My Journey

Looking at my life in retrospect, I can now see clearly the amount of energy I have spent in educating others on indigenous issues. I remember sitting in kindergarten with my friends, explaining why “I is for Indian” would not suffice and refusing to participate in the hand game that ended with “Indian chief don’t move” while my friends made their best Indian chief impression. In the sixth grade, I gave a speech to my peers during our lunch period on Land Run Day about the injustices of the Dawes Act of 1887. Of course, I did not speak with as much eloquence or confidence as I wish I could have, nor did I completely understand the concepts I was discussing. In reality, I was simply repeating what my father, a tribal rights attorney, had taught me at home. The significance of what I had done never really occurred to me until I decided to pursue Native American and Indigenous studies as a course of education. In fact, I applied to New York University without a clue what I wanted to study and it wasn’t until I was about halfway through Freshman year, while in London, that I began to really explore my interest in Native Studies.

Upon deciding to focus my education on Native peoples, I was promptly faced with the realization that my dream university did not offer any course of study in this field. Through Freshman and Sophomore year, I found myself attempting to navigate what NYU had to offer while still holding to my belief that I would study Native issues as much as I possibly could in my given situation. I thought, surely, I would be able to complete a course of Indigenous study through the Gallatin School of Individualized Study where other students were pairing engineering and social psychology or even combining disciplines to create and defend a thesis centered on the culture surrounding Beyonce Knowles Carter. But alas, NYU did not offer enough Native or Indigenous courses on a yearly basis for me to be able to fill a schedule every semester and still feel confident in saying that I specialized in Indigenous Studies. Upon the advice of my only Indigenous professor, a Mapuche woman, I decided to join the Native American and Indigenous Student Group on campus and  resolved to look at every course from an Indigenous perspective, no matter the subject. With my newfound philosophy, I immediately transferred back into Liberal Studies where I declared that I would write a thesis on some form of Indigenous cultural revitalization. I also took this time to apply to study abroad once again, this time at NYU Sydney where two Indigenous specific classes were offered regularly and by experienced faculty. My personal studies had shifted completely and I had to learn to be flexible in many ways while remaining firm in my goals.

I was very fortunate throughout my time in that multiple other Native American and Indigenous students on NYU’s campus also felt a program of Native and Indigenous study would be a necessary addition to the university’s offerings. In this sense, we found solidarity and began to work up a feasible plan to develop a program, beginning with a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies. We knew it would be no easy task as many who came before us had tried and failed to grab the attention of upper level university administration within any of the governing schools. We also knew that there would be a year’s worth of meetings, yet, we felt the timing was right as the social climate within the United States was undergoing change which reflected heavily on the day to day life at NYU. We began to have meetings, first with ourselves, then with those in the university sphere who were essential to supporting or approving our program. We caught the attention of the Dean of the College of Arts and Science, Gabrielle Starr, and she began to advocate on our behalf. There, however, was still much work to be done in the form of compiling information on courses offered, invested faculty members, financial obligations, and so on. I used this time to learn how to write effectively about the need for Indigenous studies, interned within Indigenous lead organizations in order to gain experience, and became comfortable with discussing my ideas with others who were not as familiar with issues I had been passionate about. Having become one of the co-presidents of the only Indigenous student lead organization on NYU’s campus, these skills became indispensable as we carried on. Two full academic years later, the groundwork for the minor had been laid and the minor made its debut Spring 2018. It was difficult, tedious work that demanded much of our time and energy, but it is my proudest academic accomplishment to date.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would help introduce a course of study to a world renowned research institution and be able to graduate with it. Yet, as I prepare to begin my final undergraduate semester as a student member on the minor’s steering committee and take the final course that will count toward my minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies, I cannot help but feel the deepest gratitude toward the entire experience. The connections I made in the process of advocating on behalf of something I am passionate about have been invaluable, as is the experience I have received and the opportunities that have been opened to me. I’ve found myself not only traveling the world and living in Sydney to bolster my ability to speak on the subject of Indigenous knowledge, but also having been able to delight in sharing and exchanging my experiences with other Indigenous people in academic institutions at home in the United States and abroad. What I had initially viewed as a major roadblock to my academic interests became a catalyst for some of my life’s richest moments.

i had originally written this piece, which has since been edited, as a personal statement for my Law and Grad school applications. 

Meta-Statement

I created this website because I wanted to document my personal experience as a Black Indigenous woman at a PWI with virtually no Indigenous faculty, administration, or course of study. I decided that a “non-traditional” thesis, especially one on a digital platform, would serve my message of inclusivity, accessibility, and community far better than ink on paper. I chose the title for this exact purpose. These notes are an open documentation of what is means to actively Indigenize academia with the goal of eventually decolonizing academia completely.On this site, you will find the following links to aid you in navigating my experience, predominantly within my Senior year at the university.

