There is a Lakota teaching that one should make every decision with the welfare of the next seven generations in mind. It is this philosophy that gives Professor Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, at the School of Social Work, her sense of purpose at Columbia.
As members of one of the smallest ethnic minorities on campus, Brave Heart and other Native Americans at Columbia work hard to make their voices heard.
“I’m like a woman on a mission,” said Brave Heart, who is known nationally for her examinations of how massive, intergenerational group trauma affects Native American grief and trauma responses. “I feel like I’m here with the blessings of my community, of my people. That’s where I take my direction from.”
With less than one percent of the undergraduate population identifying as Native American or Alaska Native, and with only three Native American faculty members at Columbia, their task of carving out a campus identity is of unique proportions. As November’s Native American Heritage Month draws to a close, awareness of Native Americans’ presence on campus depends largely on students’ own interest and initiative.
“It’s all where you’re looking, for the most part,” said Amy Johnson, BC ’09 and co-chair of the Native American Council. “If you are interested in Native American culture, you can see it in different places, but I don’t know if it’s as visible to just the average student.”
Earlier this month, five members of the NAC attended the annual Native Summit at Cornell University. Ten Ivy League and liberal arts colleges were represented at the summit, which is held at a different school each year. Native American professionals and community leaders serve as speakers and panelists at the three-day summit.
For schools like Columbia, which has fewer resources for Native American students than most Ivies, the summit is an opportunity to bring back ideas for strengthening Columbia’s Native American community. For example, the Native American House on Dartmouth’s campus and the American Indian Program House at Cornell struck Maxine Paul, CC ’10 and NAC co-chair, as more than just buildings.
“They [Cornell and Dartmouth] have a space to host students who want to visit,” she said. “Students who ... come from small towns in the desert, reservations, wherever, they need people to show them what’s going on and that there is a support system. There’s a lot that those houses can do.”
Paul and others plan to apply for a Native American special interest community for next year, but she added that the housing’s impermanence would diminish its impact.
In 2006, former Vice Provost for Diversity Initiatives Jean Howard formed the Native American Studies Committee in recognition that Columbia’s Native American scholarship lags behind many comparable institutions. Since then, Columbia has hired Brave Heart, as well as lecturer Chie Sakakibara, who is currently teaching a survey course on Native peoples of North America. This is currently the only Native Studies course offered at Columbia College.
Students and professors see these steps as positive developments, but Johnson hopes to see a more concrete commitment from the University soon.
“Once a Native American studies program is formally established, I think things will move a lot faster,” Johnson said. “That would be a huge recognition by the institution of the needs of Native American students and of the general community to know about Native America.”
The limits of Columbia’s resources are highlighted by those offered at many peer schools. Cornell and Dartmouth offer over 20 Native Studies courses within their programs, while Yale recently hired a dean for its Native American Cultural Center.
But the reasons behind Columbia’s slow growth in Native Studies may be difficult to overcome, said Barnard visiting professor Sandy Grande. Grande, who is visiting from Connecticut College and belongs to the Quechua nation, explained that most successful programs in the discipline have connections to a local reservation community and develop “through conversation and reciprocity between the community and institution.” Though New York City has the largest Native American population in the country, it lacks a strong reservation community.
Yet the city offers unique benefits that Columbia could tap into, Grande added, citing the United Nations’ Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
While some students involved in the push for increased ethnic-studies offerings have expressed doubt about the administration’s complete support for diversity issues, members of the NAC seem optimistic about the plans “in the works” and the growth they have seen since they arrived at Columbia. Grande agreed, noting that she believes the Committee, of which she is a member, is “on a precipice” of generating major change.
But NAC members also noted that the dearth of Native American academia and support means that they are often forgotten—even by those with the best of intentions. Last November, a dessert and discussion on Native Studies never took place due to a prolonged meeting between administrators and students involved in the ongoing hunger strike—which included increased Native Studies in its demands. The discussion had been booked for the same space, but the meeting eclipsed the event.
“I was like, okay, you’re advocating for what we’re doing, but you’re using our space,” Paul recalled.
The students in the meeting apologized for the incident, and there has since been positive dialogue between NAC and groups like ROOTEd, Paul said.
“It is sort of a good example of how we tend to get ignored,” Paul added. “I don’t want to say that in a huge, overarching, like ‘everyone’s mean to us’ way, but we do tend to get ignored. There aren’t many of us.”
Brave Heart agreed that she sometimes found the isolation at Columbia “very hard.” The key to success, she believes, is to embrace a broader mission relating to the benefit of Native peoples.
“These are the things that inspire me,” she said, gesturing to the Native art that decorates her office. The artwork “reminds me of ... my ancestors and my purpose, and that gives me the strength to move forward.”
laura.schreiber@columbiaspectator.com