DU's Native American and Indigenous Initiatives

Division of DEI

The University of Denver values tremendously our Native American and Indigenous community members. As such, we commit to reckoning with and learning from the University’s complex history and our founder John Evans's culpability in the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre, which continues to impact the institution’s relationships with Native American and Indigenous communities.

Through our ongoing Native American and Indigenous initiatives, the University of Denver seeks to:

  • Acknowledge how our founding is implicated in the historic settler violence against the Nunt'zi (Ute), Tsitsista (Cheyenne), and Hinonoeino (Arapaho) Nations
  • Acknowledge and understand how this institution has fallen short in providing sufficient support to our Native American and Indigenous community members—most especially in the context of our history
  • Prioritize the healing of Native American and Indigenous students, staff, and faculty, now and into the future, and ensure they feel welcome, holistically supported and celebrated at the University of Denver
  • Develop meaningful and reciprocal relationships with Denver and Colorado Native American and Indigenous community to further healing and increase equity on the DU campus and in the local community
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This work did not begin in earnest until 2013 when a group of DU’s faculty members formed the John Evans Study Committee with only minimal support from the university. Through the committee’s research, writing and outreach, they explored the University’s history, in particular the circumstances of our founding. They also provided strategic recommendations for how DU could better engage and support Native American and Indigenous community members.

In 2016, Chancellor Chopp established the Native American Inclusivity Task Force, which provided a detailed plan to build upon and expand the scope of the recommendations of the John Evans Committee.

In early 2017, DU established formal partnerships with the Northern Cheyenne, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Nations through the Native American Community Advisory Board, which lead to the raising of their national flags in the Driscoll Student Union in April 2018.

In the fall of 2020, Chancellor Haefner and other DU leaders made seven commitments to the community with the aim to reinforce existing initiatives, create accountability and build momentum.

Our Native American and Indigenous initiatives continue. These initiatives include increasing access to a DU education through support and financial aid. They also include addressing the recruitment and retention of Native American and Indigenous faculty and staff, building an on-campus Sand Creek Massacre memorial, as well as a permanent interior exhibit with accompanying curricula on DU’s history, and exploring the creation of a Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, among other efforts.

This website will document all of this work and serve as a centralized location for updates on our progress to fulfill the commitments we have made to better engage and support DU’s Native American and Indigenous community members, partners and friends.

Tipi in front of the Law School

University Of Denver John Evans Study Committee Report

In 2013, a group of 11 DU faculty members organized the University of Denver John Evans Study Committee and conducted an independent inquiry regarding Evans' role in the 1864 Sand Creek massacre. In 2014, the committee released its report. This study is essential to understanding the University of Denver's history.

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Campus Leadership

Stevie Rose Tohdacheeny Lee (Diné), PhD

Stevie Rose Tohdacheeny Lee (Diné), PhD

Associate Director | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Native American Initiatives

Stevie Lee

Stevie Rose Tohdacheeny Lee, PhD. (Diné), is originally from Shiprock, New Mexico, located in the Navajo Nation. Currently, Stevie serves as the Associate Director Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Native American Initiatives at the University of Denver. She works in the capacity of providing support for current Native American/Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students with the goal of academic success, retention, and graduation while helping to create a community founded upon social and cultural support.

Stevie's research passions and professional interests both focus on the areas of enhancing our educational systems to increase access, equity, and persistence with Native communities within higher education. Stevie is also an alum ('10, MA) and a proud member of the Indigenous Affinity Alumni Group. Lastly, Stevie's personal interests are being outdoors and being an avid marathon runner (55+).

Chris A. Nelson, PhD

Chris A. Nelson (Diné, Laguna Pueblo), PhD

Native American and Indigenous Faculty Director; Associate Professor, Morgridge College of Education

Chris Nelson

Chris A. Nelson, Ph.D., is of the Diné and Laguna Pueblo tribes of the southwest. Chris joined the DEI team as the faculty director for Native American initiatives. Chris, working alongside Stevie Lee and other faculty directors, provides vision and assessment for the future of Native American initiatives at DU. Through this role and drawing on her scholarly expertise, Chris helps the University better serve our Native community. She received her doctorate in Higher Education from the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education. 

With over 10 years of higher education experience, she has a cross sectioning of experiences ranging from educational pathways in STEM, policy research, and student affairs. The research she engages with strives to challenge the status quo of higher education for Native students and their communities. Her primary research interest focuses on finance in higher education, which ranges from student experiences to policy. Chris also blends critical theory and Indigenous perspectives/methods to explore the long-term impacts of pre-college access programs.

