New UO program helps Native American Oregonians go to grad school
By Rachael McDonald, KLCC; origi-
nally aired Nov. 10, 2015
A new University of Oregon program
makes graduate school more accessible
for members of the state’s federally rec-
ognized tribes.
U of O Assistant Vice President Jason
Younker is tribal liaison for the University
of Oregon. Himself a member of Oregon’s
Coquille Tribe, he was the first in his fam-
ily to get a higher education. Younker says
for many Native American students, there
aren’t models of those who’ve succeeded
in higher ed before.
Younker: “That’s exactly what hap-
pened to me. I received and earned a
Master’s degree in education and I came
home to Coos Bay to teach. And I was
pulled aside by several members of my
Tribal Council and they said well, we
don’t need any more teachers. This was
in the 1990s when Kennewick Man was
happening, when repatriation was happen-
ing. And they said, we need somebody to
manage our cultural resources because we
desperately needed somebody in the room.
Other people were making decisions about
our human remains. Other people were
making decisions that we should have
been involved with. And so we needed
somebody in the room. They said you
need to go to the University of Oregon.
Actually, they ‘recommended’ that you
go to the University of Oregon. I ended
up being a cultural anthropologist and at
Courtesy photo by Rachael McDonald
Jason Younker at his office in Johnson Hall at the University of Oregon in Eugene
the same time helping my tribe build their
cultural resource program, helping make
it more efficient. Getting appointed to
the state advisory committee on historic
preservation, all of the things that my
tribe intended me to do. And that’s truly
what the Future Stewards program is about
is empowering somebody from a tribal
community to come get their degree but
also have them return and empower their
Native community when they get back.”
Younker says the Future Stewards pro-
gram is a partnership between the U of O
and Native American tribes. The program
offers tuition waivers for two years for
those who qualify. The first to benefit
from the program is Kelly LaChance,
a member of the Confederated Tribes
of Siletz. She’s been studying in the U of
O’s Native American Teacher Education
Program.
Younker: “Which is number one in
the nation for Native Americans. And
when she receives her Ph.D., I will be at
the end of the line greeting her. I am very
proud and excited for her, but also for the
Confederated Tribe of Siletz, because I
know they’re proud of her as well.”
Younker expects the program to
benefit the larger U of O community by
increasing the diversity on campus. I asked
Younker to explain the pronunciation of
the tribe he belongs to.
Younker: “It’s kind of funny because,
I like hearing the progression and we even
had to train some of our tribal members to
start saying it correctly. Because it’d been
a hundred years people were saying it
differently. But the easy way to remember
is coke and then well. But you know it’s
funny because the name origin starts with
[a word] which means eel. And so there
were a lot of eel in the Coquille River.
And when the Europeans came along they
asked the Coos and people to the north,
what do you call those people down there?
And their word for eel [sounded like] sh-
coke-well and so for a long time, people
said sh-coq-well and then they dropped the
sh and said coke-well and then the French
came through and they said Coquille
[coke-eel] and that stuck. But now we
consider the river Coquille [coke-eel], we
consider the town to be Coquille [coke-
eel] but the people themselves they are the
Coquille [coke-well] Indian Tribe.”
Jason Younker is assistant vice presi-
dent and advisor to the president on sov-
ereignty and government-to-government
relations at the University of Oregon.
More information is available at grad-
school.uoregon.edu/node/2253.
Siletz Tribal Youth Conference
Nov. 7-8, 2015
B’nai B’rith Camp
Lincoln City, Oregon
Left and below left: Courtesy photos by Kathy
Kentta-Robinson
Below: Photo by Diane Rodriquez
Bottom photo: Courtesy photo from Seline Rilatos
Above: Bud Lane, language and traditional arts instructor, leads a feather dance
demonstration during a session on Siletz culture.
Right: Youth learn about investing during a session on budgeting.
Below right: Junior Miss Siletz Felisha Howell, Seline Rilatos, Raymond Ben, Ron
Butler Jr. and Tyee Rilatos lead the group in song.
Below: Youth Development Director Sharla Robinson facilitates an icebreaker game
to encourage participants to meet youth from other areas.
December 2015
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Siletz News
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