The smell of sage filled the air in the ACCESS courtyard of the Alamo Colleges District office Nov. 21 as district employees celebrated Indigenous history and culture with a drum performance and ceremonial dances. 

“The idea is for us to invest in the well-being, education and wholeness of our employee community,” said Eric Castillo, Associate Vice Chancellor of Arts, Culture and Community Impact. “What better way to do that than to talk about the first peoples of the land we live on.”

Ramon Vasquez, Miguel Lopez and Joshua Summers of American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions sang songs and played drums, which were passed down to the men. 

“I was given the responsibility when I was very young by my grandfather to carry these songs, drums and rattles,” Vasquez said. “It’s important when we’re conducting ourselves in a way taught to us by the people that carried this medicine that we do so with respect for the lineage.”

Vasquez shared the history and significance of the songs as ceremonial and spiritual and said that many of his people’s songs have been lost.

“Education is critical, especially right as education is being dismantled in so many ways,” Vasquez said. “Drums are significant for many spiritual purposes for us, and drumming is one of those practices where you can keep culture alive for young people.”

Dressed in cultural and religious clothing, Karla Aguilar of the Tāp Pīlam Coahuiltecan Nation led and danced with members of other tribes that Aguilar said date back to the 18th century.

“I think we owe to our own human dignity to know where it is that we came from and do our homework about it,” Aguilar said. “When you have Indigenous bloodlines that have been on these lands, it is a matter of everyone’s dignity to be able to acknowledge the first families and that root that we all come from.”

Aguilar said a large focus of her education is breaking barriers to show that culture and spirituality come from the things she does everyday. 

“When we talk about offering our hearts, it’s what we do here (dancing). When we offer ourselves to the land, we plant seeds, tend our gardens and offer ourselves to the Earth,” Aguilar said. 

 The event was the final Native American Heritage Month observance hosted by Alamo Colleges.

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