain Chippewa), a chemistry student from Rapid City. Weewahste Conroy (Oglala Lakota), a South Dakota State University nursing student, will also be honored.
The event opened with the Wild Horse Butte Tokala Intertribal Color Guard, followed by a welcome from Scott Wiley, coordinator of the Office of Multicultural Affairs at the School of Mines. The ceremony continued with an opening prayer, followed by remarks from School of Mines President Robert A. Wharton, Ph.D, Pine Ridge High School Principal Robert Cook, Social Science Professor Dr. James McReynolds, and writer and poet Elizabeth Cook-Lynn.
Rapid City School District Cultural Resource Specialist Harriet Brings introduced the honoring ceremony and tradition. One of the highest honors in the Lakota society is to receive an eagle feather or plume for an honoring. Traditionally, a child receives their first feather or plume as a baby, and continues to earn them with great accomplishments. Eyapaha, Geraldine Yellowhawk smudged and blessed the feathers. Parents or a chosen relative were invited forward for the tying of the feathers.
The program also included a buffalo stew, wojapi and fry bread meal.
