It is April 12, 2005, and about 10 people are gathering in the private dining room of Quincy House for the weekly meeting of Native Americans at Harvard College (NAHC).

“Usually there are more people,” laments the club’s president, Erica A. Scott ’06, citing the rain as a deterrent from the day’s meeting.

But as the members continue to trickle in, such conversations about the dreary weather are quickly replaced with familiar hello’s and friendly teasing.

“Sit on the other side of me so I can be between two sexy Navajos,” says one NAHC member.

This year, the small, yet extremely active group—which officially replaced the American Indians at Harvard club in 1993—has gone on trips to fellow Ivy League schools, celebrated the 350th anniversary of the Harvard Indian College, and performed with the Harvard inter-tribal Indian dance troupe.

But in the midst of their busy agenda, they still make time for dinner with the family.

April D. Youpee-Roll ’08 says that many of the members come from communities where the bonds with their extended families are as tight as those with their immediate families, an aspect of their culture that she describes as an “Indian way of relations.”

At Harvard, NAHC is that extended family, providing not only a social network but a powerful sense of community.

Or, as Scott says, “It’s a home away from home.”

AMERICAN HISTORY

Two years ago, when Scott, a member of the Lenape tribe, began her tenure as president of NAHC, there were only five members in the group. Since then, NAHC has expanded its membership to 25.

There are about 50 Native American undergraduates, according to Scott, who attributes the drastic increase in participation to new interest in the club, not more Native American students at Harvard.

“It wasn’t that all these new Natives came,” Scott says, using the term that she says is favored among Native Americans. “It’s that more people joined the club.”

The 90 people subscribed to the NAHC e-mail list include Native undergraduates, graduates, and non-Native students.

Youpee-Roll—a member of the Fortpeck Sioux tribe—says that NAHC is her primary extracurricular activity and that active recruitment by the club via thefacebook.com, as well as welcoming activities early in the year, sparked her initial interest.