Kelly Fayard, Ph.D.

Kelly Fayard (Poarch Band of Creek), PhD

Native American and Indigenous Faculty Advisor, Assistant Professor, Cultural Anthropology

Kelly Fayard

Kelly Fayard, Ph.D. is a citizen of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians and hails from LA (the other LA—lower Alabama).  She joined the University of Denver in 2019 in the department of anthropology as an assistant professor.  Before her current position, she was assistant dean of Yale College and Director of the Native American Cultural Center, the Director of the Peer Liaison program, and Director of the Mellon Bouchet undergraduate research fellowship at Yale University.  Prior to that, she held a position as assistant professor of anthropology in the Sociology and Anthropology Department at Bowdoin College.  She held the Anne Ray fellowship at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, NM in 2014-2015. Dr. Fayard is the faculty advisor for the DU Native Student Alliance.

Her research deals primarily with the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in southern Alabama, where she is enrolled.  Her research investigates what it means to identify as a Poarch Band of Creek Indians, a federally recognized tribe in the state of Alabama. This research examines the methods and actions the Poarch Creek use to define themselves as Creek, given the stereotypes and assumptions about what it means to claim an Indian identity.

Billy Stratton, PhD

Billy Stratton, PhD

PhD, American Indian Studies and DU liaison to the NAAC; Associate Professor of English and Literary Arts

 

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Billy Stratton

Billy J. Stratton is a first-generation college graduate who grew up a hop and a skip away from Loretta Lynn's home in the heart of eastern Kentucky. He earned a BA, with honors, from Miami University (Oxford, Ohio, 2002) in English and Philosophy and a Ph.D in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona (2008). His teaching and research circulate around contemporary Native American and American literature, while also teaching special topics in the areas of ecocriticism, dystopian worlds, posthumanism, and creative writing, as well as literature of the American West and South.

His criticism, fiction, commentary, and editorial work has appeared in numerous books by Routledge, Oxford University Press, and Michigan State University Press, and journals such as Arizona Quarterly, Cream City Review, Salon, The Journal of American Culture, The Independent, Wicazo-Sa Review, Rhizomes, SAIL, Big Muddy, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and TIME. He is the author of Buried in Shades of Night: Contested Voices, Indian Captivity, and the Legacy of King Philip's War (2013), while being contributing editor to The Fictions of Stephen Graham Jones: A Critical Companion (2016). Finally, he has been instrumental in efforts to create dialogue and historical understanding at the University of Denver around the issue of the Sand Creek massacre.

Support Indigenous and Native American Students & Apply for Scholarships

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    Native American Student Scholarship Fund

    The Native American Student Scholarship at DU helps students attain a college education that will benefit not only them but their families and communities, too.

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    Native American Student Support Fund

    The Native American Student Support Fund seeks to empower the Native American student community at DU by bolstering programs such as the annual New Beginnings Pow Wow and traditional blanket wrapping ceremonies at commencement.

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    Native American Student Scholarship Fund (Sturm College of Law)

    The Native American Student Scholarship fund through DU's Sturm College of Law exists to help law students attain a college education that will benefit not only them, but their families and communities. 

    Visit the Scholarship & Student Success page for more information 

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    DU Empowerment Scholarship

    The DU Empowerment Scholarship covers the standard cost of tuition. Because financial need is required, you must submit the FAFSA, CSS Profile, and any other requested documents to be considered.

    While service to and involvement in the Native American community are the guiding principles of both scholarships, a holistic review of your admission application assists our committee in making selections. Recipients are notified in early April.

     

NSA

Native Student Alliance

The Native Student Alliance (NSA) is a DU community consisting of (but not limited to) students and faculty of Indigenous American descent. NSA's goal is to increase awareness and allies on DU’s campus and to provide fellowship and support for members, as well as promoting diversity.

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Ad Hoc Native American & Indigenous Leadership Council

2021-2022

  • Chris A. Nelson, K'awaika & Diné | DU Faculty, Assistant Professor
    Chris Nelson

    Christine (Chris) Nelson, PhD (She/Her), joined the DEI team as the faculty director for Native American initiatives. Chris, working alongside Stevie Lee and other faculty directors, provides vision and assessment for the future of Native American initiatives at DU. Through this role and drawing on her scholarly expertise, Chris helps the University better serve our Native community. She utilizes a blending of critical theory and Indigenous relationality theory to explore the purpose of higher education. By addressing the collective and political factors influencing college access and completion for Indigenous college students, Chris strives to uphold the educational aspirations held by Indigenous communities.

