Leaders of the University of Alaska Southeast and the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska took their first steps together down “a pathway for healing” on March 27.

“This is a historic moment,” said Chalyee Éesh Richard Peterson, president of Tlingit and Haida. “This is us talking about strengthening our relationship to build something that’s enduring and brings our culture to the forefront in ways that it often hasn’t been.”

Sitting side by side in the executive council chambers of the Tlingit and Haida Andrew Hope Building, Peterson and UAS Chancellor Aparna Palmer signed a memorandum of understanding to formally initiate the process of developing a School of Indigenous Studies.

Tlingit and Haida executive council members and UAS staff clapped and cheered, with many embraces following the signing.

“Rarely is it the case that a tribe and a university come together as equal partners to create a vision for education,” Palmer said.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks has a College of Indigenous Studies, but Palmer said this new journey is unique since the tribe is an equal partner.

She said it’s “an opportunity to continue to integrate, celebrate and shape the education that we offer at UAS with the values and the traditions of Indigenous peoples” across Southeast Alaska.

The university offers a bachelor of arts in Indigenous studies, certificates in Indigenous language teaching and speaking, and an occupational endorsement in Northwest Coast Art. A minor is also available for undergraduate degrees in Northwest Coast Art, the Tlingit language and Alaska Native studies. Various courses in these fields of languages, arts and culture are also available.

The university and tribe will work together to create a structure, and the school will eventually have to be approved by the University of Alaska board of regents and the tribe.

Peterson said conversations about a School of Indigenous Studies ebbed and flowed in the past, and he was thankful for Palmer’s efforts in bringing the partnership to fruition. He also recognized his friend’s efforts, X̱’unei Lance Twitchell, a professor of Alaska Native Languages at UAS.

In an interview, Peterson and Twitchell recalled the idea of a tribal college surfacing in their conversations with Dennis Demmert nearly 30 years ago. They were in Sitka at the now-closed Sheldon Jackson College. The college hosted a village management institute and workshops on grant writing and policy to expand leadership skills.

“I remember Dennis even saying then, what an idea to have a tribal college where we can build out our next leaders,” Peterson said.

Demmert served over 20 years as the director of Native Studies at UAF. His dedication to improving education for Alaska Native students is recognized through the Dennis Demmert Appreciation and Recognition Award.

“It’s been a really long time coming,” Twitchell said. “And so it’s really fabulous to hear the visions and dreams of people who have been in education for a long time, like Dennis Demmert was one of our mentors and I think of him when things like this happen, and then to be able to take their vision and to make it into a reality — that’s the really exciting part.”

The signed memorandum identifies opportunities for pilot programs, joint grant initiatives, and collaborative events or learning experiences, and forms a working group with representation from both Tlingit and Haida and UAS.