Student Union
- By Esha Sarai
Drums of Community Beat for Native-American Grads
Deondra Jackson worried she would cry while delivering the farewell address to the Class of 2018 on the White Earth Native American reservation in Minnesota.
“I’m kinda nervous,” she said before she took the stage in front of 28 other graduates and two dozen teachers and administrators. “Hopefully I don’t break down on stage.”
“It’s really bittersweet,” she added after a brief pause.
Jackson did fine, delivering a brief farewell to the mostly Native American students who have been her classmates at Waubun-Ogema school, many of them since kindergarten
Jackson will move to a dorm at Minnesota State University in Moorhead this fall to study social work -- the same field her mom has practiced on the reservation.
“On the reservation, there’s a lot of families that are struggling,” Jackson says. “Some of my family members have lost a parent to drugs.”
Jackson says she wants to help break the cycle.
“Some of the stories she tells me it’s like … wow, how does a parent do that to their children? How does a parent just abandon their child? That’s one of the things I really want to help. I want to come back and deal with the children,” she says, “maybe a little with the parents just to help them get on the right track.”
Jackson’s life has been reservation-focused, like for many Americans who grow up in small towns, traveling only outside to nearby cities in Minnesota and North Dakota. She’s “never experienced anything other than life around the reservation,” she says.
Breaking stereotypes
But she isn’t nervous, she says, about leaving home and meeting new people of different backgrounds this fall in college.
“There’s a stereotype that, like, Native Americans are bad, that they don’t expect us to get a lot, like, far in life, and I’m just excited to go there and prove people wrong,” she says.
“I’m not going to be a statistic of Native Americans not going to school.”
Jackson lined up with her fellow classmates for a class photo before the ceremony. The students’ smiles flit between laughter, when someone cracked a joke, and nervousness when the room fell quiet.
As their families and friends filed into the school gymnasium, the commencement ceremony looked like so many others across the United States, although a bit smaller and less generic.
Because they are on the White Earth reservation, Native American traditions and customs are part of the ceremony. A procession that includes a tribal flag with the American one entered ahead of the graduates as they walked into the gymnasium.
After the requisite performance of the national anthem by the high school band, a local Native-American drum group performed as attendees remained standing.
A few speeches and the handing out of 29 diplomas later, Jackson took the stage to deliver her class’s farewell address.
“We should never forget where we came from, and who was by our side for it all,” Jackson says from behind the podium, addressing her classmates with a steady voice.
“So Class of 2018, now it’s time to say goodbye. So shed a tear, share a smile, and be sure to remember all the while, although it may be time to move on, today’s memories will last your whole life long.”
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Trump administration opens antisemitism inquiries at 5 colleges, including Columbia and Berkeley

The Trump administration is opening new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at five U.S. universities including Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley, the Education Department announced Monday.
It's part of President Donald Trump's promise to take a tougher stance against campus antisemitism and deal out harsher penalties than the Biden administration, which settled a flurry of cases with universities in its final weeks. It comes the same day the Justice Department announced a new task force to root out antisemitism on college campuses.
In an order signed last week, Trump called for aggressive action to fight anti-Jewish bias on campuses, including the deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
Along with Columbia and Berkeley, the department is now investigating the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University. The cases were opened using the department's power to launch its own civil rights reviews, unlike the majority of investigations, which stem from complaints.
Messages seeking comment were left with all five universities.
A statement from the Education Department criticized colleges for tolerating antisemitism after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and a wave of pro-Palestinian protests that followed. It also criticized the Biden administration for negotiating "toothless" resolutions that failed to hold schools accountable.
"Today, the Department is putting universities, colleges, and K-12 schools on notice: this administration will not tolerate continued institutional indifference to the wellbeing of Jewish students on American campuses," said Craig Trainor, the agency's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
The department didn't provide details about the inquiries or how it decided which schools are being targeted. Presidents of Columbia and Northwestern were among those called to testify on Capitol Hill last year as Republicans sought accountability for allegations of antisemitism. The hearings contributed to the resignation of multiple university presidents, including Columbia's Minouche Shafik.
An October report from House Republicans accused Columbia of failing to punish pro-Palestinian students who took over a campus building, and it called Northwestern's negotiations with student protesters a "stunning capitulation."
House Republicans applauded the new investigations. Representative Tim Walberg, chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, said he was "glad that we finally have an administration who is taking action to protect Jewish students."
Trump's order also calls for a full review of antisemitism complaints filed with the Education Department since Oct. 7, 2023, including pending and resolved cases from the Biden administration. It encourages the Justice Department to take action to enforce civil rights laws.
Last week's order drew backlash from civil rights groups who said it violated First Amendment rights that protect political speech.
The new task force announced Monday includes the Justice and Education departments along with Health and Human Services.
"The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found," said Leo Terrell, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump's renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools."
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