Acknowledgement or Afterthought?
story by Cris Comp, Quin Ford, with contributions by Megan Foster and Lilly Montgomery, design by Ileana Rea Martinez
CWU’s Relationship with the Yakama Nation
“Central Washington University acknowledges the people who have been on this land since time immemorial. The Ellensburg campus is on lands ceded by the Pshwanapum and other bands and tribes of the Yakama Nation in the Treaty of 1855. The Yakama people remain committed stewards of this land, cherishing it and protecting it, as instructed by elders through generations. We are honored and grateful to be here today on their traditional lands, and give thanks to the legacy of the original people, their lives, and their descendants.”
This CWU Land Acknowledgement, published in June 2020, recognizes and pays respect to the original stewards of the land that the university stands on. According to the university, “It is intended to raise awareness of the enduring relationship between indigenous people and the land.” Representatives of the university read this acknowledgment at the start of most on-campus events.
Interim Director of American Indian studies and Director of research and sponsored programs Christy Gilchrist, who identifies as “Tlingit, which is Native Alaskan,” says it is “really important” for the university to have this acknowledgement “because we need to be reminded that we're on someone else's land.”
But sources on campus suggest the university could be doing more beyond the land acknowledgment to support recruitment and retention of Indigenous students as well as to strengthen ties with the local Indigenous community.
“I’ve heard one of the deans say that land acknowledgment at the end of their speech and stuff like that, but it always seems like it was kind of an afterthought,” says Shane Turntoes-Kuhnhenn, a senior in the anthropology program and a member of the Assiniboine tribe.
Patrick McCutcheon, professor of anthropology at CWU, adds, “If that’s all we do is acknowledge that, that’s great, but how is that helping them?”
Gilchrist says, “The Native American students chafe a little bit at the acknowledgment and wonder if there's ever anything going to be anything more. We're working on it, we really are.”
“I know it's painful that it takes so long,” she adds. “Don’t give up hope.”
What more can CWU do to engage and support Indigenous populations on and off campus?
The History
Long before the construction of Ellensburg and the founding of CWU, Kittitas Valley was, and still is, home to members of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, including the Wenatchsahpam, Shyiks, Pisquouse and Klikatat peoples. While the Yakama Nation does not encompass all tribes of Washington, it does include 14 of the 29 tribes and bands in Washington state recognized by the federal government, according to the group’s website.
The history of how CWU was built on Indigenous land begins with the Treaty of 1855, created between the state of Washington and various tribes under the Yakama Nation. The articles of this treaty outline the specific boundaries of the land ceded by these Indigenous groups, including Kittitas Valley where Ellensburg now stands.
CWU was established in Ellensburg 36 years after the treaty. In recent times, CWU has created multiple memorandums of understanding, or MOUs, acknowledging that history and the fact that it stands on land originally inhabited by the people of the Yakama Nation.
McCutcheon points to the important role of former President of the university, Jerilyn McIntyre, whose administration penned a previous MOU with local Indigenous peoples. McIntyre became president at CWU in 2000 and spent eight years as the first woman to hold that position. It is widely reported that she helped promote enrollment and diversity within the university by increasing attendance of students of color and, according to McCutcheon, she invited Yakama Nation representatives to campus.
“A presidential invitation,” McCutcheon says. ”It doesn't get any better than that.”
One factor impacting such CWU activities today is budget cuts due to the recession of 2008, sources say. “The state started pulling back funding from the university, which meant we had to raise tuition, which eliminated people who couldn't afford to go to it, which is because of historic inequities,” McCutcheon says. “What unfortunately we've seen over time since then, is a decline in enrollment in Indigenous students on campus, a decline in participation in the American Indian studies program, a decline in those events that bring Indigenous people to campus to share with us their expertise and their knowledge.”
McCutcheon continues on the topic, saying, “I can't provide that as a non-Indigenous person. I only can provide the history I know, the expertise I have as an archaeologist. I need those people to come in to complete the missing parts that I don't have so that there can be a holistic understanding of the American Indian experience. We need Native people to feel they're asked to come to campus, that the effort to get here is going to be supported.”
