The University of Alaska Southeast and the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska are working together to create a School of Indigenous Studies. The partnership is one of the first of its kind in the state and leaders say it is a way to strengthen and uplift Indigenous studies in higher education.
Tlingit & Haida President Chaylee Éesh Richard Peterson and UAS Chancellor Aparna Palmer signed a memorandum of understanding to create the School of Indigenous Studies on Friday. The signing took place at the Andrew Hope building in Juneau during the second day of Tlingit & Haida’s March executive council meeting.
The tribe already has its own programs in early childhood and K-12 education. President Peterson called this a “historic moment” to partner with the university.
“There’s leadership at the UA system that we can feel like we can lock arms with, finally, and really uplift Indigenous studies at all levels, with our own Indigenous educators, and we want to see our people who so richly deserve those degrees, get degrees,” he said.
The agreement commits both parties to work together to create a vision of what a School of Indigenous Studies looks like. Representatives from the university and tribe will work together to “co-develop a roadmap for this initiative.” Officially establishing a school will require approval from both the tribe and the Board of Regents, and there’s currently no timeline of when that will happen.
In an interview after the signing, Chancellor Palmer said in addition to continuing to shape education with Indigenous values and addressing workforce needs, the partnership can work toward healing through education.
“I think giving people opportunities, giving them a way to fulfill who they are as human beings, giving them that sense of identity and pride in who they are, those are all things that are so important to your health as a human being,” Palmer said.
UAS would not be the first UA campus with a school or college of Indigenous studies – the University of Alaska Fairbanks has a College of Indigenous Studies. Palmer said this new effort is unique in that the university will partner with a specific tribe to develop a roadmap together.
While this particular partnership was about four years in the making, UAS Alaska Native language professor X̱’unei Lance Twitchell said the idea to create a tribal university goes back decades. The proposed school is not a tribal university, but Twitchell said he envisions creating a school that covers Indigenous language, art, science and governance.
He said education is the path forward to bring back Indigenous languages that boarding schools once sought to eliminate.
“When we look at what the intention of education was for Indigenous peoples, it was to destroy us. It was to destroy our languages. It was to make us be servants of the population,” he said. “And I think now we look at education as a way to bring us back to strength.”
The proposal comes more than a year after the University of Alaska Board of Regents directed university leadership to remove language around diversity, equity and inclusion from campus websites and communications. That was in response to a letter from the Trump administration that threatened to withhold federal funds from universities with DEI programs nationwide.
That directive remains even after a federal court struck down the policy and the U.S. Department of Education dropped an appeal of the decision.
Peterson said he’s personally a “great fan” of DEI, but he initially had concerns that their initiative might fall under its umbrella. He said this program should not be affected because they are acting as a government entity.
“We are a recognized form of government, and so Aparna assured me that we were, because of our government status, that we were going to work together in that capacity,” he said. “Because I didn’t want to start something, also, we are so close to and then have it be lumped as DEI when it is not.”
The memorandum says that it can be supplemented with future agreements to support projects for developing the school.