Volume 14 Spring 2003 Issue #3

History Comes Alive at Tribal Colleges

by Marjane Ambler

History does not have to be a dull and alienating subject. Reading the names of the 35 tribal colleges and universities is a history lesson in itself. Several are named after famous people in their tribal histories or mythology: Chief Dull Knife, D-Q (Deganawida of the Iroquois Confederacy and Quetzalcoatl of the Aztec), Little Priest, Red Crow, Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail), Sitting Bull, and Si Tanka (Big Foot). Students at those colleges become well acquainted with these heroes out of their past, hearing stories at graduation ceremonies and seeing their proud faces on signs and posters.

Tribal college libraries sometimes display historic photos from their specific histories on their walls. In addition, tribal colleges and universities offer a variety of history courses and workshops to both Indians and non-Indians. Some are designed for students, some for faculty, and some for the general public.

Diné College History Classes Relevant

Greg Redhouse said that Diné College enjoys success in recruiting, retaining, and graduating its students because "Navajo students thrive when their learning is purposeful and relevant to their lives." Redhouse teaches American history as well as world civilization, Native American history, and Navajo history at the Navajo tribal college in Tsaile, AZ. When students arrive in his classroom, they often are wary of history. Many of their elementary school or high school history lessons "over glorified American accomplishments without really giving any credit at all to the influences and sacrifices made by Native Americans, " Redhouse said.

His approach to Western academic subjects admits Navajo as well as other non-Western sensibilities and interpretations. "As I look beyond the easy and obvious explanations of historical events and trends, I gradually pull my students into the mix. With each class, I use a 50-50 approach of having students know what is in a text, but I encourage them to challenge the accuracy of information being presented to them."

Redhouse also interjects his own views during lectures to allow for a more "Native" perspective on the subject matter. He believes this broadens their perspective and allows them to develop their own critical skills as they analyze the way history has been documented and passed down together.

Because of his own collegiate and military experiences, Redhouse believes that Native American students will be better prepared to handle off-reservation challenges when they are exposed to a plethora of explanations of how the United States developed as a nation: Native American experiences, Euro-American experiences, African-American experiences, Mexican American experiences, Asian-American experiences, and last but not least, the gender issue of women as a minority. When I instruct American History, I begin with the indigenous populations that existed in North America and slowly move into the repercussions of European colonization. Many times, my Native American students appreciate my approach of instructing American history.

Standing Rock Rich in Indigenous Knowledge

Sitting Bull College (SBC) administrators believe it is important for people in the community and especially people in the college to see and understand important area cultural sites. To celebrate Memorial Day each spring, the college in Fort Yates, ND, sponsors an Honoring the Chiefs ride. College president Ron McNeil and board of trustees member Robert Gipp are two of the organizers. The participants travel on horseback to visit the grave sites of many great leaders including Sitting Bull, McNeil's great, great, great grandfather. Descendants of the chiefs share stories. The ride is one of the "No Drugs and Alcohol" activities on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Each fall as part of their in-service training, Sitting Bull College administrators, faculty, and staff participate in a place-based indigenous knowledge tour, which highlights cultural, geographical, and historical sites on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Last year, they visited what are believed to be the burial sites of Chief Sitting Bull and of the Shoshone interpreter for Lewis and Clark, Sakakawea (although there is some dispute about the locations of both graves). The tour also included Sakakawea's former home and Fort Manuel Lisa, a trading center serving primarily British and American traders in 1812-1813. Although the original Fort Manuel Lisa did not survive a year of service, the town of Kenel, SD, is busy erecting the Fort Manuel Lisa Interpreter Center, where Lakota guides like LaDonna Brave Bull-Allard and Sitting Bull College's Wilbur Flying By will educate tourists to local history.

On the college tour last year, Brave Bull-Allard recounted numerous historically significant sites, which were located along the shoreline of the free-flowing Missouri River before it was dammed, according to Lanniko Lee of the SBC faculty. "Numerous stories of the famous and infamous came alive as we learned about such early citizens as 'Mustache Maude,' saloon and brothel owner, the only woman to have been tried and convicted of cattle rustling in the Dakotas, and the ironical and benevolent local sheriff, William J. Hart, brother of Chicago's Al Capone," Lee said.

