Dreamcatcher traditions at TAMUK

The Campus Activity Board hosted an event for students to make dream catchers to celebrate Native American heritage.

“The campus activities board is an organization on campus dedicated to making free events on campus for the students to enjoy in their free time. The dreamcatcher specifically we saw at a conference we went to earlier this year ,the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA). We saw the dream- catchers and we thought it was really fun and interactive, and they’re really cute keepsakes the students get to have,” Lizzetty Lara, a CAB member, said.

 CAB aims to showcase the different cultures around campus through various events.

“November is Native American Heritage Month,” Erin Landin secretary and public relations coordinator for the CAB, said. “So we decided to bring it in because it is a big part of their culture and it is a big belief of theirs to do and make dreamcatchers.”

Being Native American herself, Landin says she can relate to the belief in dreamcatchers. 

“It’s a passion of mine to create and to be able to get them from different places and so I thought bringing it in for the Native Americans here on campus they would enjoy it,” Landin said.

By hosting these events CAB appreciates diversity in TAMUK and takes an opportunity to educate others in their culture. 

“To spread awareness for everything they do and their lifestyles is something that we really enjoy and being able to help diversify our community, too,” Landin said of the importance of the event.

The CAB uses events to help bring the community closer and to spread a greater awareness of different cultures and heritage around campus.

Their events are free and “students who are just passing by are able to be engaged; they don’t have to separate time and come at an evening event for everything they can just come by in between classes and they’re really short and simple,” Landin said, “and they get to take something home, they get the experience making it and they get to keep the items they make.”

November is celebrated as Native American Heritage month each year as declared by President George H. W. Bush is August 1990.