Starting the Fall 2022 semester, the University of Minnesota Native American Promise Tuition Program expands upon a full tuition waiver program on the University’s Morris campus, which has long been in place through Minnesota statute given the campus property’s history with Native American boarding schools. The expanded program will provide substantial financial support, in many cases free tuition, to first-year undergraduate students and transfer students from Tribal colleges on the remaining four campuses who are enrolled citizens in one of Minnesota’s 11 federally recognized Tribal Nations.UMN's Native American Promise Tuition program website
The word that the University of Minnesota would be offeringtuition waivers to students in the 11 federally recognized Tribal Nations in Minnesota was hailed by many as good news and "a good first step."
But Roxanne Gould, Associate Professor of Indigenous Education at UMD and Kitchiwikwendong Anishinaabe, says Dakota people feel, once again, shoved "to the back of the bus in their own homeland."
At issue is the 130,000 enrolled Ojibwe people in the state, compared to four thousand Dakota. And if you're wondering about the difference in those two populations, you have to go back to the end of the Dakota War in 1862 and the expulsion of Dakota people from Minnesota.
"Divide and conquer" tactic? Pitting one marginalized group against another? Gould says it's because decision makers are "ignorant of the history."
In this interview, Roxanne recommended What Does Justice Look Like? The Struggle for Liberation in Dakota Homeland by Waziyatawin, Ph.D.
