Meadows Center hosts Indigenous Peoples Day at Spring Lake

Campus Community

Jayme Blaschke | October 7, 2019

The second annual Indigenous Peoples Day will be celebrated Oct. 13 on the shores of Spring Lake at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University.

The event will run 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and is co-hosted by The Meadows Center and the Indigenous Cultures Institute, found by the Miakan-Garza Band, a recognized tribe of Texas.

"We're inviting all communities to celebrate our native culture at this sacred site," said Mario Garza, Indigenous Cultures Institute board of elders chair. "Our indigenous people are part of the greater community of humankind that will come together to save our Mother Earth from the imminent threats to our future."

The program will begin with a 10 a.m. blessing by the shores of the San Marcos River headwaters, an area considered sacred by some Coahuiltecan people who believe this to be their origination site. After the blessing, the public and all participants are invited to share breakfast and then take a free tour on the glass bottom boats to experience the sacred springs.

There will be indigenous arts booths providing a preview of work from the upcoming Sacred Springs Powwow, Oct. 19-20.  Indigenous Peoples Day will also feature environmental activities for children, including the popular mud ball-making booth. Children can combine seeds into a mud ball that can then be taken home and planted for a beautiful array of flowers. Food will be available through the Hispanic Business Student Association and Sigma Lambda Beta from Texas State.

The Indigenous Arts Summer Encounter students will perform danza at 11:30 a.m. The Aztec dancers from the Kalpulli Ayolopakzin in San Antonio will perform at noon and there will also be a guest performance by Matthew Davila on his sacred drum.  

There will be a 2 p.m. screening of the film "L'eau est la Vie (Water is Life): From Standing Rock to the Swamp" in The Meadows Center’s conference room. The film follows water protector Cherri Foytlin as she leads viewers on a journey of indigenous resistance to the Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP) in the swamps of Louisiana. Several principals of the film will be in attendance for an audience discussion. The screening was made possible through collaboration with the San Marcos Cinema Club and the Lost River Film Fest, scheduled Oct. 17-20.

In 2018, the City of San Marcos designated the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day. The event celebrates Native American culture that has been part of this area for more than 13,000 years. 

"In 2018 the City Council’s resolution happened so quickly and unexpectedly that we had a very short time to plan our first celebration,' said Maria Rocha, executive director of Indigenous Cultures Institute, the nonprofit that has spearheaded the new-holiday effort. "Nikkye Vargas had been working on this for three years. In 2018 our niece, Isabel Mata, joined her team to conduct research, work on an action plan, send emails to the council and set a meeting with the mayor. They were ultimately successful."

For more information visit www.IndigenousCultures.org.