By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – The University of Minnesota’s founders engaged in “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” of Native American people during the 19th century that resulted in the institution’s financial gain, a report released on Tuesday concluded.
The report – a collaboration between the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council and the university – found that the school developed and taught revisionist narratives intended to conceal the systemic harm perpetuated against Indigenous people.
“The Founding Board of Regents committed genocide and ethnic cleansing of Indigenous peoples for financial gain, using the institution as a shell corporation through which to launder lands and resources,” the report said.
The 500-page report was an outgrowth of the TRUTH Project, whose name is an acronym for “Towards Recognition and University-Tribal Healing.”
The project began in 2020 with the aim of revealing how universities across the United States were built on the proceeds of land taken away from tribes through the 1862 Morrill Act.
The University of Minnesota extracted vast amounts of wealth from tribes in the region, the project’s research team said on Tuesday. It said the founding members used their positions in government to pass anti-Indigenous legislation that financially benefited them and the institution.
The report urged the university to enact policies that benefit Indigenous people, including a combination of “reparations, truth-telling, policy change, and transformative justice processes.”
Robert Larsen, president of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, said the report only scratched the surface of local history, which was mostly ignored in schools or not known to the general public.
The U.S. Congress in 2009 passed a resolution, tucked into an appropriations bill, that apologized to Native Americans for violence, maltreatment and neglect inflicted by U.S. citizens. In 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom apologized to Native Americans for violence and other wrongdoings they suffered during the state’s history.
The University of Minnesota has over 50,000 students and 20,000 faculty and staff, according to its website.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Richard Chang)
