Welcome from Your President
Native American Alumni of Harvard University (NAAHU) has been a recognized Harvard Alumni Association Shared Interest Group (SIG) since February 2007. We are grateful you've chosen to visit our page and hope to hear from you if you would like to join us.
Welcome to the Native American Alumni of Harvard University website!
Our goal is to serve as a forum for Harvard Native alumni to foster collaboration and awareness of indigenous history and persistence, on campus and off. We seek to create a supportive environment for current and former students, to advocate for more tenured Native faculty at Harvard, and to push for a dedicated indigenity studies program at Harvard. We politely and persistently pester Harvard not to treat us as invisible. Together with Harvard Native faculty, staff, and allies, we will continue striving to help create a welcoming and inclusive environment as we launch our NAAHU-NAHC Mentorship Pilot Program in September 2020. Our Board of Directors, who represent Native alumni from multiple Harvard schools and eras, oversee the work of our organization. We have made progress over the last 14 years -- providing opportunities to unite, learn, and grow together -- and we recognize that there is still much progress to be made. We invite your ongoing alumni engagement as we continue to grow and develop as a SIG.
We held our most recent Annual Meeting on the first weekend in May 2019. As usual, we scheduled this gathering of Harvard Native alumni to coincide with Harvard Powwow/Arts First Weekend. Whenever a Harvard Native alum from any school is willing and able to take the lead, we hold a small Reunion Week gathering in late May/early June. Please contact me if you wish to serve in this capacity during the 2021 Reunion events (2020 Reunions have been postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
In lieu of in-person NAAHU Symposia and HUNAP 50th celebrations in 2020 and 2021, we hosted and co-sponsored many webinars covering material not otherwise available through Harvard alumni programming, including our December 2020 webinar with Harvard Club of Seattle "Examining the Origins and Legacy of Indigenous Slavery on the 400th Anniversary of the Mayflower's Landing" followed up with a Unity Webinar in March 2021 in partnership with the Harvard Archives "Harvard Library Presents: Archival Stories of Indigenous and Asian Experiences at Harvard."
Next up, on September 23 - 26, 2021, we will convene with the Harvard Black Alumni Society, the Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance, and the Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance for the first-ever Unity Weekend. Originally planned for the weekend immediately prior to Indigenous Peoples' Day 2020, the HAA and Unity SIGs agreed to delay the conference nearly a year in the hope that we could convene our communities together in person. Though Unity Weekend still needs to be virtual, the extra time inspired us to host a series of lead-in webinars from November 2020 through February 2021. Hosted jointly by HAA and four Shared Interest Groups who have been planning and preparing for this conference for years, Harvard Black Alumni Society, Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance, Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance, and Native American Alumni of Harvard University are thrilled to welcome all alumni (and friends) to virtually attend. In the wake of the collaborative activism that these and many other alumni and student groups have shown in favor of protecting race-conscious admissions at Harvard and in mobilizing to elect more progressive and representative Elected Directors and Overseers, this weekend will be a forum for diverse communities to come together for candid conversations on complex issues at the intersection of identity, inclusion, and social impact. Please join us for Unity Weekend; registration is free but will end 9/21/21.
We very much hope you'll join us for Unity Weekend, ask about our NAAHU-NaHC Mentorship Program, and tune in to our next Town Hall and pester the board with ideas! This is an opportunity to renew or build new friendships and to plan for the future of Natives at Harvard.
NAAHU is only as strong as its alumni network, so we encourage your membership, talents, ideas, and support. Also, please join us on social media by visiting our Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.
Emily R. Van Dyke, MD MPH (AB ’03 & MPH ’09)
Native American Alumni of Harvard University President (2016-Present)