Zuni students learn traditional dance, food sovereignty, connect with elders
Zuni Middle School students opened Elder Awareness Day with a buffalo dance, then carried spring lessons in culture, food sovereignty and career readiness beyond the classroom.
Zuni Middle School students opened Elder Awareness Day at the Zuni Senior Center with a buffalo dance, a public moment that tied spring learning directly to the elders the program was built to reach. The performance came out of Zuni Youth Enrichment Project’s fourth-quarter elective and Rooted in Healthy Traditions after-school program, which mixed traditional dance, food sovereignty, art and career exploration with mentorship from community members.
The spring school partnership ran from March through May and reached more than 500 elementary students, while also expanding opportunities for middle and high school students across Zuni. ZYEP said ninth-graders were getting added programming focused on career exploration and real-world readiness, a sign that the work at Zuni Middle School was part of a broader effort to prepare students for life after class and after graduation.
For middle-schoolers, the elective centered on dance techniques and the meanings behind buffalo, deer, turkey, corn, Mu:bachu, Supai and harvest dances. The lessons were not only about movement. They were also about cultural knowledge, family responsibility and the role dance plays in Zuni identity, especially when students performed in front of elders at a community event instead of ending the session only with a school celebration.
That shift mattered this year because the timing of Indigenous Day changed, so ZYEP staff found another way to bring students and elders together. Rani Yamutewa, a ZYEP youth development leader and Zuni Pueblo member who has worked with the organization since 2014, said her team wanted a meaningful place for that connection. Parent S. Mahooty said the link between students and elders is what is needed and that the teachings ZYEP provides are valuable resources for students.
The after-school side of the program returned to Zuni Middle School on March 24 for seventh- and eighth-graders. ZYEP says students stay after school three days a week from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., with time set aside for food sovereignty education, healthy snacks, physical activity, traditional art, cultural knowledge sharing and homework help. The Zuni Public School District also provided snacks and transportation.
ZYEP says it has invested $17.5 million in the Zuni community since 2009, underscoring that the spring elective and after-school model is part of a longer local strategy. For families in Zuni, the clearest outcome is not a single activity, but students learning how to carry culture, wellness and responsibility into the next school year and beyond.
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