The Morrill Act: Democratizing Education or a Tool of Manifest Destiny?

• In Event: Liberating Perspectives in Academia

Abstract

Land-grant universities were given this status as a result of the Morrill Act of 1862 and its subsequent acts. When these laws and associated policies are scrutinized using tribal critical race theory (TribalCrit), a revised history emerges. The authors used TribalCrit as an evaluative tool and lens to read the Morrill Act and its subsequent acts. The preliminary results reveal motives that are deeply connected to colonization. This complicates the discourse typically associated with colleges and universities that are designated as land grant institutions. This is not limited to historical modes of colonization as the extraction of natural resources and the transportation of them across Indigenous lands are modern occurrences that impact Indigenous communities.

Authors

• Bryce Edward Hughes, Montana State University

• Sweeney Windchief, Montana State University