Understand the past, meet the moment, embrace the future
How to Move Mountains The work of CLA scholars has never been more urgent or relevant. Examples of our faculty and students engaged in being their best reveal the transformative power of the liberal arts in a rapidly changing world. BY SUSAN MAAS
24 UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Getting Getting to know American American Indian studies The oldest of its kind, CLA’s American Indian studies department is uniquely positioned to lead on issues facing the world today, from climate change to environmental justice to white supremacy and structural racism. Since 1969, department scholars have helped preserve the Ojibwe and Dakota languages, uplift Native heritages, histories, and cultures — and challenge the colonizing ways that have created and perpetuated these urgent problems. Yet today, the program is something of a well-kept secret, says Brendan Kishketon, associate professor of American Indian studies. Kishketon, a world-renowned Ojibwe language scholar, is determined to change that through the American Indian Summer Institute (AISI). “Not enough Native students know about us and the programs we have to serve them. And reservation kids are
especially underrepresented: our message has not been getting in front of them.” So Kishketon reached into his own past — as a teen, he attended a summer bridge program in Utah — to imagine changing that. He envisioned a week for Indigenous high school students to explore Native languages, meet Native faculty, write, hone study skills, connect with each other — and to see themselves at UMN. In 2018, the American Indian Summer Institute was born. AISI is “putting a face to our programs,” Kishketon says. “There’s this perception that the University is a big, scary, cold institution. Students need to know a human here.” Throughout the camp, participants learn about the department’s offerings and get a taste of life on campus … dipping their toes in Dakota and Ojibwe language lessons, playing games, living in residence halls, and building community. Current Native students serve as their counselors. Dustin Morrow, who just graduated with a degree in Ojibwe language and linguistics and is beginning his master’s in linguistics at UMN this fall, served as an AISI counselor in 2019. “It was a blast,” he says. “I’m a nontraditional student.
