Dwanna McKay, assistant professor of Indigenous Studies in Colorado College\u2019s Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies program, recently was honored as Elder of the Year at the 10th Annual Garden of the Gods Rock Ledge Ranch Powwow. McKay, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation whose research focuses on social inequality and Indigenous identity, says she was \u201cincredibly honored and humbled to be chosen as Elder of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n
McKay says for Native people, \u201celder\u201d isn’t just someone who has reached a certain age. \u201c\u2018Elder\u2019 is a term used to convey respect and affection for someone\u2019s accomplishment, wisdom, and service to community,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, to be recognized by the powwow committee and the greater community of Indigenous people for my work in higher education and my efforts toward social justice validates much of the sacrifice that it took to get here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Numerous Colorado College students, faculty, and staff attended the ceremony. McKay was presented with gifts and a blanket, and an honor song was performed for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo have CC Indigenous\/Native students, and other students I’ve taught or mentored, arrive to honor me by dancing behind me around the arena was incredibly meaningful,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a memory I will always cherish.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dwanna McKay, assistant professor of Indigenous Studies in Colorado College\u2019s Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies program, recently was honored as Elder of the Year at the 10th Annual Garden of the Gods Rock Ledge Ranch Powwow. McKay, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation whose research focuses on social inequality and Indigenous identity, says she…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1388,"featured_media":14870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-15035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2019","tag-news-from-campus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/files\/2019\/12\/CC-BUL-WIN19-08_Dwanna-McKay.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1388"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15035"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15324,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035\/revisions\/15324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/bulletin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}