U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Other Leaders Come to Campus
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (center) recently visited Dickinson's archives, with, among others, President Jones. Photo by Dan Loh.
Dickinson’s Center for the Futures of Native Peoples at the heart of the visit
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a U.S. Cabinet secretary, recently made a visit to Dickinson, focusing on the college's efforts to preserve and study the history of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Accompanied by Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenozz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kathryn Isom-Clause, and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chief of Staff Matt Lee-Ashley, Secretary Haaland met with 14 students who are part of the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples (CFNP) Student Advisory Fellows program as well as President John E. Jones III ’77, P’11, and Renee Cramer, provost and dean of the college. The secretary and her delegation also met with U.S. Army leaders to tour sites currently within the Carlisle Indian Industrial School National Historic Landmark, first designated by the secretary of the interior in 1961 and updated in 1985.
A significant portion of the campus-based visit was dedicated to exploring the college's archives, where Secretary Haaland viewed photographs and documents related to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. Jim Gerencser, Dickinson’s archivist, demonstrated the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center website, highlighting how the college integrates this history into its curriculum and supports ongoing research.
The secretary also visited “Grandma's House,” the home of the CFNP, where she received a tour and participated in a discussion led by Amanda Cheromiah, executive director of the center, and Darren Lone Fight, the center's founder. The conversation covered the CFNP's mission, the significance of the boarding school system in the institution's history and how Dickinson serves Indigenous communities.
“Carlisle and the former grounds of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School are significant places of remembrance for many Indigenous peoples and communities, so for the secretary to visit the CFNP is important, because she brings national attention to how we are advancing the futures of our Indigenous peoples and communities in Carlisle,” says Cheromiah.
Throughout the visit, representatives of the college emphasized Dickinson’s commitment to preserving and critically examining the complex legacy of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, which operated from 1879 to 1918 with the goal of forcibly assimilating Native American children into white American society.
The secretary’s visit represents a crucial step in the ongoing process of acknowledging, understanding and healing from the legacy of federal Indian boarding schools.
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Published October 4, 2024