Editor’s note: When we visited Proctor Academy’s campus in June, Aaron Thomas was kind enough to take time during our tour to talk about why he values Proctor. We had no idea that Aaron would open up a great back story that we had never heard. Aaron hails from the Navaho Nation and he attends Proctor as part of the school’s Native American Scholarship Fund- a program that was entirely news to us.

As with anything new or intriguing that we learn about Proctor, we called Chuck Will. Often referred to as “Proctor’s voice” and “Proctor’s institutional memory,” Chuck is that quintessential boarding school faculty member who’s been at the school ages; knows everyone; knows the history, and knows the stories. We asked Chuck if he could help us with contacts and sources for an article on Proctor’s Native American Scholarship Fund and he one-uped us. He’s written it for us.

Proctor’s Native American Scholarship Fund- like many boarding school programs- grew out of the experiences and efforts of a dedicated faculty member and some serendipity.

Thanks, Chuck. Enjoy the story.

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Albert White Hat and George Emeny and Albert's daughter Jacqui

Programs that shape the heart, soul and character of schools are often born in administrative retreats, curriculum huddles or department meetings. But Proctor Academy’s Native American Program traces a long and surprising path from an incident at one of the nation’s poorest communities: Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

George Emeny, a young Hotchkiss-educated geometry teacher at Proctor, was running a study hall from his dormitory apartment when a boy asked him to proofread a history paper. Three weeks prior, on February 27, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement, with the help of local Oglala Lakota (Sioux) occupied the town of Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The student’s paper attempted to address the resulting stand off with U.S. Marshalls. Reading the paper, George—who had spent childhood summers hunting, trapping minnows and building canoes with the Athabascan people of western Canada—was struck by the student’s inability to capture the true angst of Native existence. “I went to [Head of School] David Fowler and asked to teach a term of Native American history,” he recalls.

Albert White Hat

What followed is testament to the power of vision, commitment and passion. Aware of his own limited experience of Native cultures, George spent the next eight summers studying with Lakota language professor Albert White Hat at Sinte Gleska University in Mission, South Dakota.

His contacts with Native leaders expanded. Albert became a visiting professor at Proctor, where he serves as a Trustee, today. He hosted trustee/faculty/staff retreats on the Rosebud Reservation. Albert’s children attended Proctor. Proctor students spent trimesters at Wounded Knee High School. Albert’s adopted brother, John Around Him, traveled annually to Andover, New Hampshire from his teaching post at Oglala Lakota College, to instruct Proctor students in Native culture and spirituality.

Teachers learned to conduct traditional “inipi” sweat lodge ceremonies on the shores of a school pond. Dartmouth College cooperated with annual pow-wows featuring traditional dance ceremonies and exhibits. The cultures of Navaho, Hopi and local Aquinnah (Wampanoag) peoples were reflected in the student body, and Harvard University’s Tim Begay (Navaho) spent two years teaching, advising and recruiting for the school.

Albert White Hat addressing Proctor Academy students & faculty

The effect of the initiative is subtle yet pervasive on campus. Addressing the community in 2009, Albert offered this:

“When I was young, a went out to the canyons on a vision quest. Looking up, everywhere I saw eagles. Each was an individual and different, but they filled the sky. When I returned, I told a tribal elder what I had seen. He said, ‘You are the fortunate one to have seen the Eagle Nation.’ When I look at you students today, I feel that I am witnessing the Eagle Nation: each different, but making a whole that is complete.”

In the 1990s, a Native American Scholarship Fund was created to support attendance by Native students in perpetuity.

The Assistant School Leader for the 2010-11 school year is Aaron Thomas, an articulate, proud Navaho. And to complete a circle…Aaron will be a mentor to Albert’s grandson, Mark White Hat, who will graduate in 2014.

Photos provided by Proctor Academy.