I received a letter from the College of Menominee Nation about students attending the tribal college in Wisconsin who competed in an aeronautical engineering contest against nine large engineering schools. The challenge: To design, build, fly and recover a high-powered rocket that could fly to an altitude of at least 3,000 feet and capture a photograph of a specially constructed image on the ground.
The CMN team’s rocket, the Golden Eagle, not only achieved its goal, it exceeded it, by soaring to an altitude of 5,000 feet. The students, faculty and staff were ecstatic in their victory ”with our little wooden and cardboard rocket” they called ”the little rocket that could,” over high-tech contenders constructed of fiberglass and carbon-fiber.
It is not surprising that the team succeeded. Indians have an innate natural intelligence and had an intimate relationship with the stars since prehistory. Plains Indians prepared winter counts, or histories of their tribes, based on the astral calendar; petroglyphs are believed to convey celestial events; and tepees and hogans were oriented to the stars and designed both to stay cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The stars hold a prominent place in Native spirituality and provide inspiration for participation in the great order of the universe. Many cultures believe that heavenly bodies are ancestors or carry their ancestors’ spirits, and Indian astronomers chronicled events in the universe.
It is not surprising that the CMN students felt elated in the wake of their victory. Despite federal Indian policy historically discounting the collective knowledge, wisdom and inventiveness of Indian people, their success was an affirmation on many levels: of the strength that comes from believing in oneself and one’s people; the transformative power of education and knowledge; and the success of Indian education since the beginning of the tribal college movement in 1968.
CMN is one of more than 30 tribal colleges and universities in the United States that serves the Indian community, and its success reflects the growth and success of all tribal colleges. Located on the Menominee Indian Reservation, CMN opened its doors with 49 students enrolled in four classes in 1993. By the fall of 2002, 530 students were enrolled and the college offered 15 associate degree programs. The school is the embodiment of founding tribal college president Dr. Verna Fowler’s vision for a better future for her people. The college that began in one room is now a campus with a state-of-the-art technology lab, library and distance education center. Like other tribal colleges, its coursework infuses Native culture into its curriculum. Students attempting to reach the stars learn both the Latin and Indian-language names for constellations, only one of many ways tribal colleges both teach and instill cultural pride to carry our traditions to future generations.
Today, I celebrate the success of students at CMN as one shining example of the abilities and successes of all of our tribal college students. Tribal colleges are producing teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers and now rocket scientists. That isn’t surprising. After all, Indians have studied the stars since our beginnings. It is also not surprising that we have stars walking among us, like the tribal college students, professors and staff who succeed, sometimes against great odds. When the Golden Eagle soared to the heavens this spring, it carried the hearts, hopes and dreams of Indian people with it. Onwards, Golden Eagle.
Richard B. Williams is CEO of American Indian College Fund.