00:00.00 heritagevoices We are back from our break and so where we left off the tribal council had switched and told you to go teach and you moved to New York can you tell us about the work that you were doing when you were in New York 00:23.70 jason That you know what I I ended up going to New York kind of on a fluke I had 4 job offers which was unheard of and I went with the one that paid the most. Ah. They hired me at Rit to start a native american studies program to be a contribution to the native native american community and I told. Provost at the time I said that's not really a contribution to the native american community while native american studies is a comfortable area for native scholars. Ah. 01:12.70 jason We need to we need to create a government government relationship with tribes and that is more of a contribution to native american communities than a native american studies program. It's not that native american studies is an valued program. If an institution is at a point where they have a native american studies program and they want to add a government to government then that's an advanced institution. But at rit it wasn't at the time that I had arrived an advanced institution. So New York being the location of the oldest ah democracy in the world. Ah in the hona deone the iroquois confederacy. I was just very fortunate to be in their backyard now I truly realized that I was an out of-town indian but for the first time in. Their history a university within the state had come to the Hona Joshonee Grand Council and said we would like a government to government relationship with you from president to Tata Daho president of the grand council. 02:45.58 jason They appreciated that so much that they invited us to the longhouse to present our proposal and so I convinced the entire presidential cabinet and the president to go to ah Onondaga. In Serracos New York and to ask them for guidance in preparing a native American Advisory Council At Rit now we went to that longhouse and. All of the big brothers and little brothers and faith keepers are all sitting in the long house and the guests are sitting in the middle of the room I'm sitting there with all of the vice presidents and the president and some department heads and some native students some non-nate. Just a whole contingency from rit and they are speaking their language for the first two hours they spoke their language and there was no english it was all about the. 03:52.49 heritagevoices So. 04:01.63 jason The opening prayer giving Thanks and I could just see my career going out the window while all of this was happening. It was luckily for me, it was one of the most moving experiences that. 04:12.77 heritagevoices Um. 04:21.45 jason Any of the upper administration I've ever had. It was one of the most moving experiences that the Hona deone had having a university come to them and say please help us help us be the destination for your students. 04:25.45 heritagevoices Um. 04:40.78 jason Now at the time it didn't offer any scholarships is a very exclusive big private institution focused on technology but it had degree areas that were very useful for the hona josone and we said we. We simply want to align our priorities with your educational priorities so that you would have better success in retrieving your scholars should they come to Rit and so for four or five years we were able to meet not only at our I t where the hona deshone would come to us but also in their longhouse and they simply advised us at a government to government level a a level that is expected by the hona joshone. If you have the queen of England come to New York you do not have them meet up with somebody in diversity equity and inclusion you have the queen of england meet with the president or the governor or the president of the United States 05:46.13 heritagevoices And he. Right. 05:55.78 jason So the hona dishone know that they know that this is the level at which they are as a sovereign domestic nation are supposed to communicate helping r I t establish that. We went from 2 graduates in my first year that I was there to 31 graduates in the last year that I was there. We graduated 92% of our students during my time at r I t. And we did not offer a single scholarship the the hona desone recruited for us simply because we went to them and we asked for forgiveness for not being there earlier. We asked for their assistance to make. 06:39.51 heritagevoices And. 06:51.73 jason Institution better and we asked at the right level of communication. So my time at rit was actually a very good learning experience on how to work with tribal governments and. Governments within an institution which led to me returning to Oregon and doing the same thing that I am currently doing right now. But I I would say that my experience in Rit was again one of those. Visions that somebody had on my behalf. Maybe it was chief tanner that knew that I was going to r I t to publish to teach students teach them about the cokequel and also at the same time learn myself. What is the proper etiquette. When you are talking with tribes and at what level should you be talking with tribes that I that that experience in in Rochester New York has paved the way for the successes that I've experienced here. In Oregon. 08:08.89 heritagevoices Yeah, so okay, so the Houdin Asaue um the the rochester wait Rochester Institute technology did I say that wrong. Okay, the Rochester Institute of of technology went to the ho and hasonee for advice and what. 08:17.68 jason Yes. 08:27.53 heritagevoices Would you say were the broad strokes of the advice that the Houdin Asaue gave back to the university. 