We Are On
Tongva Land
Foundational Partnership & Principles
I work with colleagues, partners and students at Pitzer College and beyond on a variety of projects unsettling settler colonialism, supporting Indigenous students and movements, and related goals and topics. Through these collaborations and learnings I gradually adopted the following principles that consciously inform my approach to collaborative engagement, teaching, and scholarship.
1. Territorial Acknowledgement
2. Decolonization and Ally Development
3. 200% Education
WE ARE ON TONGVA LAND
Territorial Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the land on which Pitzer exists, and acknowledge the traditional keepers of the land and their deep relationships with the land and all its inhabitants. We join many others in acknowledging the Gabrielino/Tongva people as the original people of Claremont and the Los Angeles basin, even as we also acknowledge that many other Indigenous peoples of the region shared the territory in various ways with their Gabrielino/Tongva neighbors. We seek to continue educating our campus community about the Indigenous people whose land we are on, or who are our neighbors.
Decolonization and Allyship Development
Various Naïve Engagement efforts and associated classes seek to correct misinformation and ignorance that is pervasive in the broader settler society, and to also support individuals of all backgrounds on a journey of decolonizing their minds and actions, individually and collectively. This may include learning more about one’s own family and cultural history, unlearning settler myths, learning critical perspectives and historically corrective truths, developing new practices and ways of living, learning about the original peoples of Claremont and Los Angeles, and grappling with our responsibility to American Indians in the present. These and related efforts seek to help prepare individuals and our campus community to be appropriate and effective allies to American Indians and Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
200% Education Approach
Inspired by the ideas of American Indian and tribal educators (Williams and Cole 2017) , I promote a learning experience for Native youth and students that follows the “200% Education model”. This approach affirms the importance of Native cultural and knowledge content in tandem with the general academic curriculum. Research supports the idea that when Native students are grounded in their own cultural teachings, they achieve better academic outcomes. As Pitzer is a majority non-Native college, I work to support Native Engagement programs that can function as a bridge between Indigenous communities and perspectives and the Pitzer community and its various perspectives.