Transcript:

Intro: Hi, I'm John Iino and welcome to the Reed Smith podcast, Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions, and challenges, past and present, all with a goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included.

John: Hey everyone. Welcome to the podcast. Today we have a really interesting and informative discussion, so I'm really looking forward to jumping right in. Today. I'm joined by our standby co-host, Iveliz Crespo. Hey Iveliz.

Iveliz: Hey, John.

John: So today we are privileged to have executives from the American Indian College Fund. First, let me introduce Cheryl Crazy Bull, who is the president and CEO. Hi Cheryl.

Cheryl: Hi John. Nice to be here with you.

John: Absolutely. What a pleasure it is. And we also are joined by a fellow lawyer, Emily White Hat, who is the Vice President of programs at the American Indian College Fund. Hey Emily.

Emily: Hi John. Nice to join you today.

John: So it's really great to have both of you today. I dunno, Cheryl, maybe you can give us just a little bit of a background on the American Indian College Fund.

Cheryl: Oh, sure. I'm very happy to do that. The College Fund is a nonprofit organization that was established by tribal colleges and universities to support access to higher education for native students that attend tribal colleges and universities. And recent years, the college fund has grown to include supporting students that attend other higher education institutions, and we do a lot of work to support programming and capacity at tribal colleges as well.

John: Fantastic. And so the title of our podcast is Powerful Personal Stories. It'd be great for both Cheryl and Emily to hear a little bit about your background, your personal stories, and really what drove you to this work. So maybe we'll start with Cheryl.

Cheryl: Thank you. I'm happy to do that. First, let me start by introducing myself and our Lakota language. My Lakota name is Wacinyanpi Win, which means they depend on her. I'm a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation, which is located on the Rosebud Reservation in South Central, South Dakota. And I just greet all of our listeners with a good heart and a handshake. I was born and raised on the Rosebud Reservation. Both of my parents were also born and raised there. I have worked in tribal education for my entire career, which is coming upon 39 years this August actually. And I think if I were to characterize my personal story, I'm sort of an every native person story of growing up in a tribal community, surrounded by an extended family, engaged with our traditional practices and our traditional extended family relationships and had that opportunity to go to college. I went to college to three different colleges before I got my undergraduate degree. So they got fairly typical of a lot of native students who went to college education, but find it very challenging to achieve. I have a large family. I have three children and four stepchildren and around 30 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. So I'm also very rooted in my extended family and in the cultures and traditions of my people and have really enjoyed the vocation of being an advocate for tribal education. So I think that's a little bit of my story.

John: Well, with seven children and all the grandchildren, I wanted to congratulate you. I noted that you recently received the Legacy Award from working Mother Media, so fantastic.

Cheryl: Thank you.

John: So Emily, you want to tell us a little bit about your personal story and how you got to the work that you're doing now?

Emily: Sure. My name is Emily White Hat and I provided my introduction in my Lakota language for any of my relatives that may listen to the podcast and wanted to also greet everyone today with a good heart and a handshake. I too am a citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation and grew up in St. Francis just south of Rosebud on the Rosebud Reservation was born in Rosebud and I'm from the Aske Gluwipi Tiospaye, which is what would be known as our extended clan system. And Aske Gluwipi means that we wrap our hair in defiance. I am currently the vice president of programs at the American Indian College Fund, where our work focuses on place-based programming that includes the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and is rooted in traditional native values in the areas of early childhood education, environmental stewardship, native arts and culture and workforce development areas such as reentry to education, high school equivalency, and also looking at veterans support. I was a single parent in my college and law school time, so I understand the challenges that a majority of our parents face going to school as a parent. And my son had to go to class with me often, and I always joke that he really had to be sick for us to miss a day of school. And one day we were going to one of my finals and he started throwing up as we got to the car and I said, okay, wait, wait, you're really sick. Let's go in and figure this out so I know what it is to be a parent and to kind of navigate those challenges In college, I went to law school to have a better understanding of how the laws and policies impacted my people, the Sicangu Lakota, as well as what those impacts were on our tribal sovereignty. And I've been fortunate over my career to have a variety of careers where I feel like each has built on the other. I started my professional career as a firefighter and volunteered my time as an EMT, and I've been a policy researcher in Washington DC as well as a prosecutor for my tribe. And I'm now in this current role as a vice president applying life lessons and career lessons learned, supporting tribal sovereignty and making this world a better place for our native and indigenous children for the next seven generations and beyond is really what drives my work. I want access, opportunity, and visibility for our native youth, and I also want to be a good relative that shows up and speaks up when our voices need to be heard. I'm a tribal college graduate and I come from a family of seven children. All of us have gone to college. Not everybody has completed, but we all have. But for tribal colleges, both my parents likely would not have gotten their college degrees in the 1980s, and so I did enter college as a second generation college student, which is a different experience that many of our native youths still face today. Thank you.

