When you think of Halloween night, what comes to mind? Ghosts? Witches? Trick-or-treating? Jack-o-lanterns? What about a buckskin outfit or dawning an “elegant-looking” Native American headdress? I should sincerely hope not. But such is the case that occurred on campus Halloween night in addition to British model Leilani Dowding’s and pop singer Ellie Goulding’s choices of costumes. Because November is Native American Heritage Month, we must realize why this is problematic.

Before going any further, first things first, I do not wish to come across as “angry” or “overly sensitive.” And secondly, I don’t want to be seen as the sole voice for native people, or to be seen as an “expert,” because I am neither of those. Rather, I’m just a student with an opinion and a voice that I feel needs to be heard; nothing more.

Native Americans are not costumes and along these lines, mascots. While people might not see the misrepresentation of native people as a big issue, it is an important issue that deeply affects a Native American Stanford student such as myself. The two questions that come to mind when seeing someone at Mausoleum Party in a Native American costume are: “Of all the many options to choose, from Batman to Katniss Everdeen and everything in between, why did you even consider dressing up as a Native American for Halloween? And at what point did you think it was okay to do so?”

American Indian costumes and mascots perpetuate stereotypical representations of native people. It propagates the singularized image of a 19th-century Indian clad in buckskin with a long feathered headdress carrying a tomahawk with war paint smeared across his “dark red” surface.

This offensive image, as seen in Disney films like “Peter Pan” and depicted by professional athletic teams such as the NFL’s Washington You’ve-Probably-Heard-Of-Them, serves no honor and does no justice to native communities. This representation showcases a single story of native people, when in reality, it’s much more diverse than that. According to the 2010 Census, there are approximately 5.2 million people who have identified as American Indian/Alaska Native, or about 1.7 percent of the total U.S. population, with about 566 federally recognized tribes, as noted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). This does not factor in tribes that are still in the process of gaining federal recognition status.

This single image does not capture the diversity of Native America in the 21st century. Even though all native people are categorized as “American Indian/Alaska Native,” from art to food to dance to language, we have different but unique ways of expressing our culture, much like other racial and ethnic groups of people.

This monolithic depiction does not capture the Cherokee lawyer who is working in one of the top law firms in the country; the teacher from the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation who is inspiring her students every day in the classroom; the Navajo war veteran who fought overseas to protect this country; the Pueblo student who attends university when he was projected to have dropped out of high school and/or committed suicide, but continues with the hope of changing his community, back on the reservation. These are just some of the many untold stories of native people in Indian Country today. To the many other natives who are teachers, doctors, lawyers, professors, businesswomen and men, tribal officials, artisans, activists, college students, athletes, writers, active members of the military and law enforcement, and to the many young native people who will fill those shoes one day: Our voice is clear. We are still here. Alive. Diverse. Strong. And full of potential.

After all, how can we, as native people, be seen as a resilient, modern, hopeful people if we are constantly portrayed in the media and by people on Halloween as an artifact from the past?

To the person(s) who wore that Native American costume on Halloween, please don’t do it again. Elahkwa! (Thank you!)

Alfred Delena ’15

Alfred Delena is a senior majoring in human biology and minoring in education. He can be contacted at adelena1 ‘at’ stanford.edu.