Native American club off to great start

Ashlee Standridge, Native American Student Association public relations coordinator, said the club is eager to get back on its feet after a few years of being inactive.

Standridge said at last year’s Organizations Fair, all she did to join NASA was leave her information at the club’s sign-up sheet.

“There was nobody at the booth — there was just a sheet of paper,” Standridge said.

“We’ve been building [NASA] back up.”

As a club member, Standridge said, students often ask her where they can access information about their Native American heritage.

“We want [NASA] to be open for everybody to know about their Native American culture,” Standridge said.

“We also want to provide information about where to go to find out more.”

Standridge said the club also wants to provide important information that is specific to Native Americans, such as how the recent Affordable Care Act affects them.

She said to join the club, members do not have to be Native American. NASA is open to all people, Standridge said.

The club’s main goal to is educate people regarding Native American culture.

Standridge said last semester, NASA celebrated Native American Heritage Week at OCCC.

“We had events for the whole week …” she said. “ The Apache Fire Dancers came up and did a ceremony.

“We also had a Native American Spirituality speaker [and] a Native American paranormal activity director play one of his films.”

Standridge said NASA has already been busy. She said the club held a bake sale on Feb. 11, as well as its first Indian taco sale on Feb. 13.

“[Indian tacos] are really hard to make but we make them homemade ourselves,” Standridge said.

She said there will be more Indian taco sales this semester.

Standridge said NASA holds its meetings at 12:30 p.m.every Tuesday in room 1X5 MB.

For more information about joining NASA, contact faculty sponsor Jeff Carlisle at 405-682-1611 ext. 7391 or at jeffrey.d.carlisle@occc.edu.

To contact Siali Siaosi, email seniorwriter@occc.edu.

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