Nine Indigenous Dartmouth students arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest last week won’t be able to attend the annual powwow on Saturday.
As a condition of their bail, the students are not allowed to enter the college’s central Green where the 52nd Annual Dartmouth College Powwow will be held.
All of the 65 students who were arrested were banned from the Green, but the decision is particularly painful for the nine Indigenous students.
“Powwows are part of most American Indian religions in the sense that they are supposed to be times when community comes together, and times when you perform actions that are inherently spiritual, like dancing,” said Koii Johnson-Jennings, a Dartmouth freshman and a member of the Quapaw, Choctaw, Sac and Fox, and Miami tribes.
College President Sian Beilock said Tuesday her administration is working on finding a way those students can attend.
Dartmouth was originally established in 1769 as a school at which to educate Native Americans in Christian theology and the English way of life, and the annual event is open to all students. But the powwow is an important gathering with spiritual and religious significance for Indigenous people, according to Johnson-Jennings, who was on the event’s planning committee.
Johnson-Jennings was supposed to help run the event, but he said he won’t be allowed to participate because he was among the students who were arrested during the May 1 protest. Students who do not follow the conditions of bail can be arrested and jailed.
Johnson-Jennings criticized administrators at Dartmouth for effectively banning Indigenous students from the event.
“They’ve just done a terrible job,” he said.
On Tuesday, Beilock released an open letter published in The Dartmouth, in which she said she was “heartbroken” by the pain, anger, and division on campus.
“No one, including me, wanted to see heavily armed police officers in the heart of our campus,” she said. However, she said she stood by her decision to ask the Hanover Police Department to help take down the encampment, pointing to encampments on other campuses that have “incited violent anger, horribly divided student bodies, created exclusionary zones and attracted outside agitators.”
“I also want to assure you that members of my administration are supporting students arrested last week who had planned to participate in end-of-year events like Powwow, Lu’au and Commencement,” she said. “While Dartmouth does not have the unilateral authority to lift access to the Green restrictions imposed by local authorities, we are working toward a resolution that will allow participation in these important events.”
Jana Barnello, a spokesperson for the college, said in a prior statement that students can seek an exception from the court in order to participate in the powwow. “That event has deep cultural and religious significance and historic ties to Dartmouth,” she acknowledged.
“While only the court has the authority to grant that exception, Dartmouth fully supports the students’ right to pursue that exception through the court process,” she continued.
But Emma Tsosie, a junior at Dartmouth and member of the Picuris Pueblo, said getting an exception from the court in time for the event would be “nearly impossible.”
She also notes that not all of those arrested are being treated equally. The college was able to change the bail conditions for Annelise Orleck, a history professor, who was temporarily barred from campus, so that she could continue teaching, The Dartmouth and WMUR reported.
Tsosie said she’s disappointed by the college’s response to peaceful protesters. To comply with her bail conditions, she’s been using the sidewalks around the Green to walk to class. Students could also observe the powwow from those sidewalks, but Tsosie said not being able to fully participate is upsetting.
“As far as powwow, it really is one of the most, if not the most, culturally significant and grounding events that the Native community has at Dartmouth,” she said. “It’s so important because so many of us are so far away from home. It’s like the closest tie that we have to our culture at this institution.”
Others in the community are watching from a distance, like Johnson-Jennings’ father, Derek Jennings, who graduated from Dartmouth in 1993 and is now the associate dean for Indigenous Affairs at the University of Washington’s school of public health. Jennings is an enrolled member of the Quapaw tribe and a member of the Native American Alumni at Dartmouth.
As a parent and alum, he’s troubled by the college’s response to the pro-Palestine encampment, including the use of police force.
“I find that very troublesome because not all students are being protected,” he said. “Free speech isn’t being protected.”
He compared the decisive use of police to clear the peaceful encampment, with an incident last October when a drumming circle on the Green was interrupted by two students yelling racist slurs. College administrators have said an investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Though Dartmouth officials have acknowledged the college did little to fulfill its own founding commitment to educate Native American students for its first 200 years of existence, in 1970 the college launched a Native American Program and a department dedicated to Native American Studies.
The college also started actively recruiting Native American students, through a fly-in program that brings prospective Indigenous students to campus each year.
And those efforts have worked: Felix Hedberg, a freshman at the college, said one reason she chose Dartmouth is because of the Indigenous community and strength of its academic program. About 200 students, or around 4 percent of the 4,400 undergraduates, identify as Indigenous, according to Dartmouth.
“Part of the reason I came to Dartmouth was for the Indigenous community and events like powwow,” she said. Hedberg, who is originally from Guatemala, is Maya, and grew up in Virginia with her adoptive family. She said she won’t be able to attend because she was arrested at the pro-Palestine protest and there’s not enough time to get an exception from court, as she juggles classwork.
She said while the college touts photos and videos of Indigenous students at the powwow in its diversity brochures, it has not taken action to allow students like her to attend the event.
“Given their supposed commitment to Indigenous communities, saying something so passive just falls very flat,” she said.
In a message to students after the arrests, Beilock said, “Last night, people felt so strongly about their beliefs that they were willing to face disciplinary action and arrest.”
“While there is bravery in that,” she continued, “part of choosing to engage in this way is not just acknowledging — but accepting — that actions have consequences.” to face disciplinary action and arrest.”
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.