Ceremony marks anniversary of Harvard's Indian College

Three Native American men, one cradling a baby, another tapping methodically on a simple rawhide drum, stood inside one of Harvard University's conference rooms yesterday and chanted a song in a language that hasn't been heard on campus in at least three centuries.

Members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Aquinnah, the singers were asked to perform at a ceremony marking the 350th anniversary of the university's long-lost Indian College, which produced Harvard's first Native American graduate in 1665. Native American alumni from as far as California flew in to attend, and the men's voices, pitched high as they chanted for nearly 10 minutes, were strong and proud.

But just as their song enveloped the room, so did a sense of longing and regret that was repeated throughout the two-hour ceremony. While Harvard has made strides in recruiting Native Americans -- it has invited a Wampanoag graduate to give this year's commencement invocation and has committed permanent funding for its small Native American Program -- the school's overall history with Native Americans has not been a good one.

The Indian College, created to educate Native Americans under mandate of the college's 1650 charter, produced only one graduate, Wampanoag Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck, historians say. Some 300 years passed before Harvard bestowed a degree on another Native American.

''I have mixed feelings about today," said singer Jason Baird, who held his 9-month-old daughter, Mae Alice, one of the newest members of the 1,100-member tribe. ''I do think that it's very good that people are willing to provide recognition to our fathers in this way, but history has really proven itself to be quite difficult for native folks. I hesitate to put much stock in it."

The ceremony, part of a two-day conference on Harvard's relationship with Native Americans that concludes today, was wrought with emotion for many attendees. Glen Marshall, tribal chairman of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, spoke with fervor about the mistreatment of his people -- first by settlers, then by the US government. Carmen Lopez, executive director of Harvard's Native American Program and a Navajo, shed tears as she spoke of the colonization of native lands and the relegation of tribes to reservations.

Erica Scott, president of Harvard's Native American student group, contended that the university still lacks a viable Native American community -- 49 undergraduates identify themselves as Native American -- and needs to increase recruitment as other major universities have done.

But as speakers and attendees acknowledged their frustrations about the past, they also took heart that Harvard is changing its ways.

Though few Native Americans attended the Indian College, their presence helped save the then-struggling school from bankruptcy, as pious benefactors donated heavily to Harvard in the name of Christianizing ''the heathens," said Harvard historian Lisa Brooks.

Yesterday's ceremony was only the second of its kind honoring those first Native American students, following a smaller ceremony held in 1997 when a plaque was put up in Harvard Yard marking the site near Matthews Hall where the Indian College once stood.

For the first time, the university has offered teaching positions to two Native Americans who are specialists in Native American studies. The Native American Program, meanwhile, which this spring was awarded permanent funding, is attempting to become a model for other universities by attracting professors and students from all of Harvard's various departments to discuss the many issues Native Americans face today.

Harvard alumni from the 1970s, '80s, and '90s said the school is far more supportive of Native American students and studies now than when they attended. Lopez, who spoke of making ''a new story for our Harvard future," and others said Harvard will both teach and learn from Native Americans.

Sophomore Leah Lussier, of the Red Lake Chippewa Tribe of Minnesota, said she hoped more Native Americans would follow not only her example by attending Harvard, but also that of Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck.

''I want to offer my humility and my thanks and my respect to the people who came before me, to the people whose land we are standing on, to my ancestors," she told the audience while fighting back tears.

''It is all of those things that give me the ability to say: 'I am here. I am here.' "