By Nick Pantages
@nick_pantages22
What was supposed to be a discussion about Native American appropriation between members of the Springfield College community and representatives of several Native American tribal nations in Massachusetts and the Western Massachusetts Commissioner of Indian Affairs did not go as planned.
The representatives were invited to share their views on the proposals the College’s renaming committee is currently reviewing and to provide ideas on how the College might address items brought forward in the proposal. However, at the start of the Zoom call, listeners were informed by members of the renaming committee that the representatives declined to attend after being informed of the format. Vice President for Inclusion and Community Engagement Calvin Hill, who is one of the key figures on the committee, broke the news to the public and expressed that the committee was disappointed that the invited speakers were not present.
“I am as disappointed, or more disappointed, that we did not have Indigenous voices here,” said Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper. “That was the intent of the evening. It was obvious to us that we were missing the indigenous voice. So the intent was to invite panel members to come and help us understand their perspective.”
The committee consists of 10 campus community members – including a representative from the student body, staff, faculty, board of trustees and other campus figures – who were reviewing nine requested changes across five brackets.
The first proposal was to stop using the term “Pueblo” to describe the building on East Campus. Also related to East Campus was to refrain from using the terms “council ring” and “seven fires,” as well as preserving the artwork of Luis Gonzalez, better known as Wo-Peen.
The other proposed changes were related to the term “Massasoit.” This includes renaming Massasoit Hall, Lake Massasoit and Camp Massasoit, which is held on East Campus over the summer.
The Zoom was rescheduled from the original date, which was supposed to be a forum in Judd Gymnasia on Dec. 5 because the committee could not confirm that the tribal nation representatives could attend.
President Cooper said in an email to the campus on Dec. 4:
“I regretfully inform you that we have made the decision to postpone the Open Forum on Renaming. Calvin, the committee, and I chose to do so in an effort to ensure that we have representation from local Native Tribes to share their nation’s official position on issues of appropriation. We have already reached out to the Hassanamisco Band of the Nipmucs and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and will be contacting others regarding their availability and desire to participate.”
The rescheduled meeting was pushed to Zoom in part so that alumni had the opportunity to contribute, but the invited representatives had concerns about the format.
Lisa Bromberg, Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Director of the Core Curriculum, shared an email from one of the invited representatives explaining the decision not to attend:
“I was under the understanding that Native voices were going to be centered in the spirit of sharing and education. I am hearing that more non-Natives are sharing their perspective on the culture for their own purposes which is nonsensical as they are not Native. That is the very definition of appropriation.”
The email continued:
“I am no longer willing to participate in this event tomorrow. There have been far too many changes made last minute. The changes being made convey the message that the administrators do not care about our daily lives and shared humanity. The changes also tell me whoever is making these decisions is also too ignorant to have a good faith conversation. I am also hearing that we will be subjected to an hour of questioning.”
President Cooper addressed the change of format in her closing remarks.
“It was set as a webinar originally, and then the response we got from some of our community members is that, ‘We really want to ask questions, we really want to be engaged, we want to be able to share our point of view’ and we opened this up to a Zoom, and all this happened in just the last three or four days,” Cooper said. “I’ll take the responsibility for making that decision.”
When the news that the Native American tribal nations representatives would not take part was shared, many people on the call expressed shocked looks.
Two members of the campus community, sophomore student Brooke Lane and head women’s lacrosse coach Jenn Thomas, both informed listeners of their Native American heritage. Both shared similar sentiments, that removing Native American names would cause more harm than good.
Thomas said she spoke with her father, who grew up on a Native American reservation, and gave his perspective on removing Native names.
“It hurts more to remove our culture and to hide it and to change it than to actually embrace it,” Thomas said.
Two other viewpoints were shared during the forum.
Most of the speakers focused on East Campus, and its popularity, especially among Pre-Camp leaders, making it the most polarizing topic of the discussion.
Many current and former Pre-camp leaders began their statements by expressing their admiration for East Campus, Camp Massasoit and Pre-Camp, and the joy it had brought to their lives. They also described the “sacredness” of the Pueblo and how it is used as a learning tool to teach attendees about Wo-Peen and the legacy that he left behind, notably through his artwork that is displayed inside.
Pre-Camp representatives accounted for a majority of the speakers, but there were also some such as Associate Professor of English Justine Dymond, who shared her viewpoint as someone who teaches courses centered around Native American Literature.
“Listening to some of the [people] here talk about how important East Campus is to them,” Dymond said, “I don’t doubt that, [but] those memories, those experiences and the learning is not going to go away by renaming the buildings and spaces where those activities and memories are happening. Instead, what it does is it allows an opportunity, one for more people to talk about what we are talking about, to understand and learn why cultural appropriation is harmful.”
Another speaker shared that the silence from the tribal nations representatives spoke louder than anything they may have said at the meeting.
The third opinion shared was anger toward the committee as a whole, as some speakers believed that the renaming committee already had made its decision, and this session may have been a facade to make members of the community think their voices were being heard.
In the opening statements, Hill said that the committee has been discussing this issue for almost a year, dating back to February 2023.
According to President Cooper, another forum – this one an in-person discussion with the student body – will likely be held since Monday’s forum raised more questions than it answered. Another form of a forum is very likely, specifically an in-person discussion with the student body that President Cooper mentioned in her statement. But as for this event, it can be viewed as unsuccessful for the people involved, including President Cooper.
“We wanted to invite as many voices as possible,” Cooper said. “But the externality of it was that the voices that we needed to hear most chose not to participate.”
Photo Courtesy of Springfield College