Ferlin Clark | |
---|---|
Alma mater | Fort Lewis College (BA), Harvard University (MEd), University of Arizona (PhD) |
Title | President of Bacone College |
Term | 2018–2022 |
Predecessor | Franklin Willis |
Successor | Nicky Michael |
Ferlin Clark is an American academic administrator and educator. He is a member of the Navajo Nation [1] and currently works as an administrator in the Office of Dine School Improvement of the Department of Dine Education. [2] From 2018 to 2022 [3] he served as president of Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. [4]
Ferlin Clark is a member of the Navajo (Dine) Nation originally from Crystal, New Mexico. [5]
Clark received a bachelor's degree in English communications from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado in 1988. [6] He received a master's degree in education from Harvard University in 1992 [7] and a doctoral degree in American Indian studies from the University of Arizona [8] in 2009. [9]
Early in his career, Ferlin Clark taught United States history and geography at Navajo Preparatory School. [10]
In 1999, Clark was vice president for development at Diné College. [11] In 2003, he became interim president of the college, [12] and in 2004, he assumed the position permanently. [13] Clark was removed as president by the Navajo Nation Supreme Court in 2010 [14] amid an investigation into accusations of bullying and harassment of staff. [15] He was succeeded by Marie Etsitty, [16] who served as interim president until 2011. [17]
After leaving Dine College, Clark served as executive staff assistant to Navajo Nation Vice President Rex Lee Jim. [18] [19]
He served as New Mexico Assistant Secretary of Indian Education from 2012 [20] to 2014. [21] [22]
In April 2018, Clark was named the new president of Bacone College, [23] replacing Franklin Willis. [4] Under his leadership, Bacone sought tribal charters to become a tribally affiliated college and thus improve its financial stability. [24] Under Clark's presidency, the college was chartered by the Osage Nation, [25] the Kiowa Tribe, [26] the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, [27] the Otoe–Missouria Tribe of Indians, [28] and the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. [29] The college also underwent financial restructuring during his tenure; part of this has involved cutting sports programs including football and wrestling. [30]
In 2022 Clark went on leave from Bacone College and was replaced by interim president Nicky Michael. [3] [31]
Clark currently works as an administrator in the Office of Dine School Improvement in the Department of Dine Education. [2] [32]
Clark has also served on the College Board [33] and as vice president of the executive board [6] and later secretary of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. [34]
Muskogee is the thirteenth-largest city in Oklahoma and is the county seat of Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately 48 miles (77 km) southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of the 2020 census, a 6.0% decrease from 39,223 in 2010.
The Navajo Nation, also known as Navajoland, is a Native American reservation of Navajo people in the United States. It occupies portions of northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah. The seat of government is located in Window Rock, Arizona.
Diné College is a public tribal land-grant college based in Tsaile, Arizona, serving the 27,000-square-mile (70,000 km2) Navajo Nation. It offers associate degrees, bachelor's degrees, and academic certificates.
The Osage Nation is a Midwestern American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 B.C. along with other groups of its language family. They migrated west after the 17th century, settling near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as a result of Iroquois expansion into the Ohio Country in the aftermath of the Beaver Wars.
The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. According to the UKB website, its members are mostly descendants of "Old Settlers" or "Western Cherokee," those Cherokee who migrated from the Southeast to present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma around 1817. Some reports estimate that Old Settlers began migrating west by 1800, before the forced relocation of Cherokee by the United States in the late 1830s under the Indian Removal Act.
The Navajo Nation Council is the Legislative Branch of the Navajo Nation government. The council meets four times per year, with additional special sessions, at the Navajo Nation Council Chamber, which is in Window Rock, Arizona.
The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) is a public tribal land-grant college in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. The college focuses on Native American art. It operates the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), which is housed in the historic Santa Fe Federal Building, a landmark Pueblo Revival building listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Federal Building. The museum houses the National Collection of Contemporary Indian Art, with more than 7,000 items.
The Otoe–Missouria Tribe of Indians is a federally recognized tribe, located in Oklahoma. The tribe is made up of Otoe and Missouria peoples. Their language, the Chiwere language, is part of the Siouan language family.
Truman Washington Dailey, also known as Mashi Manyi and Sunge Hka, was the last native speaker of the Otoe-Missouria dialect of Chiwere (Baxoje-Jiwere-Nyut'achi), a Native American language. He was a member of the Otoe-Missouria Tribe of Indians.
Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a Private college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now American Baptist Churches USA. Renamed as Bacone College in the early 20th century, it is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma. The liberal arts college has had strong historic ties to several tribal nations, including the Muscogee and Cherokee. The Bacone College Historic District has been on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Muskogee County, Oklahoma since 2014.
Peterson Zah was an American politician who held several offices with the Navajo Nation. From 1983 to 1987, he was chairman of the Navajo Nation, its then head of government. At its 1991 restructuring, he became the first president of the Navajo Nation, until 1995. He then worked at Arizona State University as special adviser to the president on American Indian Affairs and consulted companies willing to work with his nation.
The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee, and Seminole. These tribes had been previously exempt from the 1887 General Allotment Act because of the terms of their treaties. In total, the tribes immediately lost control of about 90 million acres of their communal lands; they lost more in subsequent years.
Anna Lee Walters is a Pawnee/Otoe–Missouria author.
Peter MacDonald is a Native American politician and the only four term Chairman of the Navajo Nation. MacDonald was born in Arizona, U.S. and served the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II as a Navajo Code Talker. He was first elected Navajo Tribal Chairman in 1970.
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are a united, federally recognized tribe of Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne people in western Oklahoma.
Walter Richard West Sr., was a painter, sculptor, and educator. He led the Art Department at Bacone College from 1947 to 1970. He later taught at Haskell Institute for several years. West was an enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes.
Diné College Press is the publishing division of Diné College, headquartered in Tsaile, Arizona, but whose territory spans throughout the Navajo Nation. Diné College Press has published books by and pertaining to Native Americans. While most titles focus on the issues of the Navajo people, others have dealt with broader issues pertaining to Native American studies. Authors include Acoma Pueblo poet and author Simon J. Ortiz and Pawnee-Otoe-Missouria author Anna Lee Walters.
Navajo Technical University (NTU) is a public tribal land-grant university in Crownpoint, New Mexico, with sites in the towns of Chinle, Arizona and Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. NTU is the largest tribal college in the country and is a 1994 land grant university. It has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission since 2005 and is home to the first accredited veterinary technician program on an Indian reservation.
Della Cheryl Warrior is the first and only woman to date to serve as the chairperson and chief executive officer for the Otoe-Missouria Tribe. She later served at the president of the Institute of American Indian Arts, finding a permanent home for the institution as well as helping to raise over one hundred million dollars for the institution over a twelve-year period. Warrior was inducted into the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame in 2007.