(upbeat music) - The Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake hosts the Moccasin Walk, a celebration of Native American culture that supports education.

Meredith Lam from American Indian Services shares why this matters to the community.

Thank you, Meredith for being here.

So I know this is being held as part of Indigenous Peoples' Day, so it an important event.

- It is an important event.

Thank you for having us today.

Really appreciate it.

Yá'át'ééh for those that are out there listening.

That's how I say hello in Navajo.

But yes, this is a really big event for us, mainly to raise scholarships.

We call it Steps for Scholarships.

And so we provide scholarships for Native American students nationwide.

And with that also, our main mission is to support our students, letting them know that they can actually maintain their culture while trying to obtain higher education.

- Oh, that's great.

So the scholarships are for colleges around the state, around, I guess everywhere.

- Yes, and I'm the trade scholarship director.

So we give college scholarships, as well as trade school or vocational scholarships for students.

- Okay, great, great.

So let's talk about the walk coming up on Indigenous Peoples' Day, the Moccasin Walk.

So you wear moccasins and traditional footwear.

- Exactly, so it's a little more symbolic just because Native American people have their own form of moccasins, just to not homogenize the culture.

There are 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States.

So all of us have our different forms of moccasins, as well as regalia or traditional wear.

And so we always encourage people, this is for a non-Native/Native community event, so we just invite people to wear whatever they have.

But it's fun to see the different moccasins from all over parts of North America.

- Okay, well, thank you so much for being here, and thank you for all the work you do.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- And if you'd like to know more about that upcoming event from the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake, the MoccWalk: Steps for Scholarships, it's October 13th, a Monday, that's why it's from 5 to 6:30 PM at Wardle Fields Regional Park.

Just go to americanindianservices.org.

Americanindianservices.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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