NATIVE CROSSROADS FESTIVAL

3rd Native Crossroads Festival

Thursday, April 24, 2025 | Franklin Patterson Hall

The Native Crossroads Festival brings Indigenous culture keepers, organizers and scholars to share their work with our communities. This is an opportunity to learn about decolonization, Indigenous Sovereignty and building right and reciprocal relationships with the land, ecosystems, and Indigenous communities. The festival features Indigenous artists and vendors who will bring native material culture from the region and raise awareness about the historical and contemporary importance of buying from Indigenous people.

Schedule of Events

1:00 - 2:20 PM Sovereignty & Indigenous Women|FPH Faculty/Staff Lounge

A Workshop with Rachel Beth Sayet (Mohegan), anthropologist, meditation coach, and an Indigenous food educator. Register here.

1:15 - 2:30 PM Legal, Societal and Cultural Understanding 101|FPH West Lecture Hall

In this workshop, Justin Beatty (Ojibwe/Saponi/African-American) will address common misconceptions the general public often has about areas affecting Native American people such as: “recognition”, legal status, cultural practices, treaties, activism, land acknowledgments, TV/movies/media, and more. Some subjects will be discussed based on previously submitted questions but questions from those in attendance are welcome and encouraged. Register here.

2:00 - 6:00 PM Native Crossroads Festival Artists & Vendors|FPH Courtyard

3:15 - 4:00 PM Through the Land: Clay, Conversation & Community Connection|FPH Courtyard

Join HEIGHTS Mentor Lucero for Through the Land session, an outdoor peer-to-peer workshop rooted in conversation, creativity, and community. Together, we’ll shape clay with our hands-a practice deeply connected to the land. This session is a welcoming space to debrief the Native Crossroads sessions, ask questions, and engage with each other. Whether you're interested in pottery making or just want to be in community, come as you are. We’ll provide all materials, snacks, music, and space to be in connection with each other and the earth

4:30 - 6:00 PM Indigenous Reciprocity with the Land|FPH West Lecture Hall

A presentation by Leah Hopkins (Narragansett) enrolled citizen of the Narragansett Tribe is a mother, educator, cultural worker and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation's (DCR) Indigenous People’s Partnership Coordinator for the First Peoples First Stewards Partnership Program.

6:00 PM Reception | FPH Lobby

6:30 PM Indigenous Futurity through Film|FPH West Lecture Hall

A film screening and Q&A with Anthony Sneed (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians)

This year's Native Crossroads Festival is organized by Hampshire College’s Decolonization & Reciprocity Working Group in partnership with Justin Beatty. The event is co-sponsored by the ARC (Anti-Racism on Campus), Five College Native American Indigenous Studies, Division of Justice Equity and Antiracism, Learning Collaboratives, Lebron-Wiggins-Pran Cultural Center, Sustainable Hampshire.

Justin Beatty (Ojibwe/Saponi/African-American) is a cultural educator, powwow singer & emcee, & artist of Native American & African American heritage. His Native American roots come from Ojibwe people in Ontario, Canada, and the Occoneechi Saponi of Virginia and North Carolina. He holds a B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a concentration in Indigenous Policy, Culture, & Art. In 2021, he founded the Odenong Powwow held annually on Memorial Day weekend in Amherst, MA. He is the drum keeper/lead singer for the intertribal powwow drum group Urban Thunder, the first intertribal powwow drum group ever recorded for a video game (BioShock: Infinite). He is also well-known as an MC/ Arena Director for various powwows and Native American events in the northeast U.S. and is currently on the Board of Directors for the Social Distance Powwow & Amherst Media.

Leah Hopkins (Narragansett), enrolled citizen of the Narragansett Tribe is a mother, educator, cultural worker and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation's (DCR) Indigenous People’s Partnership Coordinator for the First Peoples First Stewards Partnership Program.

Rachel Beth Sayet (Mohegan) has an MA in anthropology from Harvard University. She is an anthropologist, meditation coach, and an Indigenous food educator. She presents on Indigenous history, food, and culture throughout New England. Sayet currently teaches the course "Native American Women", a Native Studies course at UMASS Boston.

Anthony Sneed (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians) is a director, artist, and performer who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and Cherokee, North Carolina. In 2008, he landed the lead role in Frank Henenlotter's film BAD BIOLOGY, catalyzing their working relationship. Since, the two have collaborated on the film THE ART THIEVES and award-winning documentary BOILED ANGELS' THE TRIAL OF MIKE DIANA. Sneed recently made his directorial debut in the short SUCK, which he wrote, starred in, produced, and edited. His newest short, “STRIPPER,” was shot entirely on the Cherokee Indian Reservation with an all indigenous cast. He’s currently in production on his feature documentary “Bastards of the Boundary: Indian Stickball,” which chronicles a year in the lives of stickball team The Hummingbirds in the little-seen, violently beautiful game of Indian Stickball aka “The Little Brother of War”.

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