At the school sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Indigenous students make up less than 1% of the student body. These are the challenges they say they face with stereotypes — and what support they’d like to see.
didn’t initially include an Indigenous member until an online petition raised the issue with the school’s administration.The four students on the panel talked about their cultures, misconceptions they face at the university and how they navigate being Native and members of the LDS Church.
Joseph Namingha, who is Zuni and Hopi-Tewa, noted, too, that many white students don’t understand that every tribe is different and Natives are not a monolith. He said he believes that comes from a lack of education about Natives. “Not all tribes have the same beliefs or cultural structures,” he said.
“Indigenous history is part of everyone’s history at BYU, especially where we’re on Native land,” she said. The student panel started with an acknowledgment that. He said he’s also loved seeing more Native staff at the school, particularly in athletics, with a football team strength trainer who is Navajo and a Native cheer coach. And there’s specific seating in the ROC, or “Roar of Cougars” student section at games, set aside for Indigenous students.
Additionally, when Latter-day Saint pioneers moved into the area that is now Utah — facing persecution and, at the time, trying to flee the United States — they came onto land that was inhabited by tribes. Like other white settlers, members of the faith pushed Natives out, saw them as wicked and tried to convert them,similar to Indigenous boarding schools, where Native kids were raised by predominantly white families of the faith in what’s widely viewed as an assimilation effort.