The University of North Dakota Strives to be a Premier Institution For Indigenous Studies

The Indigenous Student Center at UND. (UND archival image)

(By Cynthia Lindquist, Makaila Martin and Jeremy Kingsbury. UND Today) – In the UND LEADS Strategic Plan, a key component of the Equity core value is the following strategic priority. You can find it under the heading, Cooperative relationships:

Establish cooperative relationships with the surrounding communities and Indigenous nations, seeking their guidance in embracing restorative justice that empowers all communities through a collaborative process. Work to become a premier institution for Indigenous Studies.

The many people at UND who strive to help the University fulfill this mission. In this letter, we’d like to describe our work in more detail, with an eye to showing that UND takes this goal seriously and has multiple programs and policies in place to help bring it about.

For example, Cynthia Lindquist, is a former tribal college president who now serves as director of Tribal Initiatives & Collaboration at UND. Lindquist’s job description has specific language related to the “cooperative relationships” goal, she notes. That language asks her to advance UND’s values and mission by building and maintaining collaborative, mutual and trusting relationships with regional Tribal nations.