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Native American alumni speak to students

Former Fort Lewis College students share advice and experiences

Much has been made about how many Native American students attend Fort Lewis College. But what happens to them after they graduate?

On Thursday, three alumni returned to share advice and experiences on a panel attended by about 30 students and several people who helped them earn their degrees. Yvonne Bilinski, director of the Native American Center at the college, hopes it will become an ongoing conversation between alumni and current students.

The panelists were 2010 graduate Asa Washines, a member of the Yakima Nation in Washington; 2008 graduates Seth Damon, a member of the Navajo Nation, and Chet Gladstone of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. Both Damon and Washines are recently elected members of their respective tribal councils. Gladstone is taking a more personal approach to leadership, working on environmental sustainability from diet to fuel consumption.

The following questions, paraphrased, were presented by Bilinski:

Q: What happened after you returned to your reservations?

A: “When I graduated, I put in 40 applications for different jobs for my tribe, and they all said no – I had no experience; I was underqualified; I was overqualified,” Damon said. “I was unemployed for 17 months after graduation and ended up going to work in Burma for a few years.”

A: “There was nowhere to live unless you wanted to live with your parents or your cousin, so I got into the building trades and learned all the different skills you need to build a house from the ground up,” Gladstone said. “The first house I’ll build will be mine.”

Q: What advice would you give Native American students who still are in college?

A: “Get really involved in lots of activities,” Washines said. “I was involved in everything, including rugby and choir, and I take pride in that. But in today’s world, a bachelor’s degree is becoming more like a high school diploma. You do need to pay attention to your grades so you can get into graduate school.”

A: “I also encourage you to go for a master’s degree but get a scholarship so you don’t come out with lots of debt,” Damon said. “Indian Country needs smart, educated, young people with master’s degrees. And we really need accountants and lawyers.”

A: “Take good care of your body,” Gladstone said. “And before you graduate, talk to people, go home and figure out jobs and housing. And build a network of friends, keep their emails and phone numbers and keep in touch. It’s hard to do anything alone.”

Q: How are you working to help your people?

A: “The roles and responsibilities of a tribal councilman has in this day and age vary,” said Washines, who has become active in the Washington Democratic Party, as well as with his tribe. “If you know what state or U.S. senators do, that’s the wide variety of issues we deal with on a daily basis. I work on everything from tribal tax policy reform with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to getting potholes fixed.”

A: “I went home to find that the reservation had begun to frack, to frack all over the reservation, and they set up on the waterways,” Gladstone said. “I have been working on ways to help our people find ways to go into the future that don’t kill the earth. That’s not just a question for us; it’s a question for humanity. I’m in the research and development phase, because if it were easy, it would already be done.”

A: “Every day, we take a few things for granted,” Damon said. “In 2015, we still have people living all across Indian Country who don’t have some basic human needs, running water and electricity. Next week, I’ll be meeting with the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) to work on that. And we need to get more kids going to college. In my county in New Mexico, 175 students are graduating from high school, and only 8 percent are going to college.”

Q: What did you learn at Fort Lewis that has helped you?

A: “I found a good mentor who taught me how to go to college,” said Gladstone, who also played basketball for the Skyhawks. “I learned to think critically, to see problems and how to solve those problems.”

A: “I wanted to dive headfirst into activities,” Damon said. “I was the first Native American on the Student Senate. I learned how to build relationships, how legislation happened, all kinds of things that have really helped me in lots of activities.”

A: “This is my second home,” Washines said. “I learned to start asking questions about how do tribes evolve from here? There are big questions in the 21st century.”

abutler@durangoherald.com

To watch

To watch the streamed version of the panel featuring three Native American alumni of Fort Lewis College, visit http://youtu.be/2dTzpt10cG0.



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