“I cried when I heard the news about the dean position,� she says.

The efforts to gain administrative support for Native students has been “sort of a torch that has been handed down through the student ranks at Yale,� Burns says. “We were told we didn’t have enough numbers
and since we had no alumni, support
was unlikely.�

Doubting that argument, students and alumni worked to create the Native American Yale Alumni network and established a relationship with the Yale Alumni Association. Those efforts, in addition to a change in the administration, helped change the tone of the conversation.

In 2005, Yale honored its first American Indian graduate, Henry Roe Cloud (Ho Chunk), who graduated in 1910.

The centennial of Cloud’s enrollment at Yale was marked with a celebration and the creation of two awards honoring his legacy. Cloud, an innovator in American Indian education, was an early director of Haskell Indian College. He was adamant that American Indians were intellectually suited to study literature, science and philosophy, and he consistently challenged the prevailing belief that American Indians could only be taught vocational skills.

Gabriela Bernadett (Tohono O’odham), current president of the Association of Native Americans at Yale, says she is happy she was on campus when the students got their dean.

“We were the last ones to get a center, the last ones to get a dean. We may be last, but we’re not forgotten,� she says. “Maybe someday we will have a Native American studies program at Yale.