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OUDAILY
The University of Oklahoma’s independent student voice since 1916
PHOTOS VIA WESTERN HISTORY COLLECTIONS AND SOONER MAGAZINE
The University of Oklahoma has a complicated history and relationship with the state’s tribal community.
BUILDING A FUTURE OU President James Gallogy, Native leaders work to collaborate amid tumultuous relationship
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U President James Gallogly made OU history in fall 2018 with his decision to organize a gathering for all 39 tribal nation leaders. Only half of the 39 leaders attended. Jacob Tsotigh, a Kiowa tribe citizen who has been involved in American Indian education programs for the past 38 years, said he speculates the lack of attendance could be due to “some degree of cynicism” from tribal leaders who “encountered indifferent attitudes” from university leaders, or higher priorities with their tribal nation affairs. The relationship between Native American people and OU has been a long one, with Native students attending the university since its inception in 1890, and the work of Native American people and nations have lead to many drastic changes in OU policy and history. Native American heritage and culture is now more emphasized by the university through its many institutional changes, like the beginnings of the Native American Studies department, the adoption of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on campus and more. “The fact that Gallogly hosted a reception for all tribal nation leaders in his very first semester was ... historic and heartening in many ways as a dawn of a new relationship,” said Amanda C o b b - G re e t h a m, p ro f e s s o r and chair of Native American Studies department. “There are other things to be done, listening sessions to be held, other ways to figure out how OU can be responsive.” Cobb said the event was a way “to formally recognize the institution-to-institution relationship between OU and the Native nations of Oklahoma.” “It really marked a turning point in the relationship between OU and specific institutional relationships to Native nations,” Cobb said. As a new presidential administration begins to examine its relationship with Oklahoma’s tribal community, it will have to reflect on a history between
NANCY SPEARS • @THISISNANCYS the university and Native students as long and troubled as the state’s history itself. GROWTH THROUGH TURMOIL Under the state constitution in 1907, indigenous people were considered “white” and therefore not barred from attending the university, unlike African Americans, who were prohibited from entrance until 1948. The years from the university’s opening until around 1930 are widely considered a “low point” in the relationship between Native peoples and OU, according to John Truden, a graduate student specializing in Native American history. This low point is generally credited to what was happening in Oklahoma’s history prior to that time — David Payne’s land run, the Dawes Act and the division and distribution of Native land, among other things. “Although this is kind of a paradox, I am proud to be Sooner born and Sooner bred,” Tsotigh said. “I accept it but I also recognize it as an implication of what we’ve given as a people and what’s been imposed upon us as a people” The Dawes Act opened up settlement of Native land. Native people were paid “pennies on the dollar” for their homeland, which was “essentially stolen,” Tsotigh said. “From the 1900s, ‘10s, and ‘20s, Native people are under assault, people are hammering their society and culture, people are coming in trying to take their stuff, their land,” Truden said. However, there was some hopeful progress for indigenous people during this era. In 1914, OU began working with the Choctaw, Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw and Seminole tribes, establishing the first official relationship between university administration and Native American tribes, Truden said. By 1924, all indigenous peoples became U.S. citizens with the Indian Citizenship Act. In an effort to bring further elevation and emphasis to the presence of Native Americans, the OU
Sequoyah Club was also founded in 1924. “(The club) became the cultural opportunity for Native students to come together and participate in a group setting,” Tsotigh said. “Before that, Native Americans were considered more of a social group than a political group on campus.” The purpose of the Sequoyah Club was to support OU’s Native American students, Tsotigh said. The annual OU Powwow, considered the longest-running University-supported powwow nationally, was initiated by the club. “OU’s Sequoyah Club was the only indigenous organization on campus and therefore the primary place for Native students to be themselves in an otherwise-white university,” Truden said.
“It’s incumbent on the university to understand what our dreams are and what our vision is for our Native people.” JACOB TSOTIGH, KIOWA TRIBE CITIZEN
The Sequoyah Club did not engage in much organized resistance or protest, as its primary existence was in the ‘40s and ‘50s before the emergence of the Red Power movement and a period of self-determination for tribal people in the ‘60s, Tsotigh said. The establishment of Native American studies in 1929 at OU was a major milestone in the relationship between indigenous peoples and the university. According to an article from The Chronicles of Oklahoma, a j o u r na l p u b l i s h e d by t h e Oklahoma Historical Society, the first Oklahoman to advocate for Native American curriculum at OU was Joseph Brandt, the first editor of the University of Oklahoma Press. Brandt wrote a letter to
then-president William Bizzell outlining what he called the American Institute for Indian Civilization, which had three components: a special building for an Native American library, annual conferences in the Native American building and Native American-related courses. According to the article, a driving factor that initiated his push for Native studies was American Indians requesting an on-campus building in 1915 and again in 1926. Bizzell, president from 192541, was highly supportive of the institute, and was one of the few university presidents during the early 20th century who took deep interest in Native Americans, according to the article. Bizzell started a letter-writing campaign to attract donors for the movement, and although the campaign did not succeed, Native American courses began t o o p e n u p u n d e r B i z z e l l ’s administration. In the spring semester of 1930, OU offered a course called “The American Indian,” which was the first Native American-related history course introduced at the university level in the nation. CONFRONTING ADVERSITY As opportunities grew on campus, Native communities started to use their voices to spark change on campus in the face of injustice. A lot of this change can be attributed to Native activism. Native students and employees were at the forefront of a movement to remove a controversial football mascot that caricatured Native Americans. Little Red was an unofficial OU football mascot dressed in Native American regalia, Tsotigh said. Many Native American students were opposed to the mascot. “It was a point of contention for us. We felt that until the university recognizes us as more than cartoon characters captured from a time in history, we did not support that,” Tsotigh said. “We felt that it was degrading for the university to utilize us in that fashion.” While some students
passionately opposed Little Red, there were about 4,000 others who signed a petition to keep the mascot, Truden said. There was a protest in front of Dale Hall in 1970, where about 300 individuals gathered for a powwow to protest the mascot. Little Red was officially banned in 1970. Tribes saw other successes during the 20th century legislatively and worked to develop both their own governments and one-on-one relationships with federal and state governments throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, according to Lina Ortega, head of op erations at O U ’s Western History Collections. “The federal legislation (that happened during this period) would have impacted the daily lives of Native Americans in Oklahoma, including students at OU, and would have also impacted course curriculum on campus,” Ortega said. But on campus, many disparities remained unaddressed. Native members of the OU community again had to make their voices heard in order to promote justice at the start of Boren’s administration following a racist incident on campus. In 1994, during the transitional per iod when For mer President David Boren was not yet president, there was an incident on OU’s campus during Indian Heritage Week in March. The Native American Student Association had erected a teepee, and members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity urinated on the structure. The president of the Native American Student Association fasted on the steps of the university president’s building in protest. In the end, the university sanctioned the six students involved, but did not reprimand the fraternity. During the transitional period between presidents in 1993-94, Boren, then a U.S. senator, came to speak about how he would approach the needs of OU’s Native community. According
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