CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) \u2014 When Samantha Maltais steps onto Harvard\u2019s campus this fall, she\u2019ll become the first member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe to attend its prestigious law school. It\u2019s a \u201cfull-circle moment\u201d for the university and the Martha\u2019s Vineyard tribe, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 350 years ago,\u00a0Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, became the first Native American to graduate from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university \u2014 the product of its\u00a01650 charter\u00a0calling for the education of \u201cEnglish and Indian youth of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cComing from a tribal community in its backyard, I\u2019m hyper aware of Harvard\u2019s impact,\u201d said Maltais, the 24-year-old daughter of her tribe\u2019s chairwoman. \u201cIt\u2019s a symbol of New England\u2019s colonial past, this tool of assimilation that pushed Native Americans into the background in their own homelands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maltais will arrive on campus at a time when Native American tribes, students and faculty are pushing the Ivy League institution and other colleges to do more for Indigenous communities to atone for past wrongs, much in the way\u00a0states,\u00a0municipalities\u00a0and\u00a0universities\u00a0are weighing and, in some cases,\u00a0already providing\u00a0reparations for slavery and discrimination against Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Minnesota, 11 tribes have called on the state university system to return some of the lands taken from tribes, provide tuition waivers to Native American students and increase the number of Native American faculty, among other\u00a0demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tadd Johnson, the University of Minnesota\u2019s director of tribal relations and a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, said the university will establish a \u201ctruth and reconciliation\u201d process to document the historical wrongs and determine ways to make amends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re listening,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re acting on virtually everything that has been thrown at us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile in Colorado, state lawmakers are\u00a0weighing legislation\u00a0to grant in-state tuition to students from certain federally recognized tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in California, Native American students want tuition waivers and\u00a0other tangible\u00a0restitution, after most state schools have issued statements acknowledging their fraught history with tribal land, according to Tori McConnell, a 21-year-old member of the Yurok Tribe who graduates from the University of California, Davis in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only right that they do these things,\u201d she said. \u201cActions speak louder than words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ryan King, a university spokesperson, said officials are \u201cworking diligently\u201d to continue supporting Native students and tribal communities. He cited the creation of an advisory council to the university president that includes tribal leaders and scholars, among other recent efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many American universities are a product of the Morrill Act, a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 that funded the creation of public colleges through federal land sales. But an\u00a0investigation\u00a0by High Country News last year suggested nearly 11 million acres designated for so-called land grant colleges were actually taken from roughly 250 tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology near Harvard, Native American students this past semester dug into the renowned school\u2019s Native American legacy, including how it continues to benefit from its status as one of the nation\u2019s original land grant colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Luke Bastian, a 22-year-old Navajo student from Phoenix, says he and other students presented their class projects to MIT\u2019s president earlier this month as they urge the institution to create a Native American studies program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
University officials say conversations with Native students are ongoing and Bastian is optimistic they\u2019ll make progress. Students have already successfully lobbied for a designated campus space for Native students and convinced MIT to drop Columbus Day in favor of\u00a0celebrating Indigenous People\u2019s Day, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some universities have taken laudable steps in recent years to prioritize the needs of Native students, say Indigenous community advocates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Colorado State University offers the\u00a0in-state tuition\u00a0rate to students from any federally or state recognized tribe. And South Dakota State University uses private donations to provide scholarships to local tribal members and revenue from the college\u2019s land grant trust to enhance Native American programming, research and other efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t change the past, but we can change the future for these young people,\u201d says Barry Dunn, the university\u2019s president and a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe who launched the\u00a0Wokini Initiative\u00a0in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The call for colleges to do more comes at a critical time, as the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated higher education challenges for Native students, who already had the\u00a0lowest\u00a0college graduation rates in the country, said Cheryl Crazy Bull, president of the American Indian College Fund, which awarded Maltais a full scholarship to Harvard Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the pandemic, Native students experienced the\u00a0sharpest\u00a0college enrollment decline of any racial or ethnic group, as economic hardships,\u00a0health disparities\u00a0and the challenges of\u00a0remote learning\u00a0in isolated tribal communities forced many students to quit school, said Crazy Bull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Harvard, there\u2019s concern that Native students are being asked to take temporary leave from campus due to poor grades at rates higher than those of the overall student population, according to Emily Van Dyke, president of Harvard\u2019s Native American alumni group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That suggests Native students are struggling to adjust once they arrive on campus, said the 39-year-old Seattle resident and member of the Siksika Nation in Canada. The number of Native students enrolled in the school of more than 6,700 undergraduates has dropped in recent years, from 45 in the 2009-2010 school year to 16 in 2019-2020, according to\u00a0university data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Students and alumni are also pushing Harvard to formally acknowledge that it stands on land once inhabited by Indigenous peoples, Van Dyke said. It\u2019s a basic, initial step many colleges have taken, including\u00a0MIT\u00a0and the\u00a0University of California, Davis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re nowhere near where other colleges are at,\u201d Van Dyke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harvard spokespeople declined to comment on the concerns, but Joseph Gone, an anthropology professor who heads the school\u2019s Native American program, said the university is in preliminary talks with local tribes to develop a land acknowledgement statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A member of the Gros Ventre Tribe in Montana, Gone also argues Harvard has made strides since his days as an undergraduate in the 1990s. He\u2019s one of three tenured Native American professors and roughly 10 Native American courses are now offered each semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The school\u2019s famous Peabody Museum, meanwhile, is also working to repatriate scores of artifacts to Native American tribes, Gone said, though some Native American groups have recently\u00a0criticized\u00a0the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For her part, Maltais says Harvard and other schools should ensure Native students coming from remote tribal communities acclimate to college life by investing more in student groups, mentorship programs, counseling and other support services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Dartmouth graduate, who recently served in the Peace Corps in Tonga, also supports the idea of free or discounted tuition for Native students, but stresses that shouldn\u2019t be the only solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNot everyone needs a fancy degree,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes the only reparation for land is land.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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