To build a foundation of place-based indigenous knowledge across the curriculum and campus, the college received a grant from the South Dakota Humanities Council to host a teachers' institute June 1-7, 2003. Using the concept of education tour study, the project will provide educators with a Native American Indian place-based knowledge of the Missouri River and its related tributaries, including identification and uses of traditional Native American Indian plants, Lee said.

'They don't Remember Until you get Them Involved'

At Sisseton Wahpeton Community College (Sisseton, SD) Dr. Elden Lawrence has taught a Dakota history class for many years. At the end of the semester, they take the students on a Dakota history field trip through Minnesota where his people lived before St. Paul and Minneapolis were even cities.

They stop at significant sites along the Minnesota River, such as an old mission, Upper Sioux Agency, Lower Sioux Agency, and ending at Fort Ridgely. " I believe that you can tell people things, but they really don't remember until you get them involved," Lawrence said.

Lawrence has studied the history of the 1862 Dakota conflict for many years, including translating letters of some of the prisoners held in Davenport. Because of their mistreatment, the Dakotas were on the verge of going to war, "like dry grass waiting for a spark," he said. "No one took the problems seriously, saying they are unhappy people anyway." By the time the conflict was over, 500 white people had been killed and possibly as many Indians. A total of 303 Dakotas were condemned to death, but President Abraham Lincoln had to sign the death warrant. Lincoln was under pressure from Minnesota officials who wanted them all to hang and from humanitarians on the East Coast who didn't.

After having someone review the cases, Lincoln realized much of the evidence was hearsay; the trials lasted an average of 10 minutes, according to Lawrence. In the end, 38 were hanged. Lawrence said some of the prisoners' letters expressed gratitude to Lincoln for sparing their lives.

UTTC Students Create Museum-Quality Replicas

The travels of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark came alive to students at United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) in Bismarck, ND, last year. They created arrows, war clubs, pipes, a tomahawk, a lance, and a shield, similar to objects that Lewis and Clark collected for President Thomas Jefferson nearly 200 years ago (TCJ, Vol. 13, N.1).

Because the originals had been lost, the Jefferson Foundation wanted museum-quality creations inspired by the historical objects using the materials and techniques of the past, according to Elizabeth Chew, associate curator of collections at Monticello. The contract was offered to Butch Thunder Hawk (Hunkpapa Lakota) because he had worked with the Peabody Museum in the past. Thunder Hawk involved the students in the painstaking research, recreating their own ancestors' efforts.

Now the students' work is displayed prominently at Monticello, Jefferson's Virginia home, where millions of visitors see it.

Most of the objects in this display at Monticello were created by UTTC students.
Photo by Charles Shoffner/Monticello.

Visitors Invited to Lewis and Clark Institute

Fort Peck Community College in Poplar, MT, sponsors the Lewis and Clark Upper Missouri River Institute each summer for visitors and for students. In the spring of 1805, Lewis and Clark traveled up the river along what is now the southern boundary of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. At the institute, local experts address Lewis and Clark history, Assiniboine and Sioux culture, ethnography, ethnobotany, natural history, and art history, said Dr. Joseph McGeshick, the college's director of the institute.

With the exception of the Fort Peck Dam and reservoir, little has changed in terms of natural history, according to Anne Edinger, formerly of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, who participated in the institute last year. The coulees and hills are still filled with chokecherry, juneberry, and echinacea. Participants can see tepee rings -- circles of stones showing encampments from hundreds of years ago -- and turtle mounds - collections of stones marking sites of past rituals. They look at how the river has changed in the past 200 years and locate where Lewis and Clark saw a grizzly bear.

Next summer's institute for the public is scheduled July 14-20. The adventurous can participate in a three-day float trip down the river. Northeast Montana is still very rural and isolated. Edinger said that they had not seen another human being when they made camp the first night within a few miles of Lewis and Clark's May 8, 1805, campsite. The institute features a campout in Assiniboine and Sioux tepees at the Fort Peck Tribes Buffalo Ranch.