Read the full article by Alice Skipton on the College of Arts & Sciences news page. Start reading below…
With a 2.3 million Mellon Foundation grant renewal, the UW’s Center for American Indian & Indigenous Studies continues to dream itself forward.
“We get to say, ‘Yes, what you are doing is amazing, please do more of that,’” says Jean Dennison, UW associate professor of American Indian Studies and co-director of the Center for American Indian & Indigenous Studies (CAIIS). “We’re fundamentally intervening and creating spaces of possibility.”
The Center grew out of many shared meals and discussions about what kinds of support American Indian and Indigenous faculty, staff, and students at the UW need. Todd Clark, CAIIS program manager, describes how regional tribal nations answered that question. “They asked us to take care of their students,” he says. “Once the students realize they are supported by their community, we can dive into things like incorporating Native knowledges into their research. But first, students need foundational support.”
This feedback and more led to a vision and a $1.82 million Pathways and Partnerships grant from the Mellon Foundation, awarded in 2019. Since then, with additional funding from the UW College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, and 15 other units across all three UW campuses, the Center has been busy. The work involves creating pathways for Native students into and through the UW, providing supportive connections for students and faculty, building partnerships across the UW campuses and with regional two-year colleges, and facilitating essential partnerships and connections with regional tribal Nations and Indigenous people.
Interrelated Progress
Five years in, it’s hard to imagine more progress, even considering the setbacks of a global pandemic. Cohort-based programming includes “knowledge families,” such as the Indigenous Food Family, which connect students with Indigenous knowledge and land-based practices. Community Leader Marylin Oliver-Bard has been working since 2018 to establish a UW Canoe Family with Willapa Spirit, the canoe she commissioned for her father and Canoe Journey founder Emmett Oliver. Under the leadership of Oliver-Bard and Native Knowledge Coordinator Philip Red Eagle, CAIIS has brought together several of its programs to make this vision happen including the Native UW Scholars Program (NUW), a Native Knowledge lecturer grant for Suquamish skipper Nigel Lawrence, and a Summer Institute in Indigenous Humanities with Southern Lushootseed Teaching Professor Tami Hohn. UW faculty, staff, students, and alumni have joined in this effort through carving, paddling, learning from local area tribes, and planning for this summer’s Tribal Canoe Journey. In addition, supportive summer training, events, guest speakers, and funding for research and professional development — for students, staff and faculty — all build toward long-term networks in community.
