On Monday, Indigenous Peoples Day<\/a>, dozens gathered at the university to reflect on his contributions. As UTA flew its university flag at half-staff, friends of Riding-In met at the Land Acknowledgement memorial<\/a> to offer a blessing. <\/p>\n Few were more instrumental in the establishment of the memorial and courtyard, which UTA built in 2022 to acknowledge the Arlington campus stands on land once owned by the Wichita tribe and its affiliated tribes.<\/p>\n News Roundups<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHe was the orchestrator of all of it,\u201d said Stephen Silva-Brave, who is studying social work at UTA. \u201cHe was the connector.\u201d<\/p>\n During his tenure at UTA, Riding-In served as adviser to the Native American Student Association and a graduate recruiter for the College of Business. He was also a trustee for Pawnee Nation College in Oklahoma.<\/p>\n Many states and cities have for decades honored Native Americans alongside Columbus Day in October. In 2021, then-President Joe Biden was the first president to mark Indigenous Peoples Day<\/a>, issuing a proclamation that celebrated \u201cthe invaluable contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples\u201d and recognized \u201ctheir inherent sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, President Donald Trump, keeping a vow he made in April<\/a>, reversed that and said the day would focus only on the explorer \u201cto reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory.\u201d<\/p>\n That did not stop many in Texas and across the country from celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. <\/p>\n In Arlington, students, professors and Native American representatives said it felt particularly poignant to honor Riding-In, who was a tireless advocate for Native American<\/a> students and communities. He led with humor and quiet strength, they said. <\/p>\n Sahar D. Sattarzadeh, an assistant professor of higher education at UTA, called him an ” oasis of oxygen on this campus” who worked to bring people together.<\/p>\n Assistant professor Sahar D. Sattarzadeh gets choked up talking about Les Riding In in the Central Library 6th Floor Parlor Room on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, at UT-Arlington. Sattarzadeh said even though it is a huge time of great loss and grief, they are all gaining so much of him through others’ stories and memories. <\/p>\n Christine Vo \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n Kristi Willis, who previously served as president of the Native American Student Association, said the Native American community has lost a an invaluable advocate.<\/p>\n \u201cOur community needed him. We need that dedication,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need allies and for people who understand our people\u2019s contributions, our struggles and our history.\u201d<\/p>\n At UTA, Riding-In helped grow the university\u2019s annual powwow to become one of the largest in the state. He also worked to develop a Native American Studies Center. The project stalled, but Paul Conrad, an associate professor of history at UTA, said he has not given up hope.<\/p>\n \u201cI envision a future,\u201d Conrad said, \u201cwhere there is a Les Riding-In Native Studies Center on our campus.\u201d<\/p>\n The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n What to know about the proposal to create new funding for Texas State Technical College<\/a>Dallas \u2018Night Court\u2019 targeting downtown homeless population was closed after four months<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 Les Riding-In always knew just who to call or email. He had an innate ability to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,291,1972,27,1499],"class_list":["post-1333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-equity","tag-holidays","tag-texas","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Z4OVHCSOLNFTLC2US2D72T7WVQ.jpg\")
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