By Silas Rutherford
Sunny Red Bear, Lakota from the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation and Associate Director of Organizing at NDN Collective, spoke out at a press conference at NDN Collective headquarters, addressing civil rights violations and racism in Rapid City, South Dakota. She argues that systemic racism undermines the ability of her children to effectively receive education in their schools, “where Native students face disproportionate expulsions, criminalization, and discriminatory practices that were actually outlined by the Office of Civil Rights Investigation and Report.”. That federal investigation found that Native students received “less access, referral, identification, and selection” to Advanced Placement courses, which provide high school students with early college credits and prepare students for college level courses. How are indigenous students going to have a chance to prepare for higher education in circumstances of harassment and a lack of educational support and resources from a young age? Furthermore, in our school systems Indigenous culture and history is often censored by non-indigenous teachers, and in the worst case scenarios perpetuate hostile stereotypes or the “dying race” narrative that indigenous people, who are still here, are a relic of the past swallowed by the violently racist ideology of “manifest destiny”. Misinformation and racial stereotypes perpetuated by educators enable bullying of indigenous students and hostility by non-native students. It is understandable that indigenous youth can be made to feel disenfranchised by our non-inclusive institutions.
Universities must be held accountable for their complicity in the race-related challenges that affect indigenous students. Many universities will give land acknowledgements, but not partake in indigenous-led initiatives for equality and lack indigenous representation in the student body. Indigenous people may also be dehumanized by using imagery steeped in harmful stereotypes in mascots for their branding and teams. Shawna Newcomb (Mashpee Wampanoag) says in a Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda segment, “I’ve had to explain it so many times and what that tells me is that there’s a lot of just lack of knowledge, and it comes across a lot of times as people not understanding why Native Americans don’t want to be mascots…a mascot is an object. We are not, as native people, just objects, we have a whole culture, we have stories, we have traditions, we are just as special as any other race or culture that exists. We don’t want to be made a fictitious character because when you take the human away from a person, you’re just left with a fictitious character”.
On a global scale, universities fuel colonial militaries that displace indigenous populations, commit genocide and other war crimes, and participate in ethnic cleansing. Universities employ police officers who are reported to use excessive force, over-police people of color, and allow hate speech that dehumanizes nonwhite ethnicities to spread on their campuses. Learning and education will never be diverse, equitable, or inclusive until these problems are addressed.
“It’s heartbreaking that our kids have to overcome barriers in their education, that they just can’t go and be who they are” says Sarah Adams-Cornell of Choctaw Nation. Indigenous people have so much talent and have made so many contributions that are not recognized enough. For instance, Mary Golda Ross of Cherokee Nation, was an engineer, mathematician, educator, and astronomer. According to the Oklahoma Historical Society, “during her retirement years, she recruited young women and American Indian youth into engineering careers. She was a charter member of the Society of Women Engineers as well as a supporter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the Council of Energy Resource Tribes. In 2004, at the age of ninety-six, she wore a traditional Cherokee dress to the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. At her death she left a $400,000 endowment to the museum”.
It is time for universities to acknowledge their contributions to racism, colonialism, and historical revisionism and work with tribal communities to improve the situation of indigenous scholars. I have observed that many white people become uncomfortable and shy away from honest conversations about the history of the United States and the extent to which complicity/inaction is a danger to marginalized people. One sign of growing awareness of the problem can be found at the Tennessee State Museum in an exhibit where people can write notes and hang them on the wall; in a section for the past, the present, and the future, someone wrote a note I will never forget:
“Un pueblo sin memoria es un pueblo sin futuro.”
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