Pierce Today

Students in the Muckleshoot Doctoral Cohort in the Educational Leadership Doctoral (Ed.D.) program have been in classes together for two years, but met each other in-person for

the first time on June 25, 2022 at the Muckleshoot Tribal College (MTC). The cohort started working on their doctoral degrees back in the  summer of 2020. Pandemic restrictions

meant the group could only meet  online.

Each quarter since they started their classes, staff and faculty from  the Ed.D. program and Muckleshoot Tribal College would meet quarterly  (including Dr. Denise Bill, Dr. Michelle

Montgomery, Ashley Walker, Amy Maharaj, and Dr. Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn)  to assess the status of COVID public health concerns. They decided to  wait until this summer

for in-person activity. “There are still options  for remote participation this summer in case there is a need for access  to classes in this format,” said Ed.D. Director Robin Zape-tah

hol-ah  Minthorn.

The significance of the first in-person meeting resonates at an even  broader level. As far as campus and Tribal leaders can determine, this  if the first doctoral-level program of any

kind to be offered on Tribal  lands anywhere within the United States.

The ten-person cohort is comprised of students from the Muckleshoot Tribe as well as other  tribes in the area and across the U.S. “We have one student in the  program who lives in

Utah and another that lives in New Mexico,” said  Minthorn. “The student from New Mexico actually flew up to be part of  the first day of classes.”

Two classes are being held this summer: TEDLD 577: Funding, Budgets  and Inequities and TEDLD 591: Indigenous Leadership in  Education/Community Contexts. The latter is

taught by Dr. Denise Bill,  who earned her doctorate from UW in Seattle and is executive director of adult and higher education at the MTC.

“Dr. Bill opened her class by taking us on a walk to the berry garden  at Muckleshoot Tribal College,” said Minthorn. “She told us about the  history of that area and how they are

tryingto create a connection to  the local plants and local berries. That place-based education is at the  heart of our program.”

Students later broke into groups and read passages from Dr. Bill’s  Ed.D. dissertation. “She [Dr. Bill] actually interviewed nine Indigenous  educational leaders across Washington,”

said Minthorn. “For our  students to read those interviews was really powerful because it helped  them connect to intergenerational learnings and opportunities.”

Besides classes, the day also included a welcoming ceremony attended by UW Tacoma Chancellor Sheila Edwards Lange, Muckleshoot Tribal Council members Virginia Cross and

Jessica Garcia-Jones, and UW Tacoma Tribal Liaison Gabe Minthorn.  The ceremony included an opening prayer and the distribution of gifts  from Dr. Bill to guests including

students. The event also included  remarks from campus and tribal leaders. Students got a chance to speak.  “This group is really close and they call each other sisters, so it was

 really powerful to see them hugging each other for the first time. Until  that moment they’d only known each other from those little boxes on  Zoom,” said Minthorn.

This cohort is scheduled to graduate in June of 2023. The Ed.D.  program and the Muckleshoot Tribal College are currently recruiting for the second doctoral cohort which will begin

work in the summer of 2023. The group is also busy  recruiting for a Muckleshoot master of education cohort which is slated  to start this fall. “With the Ed.D. program and now the

master’s, I  think we’re setting a good example of what it means to cultivate a good  relationship with a tribal community,” said Minthorn. “We never make a  big decision without input

from the Muckleshoot tribe and it’s always  going to be about making sure this is a joint process and that we have  mutual, reciprocal relationships.”

Original source can be found here.