We Sang, We Learned

The most preeminent institution in all things science, engineering and technology, MIT, has and will continue to have a tremendous impact on America’s progress in measuring up to its own ideals of equity and opportunity. Now more than ever these measures include race relations and its presence in educational institutions. Progress in such relations benefit society as students move towards all other aspects of society.

We propose a book of interviews of Indigenous MIT graduates, whose experiences would reflect individual and community commonalities in academic success, social interaction in the MIT community, and the recruitment and retention of Indigenous students.

Such an effort to record the experiences of higher education Indigenous students has not yet occurred and would offer a wealth of insights into their experiences at a leading university that no amount of statistics could hope to duplicate, serving as a resource for all Indigenous people and academic institutions.

With 80% of the fastest growing occupations in the United States depending on some education in mathematics and scientific knowledge, the Indigenous mastery of these subjects is fundamental to the proactive management of tribal lands and resources; as well as the overall economic success of Indigenous people. The current educational pipeline fails to ensure that Indigenous students are academically prepared to undertake STEM studies when they enter college. The same pipeline has forced Indigenous students to assimilate to a culture of STEM that is often at odds with the community-oriented values of Indigenous communities. This problem is reaching new heights at MIT, where its own Indigenous students have no Indigenous student space, no alumni group, and no acknowledgment from MIT of its history with its own Indigenous students and its role in colonization and assimilation. 

Generations of Indigenous knowledge is lost to us, because MIT, like many institutions, has failed to acknowledge its past Indigenous students and the contributions and sacrifices they made. Generational wisdom, that can be for the benefit of students, institutional administrators, faculty, and staff, is simply absent from the consciousness of those that seek the solutions, justice and comfort for today.

We will make use of video conferencing, smart phone video and other necessary equipment for virtual and in-person interviews with identified Indigenous MIT student alumni, current students, and non-Indigenous individuals who have been active in the effort to correct racial exclusion and foster diversity at MIT.

These transcripts will be documented and formed into a book, drawing inspiration from “Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941-1999,” and will be about exploring the Indigenous experience, assessing the Indigenous role at MIT, and leaving a legacy so that future generations of Indigenous students can relate to Indigenous struggles and successes and Indigenous hopes and disappointments.

This book will act as a catalyst for MIT to more closely examine its own role in our people’s history. Similar to the MIT Black History Project, a new MIT Indigenous History Project would document the role of Indigenous life at MIT since its founding. These roles have changed and exceeded the expectations of prestigious and historically white institutions. This resource and the project it hopes to start will exist as a continuing effort to research and disseminate material that brings to light the legacy of higher education and Indigenous people.

While this work is being spearheaded by the MIT Native American Student Association, its broader purpose is towards the benefit of every Indigenous child who looks for faces like their own in the halls of scientists, engineers, leaders, teachers, and doctors. They are not alone in their pursuit of a better future for themselves, their families, or community. Nor are they alone when they walk through the Infinite corridor of MIT. They should never feel alone when they struggle, when they succeed, or when they are faced with obstacles so large and so unique to the Indigenous experience.

We are undeniably connected as Indigenous people, in our struggles and successes. That collective “we,” that “us,” deserves a place in the history books. Our experiences as Indigenous people, scientists, engineers, leaders, and teachers, all deserve the benefits that is so easily afforded to others. The lack of resources, of the academic and cultural nature, for current Indigenous students makes us seek those shared Indigenous experiences. Therefore, not only is this work for the benefit of the youth wanting to enter higher education, it is also for those Indigenous students who are currently in higher education.

Furthermore, this work is for the university administrator, faculty, high school teachers, and college counselor interested in the effective recruitment and retention of Indigenous students at highly selective universities. This work is also for those concerned with student affairs or affirmative action. These individuals, Indigenous or non-Indigenous, have an incredible impact on the lives of Indigenous students, and they must carry the knowledge of what it’s truly like to be an Indigenous student wanting to go into higher education, or to exist and go through that same system. The historians can also benefit from this work, as such a major and personal recording of the Indigenous experience in higher education has not been done.

Considering that this work is in part about directly engaging the Indigenous alumni and students, the method of engagement is inspired by the MIT Black History Project. Each interviewee will be asked to discuss family background; education; role models and mentors; experiences of racism and race-related issues; choice of field and career; goals; adjustment to the MIT environment; best and worst MIT experiences; experience with MIT support services; relationships with MIT students, faculty, and staff; advice to present or potential MIT students; and advice to the MIT administration. The professionals, both academic and technical, from the MIT Black History project will be a tremendous resource in actualizing and refining this work.

