THE DROP
Today as a
NATIVE STUDENT
Liese wearing a badger claw necklace that was recently inherited by her grandmother in front of the College Green, on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.
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BY SOPHIA ENGLEHART | PHOTOS BY MAYA CLOUSE-HENRY | DESIGN BY BROOKE GARRETT
he U.S. is a nation with rich history, cultures and traditions, but not all of that has been properly discussed in the history books. The history of our Native tribes, from the Iroquois to the Navajo, the Crow and more, is a topic that is shrouded by ambiguity and misunderstanding. Federally recognized tribes, according to the Ohio History Connection, have contact with government agencies that can help provide funding and services through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This also means that these tribes are recognized by the government to be their own independent tribe, capable of selfgovernance and tribal sovereignty under federal law. However, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), of all the state and federally recognized tribes in the U.S., there are none from Ohio that are acknowledged by the federal government. The tribes we learned in middle school history classes became the stereotypical mascots that graced our high school sports banners, with the real representations of Natives never mentioned and blotted out of history books. Ohio, as stated in the “Historic American Indian Tribes of Ohio” from the Ohio Historical Society, was once home to several well-known Native American tribes such as the Iroquois and the Chippewa. Many of these tribes had been moved to reservations out West after being either removed or bought out of their lands by the U.S. government. The passing of the Indian Removal Act by President Andrew Jackson also provided the legal means in which to force Native Americans out of their homelands. As a result, these once Ohio-based tribes are now scattered across the Midwest. Institutions like Ohio University act as a platform for Native students to further educate themselves on their culture, where
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backdrop | Spring 2022
they come from and why their background is to be celebrated and not shuttered into the remote corners of American history. “In my personal experience, [OU] was a bit more diverse than where I went, but everyone could always do better,” OU graduate Caitlin Hunt says. “I felt like I could embrace [my identity] a bit more [in] college because there are a lot more opportunities. I was able to write a lot of articles very freely about my identity and culture. I felt open [to] talk about my experiences and other people agreed with me and they understood where I was coming from much more so than in high school.” Hunt, who is part of the Lumbee Tribe based out of North Carolina and who graduated from OU in 2021, grew up in a predominately white area rather than on a reservation and faced many prejudices on her minority status growing up, especially when it came to academic opportunities. “I went to OU on a full ride through the Templeton scholarship, [which] is for people who come from a minority background or underrepresented groups,” she says. “So [when] people found out about that, [they started] making some comments toward me saying that I was only getting the things that I was getting because I was Native.” Similarly, Sarah Liese, a graduate student and member of the Turtle Mountain Tribe, grew up in a majorly white environment in St. Louis, Missouri, attending Catholic school where her and her sister were the only Native students. “I think growing up away from my culture and being raised as any other Catholic kid that went to my school, you know, I think that I was more susceptible also to misconceptions,” Liese says. “I was taught the same history books as my peers with the inaccurate narrative about Columbus and Manifest Destiny and things like that. So, I just went along with what I was
