Dartmouth rallies for minority students

HANOVER, N.H. --More than 500 Dartmouth College students, faculty and administrators rallied in support of the college's American Indian community Wednesday, a day after The Dartmouth Review published a picture of an Indian warrior brandishing a scalp with the headline, "The Natives are Getting Restless!" on Page One.

"Like an open wound Dartmouth is hurting -- we have all been insulted," college president James Wright told the crowd gathered before Dartmouth Hall. College members wore green to show their solidarity. Some carried signs reading "Stop Hate Speech," "Civil Discourse" and "Standing Against Racism." A few carried umbrellas pasted with signs reading "Unity."

"My Dartmouth, our shared Dartmouth, is one that condemns the deliberate mean-spiritedness that was demonstrated in the publication that was released yesterday," Wright said to cheers.

The Dartmouth Review, an independent conservative student newspaper, is not affiliated with the college and has an adversarial history with minorities. Students said the paper's latest issue, ridiculing Native American students' complaints about a string of incidents seen as racist, was the trigger for the demonstration, held on the last day of classes before exams.

However, complaints about insensitive acts on campus toward minority students -- including name calling of black students -- have persisted this fall at the college founded in 1769 as a school for American Indians.

"The Review was more or less a tipping point," 19-year-old sophomore Samuel Kohn said.

This fall, American Indian students have protested Homecoming T-shirts showing a Holy Cross knight performing a sex act on an American Indian caricature. The Review also has come under fire for distributing T-shirts emblazoned with the Dartmouth Indian, the college's long-since discontinued mascot. There also has been outrage over an interrupted drumming circle, a formal with a "Cowboys and Indians" theme, and other events.

The incidents played out against an uncomfortable college history. Dartmouth graduated fewer than 20 American Indians during its first 200 years, the same time its catalog of Indian mascots -- featured on canes, sports uniforms, even songs and art depicting natives lapping rum -- increased.

A renewed mission to recruit American Indian students in the past 30 years means Dartmouth has the largest indigenous student body in the Ivy League, about 160, or 3 percent.

Last week, the college's Native American Council -- composed mostly of faculty -- placed a two-page in The Dartmouth, the college daily, demanding a community response to the recent incidents.

Wright apologized via a college-wide message last week and encouraged the community to build a more welcoming atmosphere for minority students.

The publication Tuesday of the Review, with its inflammatory cover art and several articles mocking American Indian students and the college's apologies, sparked the latest round of campus soul searching.

In an interview Tuesday after the rally, which he did not attend, Review Editor-in-Chief Daniel Linsalata, a senior, was unapologetic and a little surprised by the hubbub.

He said the paper was a response to "the overdramatic reaction to events this term."

"They're out for blood, so to speak," he said of complaints by American Indian students.

In an editorial, Linsalata wrote: "While the onus may fall partly on the student body to facilitate an environment more hospitable to Indians, nothing can be done until the Indians themselves lay out measurable goals and steps for how this harmony can be achieved. Patronizing advertisements and excessive use of the race card are antithetical to this goal."

He added: "The administration and the campus as a whole owe the (Native American student group) no sort of olive branch until (they) prove themselves willing to engage in a reasonable, productive dialogue."

The Review also criticized the college's apology for the scheduling of a Dec. 29 hockey game against the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux," a move that drew fire from that state's governor, a 1979 Dartmouth alum.

"I think it's unfortunate she wrote that letter and I think she's wrong," Gov. John Hoeven told the Grand Forks Herald.

He referred to a recent letter from Dartmouth Athletic Director Josie Harper published in The Dartmouth.

"I must offer a sincere apology to the Native American community, and the Dartmouth community as a whole, for an event that will understandably offend and hurt people within our community," Harper's letter said.

Dartmouth students who attended Tuesday's demonstration focused on events originating on campus.

Speaking for the student group, Native Americans at Dartmouth, Kohn, a member of the Crow tribe, urged administrators to pursue disciplinary action against offenders.

"We're not reaching for something that's just a temporary cosmetic fix," he said at the rally. "We're calling for a lasting solution from the Dartmouth administration."

Administrators who spoke praised students for organizing the rally, expressed support for their cause and vowed to work for change, but made no specific promises about disciplinary action to be taken against the Review or others.

"It saddens all of us when you feel alienated or unwelcome," Dean of Faculty Carol Folt told the crowd. "We all know that it's very hard to solve the underlying problems that are producing disrespect ... we do have the power and, in fact, the resolve to take on these intractable issues."

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On the Net:

Dartmouth: http://www.dartmouth.edu

The Dartmouth: http://www.thedartmouth.com

The Dartmouth Review: http://www.dartreview.com