New Gift to Provide World-Class Home for Dickinson’s Center for the Futures of Native Peoples
A rendering of the new Jim Thorpe Center for the Futures of Native Peoples.
New Facility to Also House Samuel G. Rose ’58 Art Gallery
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Thanks to a $20 million gift from Samuel G. Rose ’58, Dickinson will establish a new home for Dickinson’s Center for the Futures of Native Peoples (CFNP) that will greatly enhance the center’s mission and expand its reach. The world-class Jim Thorpe Center for the Futures of Native Peoples, which will also house the new Samuel G. Rose ’58 Art Gallery, will be a site of deep meaning for Indigenous peoples and communities connected to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (CIIS).
“Just a few miles from the former grounds of a place that sought to erase our cultures and identities, the new space will stand as a testament to our strength,” says Amanda Cheromiah (KawaiKa-Laguna Pueblo), executive director of the CFNP and a granddaughter of six CIIS students. “By advancing the futures of Native Peoples through cultural revitalization, ceremony, intergenerational knowledge-sharing and Indigenous-focused research, the center honors the past while shaping what is yet to come.”
The Jim Thorpe Center for the Futures of Native Peoples will serve as a premier educational resource and a global destination for those who wish to explore Indigenous studies and cultures. This initiative will bring the CFNP out of a smaller building and into the heart of the campus. Located between the Weiss Center for the Arts and the John M. Paz ’78 Alumni & Family Center, it will feature ample space for classrooms, art exhibitions, special programming and ceremonial gatherings.
“We’re excited to see the new building on campus,” says Cheromiah. “It will draw people from near and far as a place of learning, healing, restoration, joy and celebration for Native Peoples and communities grappling with the living histories of the Carlisle Indian School and its generational impact.”
A rendering of an aerial view of the new center.
Confronting the Past, Imagining the Future
CFNP’s mission carries special resonance in the college’s hometown of Carlisle, Pa., a major site of memory for Native Americans. Carlisle was home to the CIIS, the United States’ first federally funded, off-reservation boarding school, from 1879 to 1918. Nearly 7,800 Native American students from 200 tribal communities, including famed Olympians Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox) and Lewis Tewanima (Hopi), attended the school during those years. Last year, the U.S. government designated a national monument at the CIIS site.
Confronting this painful legacy, Dickinson has become a hub for CIIS scholarship. Under the leadership of Professor Emerita Susan Rose '77, the college hosted the nation’s first CIIS conference. Led by College Archivist Jim Gerencser ’93, Dickinson also developed the world’s most comprehensive digital archive of CIIS materials, the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center. And in 2023, with funding from the Mellon Foundation, the college established the CFNP, with Darren Lone Fight (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation), associate professor of American studies, at the helm.
Building on the college’s commitment to this work, the new facility and its art gallery provide a framework to advance cross-disciplinary teaching, learning and conversation around Indigenous studies and CIIS history in dynamic ways, notes Renée Ann Cramer P’28, provost and dean of the college.
“Through this gift, Dickinson students from across all academic disciplines will have even more opportunities to explore creativity, global diversity and interdisciplinary approaches to art and culture,” Cramer says. “This gallery space also builds on our deeply held commitments to the curation and teaching of art from a wide variety of perspectives, and we are thrilled to be able to extend our art curriculum with a focus on Indigenous-made and Indigenous-themed art. We are especially proud that this gallery will increase the draw for community members near and far to visit Dickinson's campus and experience a profoundly meaningful collection.”
A rendering of the Samuel G. Rose '58 Art Gallery inside the new center.
A Passion for Justice
Rose, who made the gift this summer to establish the building, is a fierce advocate for environmental and social-justice causes. His passion for Indigenous advocacy is expressed in his efforts to restore the population of the American bison, a traditional and ceremonial food source for many Native Americans, and in his exceptional art collection, which includes works by Indigenous artists and works on related themes.
Rose has generously donated some of these artworks to the college for display in the Jim Thorpe Center’s Samuel G. Rose ’58 Art Gallery. The forthcoming gallery, with its striking design and its evocative works, will be a destination in its own right, and its works will be incorporated into Dickinson’s academic program.
This meaningful project is only part of Rose’s philanthropic legacy through Dickinson: His lifetime giving to the college totals $100 million, making him the most consequential benefactor in Dickinson’s history. Prior to funding the center, Rose provided the largest gift in the college’s history for scholarships, making a Dickinson education possible for more than 230 economically disadvantaged students and counting. His gifts have also spurred facilities initiatives such as the state-of-the-art Durden Athletic Training Center and established a prize that brings influential thought leaders on environmental activism to campus each year.
“Sam’s philanthropy has been nothing short of game-changing for Dickinson,” says President John E. Jones ’77, P’11. “He has literally changed the lives of hundreds of students with his scholarship support, and his leadership-level giving toward other initiatives. Now, by providing the Center for the Futures of Native Peoples a new home, he’s enhancing the vital work of the center and further enriching our students’ educational experiences in dynamic and resonant ways.”
Honoring a Legend
The center is named for the legendary athlete and Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe (Wa-Tho-Huk), a member of the Sac and Fox and Potawatomi Nations, who attended the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and became a three-time All-American in football and the first Indigenous person to win Olympic gold for the U.S. Thorpe went on to play professionally in both Major League Baseball and the National Football League.
To many, this trailblazing career represents an arc of Indigenous experience in Carlisle—from forced assimilation to the affirmation of identity and strength—and reaffirms the power of Indigenous peoples to transform a painful history into the foundation for a thriving future of belonging and freedom to thrive. But, as Cheromiah notes, these well-known accomplishments were only one part of Thorpe’s profound legacy.
“Wa-Tho Huk cared deeply for family and communities,” explains Cheromiah, referring to Thorpe by his tribal name. “He gave freely of himself and resources for the advancement of our Native People, and these values—of giving back, building community and love of the people—will be embodied in this center and in its new building.”
A rendering of the new center viewed from High Street.
Full Steam Ahead
Dickinson is thrilled to announce that the design team is led by Richard Olaya, AIA, of O Z Collaborative, as the architect of record and Johnpaul Jones, FAIA, of Jones + Jones, as the design architect. Jones, one of the founding principals of Jones + Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, is of Choctaw, Cherokee and Welsh-American heritage. He is one of the lead designers of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and the first Native American architect honored with the National Humanities Medal.
The design is rooted in modern Indigenous design concepts, philosophies and motifs, bringing forward symbols and elements of the Four Worlds Gifts—the natural, animal, spiritual and human worlds. “They are important to all Indigenous peoples,” explains Jones. “They also help connect the points of view of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.”
The building’s design is also informed by the art works that will be displayed and housed there, says Jones, who was inspired by some of those works and by Rose’s dedication to collecting Indigenous art. And it responds to the history of the CIIS, which is known to Native Peoples across the United States and around the world. “It’s about listening to the land and the campus, and the stories they have to tell us,” Jones says.
Dickinson will hold a ground-blessing ceremony at the center’s future site Saturday, Nov. 8, with plans to begin construction after the 2026 Commencement. That ambitious timeline points to the college’s hope to commence construction in time for the benefactor’s 90th birthday, says Carlo Robustelli, vice president for college advancement, as well as in the midst of the general excitement swirling around this project. “This is a special moment in the college’s history for so many reasons," says Robustelli, "and Sam is eager to use his commitment as a challenge to get others to support the effort.”
Those interested in learning more about ways to support this exciting initiative should contact donorrelations@dickinson.edu.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published October 29, 2025