Current Indigenous students of MIT, Indigenous alumni, allies of the Indigenous community at MIT, MIT leadership, MIT faculty, and the vast networks that each of these groups frequent, have all expressed a need for this type of record of the Indigenous experience. Our Indigenous youth, our future, also require such a work for the lessons and teachings that will make their path easier. 

Indigenous oral stories are not just stories. They are our history, our lessons, our struggles, and our successes. They connect us together as a relatives and to our Mother Earth and our Father Sky. Our stories are our culture. Our culture is our foundation. 

That foundation is not static, our collective experiences grow and become our culture, our history and lessons.

Today we must acknowledge that more and more Indigenous people are learning of this history and their own culture through books. This work will revitalize and immortalize the history that we Indigenous people seek to learn and preserve. 

There has never before been a major effort to record and reflect on the experiences of Indigenous students in higher education. More specifically, there has been little if any work to record these experiences directly from the Indigenous students themselves. While there has been numerous academic journals researching and publishing the overall difficulties or successes in Indigenous higher education, they are simply boiled down representations. Rather than show the overall findings we propose detailing the findings and thus the stories that produce such findings. Stepping away from the impersonal publications and the idea that Indigenous culture is monolithic, this work aims to enrich the Indigenous perspective and experiences like never before done or published. 

Our solution will apply video conferencing technology, video recording, and voice recording to record interviews with Indigenous alumni, current students, and Indigenous allies at MIT. 

These technologies and methods have been used to tremendous success by the MIT Black History Project’s “Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941-1999.”

Link: https://www.blackhistory.mit.edu/publications/technology-and-dream-2001

Across all sectors of STEM and higher education Indigenous people are severely underrepresented. This problem is particularly salient at MIT, were the current number of Indigenous faculty and staff is zero, and with minimal progress in increasing the Indigenous student population. At MIT, and across most higher education institutions, institution administration, faculty, and staff face several issues in understanding the Indigenous student population. There is a lack of knowledge of Indigenous history, a lack of awareness of past and present Indigenous student existence, a formed monolithic view of Indigenous culture and experiences, and the continued implementation of misguided or unguided initiatives at recruitment and retention of Indigenous students and faculty.

The weight of the theory of change of this type of proposed work is exemplified in “Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941-1999.” This work is considered a tremendous milestone as one of the first major works to record the experiences of black engineering students. This proposed work has similar aims, offering the variety of personal experiences that serve as reminders that Indigenous people and culture are not monolithic. This work would also acquaint its readers with the specific burdens that nearly all Indigenous students experience in primarily white institutions. Additionally, this work also provides primary sources in how and why academic departments at institutions fail to recruit and retain Indigenous students or faculty. Aspiring Indigenous youth and current students will benefit greatly from having relatable experiences and representation on hand as well. The power of knowing that those like you have succeeded and had the same experiences as you is a timeless and powerful notion that will continue to be a source of tremendous inspiration. 

Initial and ongoing current work will be servicing the MIT Indigenous community, a community that currently holds 130 students and a far larger number of Indigenous alumni. Concurrently the administration of MIT will be a beneficiary of this work, particularly now, as they face strong calls for racial justice action.

Forecasting into the following years after the initialization and publication of this work, after five years, we expect a wide impact into numerous colleges and Indigenous communities. 2016 statistics from the National Science Foundation report that there are 172,836 Indigenous undergraduate students and 2,722 graduate students in science and engineering in the United States. We expect to service these Indigenous individuals directly and indirectly through offering this cataloged wisdom to their university or communities. 

Our primary goal within the next year is to find, contact, and interview Indigenous alumni from MIT, and current and previous staff and faculty that have been instrumental in advocating for Indigenous students. We expect to have a smaller version of our final product, a collection of at least 12 interviews with Indigenous alumni that will be transcribed and presented in a readable format.

Within five years we plan to conduct and publish further interviews and begin a MIT and Indigenous History Project. Beyond five years we expect this project to serve as a model for institutions to more closely examine their history with Indigenous people and begin the practice of offering deserved resources to Indigenous students. 

