UPDATED: Jan. 17, 2020 at 2:10 p.m.

At first, Ionah Scully was stunned when their professor casually made a racially insensitive comment about indigenous peoples while explaining a statistics problem.

“He said, ‘You have to recognize that (indigenous people) are very stoic and they don’t express emotion a lot … It’s just how they are. It’s part of their culture.’” Scully said. “I was just sitting there, trying not to explode.”

But after the initial shock wore off, Scully, a doctoral student in the School of Education and Cree Métis of the Michel First Nation, said they realized the incident was one example of ignorance about indigenous cultures at Syracuse University.

Several indigenous students said in interviews with The Daily Orange that they frequently face prejudice and marginalization at SU. They agreed that the unequal treatment largely stems from students’ and faculty’s limited understanding of indigenous cultures and experiences, rather than a place of active discrimination.

And they agreed that SU has room to improve in educating the campus community about indigenous peoples, especially those who once inhabited the land on which the university now stands.

Photo by Annabelle Gordon | Graphic by Emily Steinberger

A group of indigenous students met with Chancellor Kent Syverud and other university officials in early December to share their concerns about the experience of indigenous students at SU.

The meeting came after anti-indigenous graffiti was found Nov. 21 in an SU residence hall.

Indigenous students’ concerns are often ignored when issues of race are discussed on campus, said Danielle Smith, a graduate student and member of the Onondaga Nation.

“We’re just made to feel invisible, as if how we feel or how that impacts us isn’t as important as other people,” she said.

Indigenous students make up less than 1% of the university’s full-time student population — a total of about 99 students — SU’s Fall 2019 Census data shows. Indigenous peoples make up 1.7% of the population nationally.

Both nationally and at SU, the contemporary experiences of indigenous peoples are often ignored or talked over, Scully said.

“I enter a space and I’m the only Native person in that space,” Scully said. “And then I suddenly become the resident expert on Native people. That kind of labor is sort of expected.”

Emily Steinberger | Design Editor

SU is located on the ancestral lands of the Onondaga Nation, one of six nations that makes up the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The Onondaga Nation’s current territory lies fewer than 10 miles south of SU. The university acknowledges the Onondaga Nation’s land before campus events.

SU offers few academic opportunities for students to learn more about indigenous histories and cultures, Scully said. The university offers a Native American and Indigenous Studies minor, but no major is currently offered.

Students’ ignorance about indigenous peoples can have damaging consequences, Smith said. Indigenous peoples are often reduced to a handful of “romanticized” stereotypes, she said, including those that say all indigenous peoples are “one with the Earth,” or make their money from casinos, or live in teepees.

The list of solutions the students presented to Syverud included expanding SU’s Native Studies curriculum to include a Native American and Indigenous Studies major and forming partnerships with indigenous nations to allow students to learn more about indigenous histories and cultures.

Ethan Tyo, a graduate food studies major and member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, said coming to SU was a “culture shock.” Many of his classmates seemed uninformed about the presence of indigenous peoples in modern society, and most only received superficial indigenous education, he said.

Students have asked Tyo about his race and have assumed he’s Asian, he said. He doesn’t think these questions are meant to be prejudiced, but constantly having to explain his identity to others can feel isolating, he said.

Photo by Annabelle Gordon | Graphic by Emily Steinberger

“It can be alienating, especially if you come from a small rural community, to kind of automatically be put in a box,” Tyo said. “They’re small questions that I feel fine answering, but they’re questions that not necessarily a lot of people — predominantly white people — will face.”

Maris Jacobs, a member of the Mohawk nation and a recent SU graduate, said having to educate others makes it difficult to have conversations with people unfamiliar with her background. Indigenous students attend SU to be educated, not to educate others, she said.

Many indigenous students at SU find a sense of community and support through the university’s Native Student Program, which aims to help indigenous students make the transition to SU while maintaining a connection to their cultures.

The program’s Euclid Avenue building provides a dedicated space for indigenous students from across campus to come together, Tyo said. Ultimately, most indigenous students at SU “find their way over to the house at some point,” he said.

Photo by Annabelle Gordon | Graphic by Emily Steinberger

Undergraduate students from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy can also receive the Haudenosaunee Promise or Haudenosaunee Honor Scholarships to cover the full cost of attendance at SU. SU is the only private institution that offers a full-ride scholarship for Haudenosaunee students, which plays a large role in many indigenous students’ decision to attend the university, Tyo said.

He, along with Jacobs and Scully, chose to attend SU for their studies primarily due to the financial aid they received. The students requested SU make graduate students eligible for the scholarships available to Haudenosaunee students during their meeting with Syverud.

Talks with SU administration are still ongoing and meetings are scheduled in the coming weeks, Smith said. Several years ago, indigenous students worked with university officials to establish SU’s land acknowledgment and have the Haudenosaunee flag flown on campus — and students today hope to continue to increase the visibility of the indigenous population at SU, she said.

“Ultimately, I just want to see things happen quickly, and I just want the students’ voices to be included throughout the whole process,” Smith said.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, the number of nations in the Haudenosaunee nations was misstated. There are currently six nations. A student’s academic history was also misstated. Scully did not attend Syracuse University for their undergraduate studies. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on January 15, 2020 at 9:47 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu