TO HONOR THOSE FORGOTTEN OR ERASED Confronting the damages done to Native Americans in Minnesota in historical, academic, economic and cultural contexts.
A ZINE CREATED BY
John Healam, EmmaLee Belew, Jenna Von Holtum, Patrick Bruch, Antonio Floersch and Dylan Miettinen
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INDIGENOUS REJECTION OF TRADITIONAL AMERICAN EDUCATION: A HISTORY OF ABUSE AND NEGLECT Although there are a number of systemic reasons that Native Americans are not well represented in education, another key factor is the relationship between Americas concept of education and Native Americans. Up until the 1970s, Native American boarding schools were commonplace in America. These were often the only schools open to Native American children, and children who attended these schools were often horrifically abused. On top of this, these schools official purpose was to extinguish Native American culture and to force Native children to conform to mainstream American culture by any means necessary. As one can imagine, this has had an unbelievably detrimental effect on the way that many Native people look at education.
On top of the historically adversarial relationship between Native peoples and American education, there are many factors today that even further alienate Native people from American education. One of these factors is the vast underfunding of schools on reservations, and in other predominantly native areas. Many reservations and Native communities are extremely poor due to being subjugated and excluded from economic activity, which has resulted in very low quality schools in these areas. Today, these two factors have essentially alienated Native Americans from achieving an education. Unless something is done to both include Native cultures in American education, and to fund schools in Native communities, it is unlikely that this situation will improve. One avenue for change is the creation of programs in schools for Native children. These programs should be created by Native people for Native children, and should include in their curriculum education about Native culture and values. One example of this in practice is Minneapolis South High School’s All Nations program. This program is designed for Native students by Native staff members, and educates Native children in a completely different way from traditional high school.
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MINNESOTA’S HISTORY WITH THE MORRILL ACT
https://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/e/9340/files/2020/09/Image4Map.jpg
Discussion Question: If it weren’t for the Morrill Act and all the ceded land, how would the American postsecondary landscape look different? The University of Minnesota was founded and first opened in 1851, starting out as a small building in what is now known as the Knoll area. After a short closure during the civil war, it was reopened in 1868 with the help of grants and funds from the Morrill Act. The Morrill Act was first developed in Washington by Representative and Senator Justin Morrill, from Vermont, and signed into action by President Lincoln in 1862. This bill would grant land to states for building public universities that would help foster the Industrial Revolution in America, by promoting farming and mechanical arts. Much of the lands given to the University of Minnesota and hundreds of universities across the country were gained (read: taken and stolen) through the, at the time all too recent, unfair and coerced treaties with indigenous tribes. Minnesota ended up benefiting from the 1851 Treaty of Traverse de Sioux and Treaty of Mendota. Furthermore, 98% of land ceded from these treaties has been distributed and used to fund and build public universities even outside of Minnesota. Tribes were paid about 2.4 cents per acre of land (which was thought to be worth more like $5-$10 at the time), the same land would very soon raise close to $580,000 for the universities they were given to. Such payouts continue to benefit universities, including thehttps://cpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cornell.edu/dist/e/9340/files/2020/09/Image4Map.jpg University of Minnesota.
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STATUS OF INDIGENOUS STUDENTS/FACULTY
https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges/university-of-minnesota-twin-cities/student-life/diversity/
Considering the size of the University of Minnesota system, students who identify as Indigenous or Native American are extremely underrepresented. According to the results of population data collected by the state of Minnesota, there are 124,345 people who identify themselves as “American Indian” or “Alaska Native” as of 2019. The entire population of the state of Minnesota in 2019 was 5,639,632 people, meaning that people who identify as American Indian made up only 2.2% of the population in total. In the entire system of the University of Minnesota, there were 1,401 students who identified as American Indian in Fall 2019. Compared to the entire student population at the time, they comprised roughly 2% of the student body.
Discussion Question: Do you feel represented as a member of your communities or identities at the University of Minnesota?
This means that only 1% of people who identify as American Indian in the state of Minnesota are pursuing post-secondary education at the University of Minnesota. While this data only takes into account only a collection of five Universities in the state of Minnesota, and using statistics from only the population of the state of Minnesota, it reflects a trend of underrepresentation and lack of support of education for American Indian people, especially considering the location of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus, which is adjacent to neighborhoods and homes of American Indian people. Considering the diversity of the faculty, only 0.4% of those who work for the University of Minnesota Twin Cities identify as American Indian. This is a small percentage considering the number of professors and like staff that work for the University today.
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STATEMENT VS. ACTION / REPARATIONS Given the nature of the dispossession as a whole, educationally, culturally, and physically with land, the University should be more active towards recognition of their profits as well as repairing the issues that they have created. Some University faculty and staff include a statement in their email signatures that acknowledges the University of Minnesota is on “Miní Sóta Makhóčhe, the homelands of the Dakhóta Oyáte.” This statement is linked to a page on the website of the American Indian Studies Department, where they encourage the reader, likely a student or member of the faculty, to recognize the significance of the immediate area of the University to the Dakota people, as well as reflect upon the dispossession of Indigenous land around the world. Restorative justice is a process of finding the sources of harm, and actively working to repair the damage that has been done.
