UAS and Tlingit and Haida take first step toward forming School of Indigenous Studies together
- Jasz Garrett
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
'I think that collaboration, where the tribe and a university are equal partners, walking together on this journey, is incredibly unique and very, very precious.'
By Jasz Garrett
Juneau Independent
Leaders of the University of Alaska Southeast and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska took their first steps together down “a pathway for healing” on Friday morning.
“This is a historic moment,” said Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson, president of Tlingit and Haida. “This is us talking about strengthening our relationship to build something that’s enduring and brings our culture to the forefront in ways that it often hasn’t been.”
Sitting side by side in the executive council chambers of the Andrew Hope Building, Peterson and UAS Chancellor Aparna Palmer signed a memorandum of understanding to formally initiate the process of developing a School of Indigenous Studies. Tlingit and Haida Executive Council members and UAS staff clapped and cheered, with many embraces following the signing.
Palmer called it an honor to affirm the shared commitment to strengthen educational opportunities for Indigenous communities, in support of student growth and vitality.
“Rarely is it the case that a tribe and a university come together as equal partners to create a vision for education,” she said. “We are honored and humbled to have the trust of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Tribes of Alaska, and we proudly stand with them on the precipice on this journey. We realize as a university that this is a sacred trust with the tribe that we hold.”
The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a College of Indigenous Studies, but Palmer said this new journey is unique since the tribe is an equal partner.
She said the school “is an opportunity to continue to integrate, celebrate and shape the education that we offer at UAS with the values and the traditions of Indigenous peoples” across Southeast Alaska. She added the school could have relationships with the School of Education, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Career Education.
“I also think that it’s a model,” she said. “I think that collaboration, where the tribe and a university are equal partners, walking together on this journey, is incredibly unique and very, very precious.”
Palmer said UAS has a model it can build upon to grow its existing Indigenous Studies programs and form them into a school.
The university offers a Bachelor of Arts in Indigenous Studies, certificates in Indigenous language teaching and speaking, and an occupational endorsement in Northwest Coast Art. A minor is also available for undergraduate degrees in Northwest Coast Art, the Tlingit language and Alaska Native studies. Various courses in these fields of languages, arts and culture are also available.
The university and tribe will work together to create a structure, and the school will eventually have to be approved by the University of Alaska Board of Regents and the tribe. Since Tlingit and Haida is a recognized form of government, Peterson said the board of regents’ directive last year for universities to remove language around diversity, equity and inclusion from campus websites and communications should not be a hurdle in creating the school.
Peterson said conversations about a School of Indigenous Studies ebbed and flowed in the past, and he was thankful for Palmer’s efforts in bringing the partnership to fruition. He also recognized his friend’s efforts, X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, a professor of Alaska Native Languages at UAS.
In an interview, Peterson and Twitchell recalled the idea of a tribal college surfacing in their conversations with Dennis Demmert nearly 30 years ago. They were in Sitka at the now-closed Sheldon Jackson College. The college hosted a village management institute and workshops on grant writing and policy to expand leadership skills.
“I remember Dennis even saying then, what an idea to have a tribal college where we can build out our next leaders,” Peterson said.
Demmert served over 20 years as the director of Native Studies at UAF. His dedication to improving education for Alaska Native students is recognized through the Dennis Demmert Appreciation and Recognition Award.
“It’s been a really long time coming,” Twitchell said. “And so it’s really fabulous to hear the visions and dreams of people who have been in education for a long time, like Dennis Demmert was one of our mentors and I think of him when things like this happen, and then to be able to take their vision and to make it into a reality — that’s the really exciting part.”
Twitchell said the vision is an Indigenous university. The school now being developed would include areas of Indigenous study such as languages, arts, governance and Indigenous sciences. He said the idea is students could have a cross-disciplinary agenda or focus on one area, but the benefit is these options will be available locally for “future leaders.”
Additionally, the school would offer certificates, a bachelor’s degree, or a master’s degree in Indigenous studies. The first master’s program currently being developed is a Master of Arts in Teaching Indigenous Languages.
“The goal is to have those upper-level degrees for all of them,” Twitchell said, meaning there would be a Master of Arts in Indigenous Arts, Tribal Administration and Indigenous Sciences.
The signed memorandum identifies opportunities for pilot programs, joint grant initiatives, and collaborative events or learning experiences, and forms a working group with representation from both Tlingit and Haida and UAS.
Twitchell said for Indigenous peoples, education requires not only transformation, but entire pathways “that are Indigenous in their being.”
“When we look at what the intention of education was for Indigenous peoples, it was to destroy us,” Twitchell said. “It was to destroy our languages, it was to make us be servants of the population. And I think now we look at education as a way to bring us back to strength.”
“Let’s change that. Let’s take that tool against us and make it a tool for us,” Peterson said. “And I really believe we can.”
He said the tribe has already taken steps to do so by operating programs in early childhood and K-12 education. A new 12-acre tribal education campus is also being developed behind Fred Meyer. Just this week, the tribe obtained licensing for its early childhood education and youth programs at the largely vacant Floyd Dryden building. The tribe plans to relocate three Head Start classrooms, its LEARN childcare program, and several youth engagement programs to the former middle school.
“I always say healthy tribes make healthy communities, and that’s for everybody,” Peterson said. “That’s not just for us, but when we’re healthy, we’re going to be thriving in these communities. And I believe education is at that core.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz@juneauindependent.com or (907) 723-9356.
