Penn’s Treatment of Indigenous Peoples

by Natives at Penn

In Pennsylvania, there are no federally recognized Native American tribes, even though more than 18,000 Native Americans live within the state. This context helps us understand Penn’s relationship with local Native communities and with Native students, which is a relationship characterized by exploitation and a lack of representation.

Exploitation

The University of Pennsylvania is located on the ancestral homeland, Lenapehoking, of the Lenape Nation. Prior to colonization, and into the current day, the Lenape people have lived throughout Eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Southern New York, and New Jersey. In the 1730s, European settlers decided to “reinterpret” a foundational land treaty between the Lenape and William Penn. The reimagined treaty led to the Penn family fraudulently taking about 750,000 acres of Lenape land, further displacing Lenape communities. This land became present-day Philadelphia.

Penn’s shrouded history with Native communities can be demonstrated in connection with the Penn Museum. The museum obtained many of its cultural objects without the permission of the Native tribes they originate from. The museum also houses the Morton Cranial Collection, a large collection of crania that the Perelman School of Medicine’s Samuel Morton used to attempt to prove the supremacy of Europeans (see: Slavery at Penn). In 2020, after student outcry against the possession of the collection, Penn Museum removed the remains from public display and began a drawn out process of identifying and burying some of the remains. In the meantime, they were still available to students and faculty for research purposes.

Through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), some crania and other human remains kept by the Penn Museum have been repatriated by Native organizations and tribes over the past few decades. However, due to the framing of NAGPRA—which only requires the return of a limited scope of human remains and cultural objects to federally recognized tribes and certain Native American/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian organizations—some of the crania remain with the museum.

Another example of the Museum’s exploitation of Native people can be found in the employment of Tlingit Native, Louis Shotridge. From 1912 to 1932 he unethically gathered more than 600 items from his own communities and other tribal communities for the Museum. Members of those tribes today say that Shotridge had no right to obtain those objects on behalf of the Museum and have made claims under NAGPRA to get them back, with varying degrees of success. Items that have not been repatriated are still held by Penn Museum.  

Many of the cultural objects and remains housed within the Penn Museum came from donations. It would serve the museum well in the future to be proactive by looking further into the donations they receive before making them part of the museum and by seeking repatriation efforts without being prompted by outside outcry.

Representation and Invisibility

If you were to research Native American history within Penn, you would come across proud references to five Native Americans: Jonathan Gayienquitioga, Philip Gayienquitioga, John Montour, Robert Daniel Ross, and Elizabeth Weston; all early attendees of the university. Little to no information about them can be found online or in university archives. When they attended Penn there was no community for them and few opportunities to study culturally relevant topics. There are many students at Penn today who have no idea that there are Native students on campus. Some of those students don’t know that Indigenous people still exist at all. 

For those aware of Indigenous students on campus, their legacy at Penn has been hard fought. For the past 30 years, Penn’s Indigenous student community has gradually increased, and with it visibility and support. But community building and support has not come from the university, it has come from the labor of students and staff willing to take on an extra role with no extra pay. Natives at Penn, established in 1993, is the only undergraduate group dedicated to Native students, helping students who feel isolated and unseen. They began contacting other schools with programming for Native students, demanding Penn admissions increase recruitment efforts, and addressing Native student retention – all while going to classes, working jobs, planning powwow, supporting one another, and being involved in other campus commitments.

Unfortunately, though Native students have made some progress, the same issues from 1993 and before still plague the Native community at Penn. NAP continues to fight for those same issues: recruitment, retention, class offerings, structural support, and more. For two years, NAP petitioned for the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the academic calendar, eventually winning the battle for recognition – though only in name. Tina Pierce Fragoso, Lenape, works in admissions and has been a champion for Native American recruitment. Since her start, annual Native enrollment has tripled. Over the past year, through the advocacy of NAP and 7B, the group was included on plans to reimagine ARCH, which will have a designated space for NAP on the second floor. Although there is not currently a search for a full-time, dedicated staff member for NAP, the new, second Associate Director of the center will help support the group.

Advocacy

As Natives at Penn expands, and the voices of Native students are heard, NAP has published their demands of Penn: (1) a paid, full-time staff member to support NAP, (2) a concretely defined effort to increase the recruitment and retention of Native students, faculty, staff, and administrators, (3) a dedicated and adequate space for Native students on campus, (4) more academic programming and support for the waning Native American and Indigenous Studies program at Penn. Only two students graduated with the minor in 2023 due to a lack of class offerings.

To support the Native communities at Penn and in Philadelphia, there are several ways you can get involved. Each year, Natives at Penn hosts cultural events that are open to the public such as our annual Powwow and Indigenous Peoples’ Day March. Attending these events are a great learning opportunity and a visible show of support from the Penn community. Another way to support Natives at Penn is to show up for the other coalition members of 7B. Presenting a united front between minority groups and our allies demonstrates to the University that our needs are a reflection of the student body at large. You can also support the Native communities, including the Lenape, in the Greater Philadelphia area in similar ways. Organizations such as IPD Philly and We Are the Seeds facilitate community engagement and cultural immersion events throughout the year. Additionally, if you are an incoming Native/Indigenous student, please register to receive emails from NAP. No matter what background you come from or amount of cultural knowledge you may have, we welcome you to learn and celebrate with us!

You can follow NAP on Instagram @nativesatpenn.