What these BYU students say it’s like being ‘the minorities of the minorities’ on campus

Provo • Walking around the majority-white campus of Brigham Young University — which has the whitest enrollment of any college in the state — JoAnni Begay can see that all students of color here are underrepresented. But Native American students like her, she says, are in a unique position that she describes as being “the minorities of the minorities.”

Begay, who is Diné, or Navajo, knows the numbers well. Less than 1% of the roughly 35,000 students at the private religious school are Indigenous. That’s the smallest of any racial group, with Black students and Pacific Islander students each taking up the next spots at a full 1%, respectively, of the student body.

“There are challenges with that. I feel like there is a lot of misrepresentation,” Begay said. “I would just love it if my every interaction wouldn’t have to be, ‘Tell me about your traumas.’ Or, ‘Do you live in tepees?’”

In recent years, the school sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has worked to address the racism and disparities that students of color have reported on campus.

During a panel earlier this month on what it means to be Native at BYU, Begay and other Indigenous students applauded those efforts. But, they said, more can be done by the university and by their fellow students to make Native students feel more welcome — and less stereotyped.

“Support can be hard to find, safe places where we can learn,” Begay said. “A lot of Native voices [are] not being uplifted and heard.”

For instance, a committee formed by the university in 2020 to study discrimination at BYU didn’t initially include an Indigenous member until an online petition raised the issue with the school’s administration.

The committee’s report the following year notably determined that students of color often “feel isolated and unsafe as a result of their experiences with racism at BYU.” One Native American student told the committee that she wanted to leave after her first year.

The four students on the panel talked about their cultures, misconceptions they face at the university and how they navigate being Native and members of the LDS Church.

What are the biggest challenges for Native students on campus?

Like other marginalized groups at BYU, one of the most frustrating issues that Native students deal with, said Kally Billings, who is Oglala Sioux, is the lack of awareness white students have about tribes and tribal members.

That comes up, she said, with stereotypes. She’s often heard white students tell her the only reason she got into BYU is because she is Native. It diminishes the hard work she did — her good grades in high school — to get accepted, Billings said, and it’s not true.

“The assumption is that all Natives get their college paid for,” added Mikayla Filfred, who is Diné. “We have to earn it just like everyone else.”

Joseph Namingha, who is Zuni and Hopi-Tewa, noted, too, that many white students don’t understand that every tribe is different and Natives are not a monolith. He said he believes that comes from a lack of education about Natives. “Not all tribes have the same beliefs or cultural structures,” he said.

Begay feels that’s where the offensive comments about tepees come from. It’s reductive, she said, and shows a lack of basic understanding about Native folks as modern and thriving people.

There are “a lot of stereotypes you see from movies,” she said. “People talk about things that are pushed onto all Native Americans. And those things are really damaging.”

Billings said when she was dating, a lot of time she felt fetishized as a Native woman by white men.

What could BYU do to better support Native students?

The mandated class that all BYU students take on American heritage, Billings said, doesn’t mention much about Native Americans.

“Indigenous history is part of everyone’s history at BYU, especially where we’re on Native land,” she said. The student panel started with an acknowledgment that the campus sits on Shoshone, Ute and Paiute homelands. (The committee that looked into racism on campus recommended that the university put up a sign on campus acknowledging that; that hasn’t happened.)

“I don’t feel like it’s really talked about in the general history classes,” Billings said. She’d like to see the university incorporate Native history into those courses, which she feels would also help dispel some of the misconceptions students have about tribes.

Begay said she doesn’t feel like BYU has a lot of safe places where Native students can go to be themselves and decompress, particularly after they’ve faced some kind of discriminatory comment or situation. During her freshman year, she said, she would leave BYU to find support. “It was mainly off campus, with my Native friends, in our apartment,” she said.

She’s since connected with other Indigenous students on campus, found a community within American Indian Studies, with professors and with campus clubs, like the Tribe of Many Feathers (which is for Native students from all tribes). But she’d like to see a dedicated space.

