In the early 1800s, the Cheyenne relocated from the Upper Midwest to the high Plains, where they excelled at hunting on horseback, often following bison herds.
For Dr. Henrietta Mann, stressing the importance of education has been a lifelong mission. At a very young age, she developed a passion for learning that blossomed into an unrelenting quest to promote education — for Natives and non-Natives alike — and led to a career of teaching at the pre-college, community college, undergraduate, and graduate levels.
Dr. Mann is the last remaining founding member of the AISES Council of Elders, a distinguished group of dedicated individuals who provide cultural guidance and support to the entire AISES family. In 2012, Dr. Mann was recognized with the Ely S. Parker Award, the highest AISES honor.
Still actively involved as a mentor, Dr. Mann recently participated in the American Indian College Fund Native Pathways Summer Camp in Colorado Springs, Colo., and offered the blessing at the 2019 AISES Leadership Summit in Cherokee, N.C.
She recalls her early life on her grandfather’s allotment near Hammon, Okla., where the Cheyenne language thrived. “It was the happy place where we came together to sustain our culture,” she says. But during the 1950s and ’60s, local authorities ended the Cheyenne’s communal living arrangement, and moved them into town or to government lands nearby.
Prayers in the Cheyenne tradition were part of Dr. Mann’s upbringing. Her great-grandmother, White Buffalo Woman, prayed for her at birth, lifting the baby up to the Four Directions. Dr. Mann was given the Cheyenne name Standing Twenty Woman, which she interprets to mean one woman with the abilities and knowledge of 20 women.
To live up to her name, Dr. Mann decided at an early age to go to school, which required permission from the Indian agent. She recalls that he told her mother, “She’ll get tired of school and you can take her out.” His comments left Dr. Mann determined to learn all she could.
It wouldn’t be long, though, before she would encounter discrimination when the Native students were called out of class to be examined for lice. “I remember the Anglo students called us names,” Dr. Mann says. “I was humiliated and cried. My paternal grandfather, who was my first and dearest friend, asked what had happened.” Through the wisdom of her grandfather, Dr. Mann began to understand that Natives need education to become self-reliant. “My grandfather explained, ‘They look at us differently, and you will have to deal with what Indian-Anglo relations are all about. Your great-grandmother prayed for you to lead a good life. Always remain Cheyenne and try to make them better people,’” says Dr. Mann. “And that is why I decided to become a teacher.”
She graduated from Hammon High School in 1951 and went on to earn her BA in English, with a minor in business education, from Southwestern Oklahoma State University — the first Cheyenne woman to earn a college degree. In recognition of this achievement, her family gave her a new name, Prayer Cloth Woman, after her paternal grandmother, Lucy Whitebear Mann. “Some tribes give their members a new name after a significant event in that person’s life,” she explains. “I would always strive to live up to this name and never dishonor my grandmother.”
In 1970, she earned her master’s degree with an emphasis in English from Oklahoma State University. By this time, Dr. Mann had married and was raising a family. That same year, Dr. Mann began her college teaching career at the University of California, Berkeley. “Colleges were beginning to offer courses in Native American studies,” she says. “I had already taught at the junior high and high school levels, so when I learned of an opportunity to teach at Berkeley, I took it.”
“I felt inspired to share our wonderful Native ways with the students, the majority of whom were non-Natives. I said to myself, ‘this is where I belong.’”
This was an era of activism, and Dr. Mann saw a propitious opening to share information about Native culture and traditions at a public college. “It was here that I found my voice,” she recalls. “I felt inspired to share our wonderful Native ways with the students, the majority of whom were non-Natives. I said to myself, ‘this is where I belong.’”
After teaching at Berkeley for a few years, Dr. Mann relocated with her family to the University of Montana (UM) in Missoula, where she directed the Indian Studies Program and taught. She left in 1986 to serve as deputy to the assistant secretary at the Bureau of Indian Affairs and director of the Office of Indian Education. But after a year, what she describes as “deep philosophical differences with federal policy” led her to return to the University of Montana. There she taught intermittently for 28 years and served as director of Native American Studies for 19 years. After leaving her administrative role, she continued as full professor for some nine years.
While teaching at UM, Dr. Mann decided to pursue a doctorate in philosophy. “While I had my master’s, I didn’t possess the same credentials as the other professors,” she says. “I didn’t want to be a weakness in fostering Indian education. My ancestors deserve to have their traditions and history legitimized.”
Tragically, the same day she learned she was officially a doctoral candidate, her husband died. But Dr. Mann persevered, completed the program in three years, and was promoted to full professor.
She became the first to occupy the Katz Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University (MSU) and served in that capacity for three years. After retiring from MSU as professor emerita, she continued to serve as special assistant to the university’s president from 2003 to 2016.
