In support of the land acknowledgment, this website documents and facilitates Vassar’s efforts to build and sustain relationships with Native communities; expand opportunities for Native students, Native faculty and other employees; and collaborate with Native nations to know better the Indigenous peoples, past and present, who care for this land.
Native American Studies at Vassar College
The American Studies Program offers a correlate sequence in Native American Studies, a multi- and interdisciplinary field, in which students examine Indigenous cultures, politics, histories, and literatures, in a primarily North American context.
Student Projects
- Indigenous Environmental Activism
A Blog and Podcast Series - Indigenous Vassar: Acknowledging the Land and its Peoples
A Story Map
- AMST 282: Decolonizing the Exhibition: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Indigenous Art
A Curated Virtual Exhibition - AMST 282: Decolonizing the Exhibition: Imagining Indigenous Futures
A Curated Virtual Exhibition
Inclusive History
The Vassar Inclusive History initiative, launched in February of 2023, is dedicated to evaluating, reflecting on, and unearthing the College’s history with respect to justice, equity, and fairness. Focused on stories, lives, and questions that have been neglected in the telling of the history of Vassar College, the Inclusive History initiative represents a promise and an invitation to the entire Vassar community. Learn more
Stories
Past Events
Blaeser (White Earth Nation Ojibwe) is the founder of Indigenous Nations Poets organization. This talk kicks off a year-long focus on “Methodologies of Acknowledgement” led by Anne McNiff Tatlock ’61 Chair in Multidisciplinary Studies Molly McGlennen.
A radical, dynamic, and engaging conversation with Amber Starks about Black and Native solidarity and kinship as Black, Native, and Afro-Indigenous kin move from survivance to thrivance and futurity.
In this talk, author Koa Beck will examine the history of feminism, from the true mission of the suffragists to the rise of corporate feminism—paying careful attention to the ways capitalism and racism have functioned as structuring forces within dominant feminist culture.
Land Acknowledgment
We acknowledge that Vassar stands upon the homelands of the Munsee Lenape, Indigenous peoples who have an enduring connection to this place despite being forcibly displaced by European colonization. Munsee Lenape peoples continue today as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, the Delaware Tribe and the Delaware Nation in Oklahoma, and the Munsee Delaware Nation in Ontario. Read the full statement.