BSU Holds 9th Annual Day of Welcome

Bemidji State University’s American Indian Resource Center will hold the 9^th Annual Day of Welcome tomorrow.

Starting at 9 A-M, the center will host a pipe ceremony, drum honor song by local group the Kingbird Singers, and Native American flute music and hoop dancing by Kevin Locke. After the opening ceremony, there will be a student services information students for the university’s offices and student organizations.

“It just gives our students, native and non-native alike, the opportunity to experience something and to start the year off in a good way,” says Bill Blackwell Jr., executive director of the AIRC.

“Kind of the idea is that we want our American Indian students to really see what the campus has to offer them,” he said. “They want to see what kind of support is there for them as well.”

The event will run the entire day, ending at 7 P-M with a final performance by Kevin Locke.

Blackwell says about 4% of the BSU student population self-identifies as American Indian.