Native American Heritage Month
Join Texas Lutheran University for a variety of events, performances, and special chapel services centered around Native American Heritage Month. The campus and surrounding community are invited to hear from influential local leaders who are using their platform to educate others about the history and traditions of indigenous cultures. All events are free and open to the public.
Events
Honoring Comanche Chief Quanah Parker’s History, Sharing of Memorabilia, Lunch and Learn with Doug Parker, Descendent of Quanah Parker
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 12PM at the Blumberg Memorial Library
Quanah was a war leader of the Quahadi band of the Comanche Nation. He earned recognition through business dealings with cattlemen driving their herds north through Texas and to other parts of the United States. Quanah charged white men a fee to graze their herds on the reservation. The revered chief’s reverence went beyond his business acumen and he is remembered for other notable accomplishments. Doug Parker is Quanah Parker’s great-great-grandson and Seguin native who has been collecting memorabilia all his life and sharing the history of his great-great-grandfather.
Chapel Talk - South Texas Indigenous Traditional Thanksgiving Blessing with Tecuancoatl Teodosio "Ted" Herrera
Tlaxcalteca, Chichimeca, Coahuilteco, Huichol
Wednesday, November 5, 2025 10 AM at the TLU Chapel
Growing up in rural Nueces County, Texas, from the late 40s to the late 60s, most of his neighbors were familiar with Curanderismo (traditional indigenous healers), and many could not afford Conventional Doctors. Nor could they explain “Susto” (shock, trauma), “Mal De Ojo” (evil eye), “Caida de la mollera” (fallen fontanelle), or a “limpieza” (cleansing) to conventional doctors.
At the time, there were at least four specialties in our area that people could need: a Yerbero (Herbalist), a Huesero (Bone and Muscle therapist), a Partera (Midwife), or someone like his mother, Maria Guadalupe Lara Herrera (Dona Lupita), a curandera with great empathy for the suffering who was sought after to help with Health and Spiritual issues.
Witnessing his mother help people was part of his growing up, and she constantly reminded him that he was given that “Don” (gift), and he was expected to take over her work. He resisted that path until her passing in 1994. And that’s when her spiritual influence became more vital than ever to him. Thanks to her spiritual connection and my his father's and grandparents, he's been blessed with their influence in making good decisions, which has led to many gratifying accomplishments and experiences. And so, he hopes to please them by walking a good path.
Lunch and Learn
Thursday, November 6, 2025 12PM
Location to be determined
Emi Aguilar is a Coahuiltecan Arts Educator, community organizer, and multidisciplinary artist, based among the Coahuiltecan homelands where her people have resided for over 14,000 years (recently known as Central Texas to Northern Mexico). She is of Indigenous and settler descent. Emi grew up on the Tohono O’Odham Nation reservation, and later in Central New York. She earned her MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from The University of Texas at Austin. With a decade of teaching experience, she specializes in Indigenous arts integration, digital storytelling as a community-affirming practice, and Indigenizing storytelling. She offers consulting on undoing settler-colonial culture and moving toward being in right relation with Indigenous communities, lands and waters. She is the Director of Research + Action at IllumiNative.