Overview

Our Mission

Our mission at the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples is multifaceted:

1. Enhance Dickinson’s Curriculum: We aim to create an academic major in Native American & Indigenous Studies (NAIS), providing students with a comprehensive and interdisciplinary understanding of Indigenous cultures, histories, and contemporary issues.
2. Interpret the CIIS Experience: We seek to provide a fuller and more truthful interpretation of the experience of the CIIS, acknowledging its legacy as a tool of cultural violence and recognizing its significance as a national project that affected virtually every Indigenous community within the contemporaneous territorial reach of the US.
3. Support Scholarship and Networking: We are dedicated to supporting scholarship, teaching, and networking on Native American issues past, present, and future. We aim to advance teaching and research on contemporary Indigenous culture and history, support emerging Indigenous and Indigenously allied scholars, and examine issues that extend well beyond our campus or the CIIS.
4. Maintain the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples: By locating and securing renewing funding, we will continue to expand the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples to serve as a hub for research, education, and outreach on Native American issues.
5. Host Symposia and Conferences: We will organize Indigenously directed and focused symposia, fostering a robust national conversation on Indigenous issues.
6. Expand the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (CISDRC): We will continue to expand the CISDRC, an online repository of digitized records about the CIIS, serving the interests of living relatives of CIIS students and providing resources for teaching and research.
7. Engage with Native American Communities: We will continue to build reciprocal relationships with Native American communities, scholars, storytellers, and organizations, sharing resources and collaborating on projects that serve the interests of Indigenous peoples.
8. Reconcile with Our History: We acknowledge Dickinson College's and the United States’ historical relationship with the CIIS and are committed to reconciling with this history, recognizing the pernicious damage done by the CIIS to Indigenous peoples and their nation.
9. Promote the Futures of Native Peoples: We are dedicated to facilitating opportunities to discuss the future of Native peoples, supporting efforts to reclaim and revitalize Indigenous cultures, languages, and traditions, and advocating for the rights and self-determination of Native communities.

At the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples, we are committed to serving our students, the scholarly community, Native American communities, and the public. We recognize the significance of the CIIS as a sacred and storied place, and we are dedicated to honoring the sacrifices and contributions of the Indigenous students who were sent there. We are positioned to lead in reconciling with this history and facilitating opportunities to discuss the future of Native peoples.