Event Recap: Decolonizing Music: Zitkála-Šá’s Sundance Opera and Religious Resistance

By Jacqueline Shaw

On November 14 in Overton Hall, the Religion Department, in collaboration with the Ethnic and Race Studies Program, hosted a special lecture with guest speaker Bryce Andrade on Zitkála-Šá’s Sundance Opera in honor of Indigenous Peoples' Heritage Month.

Andrade spoke about the US government’s history of suppressing Indigenous culture by criminalizing Indigenous religious rituals and forcing Indigenous children to attend boarding schools in order to assimilate them to white American culture. Zitkála-Šá, a Yankton Sioux, attended White’s Manual Labor Institute, a Quaker boarding school in Indiana. There she discovered a passion for writing and music. Zitkála-Šá was an outspoken activist for women’s and Indigenous rights. Her Sundance Opera served as a form of religious resistance in its utilization of the European music form to perform Indigenous melodies and express Indigenous cultural practices United States law made illegal. Assistant Professor Khrystyne Wilson joined in the lively Q and A following the event, providing crucial context on the history of first amendment violations of the freedom to practice religion for Indigenous people in the U.S. 

“I really enjoyed this event,” said Ash Langtry ‘25. “I learned a lot about residential schools that I didn’t know before. It was also interesting to learn how music was both a form of escapism for Indigenous people as well as a way for them to reclaim and express their culture.”

Thank you to Dr. Wilson, Dr. Vic Thasiah, and Dr. Lorena Muñoz for organizing this wonderful event!

We also want to thank everyone who joined us this Fall semester. Please look forward to more religion department events next semester!