The Connection Begins:The
connection between Mount Holyoke College
and the Cherokee Nation officially began in 1850
when two highly respected tribal leaders,
with guidance from their Christian missionary
counterparts, traveled to South Hadley in
order to survey the Mount Holyoke Female
Seminary for its use as an example for their
implementation of a similar institution
in Park Hill Mission Station in Oklahoma. At that time eagerness for
assimilation, especially among the wealthy
Cherokees, looked like the best option for
continuing prosperity within the rapidly advancing
white American world. The
Cherokee Female Seminary offered education
and piece of mind for the Cherokee Nation. The school was established by the Cherokees and for Cherokees, unlike
those set up by the federal government, whose institutions left
even less room for appreciation of Cherokee
culture.
A Cherokee Student at Mount Holyoke: Some
eighty years later, Ruth
Muskrat, an already
distinguished Cherokee woman, received a
full scholarship to Mount Holyoke College
and continued living a life which engaged
two different cultures, one of her Cherokee ancestors
and one of white assimilation. She used her cultural
position to gain support for her cause of solidarity while at Mount Holyoke. After graduating, she taught at an Indian high school
and later served on the American Board of
Indian Affairs, attempting to preserve her
culture while simultaneously encouraging
Indian youth to reach towards goals of higher education.
The Legacy Continues:The
Cherokee connection continued into the 1980s
when the first female chief of the Cherokee
Nation, Wilma Mankiller, came to Mount Holyoke
College as a participant in the Weissman
Center for Leadership’s ‘Women
in Charge: Public and Private Faces’.
In her talk, ‘The Changing Role of
the American Indian Woman,’ she discussed
the challenges of fostering progress and
participating in economics while retaining
Cherokee culture and heritage.Each of these figures: the Cherokee Female Seminary, Ruth Muskrat, and Wilma Mankiller, played an important role in demonstrating that the Cherokees’ first desired assimilation and acceptance among white Americans. The Cherokees then realized the strength of their position and that sentiment slowly turned to a push for the rejuvenation of a cultural heritage through education and independence. These advances continued, aspiring towards a successful Cherokee Nation embodying traditional culture and modern development within a solid and complex identity.
View a timeline of the connections between Mount Holyoke College and the Cherokee Nation
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