For Native Americans, college charters fall short

Native American activists at colleges across the United States are pushing their schools to do more to atone for past wrongs, including the taking and selling of tribal lands to establish the institutions.

At the country's oldest institution of higher learning, Native American alumni say Harvard University isn't living up to its 1650 colonial charter, which specifically calls for the education of Indian youth.

Criticism of the university comes as Samantha Maltais prepares to begin taking classes at the Harvard Law School this fall, becoming the first member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe to join the prestigious institution.

Maltais is the 24-year-old daughter of the chairwoman for the Martha's Vineyard tribe.

She says college charters that called for the education of Indian youth were mainly used as a fundraising tool, targeting wealthy benefactors in Europe.

Maltais says the promised education was largely intended to assimilate Indian students into the Western culture, a move intended to degrade Native American cultures and communities.

Still, Maltais plans to use her education from the oldest continually operating law school in the United States to equip herself with the knowledge that would benefit her Native American community.

Maltais says education from one of the world's most prestigious law school and subsequent legal experience she plans to acquire after graduating will become invaluable to her community.

That is because, she says, the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe and other Native American communities have suffered from exploitative historic treaties and other injustices at the hands of the U.S. legal system.

Although Maltais is the first member of her tribe to attend Harvard Law School, she is not the first one to take classes at Harvard University.

Some 350 years ago, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard — in keeping with the Ivy League school's charter to educate "the English and Indian youth of this country."

Maltais will arrive on campus at a time when Native American tribes, students and faculty are pushing the Ivy League institution and other colleges to do more for Indigenous communities to atone for past wrongs, including the taking and selling of tribal lands to fund and establish scores of higher education institutions across the country.

Most state public colleges are a product of the Morrill Act, a law signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 that created college endowments for states through the sale of federal lands.

But an investigation by High Country News last year suggested some 11 million acres of the acres designated for so-called land grant colleges were taken from more than 250 tribes.

In Minnesota, tribes want the state university system to return some of the land taken from them.

And at state universities in California, Colorado and elsewhere, Native American students are calling for free tuition for Indigenous students as restitution for profiting from stolen tribal land.

The call for colleges to do more comes at a critical time, as the coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated the higher education challenges for Native students, who already had the lowest college graduation rates in the country.

During the pandemic, Native students experienced the sharpest enrollment decline of any racial or ethnic group, as economic hardships, health disparities and the challenges of remote learning in isolated tribal communities forced many students to quit school.

At Harvard, there's concern that Native students are being asked to take temporary leave from campus due to poor grades at rates higher than those of the overall student population.

Activists say that suggests Native students are struggling to adjust once they arrive on campus.

Maltais says that college education may not be the best education option for all Native Americans because many may not want to college.

Maltais says Harvard and other schools should ensure Native students coming from remote tribal communities acclimate to college life by investing more in student groups, mentorship programs, counseling and other support services.

The Dartmouth graduate, who recently served in the Peace Corps in Tonga, also supports the idea of free or discounted tuition for Native students, but stresses that shouldn't be the only way colleges seek to make amends.