OU American Indian Programs & Services hosted a luncheon as part of Indigenous Peoples Week, Tuesday.
Jameson D. Lopez, the keynote speaker for the event, is an enrolled member of the Quechan Tribe located in California. He works as an assistant professor of Educational Policy Studies and Practice at the University of Arizona, studying Native American education using Indigenous statistics, and he serves as a Indigenous quantitative researcher.
Lopez said he grew up not on a reservation, but as an “urban Native.” He said this developed his perspective on his indigenous identity.
Lopez’s parents worked as staff and faculty in higher education and traveled around the country — often to Native American reservations — to recruit students for college. He accredited this as one of the “perspective-forming experiences” that impact his work today with Native American populations.
“As a child, I didn’t always know I was Native. I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood, and it offered some unique perspectives. … When I would go to school, I was the darkest kid in class,” Lopez said.
Lopez said he originally wanted to go into the military instead of going to college, but his father convinced him to stay in school for at least one year and then he could enlist. One year quickly turned into four.
The years he spent in school were ones Lopez said he appreciated because they allowed him to pursue his purpose — returning to his Native community.
Lopez emphasized the importance of reclaiming his heritage as an “urban Native,” as he said, growing up, he had to reclaim some of his identity as a Native American individual. Lopez offered advice, saying that people shouldn’t lose sight of reclaiming things they’ve lost through their lives.
Toward the end of the luncheon, OU’s American Indian Student Association presented Lopez with a blanket, thanking him for speaking. Antonia Belindo, the coordinator of the American Indian Programs & Services, spoke briefly regarding OU’s relationship with their Native American students, as the university sits in the middle of Native American land.
“While it seems that we’re on the level of a division one university, what is the actual work that’s being done and what are we doing to really uplift this community,” said Belindo.
Indigenous Peoples Day was officially recognized on Monday, and celebrations are being held throughout the week. The full schedule can be found on the OU American Indian Programs & Services Facebook page.
