|
Which Way Did They Go?
We must find them... We are their
leaders!
<<>>
The Big Green College fingers "the
press" for Indian image...
Claims that it never officially
adopted any symbol or logo.
Today, chaos still reigns after
40 years.
D-students adopt ad-hoc mascots
of all sorts.
Without a symbol The College looses
big $$$
in licensed products.
It should have been a Tuck biz-case 2
scores ago!
*****
For approximately 50 years, representing 25%
of the College's history up to 1972,
the year when the College re-awakened its passion
for Indian education,
an innocent fraud of sorts was created on
the students and alumni.
The College overtly approved and
co-opted the Indian moniker,
which was created by "the press," and
transformed it into
emblems on sports uniforms and College lore.
In 1974, The College banned all use and
references to the Indian symbol.
leaving many alumni bruised.
Today, The College sits
paralyzed on this
sore wound.
*****
Historically, Dartmouth's "Indian Era" was brief.
"Officially," says The College, "it never existed."
But, for about 50 classes... they know that it did!
Still, it's time for a make-over. |
Ol' Eleazar was not alone
in his quest to educate Indians.
John Harvard beat him by whole 119 years!
As for Eleazar, he was from
Yale!
"Given the highly charged religious atmosphere, it is not surprising that in 1754 Eleazar Wheelock,
another Yale-educated minister, founded Moor's Indian Charity School in Lebanon, Connecticut. Wheelock was impressed by the
promise of his Indian students (among whom was the future Mohawk leader Joseph Brant), but especially by a Mohegan convert,
Samson Occom, whom he had tutored privately from 1743 to 1747. With Occom's help he secured funds from England that allowed
him in 1769 to found Dartmouth College, originally intended as a school for Indian youths."
*****
READ ALL ABOUT IT...
Eastern Universities and Indians: Dartmouth was
hardly unique, but chose to "trademark" itself through an Indian image once given the concept by sportswriters. Put thusly,
this either sounds like a self-directed, "official" move, or an other-directed, lame acceptance.
BY CLICKING LINKS, YOU'LL OPEN A BROSWER
TO ANOTHER SITE.
|
 |
|
|
TIMELINE AS ILLUSTRATED IN
AMERICAN INDIAN COLLEGE FUND CATALOG
|
|
|
|
|
|
BUT, IN THE END...
ALL IS WELL AND GETTING BETTER
|
|
FROM THE
NOVEMBER 1998
DARTMOUTH
Alumni Magazine
"And the legacy of Occom's vision of Indian
education remains. The founding of Dartmouth College -- like Samson Occom's life -- was braided with strands of promise
and betrayal. The College took 200 years to rededicate itself to Indian education. Introduced in 1972, Dartmouth's
Native American Studies program has grown into a full-scale department and now offers a major. Some hundred Native Americans
currently study at the College, among them Occom descendant Sarah Harris '00."
"Occum's name still appears to be good for
credit in the Dartmouth community, too. The Samson Occom Pooled Income Fund has netted five million dollars in donations
from Dartmouth alumni. The College, though, owes more than a financial debt of gratitude to Samson Occom. For
had Samson Occom not found Eleazar Wheelock, there would have been no Dartmouth."
BERND PEYER, a lecturer at the Zentrum fur Nordamerika-Forshung
in Frankfurt, Germany, taught Native American Studies at Dartmouth in 1995.
|