08:33.70 jason The 1 question and we really limited because this is early on in the relationship building and relationships with tribes. They're easily messed up but they are very long term. And so we asked him them 1 thing. What are the degree areas that we should be emphasizing and and ah changing to to meet your needs. What are the most desirable college degrees. That your students and your tribe need and they replied business law medical sciences, environment and teacher education and we said we. 09:15.91 heritagevoices Okay. 09:28.90 jason We can do business. We don't have a law school. We have some medical sciences. We definitely have environmental technology and sciences and we have some teacher education but not a whole lot. We can't rebuild institution but we can sure make those programs. Fit your needs the best and so those were the those were the 5 areas that they advised us and we were able to say we're you know we're not going to say that we can deliver all of these things but we certainly can try in the areas that are already our strengths. And you guys can help us adjust them and make them stronger so it was those ° that ended up being what they desired most now as irony will have it when I return to Oregon I knew all the tribes and all of the. Tribal councils. My dad was on tribal council for forever and so everybody knew him and then knew me through him and so when I asked the same questions to our native American Advisory council their responses were identical. Business law medical sciences, environment and teacher education I found that quite remarkable that both sides of North America would have this indigenous would have the would have the same identical. 11:02.91 jason Responses to those questions. 11:14.41 jason I'm not even sure what the question was. 11:17.84 heritagevoices No, that was perfect now I was just waiting in case you wanted to keep going. But yeah, that was perfect. Um, okay oh yeah, super easily super easily? um. 11:19.69 jason Who that could be edited out right? okay. 11:33.92 heritagevoices Yeah, so okay, ah, and Chris is going to probably edit this too because I always do this when I ask questions. But so now we're we're talking a little bit about Oregon and what it was like when you came back to Oregon what what? you know you had a really good experience in New York what ultimately brought you home. 11:57.60 jason Um, you know the University Of Oregon has had a native American Advisory Council since 9096 I was actually here when it started I sat on it as a graduate student. My father was on it. Unfortunately for me, um. 12:13.73 jason Yeah, you know you never want to run into your parents but I'm sitting on the same council that my father was on but it was started by Dave Fro Meyer back in 1996? Um, like I said relationships with. American Indians usually last generations and ah our we had had some hiccups during our while I was gone and ah so. I had and I had never left Oregon really to tell you the truth there. Several presidents had come after da fro meyer they good friends here in a higher administration would call me and say okay, what? what should we do? We got a new president. So well make sure you go visit all of the tribes personally with the president that will reestablish a relationship that you will have lost with Dave's retirement and so you know they they kept on doing that well diversity and inclusion. That came through in the I mean it's it came in in the 2000 and the first knee-jerk reaction was to put native americans into diversity and inclusion ex. 13:50.60 heritagevoices What. 13:50.67 jason Ah, equity inclusion and like I learned when I was working with Hona Dasaui there's a certain level of communication that you must maintain. You can't just bump it down because there's a new movement going on or there's new effort going on and so when the tribes were ah and tribal relationships were moved into diversity. There was a lot of apprehension around that on the tribal side and so we went through some growing pains here at the u of o while I was in New York and when they decided to. 14:31.15 heritagevoices Yes. 14:46.46 jason Realign The yoga decide to realign What is now my position they put it as a direct report to the President. So We we changed it back to what. The way that it used to be and with um, ah they they brought me in to apply for the job I got the job and the good thing was and is that I was already a known quantity. 15:25.81 jason I'm from Oregon I know Oregon I knew all the tribal chairs I didn't for the most part knew the tribal councils people knew me because of my father's reputation and the funny thing is is my dad told me when I was going to college as a freshman. He said don't mess up my name It's not yours and you know here I am coming back to the University Of Oregon he's still saying the same thing don't mess up my name It's not yours and so I came back to the University Of Oregon in this in this brand new high profile. Position that was meant to maintain the strong relationships that we had um so for me to be able to come in as a known quantity. It certainly helped. Institution regain its footing but there's always new things that you have to do ah to make sure that your institution is doing its very best to be inclusive to show and demonstrate. Equality. Um and equity. Ah, um, and and diversity is is so important on college campuses. It's a diverse world out there and if we're going to train scholars. We should be training them. 16:58.65 jason In the context in which they are going to be working in the future. So I understand the importance of diversity I do not agree with diversity supplanting sovereignty and sovereign domestic. Relations. Ah, and so once we got that part figured out then it was about ah removing the cost barrier at the University Of Oregon and trying to find ways to get more native students those who are are first generation especially from tribal oregon reservations. Um and regional reservations onto our campus and to make our campus. More appealing than any other campus that is what university institutions can do under diversity and sovereignty relations. So there's there's a partnership but there's also. Ah line that must not be crossed when you're when you are representing the president and working with sovereign domestic nations. 18:21.65 heritagevoices Yeah, absolutely and okay, we're we're at our second breakpoint but I definitely want to touch back on this concept of diversity versus sovereignty when we get back after the break because I think. There's often a lot of confusion there and you mentioned that apprehension and I think a lot of times people don't understand where that's coming from so. Let's let's touch back on that here in a moment.