Combining historical scholarship and first-person interviews and essays by Indigenous contributors, Being in Relation: Indigenous Peoples, the Land, and Texas Christian University, 1873-2023 centers Indigenous perspectives to examine the relations of an institution of higher education with Native communities and peoples across its history. What might healthy, respectful relations between Native peoples and institutions of higher education look like? How do the Indigenous lands upon which TCU resides teach important lessons? How does TCU’s 150-year history with Indigenous peoples and the land in North Texas affect prospects for its present and future relationships with them?
In interviews and essays, Indigenous students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members share their journeys to TCU, their experiences at the university, and their advice regarding best practices for pedagogical projects and what is necessary to build and sustain respectful relationships benefitting both Native nations and communities and TCU. In a moment when many universities are investigating their histories, Being in Relationwill be useful to instructors and students interested in learning from Native perspectives, higher education administrators who seek advice on how to move forward from histories of educational harm, and readers who want to understand more about Indigenous peoples and histories in North Texas.
