EDITOR’S NOTE: November is Native American Heritage Month, and CBS News Texas is highlighting Indigenous stories in the community. 

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Texas Christian University has launched a program to educate students on Native Americans who once lived on the land that now makes up the campus.

Bells ring during a brisk fall day at TCU, and amid the bustle of campus sits a monument paying tribute to those originally on the land. English professor Dr. Theresa Gaul helped launch the Native American and Indigenous Peoples Initiative.

“This monument was created in collaboration with the Wichita and Affiliated tribes,” Gaul said. “Most Native groups were removed from Texas forcibly and violently, and many of those nations and communities ended up in Oklahoma, which was Indian Territory.”

Teaching history of relocation programs 

The initiative also teaches the community about the federal government’s economic relocation program of the 1950s and 1960s.

“They offered Native peoples who agreed to leave their reservations and moved to select urban centers the promise of jobs and economic opportunities, and many took those opportunities. Of course, when they arrived in those urban centers, they didn’t always find present the kind of prosperity that had been promised to them,” Gaul said. “Some are some of the initial settlers and their descendants still make up that community, which is now very large in the DFW area.”

Campus voices and symposiums 

Those people speak on campus and at annual Native American symposiums. Students also gain knowledge from TCU game studies associate professor Dr. Wendi Sierra.

“I’m a member of Oneida Nation, and we were a people originally in New York,” Sierra said.

Cultural activities and student engagement 

Sierra said the initiative includes trips to the Choctaw Cultural Center, Native American artwork throughout campus, and other activities off campus.

“Recently, we had a collaboration with the university dining halls, so we had a Native American Foods menu,” Sierra said. “Our Native and Indigenous Student Association ran a Cherokee basket-weaving workshop. Any student on campus was invited to come and learn about Cherokee basket weaving. We had a film screening where we partnered with Texas Tribal Buffalo Project.”

Year-round education remains the goal 

Shining a light on Native American history year-round remains the goal.

“I think the most common response I get from students is, ‘How did I never learn this? Why wasn’t I taught this?'” Gaul said.

That’s something the university is changing so the Horned Frogs learn about those who were here before them.