NAIS Statement Concerning the May 1 Arrests and Events on Campus

The faculty and staff of the Department of Native American and Indigenous Studies condemn the violent arrests and use of militarized force against peaceful demonstrators that took place on the Green of Dartmouth College on the evening of May 1. We support the right of our students, Native and non-Native, to exercise their rights of free speech publicly and peacefully, and we protest the arrests of nine Native students who were taking a moral and political stand against genocide in Gaza. We call on the administration to take necessary and immediate steps to drop all charges, lift campus bans, and begin to rebuild the trust, unity, and hopes that were shattered when it employed military force against Native students on the campus of a school that was founded for the education of Native people.