Apache Pride

A lot of people come back to Pittsburg State University for homecoming. Jennifer Lunsford, Miami, Okla., came back for a pow wow.

She was invited to serve as head lady at the pow wow sponsored Saturday by the PSU Native American Student Association. “I was very honored to be asked by my alma mater to return as head lady,” Lunsford said.

She was previously a leader in NASA, and helped organize the first PSU pow wows several years ago.

Lunsford is proud of her own Native American heritage. A White Mountain Apache, she was adopted and raised by a loving Quapaw family.

For her role as head lady, Lunsford wore a handmade dress of elk hide, embellished by cut-glass beadwork and hundreds of metal pieces that jingled as she walked and danced.
“We hand-rolled all the jingles ourselves,” Lunsford said.

The jingles were a little unauthentic — they’re made of aluminum, which the early Apaches didn’t have.

But the rest of her outfit is authentic.

“We didn’t know how to make Apache moccasins, so we called my aunt on the reservation and asked her,” Lunsford said. “I love this dress because both my adoptive family and my biological family were involved with making it.”

She explained that the dress is made to commemorate an Apache girl’s transition into womanhood, when she has her first menstrual period.

“At that time, the girl also picks a sort of godmother or mentor, a woman that she would want to be like,” Lunsford said. “The woman gives the girl a massage, to put these qualities in the girl’s body.”

In addition to taking part in the pow wow dances, Lunsford also depicted the “Star Spangled Banner” in Native American sign language as the Lenape Honor Guard, composed of Native American veterans from the Copan/Bartlesville, Okla., area, posted the American and POW/MIA flags.

She is a PSU graduate with a master’s degree in early childhood education. While at PSU, Lunsford worked as a graduate assistant in the multicultural affairs office.

She is now using her skills to work one-on-one with a deaf autistic child.