Idaho State University's Indigenous Peoples Day Native student panel speakers.
By DANA HERNANDEZ
Sho-Ban News
POCATELLO — Idaho State University’s Indigenous Peoples Day celebration ended with a student panel session followed by a live performance by award-winning Apsalooka hip-hop artist Supaman on Monday, October 11.
The student panel session consisted of ISU students: Stormie Perdash (Shoshone-Bannock) who is pursuing a major in Business Marketing, Shantana Benally (Navajo) who is studying Nursing, Veronica Miller (Navajo) who is majoring in Health Science with plans to become a Physician’s Assistant, Whitney Burns (Shoshone-Bannock) who is majoring in Business Management, and Damon Coando (Eastern Shoshone) who is majoring in Accounting and minoring in Psychology. The Moderator of the session was Craig Chatriand who is the Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students.
Chatriand asked the student panel a series of questions, one of the questions was why they decided to pursue an education from Idaho State University?
Perdash said she is a non-traditional student and decided to try ISU because of the tribal syphon that pushed her to want to attend. Benally said she couldn’t find a college out of state, and that ISU has a great nursing program. “When I started coming to ISU, I figured it was place for me because the cultural background reminded me of home,” said Benally.
Miller said both her parents received their master degrees from ISU and the Physician Assistant program at ISU is one of the best in the nation. “ISU is a nice place and has some diversity,” said Miller. Burns said she never planned on going to college. “When I worked at the Tribes, my boss and the Executive Director told me that I would be perfect as a director, but I had no education to back me up on that job position. So, I applied to ISU and I got in,” said Burns.
Coando decided to try ISU because he had family here and that he really wanted to do something and get his education.
ISU student panel, from left: Stormie Perdash, Shantana Benally and Veronica Miller.
Other questions asked by Chatriand and the audience was: How has the ISU campus culture impacted you and made you feel welcome and not welcome? What have professors done to support your learning in the classroom? How does it feel when you have to lead a discussion about Native Americans in the class? How do you think other Native students feel being called out by a professor or teacher to lead a discussion on Native American issues?
After the student panel session, participants attended a live performance by Supaman in the Ballroom at ISU. Supaman, also known as Christian Parrish comes from the Apsalooska Nation in Montana, Crow Nation. Supaman said, “happy Indigenous People’s Day. We came together to celebrate life through dance, culture, laughter and music here at ISU. It was all good vibes.”