Native alumni reflect on College experience

David Bonga ’74 and his Native American classmates’ first trip to Memorial Field was also their last. While today many students see football game attendance as a rite of passage, the presence of Dartmouth’s Indian mascot alienated Bonga and his peers.

“We heard all these ‘wa-hoo-wah’ cheers and drums beating, and we were all pretty confused and uncomfortable,” he said. “I never went to another football game again, and I stayed off campus during fall quarters to avoid dealing with football season and the Indian mascot running around.”

There were only three Native American students enrolled in the Class of 1973 when the Native American studies program was first established. Panelists Howard Bad Hand ’73, Michael Hanitchak ’73, David Bonga ’74 and Drew Ryce ’74 discussed the gradual, and at times painful, culture change the College has undergone since the program’s establishment on Tuesday.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Native American Studies program, which now offers over 20 courses a year.

“The ’70s represented a recommitment of our institution’s charter purpose,” Native American studies program chair Bruce Duthu ’80 said. “Reform was long overdue, and these activists planted the seeds of change.”

The panel focused on early Native American students’ struggle to fit in at the College, and their efforts to incorporate Native American studies into the College’s curriculum.

Bad Hand visited Dartmouth for the first time in the summer of 1965 with A Better Chance, a national nonprofit education program.

He left feeling that the College lacked understanding of the Native American community.

“It seemed like they were trying to tell us this used to be a school for Native Americans by showing off a couple of paintings and artifacts,” he said. “I thought to myself, ‘This has to change. This really has to change. I’m going to come back in four years and change this place.’”

Bad Hand returned as a freshman in 1969 and was one of three Native American students in his class.

Determined to change the College’s course, he eventually helped recruit 15 Native American students to the Class of 1974.

Those 15 students knew very little about Dartmouth before arriving on campus, and were even unaware that the College was all-male.

“Almost all of us became very good friends,” he said. “It was out of necessity. It was out of our survival attitude.”

The College appointed a director of Native American students that year, who was “constantly inappropriately drunk,” Ryce said.

“The director was absolutely of no help,” he said. “We knew then that if we wanted anything to change, it would be up to us.”

In the spring of 1971, the students met with former College President John Kemeny to propose ideas for social and academic reform, including changing the College’s mascot, implementing a Native American studies curriculum and increasing services for Native American students, Hanitchak said.

Several Native American students whose native language was not English faced difficulties acclimating to the College, he said.

“The English department said that English couldn’t be their second language, because they were U.S. citizens,” Hanitchak said. “People were so rigid in their views of us and so ignorant of the reality of the situation.”

Despite these challenges, Bad Hand said he appreciates that the College did not relinquish its commitment to Native American students.

By working with College faculty and administration, Bad Hand and his peers were able to build a community in which Native American students were able to fit in, yet maintain a sense of identity.

“If we had blended in completely, we would have lost our traditions and our cultural identity,” Ryce said. “We wouldn’t be here today, because there wouldn’t be anything to talk about.”

For Native American students, attending Dartmouth strained connections with their communities, since they were often away from their homes for extended periods of time.

“We were scared of creating a program of forced assimilation, knowing that students would be separated from their communities for years,” Hanitchak said. “We didn’t want them to become the birds that fell out of the nest.”

In retrospect, the panelists agree that their commitment to expanding the College’s Native American community has enriched life at Dartmouth.

“You can have a vision, a goal you want to get to,” Bad Hand said. “The moment you share it, others can take it and bring it to life. Seeing how far the Native American Studies program and how far the community has come shows me that what we started has truly come alive.”

Since the establishment of the Native American Studies Program in 1973, over 700 Native American students have attended Dartmouth. There are 174 Native American students currently enrolled.