CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) When Samantha Maltais steps onto Harvard’s campus this fall, she’ll become the first member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe to attend its prestigious law school. It’s a “full-circle moment” for the university and the Martha’s Vineyard tribe, she says. More than 350 years ago, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, became […]
May 27, 2021 Share
CAMBRIDGE When Samantha Maltais steps onto Harvard’s campus this fall, she’ll become the first member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe to attend its prestigious law school. It’s a “full-circle moment” for the university and the Martha’s Vineyard tribe, she says.
More than 350 years ago, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man, became the first Native American to graduate from the Cambridge, Massachusetts, university the product of its 1650 charter calling for the education of “English and Indian youth of this country.”
“Coming from a tribal community in its backyard, I’m hyper aware of Harvard’s impact,” said Maltais, the 24-year-old daughter of her tribe’s chairwoman. “It’s a symbol of New England’s colonial past, this tool of assimilation that pushed Native Americans into the background in their own homelands.”
Harvard, Other Colleges Fall Short For Native Americans - Cambridge, MA - Native American tribes, students and faculty want the Ivy League institution and other colleges to do more for Indigenous communities.
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