Students in SKC’s Native Youth Community Project visited the Autry Museum of the West.

The Native Youth Community Project (NYCP) is a college and career readiness program for Native American high school students funded by the U.S. Office of Indian Education housed at Salish Kootenai College. NYCP offers tutoring and mentorship for high school students at Polson and Ronan High Schools, which serve the Flathead Indian Reservation. The NYCP grant also provides opportunities for students to participate in college campus visits, cultural experiences, and career exploration. In mid-August, two groups of NYCP students had the special opportunity to tour colleges and cultural institutions in New England and California. 

Students who attended the New England college and cultural visit toured Connecticut College, University of Connecticut, Yale University, and Dartmouth College, located respectively on the lands of the Mashantucket Pequot, Eastern Pequot, Mohegan, Golden Hill Paugussett, Lenape, Nipmuc, Schaghticoke, Niantic, Quinnipiac, and Abenaki peoples. Students visited college campuses, talked with current students, and engaged in special programming. At Dartmouth, students were invited to connect with a group of Indigenous students for a meal and conversation about their experience attending Dartmouth College. The students were fortunate to talk with two students from the Flathead reservation, Heaven Diaz-Morigeau and Wica-ta-wi Brown. 

At Yale University, students connected with Dr. Tarren Andrews, a Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes descendant originally from the Mission Valley, who is currently the assistant professor of Native American and Indigenous studies in the university’s Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Program and a faculty member in medieval studies. Dr. Andrews and Sandra Sanchez, a PhD candidate and curatorial fellow, gave the students access to materials at the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library on the Yale campus. Students interacted with materials such as Lewis and Clark maps, photo albums containing images of the Flathead reservation and Glacier Park circa 1911, and The Lost Journals of Sacagawea artist’s book by Debra Magpie Earling in collaboration with Peter Koch. The students enjoyed engaging with these rare materials and making hometown connections across the country. 

Another highlight of the trip was visiting the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in southeastern Connecticut, which is the largest tribally owned and operated museum in the world. This museum focuses on the culture and history of the Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation, and is home to a life-sized replica of a 16^th-century Pequot village. 

Students who attended the Southern California college and cultural visit toured the University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, Biola University, University of California Irvine, California State University Long Beach, and San Diego State University. They learned that each California college had active programming for Native students such as Native American studies and cultural arts programs, resource centers, powwows, and other student life events on campus. All campuses are located on the ancestral lands of Gabrielino/Tongva, Kumeyaay, Acjachemen (Juaneño), Payómkawichum (Luiseño), Chumash, Tataviam, Serrano, Acjachemen, and Cahuilla peoples. 

In addition to college tours, students explored a variety of career paths, including technology, sports marketing, public service, environmental science, and film with visits to selected sites that provided students with a “day in the life” experience for each career presented. Students learned about the California State Parks’ mission to protect and interpret the rich heritage of California Indigenous nations, native plants, and wildlife preservation. 

Students learned that Southern California is home to many Indigenous nations with tribal connections highlighted at museums and sites across the area. The Museum of Us featured an exhibit called Weaving the Past and Present, which included textiles from Mayan culture and artifacts from the Kumeyaay Nation. Students discovered connections from home at the Autry Museum of the West’s Creative Continuities exhibit, highlighting three contemporary Plains artists: John Pepion (Blackfeet), Brocade Stops Black Eagle (Crow), and Jessa Rae Growing Thunder (Dakota/Nakoda). One of the students mentioned that they knew of John Pepion and loved seeing his work on display all the way in Los Angeles. At the Aquarium of the Pacific, students were introduced to careers in marine biology and conservation, and the Tongva perspective of biodiversity in the coastal areas of Southern California.

Students who attended the New England and California tours shared distinct yet connected experiences. They met tribal mentors and discovered networks committed to furthering education for Native youth and welcoming tribal diversity. Ultimately, students gained reassurance about their plans for the future through the college, career, and cultural connections they made coast to coast.