Pitzer College’s Native and Indigenous Initiatives (NII) program held a summit titled “Our Future is Ancestral: Uplifting Indigenous Knowledge Systems” at the Robert Redford Conservancy on March 29. A day of hands-on workshops and discussions about Indigenous identity and knowledge, the summit provided a space for Native and Indigenous students and community members to gather and connect.
The event opened with words from Virginia Carmelo (Gabrielino/Tongva, Kumeyaay), a dedicated advocate for reviving the Tongva language and culture. Attendees then participated in interactive workshops, choosing from beading with Birdie Pulskamp, tule mat weaving with Citlali Arvizu, soapstone carving with Lazaro Arvizu or zine making with Laurie Steelink, according to the event flyer.
Following a communal lunch, attendees gathered for a panel discussion on Indigenous identity moderated by Meranda Roberts (Yerington Paiute, Chicana), a visiting professor with Pomona College’s Art History Department and former Native Scholar in Residence with NII.
Panelists included Joshua Thunder Little (Oglala Lakota, Tongva), the assistant director of Pomona College’s Native Indigenous Resource Center (NIRC), Claudia Arteaga, associate professor and chair of Scripps College’s Department of Spanish, Latin American and Caribbean Literatures and Cultures and Jansikwe Medina-Tayac PZ ’25 (Piscataway, Colombian), the NII coordinator at Pitzer’s Community Engagement Center.
The panelists began by discussing Indigenous methodology as a community-centered, intergenerational approach to knowledge. They emphasized the importance of learning from Native people and learning about whose land you live on.
The Claremont Colleges are located on the traditional land of the Tongva/Gabrieleno.
“It can be really difficult for people to understand how to meaningfully incorporate Indigenous methodologies or ways of being into their work,” Roberts said. “We wanted this summit to be a space where that conversation could start.”
Arteaga reflected on the importance of collaboration when engaging with Indigenous knowledge.
“I have learned that there is no way to do work about Indigenous folks without them,” she said. “That means that collaboration and reciprocity has to be there the whole time.”
Medina-Tayac, who also helped to organize the summit, critiqued the commonly held belief that traditional Indigenous practices are from and belong to the past.
”Our practices are more modern than any form of technology that has been created, of any systems that currently exist,” Medina-Tayac explained. “[This is] because we are thinking of how to do things sustainably, and we’re thinking of how to pass down things to future generations … I think that’s the most modern thing you can have as a society.”
Arteaga echoed this sentiment. She added that Indigenous relationships with non-human beings involve responsibility.
“There is a responsibility to build a reciprocal relationship with those non-human beings that are the surrounding of the human community,” Arteaga said. She suggested showing respect to ancestors through rituals and ceremonies.
The panel also discussed the diversity of experiences, perspectives and traditions within Native and Indigenous communities, and addressed the challenges of being Indigenous in academic spaces.
“Indigenous identity is layered and shaped by history, community and personal experience,” Roberts said. “There are many Indigenous students on this campus whose identities fall outside of how the institution tends to define Indigeneity. When those definitions are too narrow, the institution ends up overlooking, if not outright erasing, their presence and lived realities.”
“We had to take it upon ourselves to create a space for ourselves where we felt safe because that space didn’t exist for us already.”
When asked about her experience as an Indigenous student at the Claremont Colleges, Medina-Tayac brought up a lack of Native and Indigenous representation and resources on campus, including limited Indigenous faculty and the absence of a Native American/Indigenous Studies (NAIS) major.
Scripps is currently the only 5C offering a minor in NAIS, which was introduced in 2021 after several years of student advocacy.
In 2022, Medina-Tayac co-founded the Claremont Colleges’ Native Indigenous Student Union (NISU), a group dedicated to promoting community for Native and Indigenous students and celebrating Native heritage.
“We had to take it upon ourselves to create a space for ourselves where we felt safe because that space didn’t exist for us already,” Medina-Tayac explained. “It’s a lot of labor … [but] I feel this intense obligation to create that space, not just for myself, but for other students.”
Besides NISU, Pitzer College’s NII program at the Community Engagement Center works to develop the relationship between Pitzer and local tribes, while the NIRC is a Pomona College-facing office and hub offering support, resources and a sense of community to Native and Indigenous students. Leaders from each were present at the summit.
Medina-Tayac, as an organizer of the summit, reflected on her goals for the event.
She emphasized the importance of creating a space where attendees could both learn and, through the workshop portion, create something meaningful. She hopes people can see things like basketry and beading as more than a craft, but also as forms of resilience that deserve to be uplifted and respected in institutional spaces.
“Community building is an important part of learning,” she pointed out. “Learning is way more productive and valuable when you are all talking to each other and learning from each other.”
The “Our Future is Ancestral” summit provided a space for Native and Indigenous students to learn in community, and encouraged the recognition of Indigenous traditions as living, evolving practices.
It highlighted the importance of making space for Indigenous voices — past, present and future.
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