I didn’t see a single Native American at last year’s Dillo Day and I am willing to bet you didn’t either.

Oh, but the Native Americans were there — at least in the hearts and minds of Mayfest, the student group that organizes Northwestern’s month long celebration that culminates in Dillo Day, the largest campuswide party. Mayfest contributed thousands of dollars last year to the Indigenous Environmental Network, an umbrella organization for various grassroots groups fighting environmental injustices on Native American lands.

Who knew?

According to Mayfest’s Web site, “The month of May has become a preparation time for (Dillo Day), as well as a forum for educating students about Native American issues.”

The sad fact is that no one at NU knows about this cause. Or, perhaps, we merely don’t care. When Native-American teacher and psychologist Charles Robertson spoke Wednesday at McCormick Auditorium at Norris University Center, there were about 25 people in the audience — about half of which were the Mayfest organizers who spearheaded the event in the first place.

It’s not that students are apathetic. Well, at least not entirely. Perhaps the reason for the lackluster turnout was that no one really gets the link between Mayfest, an organization known for throwing a massive fiesta, and Native Americans, a group whose oppression over the last few centuries has been anything but a fiesta.

Dillo Day’s history is long but uncertain. It started about 30 years ago. According to Mayfest co-Chairwoman Stephanie Rich, a Medill sophomore, there are conflicting stories about the exact origins of the celebration, but speculation adds to the fun of the event. On the group’s Web site, a tall tale about Dillo Day’s beginnings involves NU administrators partying with beer-toting students at the fraternity quads.

Five years ago Mayfest organizers decided to shift to a more philanthropic focus after being profoundly affected by an Alternative Spring Break trip to the White Earth Indian Reservation.

Sarah Purdy, an Education sophomore and Mayfest’s philanthropy chair, said this is one way to combat the lack of awareness of Native-American issues on campus. No surprise there: Self-identified Native-Americans make up less than 1 percent of the student body.

“It’s a chance for us to use our name to accomplish something great,” Rich said.

But Mayfest is the wrong group to combat these issues. With a plethora of philanthropic student organizations on campus, surely someone else can take up the Native American cause.

Although the organizers of Mayfest should be commended for attempting to breathe life into a socially impotent campus, their philanthropic sentiments are oddly misguided. If we want to throw a grand ol’ party, then let’s throw a grand ol’ party. But throwing Native Americans into the convoluted mix is ridiculous.

It’s a bit insulting to honor any ethnic group by drinking yourself into oblivion while worshipping an armadillo.

But if you find yourself drunkenly sprawled out on the Lakefill this Dillo Day, remember that in your own way, you’re helping Native Americans after hundreds of years of neglect. And besides, um, Native Americans like armadillos anyway, right?

You just keep telling yourself that.

Gabe Gutierrez is a Weinberg sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected].