Amanda LeClair, a senior at the University of Wyoming, is not an activist by nature. In fact, she says she’s the strong silent type. But being one of a few American Indian college students at her university has caused LeClair to give voice to issues that impact her and other American Indian students on predominantly White college campuses.
LeClair, an Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Indian, grew up on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, but attended a predominantly White high school in the neighboring Fremont County. As an American Indian teenager at a predominantly White institution, LeClair found it difficult to discuss her life experiences or those of her people to her peers.
“Growing up, I heard a lot of hurtful, stereotypical things,” says LeClair, “Like all Indians are drunks. We all get paid. We don’t have to pay any taxes.”
In high school LeClair kept her silence, trying not to draw attention to herself. But by her junior year in college, LeClair decided to speak out about the challenges facing Native students on predominantly White campuses in a forthcoming report that she intends to publish titled
