Hamilton College was recently awarded $750,000 from the Mellon Foundation to create a program in American Indian and Indigenous studies.

Nathan Goodale is the associate vice president for academic affairs at Hamilton College. He says there will be a minimum of five classes that they will establish for this program for students to take as a minor.

“So bringing in speakers or other practitioners in the field of Indigenous studies that both our students and faculty and members of the nation would be interested in hearing from,” said Goodale.

The program will also include collaborative research between faculty, students and the Oneida Nation. 

“Students can also propose projects that they would like to do with the Oneida," said Brianna Burke, the first faculty member in native and indigenous studies at Hamilton College. "Then we will put these in front of the Oneida and they can decide which ones they want to pick up. So we’re trying to create this community [and] communication network."

Creating this program stems back to 1793 when the college was founded as a joint educational venture between Samuel Kirkland, who founded the college, and Oneida Indian Chief Shenendoah, who owned the land given to Kirkland. 

“Kirkland wrote a plan of education," Goodale said. "The original document is about 15 pages of a handwritten letter from him to President George Washington about his plans for an educational institution that would serve both settler youth, the Oneida Indigenous Youth and the other nations."

However, when the Hamilton-Oneida Academy was re-envisioned as Hamilton College in 1812, all notions of a joint education were erased. As the first faculty in native and ingenious studies at the college, Burke says this effort is part of the relationship building. 

“We can show students that repairing these relationships is actually possible, and this is what it looks like," Burke said. "It takes a little bit more time than I think they would like and also a lot of patience and listening."

The Oneida Nation says they are proud to partner with Hamilton College, stating, “This initiative will deepen our historic ties and build upon our long legacy of partnership. The relationship between the Oneida Indian Nation and Hamilton College provides a great model for how academic institutions and Indigenous nations can work together with respect and understanding.”