Graphic by Natalie Kulak ’21
BY ANNABELLE SHEA ’23
“For years, studies of indigenous issues and Native America have been conducted and taught in the Five Colleges without proper support,” wrote University of Massachusetts Professor of Communication Donal Carbaugh. “Too many times, courses in this area could not be taught, personnel and related programs could not be funded.”
This may soon change due to a $2.5 million grant awarded to the Five College Consortium for the advancement of Native American and indigenous studies. With the funding, the Five College Consortium plans to establish new academic pathways, which will provide the resources for new faculty and courses.
The grant money will also be used to improve the existing Five College Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS) certificate program. The NAIS program focuses on indigenous methodologies and their current applications.
The grant, which provides monetary support for the Five Colleges’ project, “Gathering at the Crossroads: Building Native American and Indigenous Studies at the Five College Consortium,” was awarded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The goal of the foundation is “to strengthen, promote and defend the centrality of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse, fair and democratic societies,” according to its mission statement.
The fight for more Native American and indigenous programming at Mount Holyoke is reminiscent of multiple recent student protests for more diverse educational programming at the College. In the fall of 2016, students formed “La Lucha for Latinx Studies,” a petition calling for the creation of a Latinx studies major, including the addition of four tenure-track positions to the Spanish, Latina/o, and Latin American Studies department. The next academic year, in the spring semester of 2018, a group of six students covered Skinner Hall in flyers drawing attention to the lack of Black professors in the history department. The College has so far not met these student demands, citing a lack of funding for such additions to its existing body of faculty and academic curriculum, among other reasons.
For this reason, a grant of this size is particularly valuable. Many Five College students eagerly await the impact it will have on indigenous studies programs.
“This grant is a welcome addition to a growing grassroots movement between the five colleges to embrace Native American and indigenous perspectives and histories in academics, as well as in administration platforms,” Dannye Carpenter ’20, a Mount Holyoke student and indigenous Student Cultural Alliance (ISCA) board member, said.
“Although the grant is just the beginning, its directive to focus on enhancing teaching approaches to Native American and indigenous histories will enable further advancement of the movements of student organizations between all five campuses,” Carpenter added.
The Mellon Grant is especially appreciated by Five College professors who have struggled to find the resources necessary to fund a rich and comprehensive Native studies program. “With a few exceptions, I have funded my studies out of my own pocket,” wrote Carbaugh.
“It is truly an exciting time to be studying indigenous issues in the Five Colleges,” Carbaugh added. “I look forward with great excitement.”