Community reacts to College’s announcement of recently discovered

to make amends and repatriate the remains, according to Kotz. The Dartmouth charter, written in 1769, describes the College’s mission as “for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian tribes in this land,” which was deemed “necessary and expedient for civilizing and Christianizing children of pagans.”

“It is clear from our history, literally from our founding, that Native Americans are an important part of our essence,” Kotz said.

“To me, it feels ethically [and] morally all the more important that we do this work well and that we do it thoroughly, and we do it thoughtfully – and we do it in partnership with the Native Americans.”

Native Americans at Dartmouth president Ahnili Johnson-Jennings ’23 wrote in an email statement that there was “grief and sorrow” in the Native community in response to the announcement, and that they hosted internal events “focused on communal togetherness, [which] included some cultural traditions.”

“Moving forward I think the College needs to continue to give support to the Native staf, faculty and students,” Johnson-Jennings wrote. “They have a plan to reach out to the tribes impacted and cleanse the area according to our cultural mandates.

It is my hope the College can mitigate any further damage and continue to handle the situation to their best ability.”

The administration waited to make the announcement until students were back on campus after spring break, according to Kotz. Following the news, the Native American community on campus came together, convening students at the Native American House with fry bread and soup, he added.

“I see this as both a looking backward and a looking forward activity,” Kotz said. “There’s an efort to look backward at our history and to reconcile with that, which in some cases includes repatriating remains. I also see it as an opportunity and a duty to look forward to make sure we put systems into place that will prevent this kind of thing from happening again.”