Guided by the Nation: Envisioning and Enacting Tribal Wants at a Historically White Institution

• In Event: 21st Century Teaching and Learning to Foster Tribal Nation-Building in Predominantly White Institutions

Abstract

In recent years, post-secondary institutions have initiated diversity, inclusion, and equity programs to increase racial representation (Harris et al.). However, these programs do not address the unique needs of tribal nations and students due to their memberships in independent sovereign nations. Native peoples and Native nations have continually inhabited what is currently known as the United States, yet there was and is a history of using schooling to eradicate Native-ness from land and Indigenous bodies (Grande, 2015). Schooling was used as a weapon for the assimilation and elimination of Indigeneity as demonstrated by the “kill the Indian, save the man” motto used in Indian boarding schools (Pratt, 1973). As such, schooling has had a devastating impact on Native communities. Since schooling deprived Natives of an education that, not only stripped them of their cultural identities and heritage but also provided marginalized training meant for servitude (Lomawaima, 1994), we believe that not only can schools be used to reverse the harm done on Native nations and peoples, but also educate settler-colonial society about Native nations and communities.
We are an Native assistant professor and a white associate professor/ally at a historically white institution in the Mountain West. We are motivated to contribute to reversing and/or alleviating the perpetual marginalization of Native peoples and nations that have occurred and occurs through schooling. In this paper, we describe our case study that we initiated to address the question on how the college of education where we work can increase Native student enrollment. We analyzed data from our personal journals, emails, documents, and meeting notes. However, in our pursuit to address the question on Native students recruitment, we realized we needed to address retention and graduation issues. Instead a more pressing question arose: What needed to be accomplished to create an institutional environment that was welcoming to Native students? Generally speaking, Native nations and educational institutions may not have similar goals (Shotton et al., 2013), we were surprised why one of the tribal nations recommended educating non-Native practicing teachers about contemporary Native issues. Based on their guidance, we instituted several initiatives aimed at educating settler society about Native nations and issues. We will discuss our challenges and successes.

Authors

• Cynthia Benally, University of Utah

• Connor Warner, University of Utah