CAMD Scholars Launch New Season with "The Choctaw: A Century After the Trail of Tears"

Presentation will include a dance performance by members of a Massachusetts tribe.

September 17, 2008 —The 178th anniversary of the so-called Trail of Tears, a dark stain on our nation’s history that resulted in the dislocation of five tribes of thousands of Native Americans and the deaths of more than 4,000 men, women and children along the way, will be marked in a program that is free and open to the public on Friday, September 26 on the Phillips Academy campus by a descendent of one of those tribes.

Jane Thomas ’10, a third year student, will present her CAMD Scholars project, including a dance performance by members of a Massachusetts tribe, at 6:30 p.m. in Kemper Auditorium, 5 Chapel Ave, Andover, Mass. CAMD is the acronym for the school’s Office of Community and Multicultural Development which sponsors summer research projects for selected students. Thomas spent this past summer digging into her—and her people’s—pasts to better understand how history shaped their experience.

The scholarship led her first to the Dancing Rabbit Creek Treaty, signed on September 26, 1830 which forced the Choctaws to relocate from their lands and homes in the southeastern part of the United States to the Oklahoma Territory. Her interviews and correspondence touched many sources, including Chief Pyle of the Choctaw Nation. Most importantly, she said, was her own grandfather, whose ancestors survived the Trail of Tears. He inspired her with his stories of the racism and prejudice he and his family have encountered, and with the simple, but wise philosophy that helped him cope. Thomas acknowledges that her work on the CAMD project allowed her “to take back a heritage for which I used to feel shame.”

Raj Mundra, assistant dean of CAMD, founded the CAMD Scholars program in 2006 with an Abbot grant. He had high praise for Thomas’ work. “The thing that impressed me about this CAMD scholars project is that it led Jane into her own family history. She’s also a great student of history, and she has been able to articulate the impact that treaties and agreements forced upon the Choctaw have had on the lives of real people.”

Thomas has entitled her project “The Next Step: The Choctaw a Century After the Trail of Tears.” Malinda Blustain, director of the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology on the Phillips Academy campus, served as Thomas’ faculty advisor.

The presentation will be followed by a performance of drumming and dancing by the Quabbin Lake Singers of the Nipmuc Tribe of Massachusetts.

This is the first of five CAMD Scholars presentations scheduled into January 2009. All are free and open to the public. The remaining programs are:

• October 17: Courtnie Cutchfield ’09; “The Multiethnic Dilemma: Identity Formation for the Latina, Afro-Latina, and African American;” Advisor: Carlos Hoyt, associate dean of students
• November 19: Kimberly Kuoch ’09; “Cambodian Immigrants in America;” Advisor: Aya Murata, advisor to Asian students and cluster dean
• January 19, 2009: Tori Wilmarth ’09; “White Privilege: A History and Its Role in Contemporary Education;” Advisor: Stephanie Curci, instructor in English
• January 23: Radka Dancikova ’09; “Retaining Cultural Identities: A Look at the Rusyn Community;” Advisor: Victor Svec, chair of and instructor in Russian