McCutcheon also brings up that there are more than a few reasons to provide an extra boost to Native American communities when it comes to outreach and reinforcement. “I do believe that Native American people should be given some additional help because we landed on top of them,” McCutcheon says. “There were 10 to 16 million people in just North America before Europeans showed up. And within four or five, six generations, those numbers were just cleaved.”
A Student View
The national average for college enrollment for Indigenous people is roughly 19%, according to the Native Forward Scholar’s Fund. This is less than half the national average of 41% college enrollment in America across all non-Indigenous populations.
“I think there should be an understanding that the people who can’t largely attend colleges and universities like this are the people who we’re trying to represent through these land acknowledgments,” Turntoes-Kuhnhenn says. “American Indians don’t go to college anywhere near the per capita rates of other ethnicities… Just in accepting them into the university and saying, ‘Hey, we understand you have this knowledge and this information, these beautiful things to contribute to the world, and when we get you into this university and say you are welcome.’”
“Those kids don’t understand that they can go to college,” Turntoes-Kuhnhenn says. “I didn’t. I’m 30 years old, it took me until I was 26 to figure out I wanted to go back to school and Central became it. But I didn’t know it was accessible.” Turntoes-Kuhnhenn is a U.S. Army veteran who served for twelve years including tours overseas, after which he earned his G.I. Bill that allowed him to pursue higher education.
Growing up in a very small community, Turntoes-Kuhnhenn says his support network was spread apart and there were not many individuals close to him. Education issues and lack of outreach affected his ability to pursue a higher education, and even stunted his belief that he could go to college at all. “If I had started my college years before, I could be in grad school already,” he says. “I just didn’t know about the opportunities.”
Turntoes-Kuhnhenn says that an absence of information is the hardest part. “[P]eople who are going to be trying to use these programs have never had access or the capability or the opportunities to even access them,” he explains. “I think the outreach is probably one of the better things that Central can do, sending recruiters out there… You know, it's tough and it's difficult to try and convince people that college is an education, it's a path, but destroying any barriers that could stop even one person from being interested.”
The Future
From funding to outreach, the issues of inequity and underrepresentation of Indigenous people on campus is one that affects not only CWU, but the surrounding areas and people as well. So, what can be done? How can CWU better engage Indigenous populations on and off campus?
“I'd love to be able to see a pathway between YVC [Yakima Valley College] and Central,” Gilchrist says. Partnering with YVC would help grow American Indian studies here at CWU, as they have extended programming at their college.
Gilchrist mentions some additions that she would like to see implemented at CWU to help acknowledge the Indigenous population on campus. “I'm really hoping to start doing some multidisciplinary events,” Gilchrist says. “Something with arts and designs. You know, what if we had a basket weaving class?” This idea, along with presidential invitations to campus being extended to invite Native American community members, would help bolster the idea of not just making statements about support, but reinforcing them with actions.
McCutcheon says that one thing that could add to CWU’s level of openness to Native American student populations is "a program incentive for the Yakama Nation, or the other tribes [of] the treaty.” This could encourage students to engage with and attend CWU that may not have otherwise, heightening attendance and awareness of Indigenous students on campus and in the community.
“We have a unique opportunity to invite students who provide that level of culture, that level of diversity,” McCutcheon adds. Not only would this help to build inclusion and diversity on campus, but this also goes hand in hand with responsive action the university could take to better promote the integrity of the acknowledgment.
Development of the relationship between CWU and local Indigenous tribes and bands is something that university leadership is attempting to navigate. “[The university is] trying to seek consultation and advice and support from other institutions about how we can develop more of that tribal relations office,” Lucinda Carnell, interim vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at CWU, says. “We're going to try to seek funding from the state to develop that…. Engaging with their tribal relations office would allow us to develop those sorts of relationships and interactions with them.”
Another option for engagement is increasing the amount of communication between leaders of the Yakama Nation and leaders of the university. By holding conferences with Indigenous students and faculty members to establish those relationships, Gilchrist is working to increase vocality and visibility of these groups on campus. These meetings have been dubbed Native American Student Chats. The chats aim to increase outreach and conversation opportunities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and faculty.
According to Gilchrist, “There's a vision of how we can really partner with the Nations and, in a meaningful way, respectfully reflect their needs, their vision and their hopes.”
