Our Mission

OSPII works to cultivate a community of care for the University of Kansas to develop healthy, vibrant, and ethical relationships with tribal citizens on campus and across Indian Country, along with our relatives in international Indigenous communities and Nations.
A Native students celebrating at graduation

Onward & Rock Chalk

“This is a very exciting time at the University of Kansas with the establishment of this new office. With our proximity to Haskell Indian Nations University, the city of Lawrence has a vibrant inter-tribal community that is well known throughout Indian Country, so the University serves tribal citizens from all over the country. Because of this, we have a responsibility to be in good relations with tribal nations, so we can be good partners with respect to their sovereign rights to be involved in the education of their own citizens. There is so much potential, and I’m excited to get started doing the good work that KU is committed to get done."
-Dr. Red Corn

What our office does:

  • Cultivate a community of care that fosters the well-being of students, faculty, and staff that are tribal citizens on KU’s campus and beyond.  

  • Build systems of education for, about, and with Native Nations,  communities, and institutions for the purpose of growing their sovereign capacities to pursue their own goals. 
  • Conduct research for, about, and with Native Nations, communities, and institutions for the purpose of growing their sovereign capacities to pursue their own goals.
  • Cultivate healthy relationships by providing balanced and reciprocal services for and with Native Nations, communities, and institutions for the purpose of growing their sovereign capacities to pursue their own goals. 

Indigenization---

  • "The act of making our educational philosophy, pedagogy, and system our own, making the effort to explicitly explore ways of knowing and systems of knowledge that have been actively repressed for five centuries."

  • -Vine Deloria Jr. & Daniel R. Wildcat

2024-2025 Annual Report

We celebrated many accomplishments in our first year and are excited to share how we have worked to establish community at KU.
View Annual Report

Our Legacy

Established in 2024, the Office of Sovereign Partnerships & Indigenous Initiatives lifts our institutional mission to educate leaders, build healthy communities and make discoveries that change the world.

We are forever indebted to those in our community for the work built before 2024, from the work of Academic Success and its Office of Native American Initiatives (NAI) we were able to evolve to what we are now. Even greater, before NAI's establishments in 2022, the students, staff, and faculty, especially the Native Faculty Staff Council, along with our Haskell community, served as the true thought partners who advocated for sovereign partnerships and Indigneous initiatives at KU.

A tipi set up outside of Strong Hall and a drum circle playing