What does BYU do well?

Namingha said he’s found BYU to be welcoming and has appreciated the school showcasing Native talents and accomplishments. That includes an annual powwow, he said, that anyone can attend to learn more about tribal cultures.

He said he’s also loved seeing more Native staff at the school, particularly in athletics, with a football team strength trainer who is Navajo and a Native cheer coach. And there’s specific seating in the ROC, or “Roar of Cougars” student section at games, set aside for Indigenous students.

Namingha said he felt particularly proud when BYU ran out onto the field with the Navajo and Zuni flags before the game last year in Oklahoma.

It’s things like that, he said, that show Native students they are seen.

What about other students? What can they do to make Native students feel welcome?

Begay and Billings both encouraged other students to educate themselves about Native issues.

There’s a lot of information out there, Begay said, and no excuse not to learn about Utah’s history — and the church’s history and the country’s history — with Native peoples. Don’t expect Indigenous folks, she added, to sit down and teach you either; put in the work yourself.

Namingha said other students are welcome at the annual powwow, which is scheduled this year for March 22 and 23, and at the events for the Tribe of Many Feathers. And all of the panelists encouraged students to take classes within American Indian Studies — whether it’s their field of study or not.

Is it hard being Native and a member of the LDS Church? How do you hold both identities?

Begay said members of the faith should similarly learn the history of the church when it comes to tribes — even if it’s hard to digest.

The namesake scripture for the LDS Church, the Book of Mormon, describes the civilizations of the New World as having splintered into two groups: the Nephites and Lamanites. In the text, the Lamanites are described as dark-skinned and “cursed,” the rebellious rivals to the fair-skinned Nephites.

For nearly 200 years, members of the faith have largely been taught that the Lamanites were the ancestors of American Indians. The church’s leaders have changed the Book of Mormon’s introduction to read that Lamanites are “among” the ancestors of Native peoples, but it’s one of the lingering issues that some tribes have with the faith and how they are depicted.

Additionally, when Latter-day Saint pioneers moved into the area that is now Utah — facing persecution and, at the time, trying to flee the United States — they came onto land that was inhabited by tribes. Like other white settlers, members of the faith pushed Natives out, saw them as wicked and tried to convert them, according to historians.

The LDS Church also ran the controversial Indian Student Placement Program, similar to Indigenous boarding schools, where Native kids were raised by predominantly white families of the faith in what’s widely viewed as an assimilation effort. Several of the students who participated in that later tried to sue the faith before reaching settlements.

That history is “really, really tough,” Begay said, but not unlike other Christian faiths and Native tribes.

She’s tried to recognize the painful reality and accept the past, while moving forward from it. Growing up in New Mexico — on the Navajo reservation but not living in a traditional way — Begay said she often felt that she had to choose between being Native and being LDS, like they were two separate identities that couldn’t be held together, like one canceled out the other.

But as she’s gotten older, she’s appreciated both and found ways that they intersect that she loves. Both, she said, stress the importance of family and prayers. Some of the ceremonies are also similar.

“As I’ve grown, I’ve realized that there are a lot of Navajo teachings that really coincide with the church,” she said. “That’s helped me strengthen my testimony in both. As I’ve grown, and I’m still on this journey, I’ve learned that I don’t have to pick, and I’m both at the same time. And that’s perfect.”

Filfred said she felt torn, too, “and there’s no perfect answer to those questions on the LDS Church.” She said her grandpa, who was a Navajo medicine man, used to say, “Your church is always copying us” when it came to Native traditions. And she smiles at that.

“I think over the years we’ve been able to make a good mesh of culture and church,” she said, noting that she draws strength from both.

There are “unjustifiable” things that happened in the past, Filfred said, but she believes, as the Book of Mormon says, “they be the faults of a man,” not of God.

Namingha also said he tries to focus on the positives and “not the negative aspects of the past.” He said the church and his culture both value hard work, diligence, respect for others and nature. He added: “It all aligns with the aims of BYU.”