  • Miriam Valdovinos, Xicana Indigenous & Purepecha | DU Faculty, Assistant Professor
    Miriam Valdovinos

    In her research, Miriam (She/Her) is committed to addressing the health effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) experiences in Latinx and incorporating Indigenous healing with families. She holds a PhD in social welfare and graduate certificate in feminist studies from the University of Washington. As a Xicana Indigenous social welfare scholar, she centers testimonio narrative methodologies, culture, healing, and resistance.

  • Rosemarie Escalante, Pascua Yaquí | DU Graduate and MBA Marketing Candidate
    Rosemarie Escalante

    Rosemarie (She/Her) is a current DU MBA candidate with over five years of marketing, legal, and business experience. I strive to represent the Indigenous Initiatives of the council with as much focus and drive as that exhibited by my ancestors.

  • Mason Estes, La Jolla Band & Luiseño | DU Undergraduate, Marketing Major and NSA Undergraduate Representative
    Mason Estes

    Mason Estes (He/Him) is La Jolla Band - Luiseño in his senior year at the University of Denver. Mason is from Broomfield, Colorado and majoring in Marketing with a minor in Leadership and Political Science. Mason will be serving as the University of Denver's undergraduate student body vice president next year and hopes to pursue a future in organizing and contributing to the liberation of Indigenous people around the world.

  • Reshawn Edison, Diné | DU Undergraduate, Anthropology Major
    Reshawn Edison

    Reshawn (He/Him) embodies the resilience and ambition of his ancestors. As an Indigenous scholar, he has immersed himself through the lens of Anthropology which has allowed him to become grounded while inspiring in the way he perceives the world. He is a full time student, and a part time artist.

  • Taylor Lucero, Pueblo of Laguna | DU Undergraduate, Criminology Major and NSA Co-Chair President
    Taylor Lucero

    My name is Taylor Lucero (She/Her). I am from the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico. I will be a rising senior, majoring in Criminology with a double minor in Psychology and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies. I am also the Co-Chair President for the DU Native Student Alliance.

  • Stevie Lee, Diné | PhD., Associate Director | DEI Native American Initiatives
    Stevie Lee

    Stevie Rose Tohdacheeny Lee (She/Her), PhD., is originally from Shiprock, New Mexico, located in the Navajo Nation. Currently, Stevie serves as the Interim Native American Liaison and Program Manager in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Denver. She works in the capacity of providing support for current Native American/Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students with the goal of academic success, retention, and graduation while helping to create a community founded upon social and cultural support. 

  • Chenoa Crowshoe-Patterson, Blackfeet & Karuk | DU Alum, specializing in social work, mental wellness and education
    Chenoa Crowshoe-Patterson

    Chenoa (She/Her) hopes to bring learned skills and knowledge from her past and current work and time spent learning in the Native community to priorities and goals of the Indigenous perspective to DU’s Native American and Indigenous Leadership Council.

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Clarion Articles

See student-written articles about Indigenous and Native American students and topics
Displaying 1 - 8 of 15 articles
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Update: Native American Task Force & DU’s ongoing commitment

Tenacity and a commitment to realizing our mission of serving the public good are defining characteristics of the University of Denver. We call, and have been called on, to do more, act faster, and dig deeper on many issues facing our community and society broadly.

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Celebrating Native American Heritage Month

In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, DU Students Rae Woody and Alexis White Hat agreed to share stories of their heritage, traditions and college experience with the DU Newsroom.

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Q&A: Celebrating Native American Heritage Month

In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, several Native and Indigenous women faculty members agreed to field some questions from the DU Newsroom about their work and experiences. This is a selection of their responses, condensed and edited for clarity.

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DU Field Notes: Alumni-Owned Restaurants

Food is love. You love DU. Ergo, you’ll really love the food that some of our University of Denver alumni are cooking up across the Denver metro area. Check out a few of the many restaurants owned by DU grads, and remember, this list is just a starter course!

Murdock
Graduating Business Student Draws on Heritage for Strength

As a sophomore at the Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Brennon Murdock found a friend in his bus driver, Viki Eagle, now director of the University of Denver’s Native American community relations and programs. She would make sure Murdock got home safely, even when he’d fall asleep and miss his stop, and she’d always wave to his mom.