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
Past Events
Featuring Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Salish & Kootenai). An opening reception and a panel discussion with four speakers with distinct perspectives on contemporary Indigenous art.
Dallas Goldtooth, an indigenous peoples activist and co-founder of the 1491s, an all-indigenous social media group that uses comedy and satire as means of critical social dialogue, came to Vassar for a brief residency through the Creative Arts Across Disciplines Initiative.
Video
Shannon Martin (Gun Lake Pottawatomi and Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe) speaks on how Native American tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations have been working diligently to repatriate their ancestors and restore their basic human dignity through reburial.
Film screening and Q&A with filmmakers Chris Eyre, Jack Riccobono, and Shane Slattery-Quintanilla.
Shannon Keller O'Loughlin (Choctaw) will provide a history of United States policy in American Indian affairs that will allow students to critically analyze their own professional and personal desensitization of American Indian
peoples, their cultures, status and beliefs.
Stories
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.