Iveliz: Thank you so much. You folks, you both have really incredible stories. What we'd like to switch gears now and focus a little bit about the work that you're doing at the American Indian College Fund specifically. Would you mind Cheryl telling us a little bit about the populations that you serve and what are some of the issues that are impacting those communities and influence in the work that you do?

Cheryl: Sure. I want to say first that the college fund and tribal colleges and universities serve the vision of increasing culturally rooted higher education attainment by American Alaska native people. Prior to this current pandemic, the rate of college degree attainment for indigenous peoples American Indians, Alaska Natives in particular was less than half of that of other groups. So according to the US Census Community Survey, it's about 14 point a 5% of indigenous peoples in the population that we serve that are over 25 have a bachelor's degree in. That's compared to over 21% of the overall population. So we estimate that we would need another 800,000 American Indian, Alaska native peoples to get a college degree to just even have parity with the rest of the US population. And I think that we, in particular, the tribal colleges and universities serve about 21,000 students who are native and other rural students. So we also serve a rural non-native population because of the locations of our institutions, which are mostly on rural Indian reservations. That's about 11% of all the American Indians, Alaska natives that are in college in the United States. So it's a significant number of people who are going to really these 35 institution compared to literally hundreds of other higher education institutions. I'll talk a little bit about the current environment because the pandemic and the focus on racial injustice have really impacted our communities. The immediate concern that we had when the pandemic hit was how are we going to support native students staying focused and committed to their higher education goals? The pandemic has had incredible health related economic and social impacts in our tribal communities and tribal colleges have had to be very responsive to the immediate and short-term needs of students and the college fund stepped up to participate with that. We recognize that the number of students that we have, which is we're working, was around 50% of our students who were employed either part-time or full-time. And the loss of jobs in our communities has exacerbated an already high unemployment rate and already high poverty rate in our communities needs. We found that the digital divide, which is quite extreme in rural America, is even more extreme in rural reservation. And so the pandemic really exacerbated that as well. And because our institutions are really focused on revitalization of our cultural identity and overcoming the oppressive practices of particularly the government and really looking for ways to restore the wellbeing of our communities, we found ourselves to be particularly challenged by being visible and the current racial discussions, the race related discussions that are going on. So we've seen some pretty serious situations arise in our communities as a result of the current environment.

Iveliz: Thank you, Cheryl.

Cheryl: So I'll also share that in it just so happened that in the fall of 2019, the college fund in collaboration with the Hope Center at Temple University administered the real college survey, which looks at student basic needs. We were able to do this with 11 tribal colleges and universities and released the report in March of this year, coincidentally when the US first started shutting down due to the pandemic. And that survey really told the story that we who work in tribal education already knew, but it gave us the data that helps tell that story to a broader audience. So we discovered that 62% of the respondents to the survey reported being hungry or food insecure in the prior year. And what was most alarming to us was that this included a number of students who indicated that they actually did not have enough food for themselves and their family. So it just wasn't worrying about whether or not they were going to have enough food. They actually did not have enough and skipped days of eating because of that food insecurity. And then not surprisingly, 69% of the respondents reported that in the prior year they had been housing insecure. And you may be aware that housing on Indian reservations is already insufficient for the populations in our communities and we have a lot of multifamily households. We have a lot of individuals then who experience homelessness. So this was pretty alarming to us to see the extent to which our students didn't feel that they were safely housed.

John: Wow. Those are astounding numbers on the housing and the food insecurity. Emily, with all the tribal college and university students facing these challenges, what specifically is the college fund doing to address some of these issues?