Her numerous distinctions include being named one of the 10 leading professors in the nation by Rolling Stone magazine in 1991 and being inducted into the Oklahoma Historians Hall of Fame in 2018.
She encourages today’s Native students to explore their purpose. “In life’s journey, we are taught to develop our inherent treasured gifts,” says Dr. Mann. “It is critical to develop our minds in both cultural and non-tribal ways, which means pursuing the path of education by attending college.”
— Kimberly Durment Locke
Also known as the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe/Dakota Nation, the community is officially the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, located in territory that spans seven counties in southeast North Dakota and northeast South Dakota.
When Steven Just takes stock of his high school experience, he admits that because of some personal struggles, he did not achieve the highest grades or have the best attendance. In fact, sometimes he clashed with the principal and teachers. But the advice he gives today — even to students who aren’t enjoying high school — is apply to college. “College is so different from high school,” he points out, “and you can choose to study subjects that you find interesting.”
Just says his biggest challenge in getting into college was explaining his not-so-great high school record. But as a prospective first-generation college student, he was able to describe how college could change his life for the better. Once he was accepted into the University of Minnesota Morris — a good distance from his hometown of Sisseton, S.D. — the next obstacle was how to pay for it. Even with a Pell Grant, a scholarship, and a tuition waiver, he still had a bill to pay every semester, so he did accept some subsidized student loans.
Another big challenge for Just was studying effectively. Without good study habits from high school, he fell behind during freshman year, ending up on academic probation. “I made some changes my sophomore year to ensure I did not fail and was on a path to success,” he explains. “I developed study habits, which meant that I studied on campus at the library, even in the evenings after classes.” Those habits were especially important as he tackled challenging courses as a chemistry major, and they continue to serve him well as he completes his final year on a PharmD track at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
He also joined supportive student groups, and Just says the one that helped him the most was the AISES College Chapter. Getting involved marked a big change for him, because even though he was invited to join the chapter his first year, Just declined. In his second year, he decided to attend a meeting, and there he met likeminded American Indian students who became his friends and support network. “I started out as a student member and then became the chapter co-chair,” he says. “In pharmacy school, at the University of Minnesota Duluth, I served as president of a different chapter. At the 2017 National Conference, I was elected National Student Representative for a two-year term. I plan to stay involved with AISES as a professional member after I graduate in 2020 with my PharmD degree.”
“[Discovering summer research opportunities was] life-changing. It opened my eyes to the world of biomedical research, academia, health care, and professional traveling and networking at conferences.”
In another important change in his undergrad routine, Just began going to his professors’ office hours and even ventured to schedule meetings outside those posted times. This step was important because the professors answered Just’s questions and helped him understand the course material. The interactions were so helpful, in fact, that he became a regular, stopping by the offices to say hello when he didn’t have questions.
To free more time for studying, he quit his part-time job at a local grocery store and focused on campus work-study jobs limited to 10 hours per week. He started working at the library, and eventually became a teaching assistant for the chemistry department.
As a first-generation student who didn’t get much advice during high school, Just had a lot to learn about academic opportunities. But he accepted the challenge and started to do new things, like ask for letters of recommendation, write letters of intent, travel on airplanes, and participate in research opportunities. “After I got out of my comfort zone a few times, I was able to talk with professors and new mentors about future career goals,” he says.
Among the opportunities he discovered were summer research experiences, and as an undergrad he was able to participate in three different ones. “They were life-changing,” he says. “It opened my eyes to the world of biomedical research, academia, health care, and professional traveling and networking at conferences.”
Just also took some elective courses that turned out to be pivotal. “I took an upper-level history course called American Indians and the U.S. Government,” he recalls. “This course was phenomenal in that I learned how to contextualize my life experiences as an American Indian with the historical policies that took place centuries and decades before I was born. I find this helpful as I plan to practice pharmacy at an Indian Health Service (IHS) facility and have a long-term goal of improving health care policies for American Indians.”
Ultimately, Just says he would like to become a leader within the IHS or other agency focusing on American Indian–Alaska Native (AIAN) health issues and policies. In the short term, he plans to practice clinical pharmacy, most likely at an IHS facility. “I know there will be an opportunity for me to apply what I’ve learned from my varied experiences in the future in the areas of AIAN health policy,” he says.
For now, Just is concentrating on his studies and supporting other Native students. “My advice is to never give up and think big — have high hopes for yourself,” he says. “That may seem generic, but it’s true. There were times when it would have been easier for me to go back to my hometown and work at the supermarket. But I knew if I stuck with it, learned from my mistakes, and was not afraid to ask for help, I could make it.”
— Kyle Coulon