Chicago Diné student told she couldn’t wear beaded cap at promotion
Courtesy | LeAnn Osby
Miss Indian Chicago Nizhoni Ward fixes her sister, Lilliana Ward’s tassel, on her beaded promotion cap in the bleachers. Lilliana was prohibited from wearing the cap and participating in the James Hart Middle School 8th grade promotion ceremony on May 30th.
WINDOW ROCK
With her tsiiyéél tied and traditional clothes on, Lilliana Ward sat in the bleachers watching her classmates honored because she was not allowed to celebrate her culture.
Homewood School District 153 is Lilliana’s school district in the Chicago metropolitan area. It has a policy to not allow any adornments on students’ caps during their graduation or promotion ceremony for the sake of drawing too much attention to themselves.
The district’s superintendent, Scott McAllister, said it would’ve been too distracting to wear after looking at Lilliana’s beaded cap.
Lilliana’s older sister, Nizhoni Ward, the Miss Indian Chicago, beaded her sister’s cap. Nizhoni strongly disagrees with the decision made by the superintendent.
The Ward sisters are Navajo and Choctaw, originally from Raremetals, Arizona, near Tuba City. They’re of the Zuni Edgewater Clan, born for Caucasian.
“I was very proud of her for taking a stand for who she is, but I was also very disappointed in the school,” Nizhoni said.
Read the full story in the June 8 edition of the Navajo Times.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow