Dartmouth College to Remove Weather Vane With Image of Native American
“It is clear that the images portrayed on the weather vane do not reflect Dartmouth’s values”
The weather vane has been there since 1928 and it’s suddenly a problem now?
The Dartmouth reports:
Following complaints, College to remove Baker Tower weather vane
College President Phil Hanlon announced today that Dartmouth will remove and replace Baker Tower’s weather vane, which currently bears an image of a Native American.
The 600-pound weather vane, first installed as a result of a contest held during the construction of the tower in 1928, bears an image similar to that on the former Dartmouth crest, which was replaced last year. The vane portrays a Native American wearing feathers, smoking a pipe and sitting on the ground in front of Dartmouth’s founder Eleazar Wheelock. A round shape — which historical records say is likely a barrel of rum — sits behind Wheelock.
College spokesperson Diana Lawrence said the College would remove the vane “as soon as possible.”
Native Americans at Dartmouth, a student organization that supports Native and Indigenous students at the College, wrote in a statement that the image on the weather vane promotes an idea that white systems of education are “valued above” those of the Native American community. NAD’s statement noted that the vane “panders to an invented and false idea of Native people” not based on any specific person or tribal group.
“It is clear that the images portrayed on the weather vane do not reflect Dartmouth’s values,” Hanlon said in a statement from the College.
Hanlon wrote that the decision to remove the weather vane, which stands seven feet tall and nine feet wide, came following students’ and community members’ concerns regarding the image. A petition created by Hanover resident David Vincelette calling for the removal of the weather vane has nearly 600 signatures as of Monday afternoon.
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“Native Americans at Dartmouth, a student organization that supports Native and Indigenous students at the College, wrote in a statement that the image on the weather vane promotes an idea that white systems of education are “valued above” those of the Native American community. NAD’s statement noted that the vane “panders to an invented and false idea of Native people” not based on any specific person or tribal group.”
Point 2 is valid. I can see the offensiveness behind that cartoon portrayal of a boozing, pipe smoking savage.
Point 1 is dumb. The idea is reality. Higher ed is superior in many ways to Native American community education in the modern era. That doesn’t make community education worthless, and it was very valuable to 13 colonies settlers during those times.
Dartmouth used to be “regarded” as an “Ivy League” college. Beats me, why. Whatever it may have been, today it has devolved into less than a community college with an emphasis on commune.
Ah well, spend your money, have your fun.
Dartmouth isn’t “regarded” as a member of the Ivy League, it is one. Has been since the league was founded. It has nothing to do with the quality of any supposed education it provides.
Wait — the Dartmouth administration wants to remove the weather vane. Does this mean that they HATE INDIANS?
Get Elizabeth Warren on the case, ASAP. She can deputize Shaun King and Rachel Dolezal.
The “white” system of education (though nobody sane thinks of it as such) is more valuable than any system that has ever existed within the various American Indian communities. The results speak for themselves. That this is no longer the case is not because of some flaw in it but because it has been abandoned.
“The Reverend Eleazar Wheelock… founded Dartmouth College in 1769.”
“Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian and one of Wheelock’s first students, was instrumental in raising substantial funds for the College.” [Insert casino snark.]
“[Dartmouth’s royal] charter created a college ‘for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land’ [but failed miserably].
Through the auspices of Dartmouth’s Native American Program, established in 1970, “nearly 700 Native Americans from over 200 different tribes have attended Dartmouth, more than at all the other Ivy League institutions combined.”
Haterz.
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It’s finally come true…
…you don’t need a weathervane to know which way the wind blows.
It’s an instrument to show the direction the is coming from apparently it’s all from the same direction that theirs heads are in their butts. Simply ridiculous.