POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE

INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

On Stolen Land

THIS MARCH, AS PROTESTS OVER THE DEATH OF GEORGE Floyd spread across the globe and monuments to colonists and racists began to be pulled down, Texas A&M University faced its own reckoning. Since 1918, the school has had a statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross on its main campus. Ross was a president of A&M in the 1890s, as well as a Confederate general. His statue has been seen by students as a symbol of racism.

In June, A&M responded to the students, faculty, and staff who had called on the university to remove the statue by announcing the formation of a task force on race relations and a commission on historic representations, declaring that the two new groups would address representations of “people who contributed to Texas A&M throughout our history” and establish “the expectations and behavior of our community to stand firmly against racism.”

“Everybody was kind of abuzz on campus,” says Ried Mackay (Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Cherokee descent). “The students were like, ‘This could be something good,’ and then the Native students, we’re all just kind of like, ‘We’ll see.’”

A month later, A&M announced the members of the 45-person commission, representing Black, Hispanic, and Asian students; sororities; student military organizations; athletic programs; former students; as well as different degree programs at the school. Nobody was listed as Indigenous or designated as a representative of Indigenous students or communities. “It was really disappointing,” Mackay says.

“While the commission is intended to gather a variety of perspectives among members of the university community, it’s simply not possible for any single