Native Non-Graduates

Today, December 13th, is what we call Charter Day here at Dartmouth College, and this year it represents a fairly important milestone for this small educational institution way up in the woods of northern New Hampshire. On this very day two hundred and fifty years ago, Governor Wentworth signed Dartmouth College into being while Eleazar Wheelock, the college's founder, watched his dream become a reality. A day-long viewing of the original charter will take place today in the Rooke Reading Room at Rauner Special Collections Library in Webster Hall, and the president of the college will be here to say a few words about the importance of the charter and what it represents for Dartmouth College as we move forward into the 21st century.

In addition to being a day of celebration, the 250th anniversary of Charter Day also affords us the opportunity to reflect upon the identity of the college and the people who have made this institution what it is today. It's also an opportunity to tell the stories of alumni and people connected with the college who haven't always been represented by the traditional narrative of the college's history. In the first two hundred years of its existence, despite being founded ostensibly to educate Native Americans, Dartmouth College only succeeded in awarding nineteen Native students with their diplomas. However, many more Native American students spent time here at Dartmouth, having an impact on its culture and beyond, even if they were only here briefly. One such alumnus was the Reverend Francis Philip Frazier, a non-graduating member of the class of 1920.

Frazier was born on the Santee Sioux reservation in northern Nebraska in 1892 and eventually
matriculated at Dartmouth College in the fall of 1916. After less than a year in Hanover, Frazier enlisted in the United States Army, where he spent more than a year stationed in France and Germany. When he returned, he matriculated at Oberlin College, receiving his degree in 1922, and then attended Chicago Theological Seminary. Frazier went on to spend his life as a Christian missionary to Native American communities, including the Kickapoo, the Osage, and his own people. At Dartmouth commencement exercises in 1964, Frazier was awarded an honorary doctorate by the college.

Frazier is just one example of many Native American alumni who were here only briefly but deserve to be recognized for their contribution to the college, both while a member of the campus community and once they left Hanover to return to the outside world. To learn more about Francis Frazier, come to Special Collections and ask for his alumni file. To learn more about other Native American non-graduates, ask for help at the reference desk.