‘A first step’; Indigenous community members call for curriculum focus, scholarships
Chickahominy Chief Stephen Adkins speaking at VCU’s Cabell Library on Nov. 18, the first instance of a federally recognized tribal chief speaking at the university. Photo by Kieran Stevens.
Molly Manning, News Editor
Some faculty, leaders and the Chief of the Chickahominy, one of Virginia’s 11 native tribes, are calling for the university to create more opportunities for Indigenous students and teach a fuller version of their history.
VCU and VCU Health adopted a formal Land Acknowledgment in November 2024, stating a commitment to relationships with the 11 tribes. Chief Stephen Adkins said that it is an important step, but should only be the beginning of greater efforts to reconcile.
“I would like to see the university be more aggressive in its outreach to potential Native American students,” Adkins said during a visit to VCU on Tuesday.
Adkins, a VCU alum, visited his alma mater to discuss his tribe’s history and role in Virginia’s past, present and future as faculty and leaders across departments prepare to introduce a new minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies next fall.
Adkins outlined the past of Indigenous nations in Virginia, including the Chickahominy, noting historical events that he said ought to be in school books. It is the responsibility of education institutions to ensure they teach a correct history to their students.
“I’m not a fan of the Native American history month, because were history taught as it should be, we wouldn’t need a special month,” Adkins said. “If it’s part of the ongoing lesson plans in classrooms from pre-K through Ph.D., we don’t need the special time. So I want you to hold hands and push forward to ensure that textbooks teach history.”
Beginning with Manifest Destiny, Adkins explained the timeline of events that eventually brought the Chickahominy Nation to federal recognition in 2018, including the 1614 treaty between settlers and the Native tribes, the 1622 uprising against settlers throughout Virginia and the eviction of the Chickahominy people from Chickahominy Ridge.
Adkins shared how his parents travelled to Washington, D.C. to marry because of the 1924 Racial Integrity Act, a Virginia law that prohibited interracial marriage until the Loving V. Virginia case in 1967. In the same year, the Indian Citizenship Act granted Native Americans their citizenship, which Adkins said was not a coincidence, but another way for the government to exploit Indigenous people.
In 1950, Adkins said two Indigenous students applied to the Medical College of Virginia, which would later become a part of VCU. These students were made to understand they were not welcome in the program.
Adkins said he thinks universities should be reaching out more to potential students in Indigenous populations and working to allow more opportunities for them to attend.
“We deserve the next step of higher education within the confines of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Adkins said. “I think it would be more than appropriate for the state-funded universities in the commonwealth to provide reduced tuition for aspiring [Indigenous] students.”
VCU spokesperson Brian McNeill said the university does not currently provide scholarships or aid specifically for students who are members of Virginia’s Indigenous communities.
Faculty in the College of Humanities and Sciences and the HRC Indigenous Humanities Lab are currently working to launch a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies, which Humanities Research Center director Cristina Stanciu said she hopes will be introduced in Fall 2026 following approval from the appropriate committees.
Stanciu noted the Departments of English and History also support the new minor.
Stanciu said VCU is behind other Virginia universities, such as Virginia Tech, William and Mary and the University of Virginia, which have hired tribal advisors or liaisons and created infrastructure for Indigenous studies and to support their Indigenous students.
“We hope to catch up to other Virginia institutions in terms of building an infrastructure for VCU to offer not just classes for Native students, but also to create a climate where Native students feel at home here,” Stanciu said.
VCU is on the right track, Stanciu said. She hopes the university will follow suit in hiring a Native advisor or liaison and creating opportunities like summer camps for students from local reservations to come to VCU and later enroll at the university.
“I think a liaison with the tribes would be a first step,” Stanciu said. “Having Chief Adkins here and hearing his vision for how the university can move forward in engaging with local Indigenous nations is key before we launch something formally.”
VCU has already hosted three May graduations for Native students, but Stanciu said there is much more to be done to make spaces for Indigenous students on campus. The framework exists, the only thing left is institutional commitment, Stanciu said.
“I think we have a lot to learn from Chief Adkins,” Stanciu said. “As both an educator, a tribal leader and somebody who has really educated us and the Virginia community about why it’s important to tell the story of Virginia Native tribes, and why we as educators have to have a responsibility to incorporate materials about local Native tribes into our curriculum.”
