Harvard University has just hired their first professor specializing in Native American studies.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Harvard's first-ever tenured professor in Native American studies, History professor Philip J. Deloria, began teaching last month, after years of activists calling for Native American studies offerings.
Deloria's appointment is the culmination of an effort by the Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP). Deloria, who is Native American, has been working with HUNAP, the University's main organization for Native American students and faculty, since 2004.
Deloria has been at the University of Michigan's American Studies department since 2001, but said he is excited to join Harvard's History department.
"Internally, in terms of Harvard, there's so many great things happening here. The museums, the libraries, the resources are tremendous for the study of Native Americans and Native American history," Deloria told The Harvard Crimson reporter Cecilia R. D'Arms. "To the extent that I can jump into a conversation and advance that conversation, make things more legible and coherent as far as the field, that would be great."
This semester, Deloria is teaching a graduate seminar on the historiography of Native American and Indigenous Studies, and next semester he will teach an introduction to Native American Studies course primarily for undergraduates.
Truman M. Burrage, president of Native Americans of Harvard College, told The Harvard Crimson that Professor Deloria's appointment was incredible, but also "way overdue."
Harvard has a long history with Native Americans on its campus. The original Harvard Charter dedicates the school to "the education of the English and Indian youth."
"Since 1656, there's been Native American presence on Harvard's campus," Burrage said. "But the problem was that after a while it went very dormant, and Harvard became a place for upper class white males to go to school. It took until the 1970s before that was brought back."
Campus faculty leaders say that Deloria's professorship should be a first step toward a larger Native American studies faculty.
