Native student leaders kick off year with welcome event
The Native American Cultural Center hosted a welcome dinner for first-year students on Tuesday night as Native student leaders prepare for the center’s tenth anniversary.
Skakel McCooey, Contributing Photographer
The Native American Cultural Center welcomed its newest class of students on Tuesday night, marking its tenth year at Yale.
Dozens of Native students, faculty and staff came together at their cultural house on High Street to connect first-year students to the University’s growing Native community. Students enjoyed pizza and heard announcements from NACC leadership.
Both Truman Pipestem ’24 (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Osage Nation, Otoe-Missouria Tribe) and Mara Gutierrez ’25 (Diné/Navajo Nation), co-presidents of the Native and Indigenous Student Association at Yale, told the News that the large turnout for this year’s welcome event demonstrates an increase in the number of Native students at Yale. Both Pipestem and Gutierrez told the News that this year’s first-year class also has the greatest Native student diversity in Yale’s history.
“The biggest change that I can point to is just the explosion of Pacific Islanders, who have made the NACC their community and have felt welcomed in this community,” Pipestem said. “We’ve had a small population in the past, but it’s been taking off in ways I’ve never thought imaginable and I’m truly delighted to see it.”
According to the NACC’s website, first-year undergraduates are connected with a Native undergraduate peer liaison to ease their transition into the school year. All members of Yale’s Native community and allies are welcome to visit the NACC where Native faculty and undergraduate house staff are available to provide support for students and connect them with resources.
The NACC is open and fully staffed on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and is closed Sunday.
Thursday’s event also marked the inaugural year of the Students of the Indigenous Peoples of Oceania, a new cultural affinity organization created by Pacific Islander undergraduate members of the NACC. Gutierrez highlighted the new organization, saying that she is excited for the growing diversity of Yale’s current Native undergraduate body.
“Especially if you come from the non-continental U.S., tribal differences can be very, very wide,” said Gutierrez. “So it’s been really wonderful to have [the] IPO, and I’m so excited for them to have membership … for more different Natives to form their own groups regionally or globally.”
Amber Nobriga ’27 (Kanaka Maoli) said she was surprised by the strength of Yale’s Native student-faculty network during her first weeks on campus.
Nobrgia, a member of the Pacific Islander peer liaison group within the NACC, told the News that Native representation has played a positive role in her transition to Yale.
“Coming here, I assumed that I wouldn’t have a lot of faces like this to feel like I’m a part of a community,” Nobriga said. “Meeting Natives who are all active in what’s happening at Yale, and Native professors who are involving it in their curriculum is a nice change.”
Keenan Walker ’27 (Chickasaw), another first year, said that feeling welcomed by Native students at Yale after he was admitted was his primary reason for choosing Yale.
Recalling a personalized letter and gifts undergraduates with the NACC sent him, as well as visiting a Native and Indigenous Student Association at Yale meeting during his Bulldog Days visit, Walker told the News that his prefrosh experiences assured him of the Native visibility that exists on campus.
A prospective political science major, Walker said he hopes to eventually study Indigenous tribal law during his upcoming semesters. He is currently learning Cherokee, the first-ever Native American language class that can satisfy Yale’s language requirement.
Gutierrez also shared that the NACC’s upcoming 10-year anniversary and the annual Henry Roe Cloud Conference are at the forefront of NISAY’s agenda for the fall semester.
“We’re going to be doing what we’ve always been doing — which is fostering community, pushing for better visibility and better student life on Yale’s campus and continuing to prepare for our uncertain future,” Pipestem said.
The NACC will celebrate its decennial anniversary on Nov. 10.