Another set of comments made by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers may be poised to stir controversy yet again. Following his contentious comments concerning women in science and math in mid-January, Summers is being criticized in regard to statements made last year about Native Americans.
A transcript of a Sept. 2004 Summers speech before a conference on Native American studies was released to Harvard’s student newspaper, The Crimson, Tuesday, detailing two comments that have not sat well with some members of the Native American community.
Despite prefacing his comments by saying he did not know as much about the Native American community as the conference members, Summers suggested the Native American community is dependant upon the government. He also attempted to define the identity and assimilation of the Native American community within American culture during his speech.
Additionally, he said the majority of Native American deaths were primarily from diseases not intentionally carried by Europeans.
“For everyone who was killed or maimed in some attack by European-descended Americans on the Native American population … ten were a consequence of the diseases that came to North America with the European immigrants,” Summers said. “The vast majority of the suffering that was visited on the Native American population … was not a plan or an attack. It was in many ways a coincidence that was a consequence of assimilation”
Those in the Native American community did not take Summers’ comments lightly.
University of Kansas director for the Center for Indigenous Nations Studies Michael Yellow Bird, who attended the conference, said he was shocked by the statements Summers made.
“I think it was just really how uninformed he was,” Yellow Bird said. “It made it sound like we were beggars … when we had legal entitlement to those [funds and lands].”
Yellow Bird said Summers’ statements could potentially increase hostility towards native people.
However, Ada Deer, University of Wisconsin Director of the American Indian Studies program, said she was not surprised by Summers’ comments since many people know little about American Indians and their history.
“I don’t think that Dr. Summers probably really understood the full impact of [his statements],” Deer said. “He should have accurate information. Accurate information isn’t really taught in the public schools.”
Following the brewing controversy, Summers clarified his comments in a statement saying he was trying to express a sense of concern for the well-being of Native Americans today, as well as how to improve it.
“I did not for a moment mean to diminish the severity or ferocity of the widespread violence that claimed a great many lives,” Summers said in the statement. “My aim was to point up the need for more conscious efforts to contribute to the prosperity and health of Native American communities.”
Previously, Summers was attacked for his viewpoints in mid-January when he made statements to the National Bureau of Economic Research suggesting women were intrinsically less apt to pursue careers in the science and math fields.
