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LeClair, an Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Indian, grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, but attended a predominantly White high school in the neighboring Fremont County. As an American Indian teenager at a predominantly White institution, LeClair found it difficult to discuss her life experiences or those of her people to her peers.
“Growing up, I heard a lot of hurtful, stereotypical things,” says LeClair, “Like all Indians are drunks. We all get paid. We don’t have to pay any taxes.”
In high school LeClair kept her silence, trying not to draw attention to herself. But by her junior year in college, LeClair decided to speak out about the challenges facing Native students on predominantly White campuses in a forthcoming report that she intends to publish titled
The report focuses on the experiences of LeClair, five other American Indian students and two Native faculty members at the University of Wyoming. LeClair, who is in the final stages of the report, is completing her research as a requirement for the McNair Scholars program at the university. McNair