Emily: We're working to really support the TCUs that are looking at food sovereignty programs that are place-based. Many of our TCUs are involved in our environmental stewardship programming, which has really over the last few years cultivated that knowledge and interest in gardening community education. We're seeing across our tribal nations a lot of farmers' markets that are reemerging. I think something that was prevalent through the pandemic just across the country in general was the access to seeds. As many people went back to gardening. We also know that our tribal colleges are providing food to our families and to our students at the college fund. We continue to also advocate for increased investment in student housing. A few of our tribal colleges have housing on campus, but we know that that's still a tremendous need not only at our TCU campuses, but in our tribal communities and of course, increasing the scholarship awards for students to increase their access to sufficient financial resources. So for example, if a student receives a maximum Powell Award of around 6,100, along with one of our full circle scholarships of around 4,500, there's still a significant gap in funding based on the average cost of TCU attendance, which for off-campus students, which the vast majority of TCU students are, is around $17,700, which then leaves a gap of around $7,000. And then the college fund also has been involved in advocating in other areas around voting and census to bring visibility to our communities. We know that involvement in the census is absolutely critical in getting our communities to complete their census in our relatives at home to complete their information in the census before that is finished this fall. And then voting as we have an election coming up this fall as well. The college fund has also done advocacy around awareness for LGBTQ relatives as well as relatives that are reentering into an education program after incarceration, and then also involved in an indigenous higher education equity initiative to bring more awareness and visibility to our native students.

John: Wow. There's just so much there. It's fantastic. All the things that the college fund is doing with all these challenges, whether it's food insecurity, housing insecurity, how are the students faring just relatively in terms of their academic success?

Emily: Our students are just tremendously awesome. The success of our students, we think can be attributed to their reasons for going to college. As you've heard, both Cheryl and I share our stories. Many of our students are very similar in that they have a desire to improve the lives of their children and families and their intention to improve the lives of their communities and to support tribal sovereignty and self-determination. According to the Gallup produced study, conducted collaboratively with the College fund and released in October, 2019, nearly 75% of our students are employed in areas that benefit their tribes. And TCU alums are two times more likely than their peers to thrive in areas of wellbeing assessed by the Gallup Survey in the areas of physical, community, financial, social, and career focuses. As I mentioned, the college fund also has produced this report for Institutes of Higher Education, primarily, of course predominantly white institutions. Our initiative is the Indigenous Higher Education Equity Initiative. And in that we give specific recommendations from stakeholders to the PWIs to share how they can create safer, more welcoming environments for students. But our students are the most resilient individuals you'll find. Many are just balancing so many complexities of daily life, family crisis. Many of our students are the head of their households in intergenerational families, multi-generational families, and really stepping up to take on that responsibility and accountability as native people to get their education and to live good lives.

John: So that's amazing. You just mentioned that a number of the graduates, a significant amount of the graduates end up working with the tribes. What types of outreach are you also doing for say, other organizations? And so how can they do a better job, frankly, of recruiting and bringing in some of the graduates from TCUs?

Emily: We are always open to conversations with organizations that are interested in recruiting our graduates. We know that we're always starting at an area of education with those partnerships. One of the things that I think is really important to understand about our students is the importance of our cultural identity, our spiritual and traditional ways of life. And with that brings a responsibility that we all carry as native people that not only impacts our work that we're doing and whatever profession we're doing, but many of us have responsibilities back to our communities that we have to carry out throughout the year that involve traditional and social ceremonial responsibilities as well as different cultural responsibilities. And so when we visit with individuals and we visit with partners that are interested in hiring our students, those are things that we really bring awareness to because I think it's important and we're not asking for a special consideration, but what we're asking for is an understanding that our daily lives also include a whole community with us, whether we're in Denver or whether we're in St. Francis, South Dakota, we still have those sort of responsibilities that are just inherent in us that we carry

Iveliz: For Cheryl, if you wouldn't mind sharing with us what some of that inclusive behavior looks like, because if you're partnering with organizations and the goal there is for them to retain indigenous populations and also aid them in their success to make sure that they're successful at these organizations, in addition to having an understanding of cultural competency in respect to these populations, what are some of the other ways that these organizations can foster inclusion to make sure that people are being successful?

