Stepping Out and Stepping Up Project aims to recognize land-grant universities as Indigenous-owned land

Shree Luitel
Fri, 19 Nov 2021 01:59:41 +0000
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Ohio State was founded in 1870 as a land grant university in accordance with the Morrill Act of 1862, meaning that it is an institution that was designated by its state legislature to receive benefits of the Morrill Acts. Credit: Shree Luitel | Lantern Reporter

The Stepping Out and Stepping Up: The Land Grant Truth and Reconciliation Project is redefining what it means to make amends with the Native American community over a century after the founding of Ohio State.?

According to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s website, Ohio State was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university in accordance with the Morrill Act of 1862, meaning that it is an institution that was designated by its state legislature to benefit from the Morrill Acts. John Low, associate professor of comparative studies and co-investigator for the project, said the land that was given to Ohio State to establish the university belonged to Native American tribes.

“We know that the land was stolen; that’s a part of our tribal nations’ historical trauma that we live with. But what is new is that for most of the tribes, they did not know that the sale of their ancestral lands was used to endow land-grant universities,” Low said.?

Stephen Gavazzi, primary investigator for the project and a professor of human development and family sciences, said Indigenous tribes often do not know their land benefited land-grant universities.?

“The complexity of how Ohio State University accumulated its wealth is probably still not fully understood,” Gavazzi said.

According to the project’s website, it aims to join the descendants of affected tribal nations to learn about their understanding of history, to advocate with tribal nations to make amends and to influence the truth and reconciliation process across all land-grant universities.?

Gavazzi and Low said members of the project have talked with tribal leaders and found that Native American communities want to build a relationship that extends beyond reparations and see young members of the tribe take advantage of the education opportunities at Ohio State.

“They really want to have an ongoing relationship with the university that transcends just simply making reparations. They would like to see a vibrant Native American student community here,” Gavazzi said.

Low said the process of making amends will be a long and difficult one because multiple tribes are involved and they have different ideas of what amends will look like, a decision that will ultimately be made by the university.??

The project has been awarded four grants by Ohio State totaling $230,000. The grants include the Traditional Indigenous Knowledge Grant, the Seed Fund for Racial Justice, the Collaborative Centers Grant from Ohio State’s Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme and the InFACT Linkage and Leverage grant program, which supports faculty from six colleges who are working to learn about the invisibility of Native Americans, according to its website.

The project will hold an event Friday at 4 p.m. via Zoom with artist Elijah Forbes, an Odawa two-spirited comic artist and community organizer. He will speak about using language and pictures to tell stories in a non-traditional way.?

“A lot of the things I work with has to do with spirits and things being out of time, and we have more space to do that with comics than even in movies,” Forbes said.?

To register for this event, click here.