DU Native Student Alliance calls for action

DU Native Student Alliance members check people in for the public forum. [Photo by Alexa Chan with Native Student Alliance members]

The University of Denver’s Native Student Alliance hosted a public forum at the University of Denver’s Ruffatto Hall on Apr. 29, 2022. The forum was to discuss and educate individuals and administration on campus about the recent tipi incident outside of the Academic Commons. DU’s NSA constructed a tipi to create a safe and sacred place, which was defaced and vandalized. Individuals destroyed the sacred poles of the tipi and the University regrets playing any role in not protecting and safely keeping these poles, according to a mass email sent out to its students. 

This forum was intended to spread awareness of this incident, educate individuals on the sacred nature of the tipi poles, and address what course of actions administration will proceed in light of this incident. The room was packed, each seat was taken, in this entry way of Ruffatto Hall, a 73,568 sq. ft. building. The large reception space held about 45 or so people. Many people were wearing their, “No More Pios,” masks that they had received at the front desk. And the members of the NSA were wearing, “Sko Den,” t-shirts. NSA had asked administration to sit in the front row of the room. Needless to say, the tension between the leaders and members of the NSA and campus’ administration could be felt in the air. 

Sid Whiting a local elder of the community, began the event with a blessing. He’s been apart of the this Native community since the early 60’s when they arrived here from the reservation. He begins the blessing by regaling how we are all connected as human beings and as living things dwelling on this Earth. 

Elder Whiting stated, “My people we have a term. The Lakota have a term. We say, ‘Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ.’ Which means, ‘We are all related.” 

Following this blessing, speaker Raelene Whiteshield stood up and read off some very gruesome letters from the Sand Creek massacre. Whiteshield recounted that the Sand Creek massacre brutally murdered, raped, and dismembered over 250 Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. There was no elder, woman, or child that was spared in this horrific time. Letters, written by a general during the time of the massacre, depicted mothers and children being hacked by hatchets, run down by horses, and shot with no regard. They were scalped and paraded through town, according to these letters. It was appalling. 

Whiteshield is the mother to Jocelyn Running Wolf, who had sent a letter to Chancellor Jeremy Haefner about the way Indigenous students are treated on campus. Whiteshield presented bits of her daughter’s letter to the crowd in the room. Running Wolf demanded urges the Univerisity and the Chancellor to disband the “Pios” moniker. 

Running Wolf wrote to the Chancellor in regards to the news that DU will be keeping the Pioneer monkier, “Since you seem to not understand why the word holds so much weight over our Indigenous students. Let me provide a different example, what if our moniker was named the University of Denver Nazis?” 

Running Wolf compares this to the definition and symbolism behind the Pioneers. Following the reading of letter by both a general from the Sand Creek massacre and Joceyln Running Wolf, the forum was divided into smaller groups where we could discuss next courses of action. 

We were asked, “How can I be an ally?” “What can I do to support my Native and Indigenous classmates on campus?” 

Jeremy Haefner was not in attendance for this conversation and dialogue. 

DU’s NSA is tired and angry. According to those who spoke out at this forum, administration has made empty promises and there has been a lack of action. The NSA charges the University’s administration to take action and not brush over the incident. 

Whiting stated, “That tipi, that acts as a shelter. As Creation does, as Creation hangs over our heads and shelters all of us. And allows us to be human upon the Earth. The tipi does that same for us. It shelters us. It allows us to be who we are.”