By Jamie Iglesias
Daily Titan Staff Writer

The Inter-Tribal Student Council held “Native Celebration” at Cal State Fullerton’s central Quad, and brought a taste of Native American culture to campus on Thursday.

Students who attended the event were attracted to the dancing and the fry bread that was on sale.  Students asked members of ITSC questions about their culture, especially the fry bread.

On Thursday Nov 5, Pearson Tahuka a member of the Intertribal student council sings while playing a drum. Photo by Jeff Lambert/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

A dance performance kicked off the celebration.

“It’s a warrior dance,” Pearson Tahuka, 23, said. “It’s special to a lot of southern and northern people. A bunch of these dancers would go out when the men would go out into battle.”

Students gathered as the dancers performed a southern fancy dance while wearing bright costumes.

A traditional dancer wore red-and-white colored regalia with feathers around his back.

Another dancer, a young woman, wore a gray rug dress with various colors.

“She is performing a southern style dance and it represents women walking in beauty,” Sandra Sanchez, 21, said.

A 1-year-old jingle dancer wore a purple dress with little bells attached. “She is performing a healing dance that used to be performed to heal the community or anyone who needed healing,” Sanchez said.

“I loved the dancing. It’s different because it is part of their culture, so it’s interesting because you do not really see it anymore and most people do not know about it,”  said Ja Vonna Boykin, 18, a criminal justice major.

Aside from the success of the dancing, another big hit was the fry bread. Many of the students who approached the tent asked about the ingredients in the bread.

“It’s really good. It’s soft, but it’s not crunchy,” said Martin Bui, 20, business major.

Students who purchased the fry bread were able to top it with powdered sugar, honey or both.

Susie Yellowhorse Jensen, 50, has been making fry bread from a young age and goes to UC Irvine, Cal State Long Beach and CSUF to help Native American students during their events.

“It’s basically all purpose flour mixed with warm water, a little salt, a little bit of baking powder. It’s kneaded and then we deep fry it in hot oil,” Jensen said.

Jensen had several palm-sized dough balls covered to retain their moisture. She got a dough ball and stretched it by slapping it.

“My grandpa showed me, my other cousins, nieces and nephews how to make the Navajo fry bread.  It wasn’t until my early 20s that I started making it really (well),” Jensen said.

ITSC held “Native Celebration” as a fundraising event and to gain exposure for their club.

Julian Phoenix dances in the Quad at the Intertribal Student Council celebration on Thursday Nov 5. Photo by Jeff Lambert/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

“I am trying to expand instead of staying in my bubble.  If I had not stopped today I would just have gone straight to my dorm,” Boykin said.

“We are not just one student body we are a mixed student body,” Bui said. “I think that this helps with diversity. It shows that there are different types of cultures, different type of people, and different types of communities here at CSUF.”

Anna Tiger, 20, president of ITSC and Jensen’s niece, felt that the event was a success and that the club was able to spread awareness of Native American culture to the campus.

“I thought it was successful I just think we needed more dancers and we needed to be louder,” Tiger said. “We gained a lot of exposure.”