Cheryl: Sure. I do have some specific recommendations. I think some of the principles that were referred to regarding our indigenous higher education equity initiative also apply in the workplace. There has to be an deliberate and persistent education about the historical and contemporary experiences of indigenous peoples because this is lacking in the K 12 system and it's generally lacking in higher education as well. So we find that most Americans, most people in the United States don't even think that native people still exist. So there is a high need for that kind of persistent education about the history of indigenous people's experiences and then the contemporary experiences that we have. I think organizations have to have mechanisms by which team members can address bias in organizational policies and practices because creating a safe and welcoming environment means that people need to address the ways that they might be exhibiting racist aggression or other kinds of racist practices. So if an organization doesn't have a mechanism by which people can address that, I think it's really hard for indigenous peoples to find a place for themselves in those organizations. And I believe that that applies to all people of color. I also recognize that there are a limited number of indigenous peoples who are trained for the variety of positions that are available in the workforce more broadly. So in organizations, I feel should have a very expansive outreach and recruitment effort and really put it on their team members to find ways to approach native peoples in different environments, whether it's an urban or rural or reservation environment. And I do encourage organizations, corporations in particular, to invest in education. We know that education is that pathway to a more successful life, to a better life, but if people don't have the resources to even get that education, then you don't have a pool of people that you can recruit from and then address all of these other concerns and issues that might occur in organizations.

Iveliz: Excellent advice.

John: Cheryl, at the beginning, you noted, just noted right now as well, that standing together and what's going on in our nation, Black Lives Matter. I saw recently that the college fund put out a statement in terms of standing in solidarity. What are you specifically doing in terms of racial injustice now and maybe are you partnering with any other organizations as well in terms of addressing racial injustice?

Cheryl: Yeah. Well, so I think that addressing racial injustice is the heartbeat of what the college fund does because we're removing barriers to education that are created by racial injustice on a more, I guess, collaborative scale, the college fund did make the decision that we were not going to just put out a statement of solidarity, but that we were going to do things to be more engaged. So we've had many of our team members be on panels with different organizations that are exploring racial justice issues among their constituents or in their corporations. We are sponsoring and indigenous activism speaker series where we're bringing in indigenous activists from various walks of activism, various kinds of things that people are doing to share their experiences and their advice and their practices. We're in the process of creating a curriculum for college students on organizing and activism. So we just partner across the country with others that are working toward more visibility. The college fund has also been very active in supporting changes in the names of sports teams when they have harmful mascot names and imagery. So we're very active in those kinds of spaces as well.

Iveliz: Absolutely. We've been having a lot of discussions at Reed Smith, certainly about intersectionality and collaboration and social movements in general. So it's really great to hear that you folks are thinking really critically about not just the issues impacting your communities, but also the issues impacting other communities as well. Now, Emily, we hear about the great work that you folks are doing. We hear about the amazing stories of the communities that you serve. How can we as organizations or individuals get involved and support the work of the College Fund?

Emily: Thanks for that question, Iveliz. As we mentioned, our most important goal is to continue to support the students by removing the barriers to their continued access to education. And for us, this is expansive. We must provide anything. Our students need to stay in school and complete their education to achieve their goal in creating successful native individuals, families, and communities. And this includes financial resources that support laptops, other tech tools, internet access, food, housing, utility support, funding for medicine, supplies for children and transportation. And so you could visit our website www.collegefund.org and look at more in depthly at some of our programming. And we also really appreciate the support of donors as well as partners and individuals that are out there and foundations that want to support our work. The college funds capacity, and that of the tribal colleges to support continued college readiness programs, scholarship leadership training, student success programs, and career training, as well as transition programs is more vital now because of the educational, economic, and social crises in our communities. So we really invite you to learn more about the artwork, ask questions, share our resources. The reports that we've mentioned in today's podcasts are available on our website as well, and just continue to bring awareness to native communities and native youth.

John: Cheryl and Emily, thank you for sharing with our audience all these great things that The College Fund is doing. It's been so informative and so important. We really appreciate you coming in today.

Iveliz: Absolutely.

Cheryl: Thank you for inviting us. Thank you.

Emily: Thank you.

Iveliz: Thank you both.

Outro: Inclusivity Included is a Reed Smith production. Our producer is Ali McCardell. This podcast is available on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, PodBean, and reedsmith.com.

Disclaimer: This podcast is provided for educational purposes. It does not constitute legal advice and is not intended to establish an attorney-client relationship, nor is it intended to suggest or establish standards of care applicable to particular lawyers in any given situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

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