The Native American Outreach and Inclusion Task Force released their report of recommendations to the University today to address the findings made under the academic investigation of John Evan’s connection to the Sand Creek Massacre.
The report includes suggestions made in an earlier document written by the John Evans Study Committee and will be reviewed by the president and provost of the University. Recommendations of the report comprised of building sustainable relationships with Native American communities and tribes, reaching out to Native American alumni and establishing an Indigenous Research Center, among other suggestions.
The Task Force was established in fall 2013 to advise the University on ways to bolster its relationship with Native American communities and to recommend response strategies to the findings made by the John Evans Study Committee. Task Force committee members included Northwestern undergraduate and graduate students, alumni, faculty, staff and members of the Native American community in Chicago. The committee met nine times in 2014.
Work of the Task Force included peer institution analysis of enrollment and services for Native Americans at Dartmouth, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago. The committee also interviewed members of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Menominee and Ho-Chunk tribes as well as participated in a town hall meeting.
The Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance, or NAISA, hosted a dinner dialogue with the office of Campus Inclusion and Community in the evening to discuss Sand Creek and Northwestern’s investigation and response to the massacre. They will continue hosting events throughout November to commemorate Native American Heritage Month and the 150th anniversary of the Sand Creek Massacre on Nov. 29.