In Defense of Education Justice: Postsecondary Institutional Decision Making Regarding American Indian Programs and Services

• In Event: 52.035 - Contemporary Youth Activism: Advancing Social Justice in the United States

Abstract

American Indian college protests have sought to raise awareness of the unique needs and rights of American Indian students who are classified as both a racial group and a political group by university and federal guidelines. This paper presents an analysis of American Indian student activism from 2007-2008 at a predominantly White university referred to as Mountain State University (MSU). With permission from a local tribe, MSU utilizes a tribal name and related Indigenous iconography to promote its athletic teams. According to official university publications, use of the athletic nickname is reflective of its intention to honor and support American Indian peoples. However, student activists during this time suggested administrative attitudes, policies, and decisions appear to negate this sentiment. Such decisions led to a steep decline of beneficial programs and services – including the dissolution of a nationally acclaimed and federally funded multi-million dollar American Indian teacher-training program – during their time of enrollment. The result not only denied students’ rights to access treaty-guaranteed education programs, it led to a decline in American Indian student enrollment which denied their communities highly needed college graduates who could address pressing educational needs. In seeking to mitigate future harm, students presented a transformative approach to democracy. They presented administrators with a set of decision-making factors to incorporate into future decision-making processes that innovate university practices, protect important resources, and benefit current and future generations of Native youth by ensuring administrative decisions truly honor the political and cultural education rights of American Indians.

This presentation seeks to dispel mythical tropes of Indigenous peoples as mascots by promoting the voices, struggles, needs, and cultural values of present-day Indigenous communities and relevant factors for understanding the presence, needs, and values of American Indian peoples. Findings analyzed using Tribal Critical Race Theory suggest activists sought to effect change at three levels: self, systems, and society. Data for this qualitative research study was gathered over a seven-year period (2007-2014) and includes in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and a content analysis of archival records including media reports, institutional records and correspondence, and student protest materials. Although activists’ desires were not successfully incorporated into university policy, their claims effectively constitute what I refer to as a “Native Student Bill of Rights.” Such a paradigm, which will be shared in the presentation, can aid administrators by offering decision-making pillars around which American Indian-serving educational programs and policy should be based and influence decisions that promote Native student persistence in predominantly White spaces.

Author

• Jessica Solyom, Arizona State University