Indians Receive No Response On Recruitment

The Harvard Inter-Tribal Council has met with little success in its efforts to increase enrollment of Indian students according to two representatives of the organization.

"We were listened to politely but no one is willing to take an overt action toward achievement of our goals," Sanford Smith, third-year law student said yesterday. "The admissions committee said in effect. 'Yes we should have more Indians but..."

Harvard, whose charter commits it to the education of children of native Americans, presently has ten American Indians among its students. Of these two are at Radcliffe and only one is a member of the College.

"The College admissions committee traditionally admits about one Indian every two years" said Ray Fields, a first-year student at the Law School.

The representatives also cited the University for its lack of interest in curriculum reform dealing with American Indian history.

"We can't understand why the history of the people who lived in this country long before the white man came cannot be taught just as German history is taught. Right now, there are five courses in the entire University concerned with the American Indian. Of these only one is open to undergraduates," Fields added.

"Anthropologists want to use the Indian for study, and some people use him in order to satisfy their own charitable inclinations by giving him old clothes. We are regarded as unclaimed land, free to be used to the paint of promiscuity," he said.

"In some ways the Indian is worse off than the black because there is no powerful political bloc to contend with in regard to American Indians," Fields continued.

The Inter-Tribal Council has begun a public education program that will send Indian speakers to any group that requests them.