CROW AGENCY, Mont. – When nearly 700 Crows filed in a line to vote for removal of Little Big Horn College President Janine Pease Pretty On Top Jan. 13, some said it was political pressure, others said it was just time for a change.
Henry Real Bird has been appointed interim president.
Pretty On Top and the LBHC Board of trustees first came to blows in late November when the board voted to terminate her contract at an emergency meeting. Since that time students protested by marching, in talks with tribal officials and by staging a lock-in at the school library Nov. 30.
The resolution to terminate Pretty On Top immediately eliminated her case against the LBHC Board of Trustees in Crow Tribal Court.
A crowd of about 50 students and supporters emerged from the members-only meeting. Some cried in despair, others shouted for democracy as Pretty On Top left the council floor. Students hugged her as police tried to secure and calm the area.
Student Paul Little Light said he was forcibly removed from the meeting when he approached to speak on Pretty On Top’s behalf. The students said tribal officials did not allow any discussion of the resolution.
“It’s really devastating that I was not even allowed to defend myself,” Pretty On Top said. “They want it. They want it all, and they want it on their terms. The council has no role in the selection or dismissing of the college president. The council has invaded the ‘arm’s length’ relationship. It’s the students that will suffer the damage, not me. I have my education already.”
A last-minute amendment to the resolution called for termination of the president’s supporters, for tribal officers to escort her to the college immediately following the meeting and asked her to remove her personal belongings and hand over her keys.
More than a dozen police vehicles and about 20 supporters accompanied the emotional president. Pretty On Top’s father and sister helped her, while three other employees – the head of teacher training, the dean of student services and the director of a grant – also removed their personal items, saying they had been fired as well.
The tribal director of education filed a temporary restraining order in Crow Tribal Court barring Pretty On Top and four students from the institution. On Jan. 16, Interim President Henry Real Bird said the students were welcome back at LBHC. However, all have enrolled at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, about 60 miles from Crow Agency.
Real Bird, a former student services director, said he hopes to reunify staff, faculty and students at LBHC.
“We’ll reset our sails, catch some horses and start again,” the cowboy poet said. “(I want) to work with the board. That’s what it’s all about.”
College board member Walter Old Elk says after talking with officials of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges last week, he is confident the institution’s accreditation is safe.
“Our accreditation is OK until the year 2005,” Old Elk said. “She (Pretty On Top) told the media and the public it was at risk and that wasn’t true.”
Real Bird said rumors have made his first week a rocky one.
“Tuesday was overwhelming, and disheartening. It was a rush, it was tough. Some students and faculty came and said they thought they had to leave or wanted to know if they were fired. I assured them that is not my mission.”
A former dean of academics as a transition aide and a few new support staff will aid real Bird’s mission. He said he received one letter of resignation from a part-time information systems faculty member and is unsure if employees who left Jan. 13 will return, saying he had not heard from them.
Real Bird said he was unsure of the number of students who had withdrawn, citing Pretty On Top’s removal, but did not think the number was high.
In the immediate future Real Bird said he plans to look over the art department, consider joining the National Junior Athletic Association and create a student body lounge.
“We want to give the students what they have never had in their lives,” he said. “I want them to know that they are alive and that they count.”
