"The Grand Challenge on Indigenous Homelands: Gonzaga University in 21st Century Kinship with Tribes."
In Fall 2022, Gonzaga University invited the campus community to participate in the "Grand Challenge" of creating initiatives that would serve as North Stars for best practices collaboration across and outside our campus. University-led Grand Challenges are credited with creating generations of innovation built on faculty research transmitted beyond the academy and into the public and private sectors where governments and corporations partner with scholars to translate vision into action.
Native American Studies recognizes that, collectively, we inherited this campus and the promises the first Jesuits made to Plateau People. Perhaps Gonzaga’s biggest Grand Challenge is living up to them.
While some Grand Challenge endeavors focus largely on distinctive programs, working with tribes means adapting existing models and best practices from other universities, because those models were built in collaboration with tribal partners. We have been inspired by so much excellent work our colleagues across the U.S. have undertaken and we reference that work throughout this proposal. We share our document to highlight some of our dreams for our campus. We invite friends, colleagues, and allies to adapt this content and ideas in service of your programs and your collaborations.