Joliet Junior College praised by activist for awareness of Native American issues

Joliet — November is Native American Heritage Month and Joliet Junior College is taking steps to ensure native issues and history get the recognition it deserves, despite the school having a very small Native population as a school.

“They’re doing a fantastic job actually talking about issues that need to be talked about, issues that affect every tribe across the nation,” said Ted Trujillo a Native American activist from Will County and a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe. “They’re setting the bar for what all colleges should be doing.”

Trujillo contacted JJC in 2022 to encourage the school’s office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion to do more for Native Heritage Month, which lead to “a few” events in 2022 and then a significant expansion in 2023.

“It’s important to me that when people think of DEI, they think about more than just race and Black and white issues,” said Dr. Escortina Ervin, JJC’s Chief Equity Officer for the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Department. “It’s not one-size-fits-all, so we challenged ourselves to expand our program.”

Ervin said the department created a committee in 2022 to “figure out how to celebrate and commemorate” Native Heritage Month after discussing the issue with Trujillo.

“We did a Land Acknowledgement, acknowledging the tribes whose land it was that our school is on, but we didn’t want to just do that without any action behind it.”

Following the creation of the program in 2022, the DEI Department was joined in its efforts by three more departments: the Center of Multicultural Access and Succes (CMAS), Human Resources, and Corporate and Community Services, in creating five programs throughout the month of November for the school, addressing issues faced by Native tribes.

“We’re really excited about the response we’ve had,” said Ervin. “Our goal is to make DEI something that happens across the institution.”

Throughout November, the school has hosted a screening of the film “Rhymes for Young Ghouls” about the experiences of Natives in Canadian boarding schools, offered a non-credit course on the Native tribes of Illinois and their histories, hosted a ceremony for the Native American National Day of Mourning, and discussion sessions on the use of Native mascots and costumes, and the issue of violence against Native women, who experience violent crime at a rate ten percent higher than other races.

“We did a Land Acknowledgement, acknowledging the tribes whose land it was that our school is on, but we didn’t want to just do that without any action behind it.”

—  Dr. Escortina Ervin, JJC’s Chief Equity Officer for the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Department

“We are hoping that through this educational programming, that more people become aware and are encouraged to make change,” said Ervin. “People don’t know what they don’t know, but when you know better, you do better.”

Trujillo has been personally involved in the mascot issue. He served as a member of the committee which recommended his alma mater, Morris High School, change its mascot and team name, which is the same ethnic slur formerly used by the Washington NFL team.

The school has agreed to change the name for the 2024-2025 school year, though Trujillo emphasized that work still needs to be done as the football team’s booster club is still promoting the mascot.

Trujillo pointed out that Morris is not alone as 110 schools in Illinois still use Native people mascots. The Illinois State Board of Education has not taken steps to condemn the use of imagery and names many Natives deem racist, despite pushes by Tribal organizations and the American Psychological Association to discontinue the practice.

“It really impacts youth suicide and dropout rates when people take someone’s culture and dilute it down to entertainment,” Trujillo said. “Natives feel like all we are there for is entertainment, and it leads to people not taking us seriously when other issues are raised, or our girls go missing.”

Despite the work that remains to be done, Trujillo did share that he and other activists have secured promises by four Illinois schools to discontinue their Native mascots by the end of the school year.

He also praised the initiative of State Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, who pushed a bill to require public schools in Illinois to teach about Native American mistreatment and genocide starting in 2024.

While Trujillo called these steps in the right direction, he said he is still concerned about how these subjects will be addressed, since many teachers have not received education on the issues.

“Who is going to prepare these teachers for the material when textbooks don’t teach about what happened?” he asked.

To that end, Trujillo said he hopes more colleges follow the example of JJC and that the school can expand its programs further in the future.

“JJC are actually doing deep research into bringing these issues to light,” he said. “They are doing more than a lot of the big colleges, and to me that says a lot. How can the big-name colleges justify not doing things, when a small school like JJC can with their limited funds? "

“I cannot say anything bad about what they’ve been doing, the more they can expose their students to the issues, the better off everyone is,” Trujillo added. “I’d love to see them get more outreach into the community with this. There is good work being done around the country, and JJC is part of that work now by being positive role models and working to celebrate each and every race of people.”