“So we went to school to copy, to imitate; not to exchange language and ideas, and not to develop the best traits that had come out of uncountable experiences of hundreds and thousands of years living upon this continent. Our annals, all happenings of human import, were stored in our song and dance rituals, our history differing in that it was not stored in books, but in the living memory. So, while the white people had much to teach us, we had much to teach them, and what a school could have been established upon that idea!” -Luther Standing Bear, What a School Could Have Been Established (1933)

I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about what would be the best way to open a piece such as this, and the only truly acceptable way to do so would be to share that Dartmouth has taught me to approach writing with caution. The process itself is the purest expression, an epitome if you will, of the Western concept of “legitimate” thinking. That is, written materials are granted an importance that is not extended to the spoken word. In our day and age, everything must be written down to be remembered. But the emphasis on the printed word abstracts the spoken relationship that exists between people.

With that in mind, I have only a short reflection of my time at Dartmouth. Read the full story