There is much work and coordination to do with the MIT administration, in access to the institutional records and access to the experts in institutional history and alumni relations. Conducting interviews with the numerous numbers of alumni is also a potential barrier, due to scheduling, travel, and willingness to be interviewed. 

Currently we have begun a positive relationship with the experts in MIT institutional history and alumni relations. These experts are also the same individuals who worked on “Technology and the Dream: Reflections on the Black Experience at MIT, 1941-1999” and who have already offered their support towards this work. They have offered to lend their connections, experience, and expertise in finding and interviewing Indigenous alumni, as well as in the publication of these interviews and in finding further financial support from Institute administration.

To rectify the difficulties in interviewing we plan to leverage video conferencing technology to its fullest extent, especially when considering the ongoing pandemic. We plan to hire student workers to increase scheduling flexibility. Travel, will be conducted only when necessary, also considering the pandemic. We expect that not all alumni will have the time or want to be interviewed. However, our current efforts to connect with alumni have been a tremendous success. Through our meetings with Indigenous alumni, they have expressed a continued investment in the MIT Indigenous student community and in the Indigenous student community at large. We expect this relationship to continue to grow and with the support of MIT Solve we can grow this community of support and increase the impact of this proposed work.

Currently two individuals. One part time-time and one student worker. 

Our team, which is expected to grow, currently includes a graduate student at MIT who is from the Navajo Nation and the current president of the MIT Native American Student Association. The second team member is a MIT staff worker who acts as a staff advisor for the MIT Native American Student Association. Our ongoing work with MIT administration, faculty, staff, and alumni places us in an excellent position to pursue this proposed work. As a student and staff team coordinating research efforts in examining MIT’s history with Indigenous students and people, we are well positioned to continue this research that is proposed in this application. Among our previous and ongoing research work we are examining how MIT’s fourth president was instrumental in the creation of the Native American Reservation system. We are also researching how MIT continues to profit from the appropriation of Native American land from the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890. We also work closely with members of the MIT Black History Project in advocating for a MIT Indigenous History project. 

We are currently partnered with the two MIT Indigenous student groups: the MIT chapter of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the MIT Native American Student Association. We work closely with these student groups to help guide and inform our principle direction and motivations for pursuing this work.

A combination of donations, grants and the selling of our eventual product will support our long term expenses. We will be seeking grant funding and direct funding from the offices of the President and Provost of MIT. We will also be seeking donation funding from MIT Indigenous alumni. We expect the proceeds from the selling of the published work to return towards a MIT Indigenous History Project and the MIT Indigenous students. 

We, as in the MIT community at large, have a significant cultural problem in acknowledging the existence, history, and contributions of Indigenous students. The partnership with Solve not only provides monetary support for our endeavors but it also shows that MIT, an organization so wrapped up in the religion of business and entrepreneurship, ideals that can be argued as an antithesis to Indigenous traditional beliefs, does acknowledge its own history with Indigenous people. In certain respects, MIT must “solve” itself before it tries to “solve” other Indigenous communities, especially while its own Indigenous community has not received the recognition or support it deserves.

What better way for MIT to “solve” itself then by having access to an MIT-backed network, were we will receive nine months of personalized support from Solve staff and members of Solve’s cross-sector community. This is as much an opportunity for that community to learn as it is for us to learn. Together, as a community, we must support and acknowledge our Indigenous stories, history, and way of life. 

We require mentorship and education in product/service distribution, funding and revenue model building, and marketing, media and exposure. We need guidance in the publishing and distribution of our planned book. Considering that we currently plan to seek funding from the Institute itself and through other possible grants, we also require guidance in seeking consistent funding for our work and the publishing and distribution of our work. Finally, we aim to make a sizable impact for Indigenous students, the MIT community, and the academic institutions at large; therefore, we require a great deal of support in gathering sufficient exposure and media coverage. 

We hope to continue to partner with the MIT faculty who consult and direct the MIT Black History Project. We further wish to partner with the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the National Congress of the American Indians, the North American Indian Center of Boston, and other Indigenous based organizations, communities, and commercial partners.

The partnerships with the MIT Black History Project are especially important in essentially recreating the project for an Indigenous based project. Their expertise will be invaluable in keeping this as an Indigenous project for Indigenous people. We also hope to foster greater community ties with MIT and Indigenous people and students at large. Considering that this solution is in part an examination of MIT’s relationship with Indigenous people and communities, it should also be a powerful resource for a MIT organization that wishes to support Native innovators.