Notes: My “notes” are the meat of my thesis work. They are short articles where I am able to expand on my experiences within academia, looking at what it has been like to be Black and Indigenous and the process of finding the support I needed to survive the institution. I plan to continue to add to this section even after I have graduated as I will next be moving on to a Master’s program in London and hopefully law school after. This section could be described as a series of essays, a diary, and a guidebook because I really wanted to keep it open to write what I felt on a variety of topics.

Syllabus: The Syllabus is a resource I have compiled by taking all of the books, articles, films, and websites I have gathered over the past four years and listed them here. I have decided to do this in lieu of a "traditional" bibliography, because in reality, all of these resources have helped informed the thoughts I've had on my personal life experiences. I do not share these sources to say I am in full agreement with each and every one of them, but rather because they have each provoked thought. Most are from the various classes I've taken, but they remain relevant to keep Indigenous studies centered in my education, no matter the subject of the course. The list will continue to grow as my project does and it is my hope that it can be of some use. 

Gallery: To add a visual component to the site, I purchased an Instax camera and a photo editing app so I could take photographs of my Native American and Indigenous friends at NYU. This section also serves as a means of showing the diversity and relevance of Indigenous people within everyday settings. It may sound ridiculous, but I cannot count the amount of times I have been told that there are no Indigenous people at the university, in New York City, or even in existence today. I have been told that we are not meant to look like we do and that our adoption of “modern” customs erases our Indigeneity. I wanted to show that none of this is true and that we fight our stereotypes on a daily basis just by existing within the academic sphere.

Mvskoke Student Twitter: This is a Twitter account I created to give myself access to an everyday platform to write about everyday experiences. The 140 character limit allows me to be short and to the point, while the social aspect allows me to connect with fellow Indigenous students and academics and share what they have to say.

Contact Me: I have placed this section on the site because I feel feedback is pertinent to a living project such as this one. In Native communities, we try not to speak for everyone, pretend we know everything, or believe we are perfect without guidance from our community. Because of this, I want to make myself available to those who feel they have something to contribute to this project. I do this work for the community and the community has every right to have a say in how I administrate this resource. Suggestions that are implemented will be credited. 

Design Choices

Felt tip script: I chose this to add a personal feel. I do not claim this project to be absolute in anyway, nor do I believe it to be true of every Indigenous student at NYU. This is my experience and so I wanted the font to reflect this.

Yellow Accents: I originally began designing this website with the Mvskoke Ceremonial Hope Pendleton in mind. In the description, it describes the color yellow as the color for the east, for creation, and for the sunrise. I want this thesis to be a project documenting the dawn of organized Indigenous study at NYU with bright Indigenous futures lying ahead as we aim to Indigenize and decolonize.

Capitalization of the term “Indigenous” and its derivatives: This is something I have done in practice since sophomore year and comes natural to me now. I had seen many other Indigenous academics chose to capitalize this word as a means of standing strong in their identity. My adopting of this practice was further bolstered while studying in Sydney, Australia where the practice is commonplace.

Ribbon Skirt Accents: I chose to use my Creek ribbon skirt as background for my gallery photos and for my background because for me, the skirt symbolizes part of my Indigenous education. It will serve as a template when I decide to make my own regalia for myself and for my children and will be a reintroduction of a piece of Mvskoke culture back into my family. I felt it a necessary to represent this aspect of Indigeneity within my project.

Abstract

Norman, Taylor R. Notes on Indigenizing an Institution, New York University, 2018, www.notesonindigenizing.com/.

Notes on Indigenizing an Institution is a digitized notebook focusing on the experience of the Indigenous student within the Academy. The history of contention between Indigenous ways of knowing and “Western” ways of knowing is well known; this project articulates a Native way of knowing in the lived experience of one student navigating NYU’s non-Native curriculum.  The Notes document the atmosphere of Indigeneity on campus during the inaugural year of the minor. In a demonstration of a non-traditional academic participation, the project’s method of documenting the student’s experiences demonstrate the potential for intersection between technology, Indigenous futures, and transfer of knowledge. In addition, this project is a record of a Native way of knowing that bends NYU’s curriculum toward an Indigenous way of knowing, but it doesn’t break the orthodoxy.  Instead, the project guides Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics toward pathways and resources to further Indigenize the Academy until complete decolonization becomes a reality.

Keywords:

Indigenize

Decolonize

Indigenous

Native

Eurocentric

Non-western

Methodologies

Academy

Institutions

University

New York University

Ways of knowing