American Indians arrived in North Carolina so long ago it’s hard to tell exactly when. They settled all across the state, from the mountains to the coast. They greeted English settlers and may have married in with Sir Walter Raleigh’s lost colony in the late 16th century.  

And they are still here, in the same areas of the state they’ve always inhabited.

North Carolina has one of the highest American Indian populations in the country, with about 110,000 members from eight state-recognized tribes, and N.C. State has the second highest student population of American Indians in the state.  

However, the school has been slow to respond to requests that the American Indian population have more representation on campus. Until now.  

Derek Oxendine assumed the role of assistant director of Native American Student Affairs Monday. The position, part of the Office of Multi-Cultural Student Affairs, is a newly created one. Previously, Abraham Donas was the only assistant director in the center, where he oversaw Hispanic and Native American student affairs. With the creation of Oxendine’s position, Donas will be able to focus exclusively on Hispanic students.  

Tracey Ray, director of MSA, is pleased with the new position.

“I’m thankful that the University felt the need to move forward,” she said. “There was a demonstrated need.”

But the new hire has had mixed reviews. University Planning and Analysis recorded only 165 American Indian students at the University in fall 2008. Only about 25 of them are active in Native American student groups, according to Mallory Richardson, president of the Native American Student Association.

Some students like Khang Ngo disagree with the position.

“Their population is so small it doesn’t make sense,” he said.

Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs Tom Stafford, who helped approve the new position, said it will be a positive change for the University because Oxendine will be another advocate for American-Indian students.

“If we expect to recruit and retain numbers of Native American students we need more role models,” he said.

Recruiting and retaining American Indian students played a huge role in the decision to create the new position.

American Indians make up 1.3 percent of the state’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but the University’s student population stands at just 165 students, or .5 percent.  

It’s a problem MSA has been dealing with for years, according to Tracey Ray, director of the department. Numbers of other minority groups on campus have increased since MSA was founded in 2001, but the amount of American Indian students has decreased from numbers that were already low.

Richardson, a senior in communication and member of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, said college isn’t a goal for many high school graduates in the American Indian community.

“Higher education isn’t really a major thing in the tribes,” she said. “There isn’t a push where there should be.”

Roger Locklear, a senior in communication and member of the Lumbee tribe, also said school is not highly valued in many tribal communities.

For that reason, attracting and retaining American Indian students is the biggest concern for Ray, who said the University has had a problem with it in the past.

“We don’t have the drawing power to yield minority students,” she said. “We were losing students to UNC- Pembroke.”

Ray said many American Indian students treat the University like a “suitcase college” – they go home every weekend. According to Ray, some families fear that their children will change and assimilate into other cultures.

Ray hopes Oxendine will be able to promote the University by reaching out to tribal communities and being an available resource to students who need encouragement.

Locklear said it is important for students of minority cultures to have someone who understands their issues. Oxendine will help American Indian students feel more welcome in campus.

“Everyone wants to feel included,” he said. “That’s always been the way.”

The price of feeling included is $44,000 per year – the amount of Oxendine’s salary – a high number according to students like John Peterson, since the new position comes at a time when the University is making budget cuts everywhere else. University officials have reduced travel expenses, cut classes and are even considering firing tenure-track professors.

Peterson, a freshman in psychology, said now is a bad time for the University to be spending money.

“In the midst of a budget crisis it’s irresponsible to [hire someone to] look over 165 students,” he said.

According to Stafford, the position is not a breach of budget cuts.

“This position has been in the works for some time, and it was part of the considerations as we approved our budget this year – well before we went into the budget cuts,” he said. Stafford also said the $44,000 salary is normal for a position of that sort.

For Ray, Locklear and Richardson, Oxendine’s hiring is the result of years of struggle to create more awareness about American Indian culture.

“It took 10 years of student advocacy to be served,” Ray said. “Students took it upon themselves to recruit and help other students graduate.[They] had been doing it themselves for many years.”

Richardson said the annual Pow Wow, an afternoon-long event showcasing dance, art and music, was started and continued by students back in the early 1980s. Now, Locklear said, students will have someone to help them organize the event, which has grown to include 1,500 participants and observers over the years.

Students have also planned events for Native American culture month each November – largely unassisted.  

Oxendine said it’s high time to have an advisor to help American Indian students get through their years at NCSU successfully. According to him, UNC-Chapel Hill, which has a much smaller American Indian population, created a center years ago.  

“The fact that we [at NCSU] have the second largest population makes it important to have this position,” he said.

Oxendine plans to reach out “through the students themselves” to affect change in the academic departments, student affairs and “to provide opportunities for people to experience the culture.”

“It doesn’t only have to be in November,” he said. “That’s what a university is about – being open to new things.”

Oxendine has only been on campus for a week, but Ngo worries that the creation of more cultural-specific groups is bad for the student body.

“Why make a [position] when all it does is foster segregation?”  

Ngo also said he doesn’t see a lot of cultural mixing on campus, and that centers for each race will “segregate campus even more.”

Locklear said Ngo has a valid point, but that the positives of creating culture-specific positions outweigh the negatives.

“I came to N.C. State for diversity, I came here for that. I feel like [people] cling together. That’s true, but at the same time I’ve come to realize … closeness and connection with each other and our cultural values make it so we don’t feel like we’re away from home.”