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Memorandum tries to strengthen university
and tribal ties
By Leah Andrews

MOSCOW — Creating a bond between a university and Native Americans is a difficult and complicated process, but that is exactly what the University of Idaho is trying to do with a memorandum of understanding that it entered with the region’s Indian tribes.
The memorandum is a non-binding agreement, which expresses the shared goals of both the university and tribes to strengthen relations and to improve education opportunities for Native American students.
According to Hal Godwin, UI vice president for Student Affairs, in the year since signatures were first collected the process toward fulfilling the goals of the memorandum has centered mainly on dialogue and assessment of current programs and services.
"I think that we have, first, heightened awareness of the university’s desire to be involved with the tribes and we are on our way to inventorying the number and kinds of services we have with the tribes," Godwin said.
Godwin said that in the second year of the memorandum UI will pursue more concrete goals.
"In the spirit of the MOU we will be seeking scholarship money and academic program opportunities for Native American students," Godwin said.
The memorandum was signed in November 2000 by UI and several northwest tribes. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the Colville Tribe, the Kootenai Tribe, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation have all signed.
Although five tribes have signed the memorandum, 10 tribes were originally slated to sign. Those tribes that have not signed include the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of Southern Idaho. The Kalispel Tribe, Spokane Tribe, and Yakama Nation are also yet to sign.
One of the issues that may be keeping tribes from signing is an issue of tribal sovereignty. For example, a number of universities including the UI have combined services and programs for Native Americans with multi-cultural programs, such as how a Hispanic or an Asian American group might be structured.
For some tribal members this grouping signifies a failure to recognize the difference between an American minority and a member of a different nation.
"Some call tribes a minority, but I don’t think we are a minority," said Sam Penney, chairman of the Nez Perce Tribe. "For tribes simply to be lumped in with multicultural programs does not necessarily meet the needs of the Indian students."
Lisa Guzman, director of Indian Education and Professional Development at UI, agrees with Penney.
"We are talking with nations with their own government and here we are trying to mix them under the umbrella of multicultural," Guzman said. "We are working with other governments, basically nations a group of people who are sovereign."
Yet Guzman said that progress is being made with the memorandum.
"I feel like we are building up some momentum here. I just don’t want to see it slow down," she said.

 
 

"Some call tribes a minority, but I don’t think we are a minority. For tribes simply to be lumped in with multicultural programs does not necessarily meet the needs of the Indian students."

Sam Penney,
Nez Perce Tribal Chairman


Yet the issue of how tribes are classified is only one of a number of complex issues that must be tackled by university officials and tribal members in order to make the memorandum work.
But that has not deterred those involved in the process, including UI President Bob Hoover.
Hoover called the memorandum a major priority for the institution in November 2001 at a meeting of the Native American Advisory Council on the UI campus.
"It’s really exciting to see where we have come in the last couple of years, but I would encourage you to think of that only as the first step to expanding opportunities in the months ahead," Hoover said.
At the meeting the board, which deals with implementation of the goals of the memorandum, Hoover expressed a desire for more programs directed at Native Americans as well as more Native faculty and staff members at UI.
One plan called for a new position for a Native American student coordinator in the Office of Multicultural Affairs but it’s on hold because of the state budget crisis.
"If anything, what I hear from people in the meeting is in their view we are not moving fast enough, so we will continue to move as fast as we can," said Godwin.
According to Guzman, this may be critical to gaining the confidence and signatures of the remaining five tribes, and satisfying those currently involved.
"It has to be hard to contact all of the tribes and get with them. We just have to develop services so that the tribes know that we are committed and that it is top priority," she said.
While five tribes are yet to sign, Lloyd Commander, director of education for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, believes that UI and the council are headed in the right direction. He said with the coordination and dialogue as well as with the development of the university’s American Indian Studies Program and a Native American Journalism Program, progress is being made, albeit slowly.
"This is just a great initiative by the university that some other colleges and universities don’t even care about. But the University of Idaho is special in that area. It’s just going to progress and develop and the coordination and communication is going build a really good program." Commander said.
Raul Sanchez, special assistant to the president for diversity and human rights, will be working to collect remaining tribal signatures and create bonds between the university and tribes. Sanchez has contacted the tribes that have not signed, and plans to follow up with visits to promote the memorandum of understanding.
"There will definitely be visits. I am also hoping to arrange visits by professors, especially professors that do not know that world." Sanchez said. "It is just a question of getting people out there."
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