Restorative justice includes asking questions like “What happened? Who was hurt? Who caused the hurt? What amends could and should be made now? And what might it take for those harmed to feel whole?”
The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has intentions of releasing a land acknowledgment for its campus, though it has yet to be published as of April 2021. Other system campuses — like Morris and Duluth — already have an acknowledgment statement for their institutions; this is also the case for specific departments, programs or entities at the Twin Cities campus, such as the Institute for Advanced Study and the Circle of Indigenous Nations. The University is also taking meaningful steps to address the strained relationship with Minnesota’s Indigenous nations. In 2019, the University hired Tadd Johnson, a member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, as a senior director of American Indian Tribal Nations Relations — the first-ever person to hold that role. The University is working to fill another similar position, has worked with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, or MIAC, to release a report documenting the University’s relationship to and history with Indigenous nations and received a $5 million grant in 2021 to advance issues of racial justice. Reparations for Indigenous peoples, however, have yet to occur. Though steps are being made, continued failure by the University to serve and recognize the roots of its colonial past.
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MORRIS: A CASE STUDY The University of Minnesota Morris is located in Morris, west central Minnesota. In 2019 the UMN Morris had a student population of 1552 students with 20% Native American (NA). This is the highest NA percentage within the University of Minnesota state-wide campus system; the University of Minnesota Twin Cities has a NA student percentage of 1-2%.
Discussion Questions: In examining how the UMN Morris has challenged the university system to be a very inclusive system, to what extent has “Pratt’s mantra” been negated? Do you feel this negation is applicable across society?Can the UMN university system be more inclusive, and if so, by what means?
UMN Morris is built on land whose first inhabitants were the Anishinaabe and Dakota/Lakota people. In 1887 this land, now owned by the government, was ceded for land utilization for the Morris industrial School for Indians, an American Indian boarding school. The founder of this boarding school, Richard Pratt, held the opinion: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” The boarding school was closed in 1909 and given to the state with the federal provision that the next educational institution must provide free tuition for Native students. The free tuition came as part of a treaty agreement in which the U.S. Government would provide education to Native Americans in exchange for land rights. The state opened a residential high school in 1910. This high school became part of the University of Minnesota campus in 1960 with the tuition waiver carried forward.
The American Indian boarding school was originally seen as a “weapon,” re, Pratt’s “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” by taking away the NA from their community, culture and language. The NA were to be Americanized, learn only English, “strip them of their culture.” Now, today, the tuition waiver is seen as a solid reconciliation measure. The UMN Morris is an outlier in educating the Native student population as noted previously with a NA student population of 20%, while for most universities to include the UM Twin Cities the NA student population is only 1-2%. The UMN Morris is excelling with the NA student population in providing inclusive educational opportunities due to: The tuition waiver Anishinaabenowin, and Dakota Iapi language courses are provided Native American and Indigenous Studies majors and minors are provided Native American Student Success Program (NASS) for NA academic, social, cultural, and careerfinancial supports Circle of Nations Indigenous Association (CNIA) to help understand how to make beads to the understanding of environmental assault and sustainability The campus is located within 150 miles of six NA reservations.
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CONTINUED DISPOSSESSION THROUGH SETTLER COLONIALISM The continued placement and location of the University of Minnesota on Dakhóta Oyáte land means the continued, active colonization of stolen land. This displacement of Dakhóta Oyáte people continues to disempower. Although the University and University system is taking some steps in terms of addressing past harms done to Minnesota’s Indigenous nations, the University continues to profit off of land that was dispossessed. Can settler colonialism be deconstructed if active colonialism is occurring? More than that, connecting to the specific location of a region that has been colonized — having a “special feeling” and tie connected to a “special place” as a non-Indigenous person — can be viewed through the lens of colonialism as seeking to legitimize and justify land occupation. Even learning about the cultures, customs and languages of the Dakhóta Oyáte can be problematic if appropriated rather than appreciated. For a non-Indigenous student learning an Indigenous language, does your intent come from a point of possession and ownership of knowledge? Were you granted permission to learn those things, or does that education result from the exploitation and knowledge of a given group. Or, as Scott Morgensen asks in “Reflections and Resources for Deconstructing Colonial Mentality,” “How do [settlers’] desires for Indigenous land and culture express colonization and contradict efforts to support Indigenous decolonization? How can settlers question their desires for Indigenous land and culture as a basis of committing to decolonization?” In thinking about how visible settler colonialism is at the University, think in terms of invisibility: If you were to walk around the University campus, would you have any indication of there having been Indigenous peoples residing on the land in the proceeding centuries? Does it appear that Indigenous students are well-served and well-represented at an institution that occupies their land? Does the University openly and actively confront its racist roots in the hope of repairing harm or instituting restorative justice? Most likely, the answer to these questions would be no. This continued erasure, an ugly tool of settler colonialism, is not coincidental.
Discussion Question: What solutions can you think of that address the roots of Indigenous dispossession's harm rather than just its consequences?