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St. Cloud State University
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AIC welcomes all
By Ting-Feng Hu
Published:
Monday, September 15, 2003
The American Indian Center is a house that welcomes students with open arms.
"The mission is to help primarily American Indian students be successful in their studies academically and socially while in SCSU," said Tom Andrus, Student Services Coordinator.
The cultural pipe ceremony took place there last Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
"Specifically it is about blessing the house and blessing the students and not just the American Indian students. The pipe carrier coming today is a spiritual leader to bless the entire campus, specifically this house. But everybody is welcomed and we do this every fall," Andrus said.
It is a social event that gathers both students, faculty and staff together to kick off the new semester, Andrus said.
"We try not to interfere with other things going on in campus. We used to do this on the first week but it gets too hectic so we moved to the second week," he added.
Since 1993, AIC has been having this house blessing ceremony every fall.
The ceremony is carried out with the presence of a spiritual leader or the pipe carrier.
A pipe filled with tobacco is a significant spiritual item to the ceremony.
By 3:30 p.m. people started to gather around the living room and were ready to begin. Everyone gathered around the pipe carrier, who conducted the ceremony.
"The pipe carrier will put tobacco in the pipe, may or may not light the pipe. It's hard to explain. Sometimes they'll put tobacco in and they won't smoke the pipe until later. Sometimes, they would smoke the pipe and pass it between a few people. Sometimes, everybody involves. Each of the procedure is balanced and it really falls back on how the carrier wants to do it," Andrus said.
"(The) significance of the pipe is the pipe brings the spirits to the house and allows everybody participating to communicate with the spirit and the creator. The beauty of our spirituality is that you and I can worship side by side. You can worship in whatever ways work for you and I can worship in ways that work for me. My teachings are that all spiritualities and religions are valid," Andrus said.
A story lies behind this cultural ceremony that comes from the history of the American Indian people.
"Things were not going well for them thousands of years ago. The spirit of a white buffalo calf woman came to the Dakota people and told them if they smoke the pipe and if they did this in a proper way and used this to communicate with the creator that thing will get better for them and for everyone," Andrus said."Our buildings are in disarray now. We are doing some internal remodeling, so this is special to bring good energy to the house and to the students."
The people who attended not only consisted of American Indian students and staff, but different groups of people.
"It gets everybody back together and meets people. It is a cultural thing that brings everyone together," said Erin Howard from the All Tribes Council.
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