Being a campus minority isn’t the issue for University of Idaho sophomore Brittney Salinas, it’s getting fellow students to understand her culture.
“Sometimes I tell people different things and they don’t understand, because this stuff didn’t happen to their ancestors,” Salinas said. “There isn’t any racism, they are just uneducated about us.”
Salinas is a member of the Spokane tribe, and said she might have dropped out after her first year of college if not for UI’s Native American Student Center (NASC).
The center works to develop a sensitivity and appreciation for Native American culture among students, faculty and staff, and assists students with academic and financial needs.
The NASC offers an environment for Native American students to meet and mingle with other students, as well as staff. The center also offers a wide range of academic resources from tutoring to financial and academic advising.
“We try to make it sort of a home away from home and have somewhere comfortable where they can go,” said Yolanda Taylor-Pagaduan, NASC’s programs coordinator.
Taylor-Pagaduan is enrolled in the Lummi Nation, but was born and raised on a Nez Perce reservation. Taylor-Pagaduan and Sydel Samuels, co-supervisors of the Native American Student Association, facilitate meetings, discuss programs, and plan socials and fundraisers.
Taylor-Pagaduan attended UI when Steve Martin served as director of the NASC, and her first interaction with the center’s programming began when she started receiving emails about events she could attend around campus.
“I knew what it was like to be a Native American student on a college campus and not feel — not necessarily welcomed — but out of place,” Taylor-Pagaduan said. “So I mean if I was in school back then, I might have used the center a lot more than I had, whereas now we push for students to have a reason to want to use the center.”
Taylor-Pagaduan is the niece of the late Arthur “Art” Taylor, a Nez Perce tribe member and UI’s former indigenous affairs officer. He died last November in a car accident.
“He made me feel comfortable,” Taylor-Pagaduan said. “Seeing him interact with students, you could just tell that he was letting them know to feel comfortable and confident within themselves to go to any university for higher education. He was always pushing for native people to get an education.”
Taylor’s position has recently been filled by Yolanda Bisbee.
“We use that as strength and motivation as we would know he would have wanted, which is for Native Americans to get a higher education. He is part of that reason that we all keep going.”
Native Americans make up less than 1 percent of UI’s campus population, even though UI is on Nez Perce land. Taylor-Pagaduan said administrators such as Don Burnett, Kathy Aiken and Carmen Flores support the NASC’s work on campus, but the relationship between UI and Native American students will always have room for improvement. The most important thing to her is making sure Native Americans who enroll at UI stay until they earn a degree.
“A lot of people on the reservation don’t even know the process of putting in an application,” said Samuel Torpey, a Coeur D’Alene member and a fifth-year senior at UI.
Torpey said UI has a large potential for recruiting Native Americans.
“I really don’t think it should be just an American Indian center — what about just the people center,” Torpey said. “I don’t want to see lines and dividers, I want to see people helping people because we’re all family.”
Torpey said he feels very comfortable on campus, something that would most likely be different away from UI. He is a member of the Vandal Nation Singers — a drum group who meets at NASC weekly.
“Wherever you come from in the world, that’s who you are,” Torpey said. “When someone asks you who you are the next question is where do you come from.”
Written by Arianna Anchustegui