History of Baylor University with Native Americans

Early Figures

The University’s namesake, Judge Robert Emmett Bledsoe (R.E.B) Baylor (1793-1873), served as lieutenant colonel in military action against the Muscogee in Alabama in 1836, prior to his arriving in Texas in 1839 and before Baylor’s charting by the Republic of Texas in 1845. After the assault, the Muscogee were forced from their ancestral lands and relocated to Indian Territory on the “Creek Trail of Tears.”

John Robert Baylor (1822-1894) was raised by his uncle, Judge R.E.B. Baylor. He was elected to the Texas state legislature in 1851, and in 1856 he became the federal agent to the Comanche – but was dismissed after one year. For years afterward, he spoke at mass meetings, edited the anti-Native American newspaper, The White Man, and led vigilante mobs against Native Americans. During the Civil War, as military governor of the Confederate Territory of Arizona, he ordered troops to kill the Apache in the area.

One of the 19th century’s most famous Texans was Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross (1838-1898), who attended Baylor University and also engaged in violence against Native people. For years Ross served as a leader of Native militia, including Caddo, Anadarko, Waco, and Tonkawa. He gained renown for his fighting against the Comanche in Indian Territory in fall 1858 and against the Muscogee (Creek) during the Civil War.

Possible Burial Site

The Quadrangle (The Quad) is an area in the center of Baylor’s campus that has long served as the social heart of campus, supporting traditions such as Ring Out, Homecoming and others. However, it was long believed that a Native American Princess was buried on the Quad, dating to when the land was privately owned by the Speight family. In advance of planned development on the Quad, the University hired external archeological experts in 2022 to survey much of the east side of the Quad, including the area believed to be the burial site. The experts concluded the area did not pertain to a grave, and no definitive human remains, burial pit, or other grave-related artifacts exist there. However, artifacts consistent with general habitation were uncovered, and they were radiocarbon dated to 1166-1268 AD.

Land Acknowledgement

In October 2020, the President’s Council authorized research on the history of the land on which Baylor sits and its connections to Indigenous People. Jeffry Archer, Dean of University Libraries, Museums and the Press, tasked an advisory group with gathering this information, and in November 2022 the University presented a Land Acknowledgement during Native American Heritage Month. The acknowledgment, read by President Linda A. Livingstone, Ph.D., encompasses Baylor’s current campus in Waco and its original campus in Independence, Texas, and it features relationship building, educational offerings, partnerships and community service.

First Graduate

Margery Lancaster Walker Lindsey (Lakota/Dine’) was born in 1933, and she graduated from Baylor University in 1952 with a degree in music education. It is recorded that she said her goal was to bring music education to her people while retaining their native musical traditions. For more than 23 years, she taught in schools across the Southwest, Texas, the Dakotas, and Minnesota. Other Native American students attended Baylor prior to Margery, but there is no record of their graduation. These include Oscar Pete (Chehalis) in 1936 and Dan Tilden (Cherokee) in 1939. These students led a chapel session and a Golden Wave Band musical performance for the Baylor community in 1937.

Student Groups and Activities

In the 1990s-2000s, Baylor charted a Native American Student Association which sought to “develop the leadership potential that exists among the Baylor Native American student population … and to act as a support group spiritually, academically, and socially.” The association’s primary outreach activity was an annual pow-wow, which began in 1993 and lasted for at least nine years.

Various events have been held on campus throughout the years to recognize and celebrate Native American culture. These include a musical program in 1926 to help raise money to build Armstrong-Browning Library by Lew Sarett (Chippewa); an American Indian Week in 1982 that featured guest speakers (Carl Shaw, director at the time of Public Affairs for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Peter MacDonald, longest-serving chairperson of Navajo Nation), sand painting, slide shows, and dancing; and an event hosted by the Mayborn Museum in 2007 as part of an exhibit featuring artwork by Native American artist Dale Chihuly.

Native American Remains

In the past, both the Texas Collection and Strecker Museum (now the Mayborn Museum Complex) had displays of Native American human remains, and in 1989, human remains on display at Texas Collection were removed and custodianship of them transferred to the Mayborn Museum. Presently, the Mayborn Museum is in full compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The remains of all individuals currently housed at the Museum are under Incoming Loan and Care and Trust Agreements with specific Tribes or have been assigned to the Mayborn Museum by the Department of the Interior until they can be appropriately reinterred. Per NAGPRA guidelines, Mayborn Museum staff are also working to identify and return unassociated funerary objects, and objects that are considered sacred, ceremonial or of cultural patrimony.

Notes:

For more information, including newspaper articles, timelines, citation information, and more, contact the Texas Collection at Baylor University.
Dean Jeffry Archer is Baylor's liaison to Native Nations and Indigenous Communities.