Carving A Space For Indigenous Students At Amherst

On Dec. 6, 2012, scholars, students and tribal community members from across the country gathered in Cole Assembly Room for a day-long symposium to honor William Apess, a 19th-century Pequot preacher, activist and intellectual. Despite the silent, heavy presence of Jeffrey Amherst’s legacy, Native individuals and their non-Native colleagues and allies joined together to lighten that burden and celebrate Apess’s courage and eloquence in the face of adversity. As we contemplated his struggles with