Navajo leaders are calling out a high school in Farmington, New Mexico after a Lakota student’s traditional feather plume was cut off her cap during her graduation ceremony.
A video posted to social media shows school staff approaching Genesis White Bull, who is Hunkpapa Lakota of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, during the May 13 commencement and confiscating her cap. It was decorated with beadwork and a feather plume, which is a traditional symbol of achievement and cultural identity marking a transition into new phases of life.
District officials maintain they followed the district’s protocols that say graduation caps and gowns cannot be altered.
Navajo Nation First Lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren was in attendance at the commencement. She wrote on Facebook that she was disappointed and called on school officials to allow Native American students the choice to proudly wear traditional regalia at graduation.
Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley also spoke out, calling the actions “belittling, humiliating, and demeaning.”
On Friday, President Buu Nygren signed an executive order directing all schools with Navajo students to allow graduates to wear traditional regalia regardless of whether they’re on the Navajo Nation.