By Clint Carroll
Last week, University of Colorado President Mark Kennedy, describing the stakes of online instruction, said: “On-campus is declining and online is growing. If we don’t get online right … we have a trail of tears in front of us.” In response to initial criticisms, Kennedy stated: “I apologize for my poor choice of words. … I’m committed to fostering an inclusive environment at CU, where everyone feels that they belong. I recognize that words matter in doing that.”
Kennedy’s apology shows a willingness to listen, learn, and change. While this is a commendable first step, it presents an opportunity for us to think about why it happened and what we can all learn from it. To be clear, I do not write this as a direct indictment of Kennedy. Rather, I intend to share my thoughts as an Indigenous faculty member on how Kennedy’s use of this phrase reflects much bigger problems at the university and nationwide.
Colloquial phrases say a lot about how a society understands itself and its history. Although individuals perpetuate them, they reflect widespread views. Native Americans make up less than 2 percent of the U.S. population and thus often struggle to convey accurately their perspectives to the American public.
As such, many Americans do not think twice about figures of speech that originate in racial stereotypes. “Indian giver” and “hey, chief” are notable examples. Another is the diminution of genocidal events, like the Trail of Tears.
The Trail of Tears is an American atrocity — one of many genocidal events in U.S. history in which Indigenous peoples were dispossessed of their homelands at gunpoint, following weeks-long stays in guarded stockades where malnutrition was widespread, and disease ran rampant. Cherokee people who walked the trail began their march in October of 1838 and were subsequently exposed to one of the harshest winters in years.
Many scholars have cited the resulting loss of one quarter of the Cherokee population (around 4,000 people). Work in historical demography shows that the tribe lost as much as half its population in the time from
just before, to just after, the Trail of Tears.
For our highest-ranking leader to utter this phrase in such a context calls attention to the need for systemic efforts at the University of Colorado to counter damaging conceptions of Indigenous history and present issues. Kennedy’s comment comes less than two months after Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch (and former Colorado law visiting professor) penned the now widely known decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, which upholds significant aspects of tribal sovereignty.
Justice Gorsuch opened the case with: “On the far end of the Trail of Tears was a promise.” Not only is the Trail of Tears one of the most infamous events in U.S. history, but the Supreme Court itself — led in its 5-4 decision by a conservative justice — reaffirmed July 9 that the promises that were made to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation as a result of this dispossession.
Kennedy’s comment also comes in the wake of the Washington Football Team’s name change after pressure it received from CU Boulder’s First Peoples Worldwide, directed by Colorado law professor Carla Fredericks. In this light, for Kennedy to say his remarks were simply “a poor choice of words” doesn’t quite capture what is at play here.
Those words reside in the consciousness of a society. Even if unspoken, their reference to the violence of colonialism lingers in the minds of us all if we stop to think critically about the land we inhabit and how institutions and individuals benefit today from Indigenous dispossession.
How we choose to apply those thoughts is what matters most. Do we ignorantly envision colonialism as something that occurred in the remote past, or do we choose to recognize the contemporary struggles of
Indigenous peoples as a continuation of that same violence committed on numerous Trails of Tears?
This moment bolsters the calls of critical scholars and activists for systemic change that can uproot colonialism, white supremacy, anti-Black racism, and other societal ills that promote the oppression of others. Now is the time to make bold decisions that push us toward such meaningful change.
Doing so requires that our leadership support the work that often goes underappreciated by individuals, centers, programs, and departments across campus who are committed to this vision.
Note: On Friday, President Kennedy wrote to the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies with an apology and an invitation to dialogue. We welcome his invitation to meet and discuss how to support the Indigenous community at CU.
Clint Carroll is an associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and an executive board member for the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies. He is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
