In the 2018-2019 school year, 14,795 undergraduate students attended Central Michigan University. Of those 14,795, only roughly 250 students utilized the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver. Only 1.69% of CMU’s student population identifies as Native American, despite the fact that CMU was built on native land.
CMU senior Delany Walden entered a whole new world when she came to Mount Pleasant as a freshman, three hours away from the reservation she lives on at home.
Walden is of Native American descent, though with her blonde hair and paler skin tone, you “can’t tell just looking at her.” She considers herself to be white-passing. Despite this, her culture is a very large part of her life.
“I’m very connected to my Native American roots,” Walden said. She learned Ojibwe, her tribe-specific language, when she was in middle school, and she’s still fluent in it today. “I grew up around it.”
Living in the Bay Mills Indian community in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., Walden describes it as very small but very much involved. Though she lives on the reservation, she didn’t go to a charter school—which are common to attend as a Native American student—because she was involved in various sports, and these extracurriculars are not typically offered at charter schools.
Her mother, Stacey Walden, even served on the Bay Mills Indian Community Executive Council from 2015-2017 as Secretary.
“I’m not going to lie, it was hard,” Ms. Walden said as she recalled her time on the council. “Balancing my life with two kids that played sports all year round, being a single mom, working eight hours a day and working to carry up your community, it was very stressful. You can’t please everyone.”
She doesn’t regret her time on the council, though. “At the end of the day, it pays off to give back to your community,” Walden said. She described it as an enriching experience.
Walden looks up to her mother for the hard work she put into being on the executive council for her community, but isn’t sure if she could ever be on the council herself. She described it as having very big shoes to fill.
“I think, yes and no. I would want to, but I wouldn’t,” she explained. “My mom was on the council for four years as secretary and was a great role model to the community. She was a person that everyone could go to.”
A lot goes into the council and bettering the Bay Mills community, Walden said. But, like her mother said, you can’t please everyone.
“You can only help as best as you know how,” she said.
Walden’s grandmother, Deborah Walden, also served on the Executive Council from 1995-1997, as Treasurer.
Four generations of Walden’s family lives on the same road in Sault St. Marie, and she’s proud of the fact that she knows “anyone and everyone.” Since they all grew up together, they’re even more connected as a community. It defined Walden’s childhood.
Though she loves her community, she said there are downsides to its small nature.
“It’s kind of divided into the ‘good’ and the ‘bad,’” said Walden, referring to different parts of the reservation she lives on.
And with that comes cattiness. Someone once told Walden, she remembers, that she was “too white to live on the res.” She has even been called “white privileged.” This is something that deeply upset Walden.
“What bothered me was that she just assumed,” Walden said. “It was like she thought she knew my own culture better than I did.”
In high school, no one was surprised when they found out she was Native American, since it was common for people of her culture to attend schools off the reservation. But now that she’s in college, it’s a whole different story. It took Walden a long time to get used to. People were very surprised to find out about her cultural background.
“Some people are really surprised. Maybe it’s because my hair is blonde now,” Walden suggested. She even recalls having to “prove it” to people by speaking Ojibwe.
“Sometimes it’s the only way people believe me,” she said.
It took Walden a lot to make the journey from home to CMU. She knew it was going to be a very different experience culturally, but she didn’t know exactly what to expect.
She has mixed feelings about Native American representation at CMU. Walden feels more connected to her culture at home than she does in Mount Pleasant.
“At home in our local rec facility and boys and girls club, there’s more of a sense of home and family,” she said. “It’s a better feeling because you can talk to anybody. You know no one will judge you because not only does everyone understand your culture, but they share it too.”
One aspect Walden particularly cherishes is her language and learning through Ojibwe. “Being able to speak to elders in Ojibwe and learn that way, you just can’t get that at CMU.”
Walden also believes she is able to express herself more at home. Ojibwe is much more normalized and used more frequently in her community at home, and she appreciates that.
“I see it on signs everywhere. I see it in schools, and I know students are being taught it, and it’s like a relief for me,” she said.
However, Walden does appreciate the efforts made at CMU to be more culturally-represented.
“There were a lot of really cool events for Native American Heritage month, and I know they do the pow wow every year,” said Walden. “I know CMU gives Native students opportunities and there are resources, but I wish they would put that into classes.”
Walden believes that Native American history should be taught more at CMU, especially since it was built on native land and there are reservations nearby. This is something important to her.
“I don’t want to sit here and have to learn Spanish to fill a requirement when I’ve learned Ojibwe my whole life,” she explained. “I would rather expand upon my own language.” Walden wishes other students had this option too.
All the issues and suggestions Walden has are the reason CMU has the Center for Inclusion and Diversity, where the Office of Native American Programs resides.
CMU senior and student assistant in the Office of Native American Programs Hannah Bartol works on things like this every day at her job, and her work has made a difference in CMU’s Native American community.
“I do a whole spectrum of things in my position,” Bartol said. “Lots of programming, implementing and facilitating. Sometimes I’ll do something as simple as keep track of the sign-in sheet, and sometimes I’ll facilitate the entire program.” Native American Heritage month was particularly busy for Bartol.
Since Bartol first came to CMU in 2013, she feels that Native American representation and opportunities have gotten a lot better.
“When I came to CMU, I was the first Native American my leadership safari group had ever met,” said Bartol. “When I joined a sorority, I was only one of five people of color. I felt like I had a lot of explaining to do.”
Bartol described it as a learning experience for herself and those around her. “It was a lot of teaching moments, but I didn’t mind it,” she explained. “All the questions I was asked came from a place of ‘I want to know,’ not ‘I don’t know and I don’t care.’” Bartol took on this role of educating those around her and put that into her work in the Office of Native American Programs.
Now, Bartol does a lot of classroom presentations. In 2016, she started by going to journalism classes to educate on Native American representation in the media, Native American culture in relation to respective majors and more. Since then, many more programs and majors have reached out to the Office of Native American Programs to come and speak to their classrooms.
There’s a lot more initiative through higher administration now. “I wrote the legislation for the Student Government Association for CMU to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day,” she said. “And the university recognizes that now.”
Bartol said it’s things like that that truly make a difference, even though the Native American population at CMU is low.
“It’s all based off of who uses the Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver,” Bartol explained. “A Native student applying must have one quarter blood quantum, and their benefits are based off of their blood quantum.”
Of the 14,795 undergrad students attending CMU in the 2018-2019 school year, roughly 250 students use this waiver at CMU.
Only approximately 20 of these students are heavily involved with the Office of Native American programs and two Native student organizations: the North American Indigenous Student Organization (NAISO), a general association for Native American students, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), a STEM-focused organization for Native American students.
Before Bartol graduates in May, her biggest goal is to help Native American students that she works with gain experience in leadership and making differences in the Native American community in Mount Pleasant.
“Before I leave, I’m here to train them and be that person of support,” she said. “I want them to take more leadership roles, because they can make a difference just like I have in my time here at CMU.”
This is very important for Bartol, because it is important for CMU’s Native American community to be seen, she said.
“Changes have been implemented and progress has been made,” she said. “But we can only go up from here.”
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