Dear Presidents Shafik and Rosenbury,

We, the undersigned Indigenous alumni of Columbia University, write in solidarity with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment to condemn Columbia’s enablement of a Palestinian genocide.

As Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island, Abiayala, the Pacific and beyond, we unequivocally support a free and liberated Palestine. The liberation of Indigenous peoples across the world are interconnected not only in their struggle against settler colonialism, but the affirmation of Indigenous sovereignty and life. Just as Palestine has stood with Indigenous peoples and nations at Standing Rock, Mauna Kea, Unist’ot’en, and many other land-based anticolonial struggles, we stand with Palestine in their armed struggle against Zionism and the settler colonial state of Israel. We recognize how settler colonial states enable one another – such as the US’s financial and material support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine and its recent major escalation of the Palestinian genocide. Simultaneously, Israel’s surveillance technology and militarized policing tactics have been shared with US police departments like the NYPD to criminalize and overpolice racialized communities on campus, in Harlem, and across the US. The interconnectedness of settler colonial states underscores the imperative to dismantle and abolish all of them.

For many years, Indigenous students at Columbia labored to make the university a more welcoming place for Indigenous students, the local Native community, visiting Indigenous community members, and the Lenape whose lands were stolen and are now occupied by Columbia. In line with our principles of supporting Indigenous students on campus, we denounce Columbia’s mistreatment and lack of engagement with Indigenous Palestinian students. Columbia’s demonstrated anti-Muslim and Islamophobic actions have clearly proven that Columbia does not protect all Indigenous students equally. The hostility shown towards Palestinians is the same hostility that Indigenous peoples have experienced since first contact, and we condemn it.

Rather than diversity-launder for the University’s active investments in genocide, we, the Indigenous alumni, pledge to withhold donations and boycott university and alumni events until the university meets the demands of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment as well as the following:

1. Divest all of Columbia’s finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation in Palestine.
2. Ensure accountability by increasing transparency around financial investments.
3. Reinstate Columbia’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
4. Lift the suspension and eviction of students involved with the encampments and provide them amnesty from legal and institutional disciplinary actions.

In our lifetimes, we will see the end of settler colonialism and a restoration of Indigenous sovereignty over our occupied lands in which all people can live.

In solidarity,

Indigenous Alumni of Columbia University

Signatories:

Kendall Harvey, Columbia College 2019

Kianna Pete, Columbia College 2023

Megan Baker, Columbia College 2014

Kellian Staggers, Columbia College 2022

Audrey Nicholson, Columbia College 2023

William Oyenque Carson, Columbia College 2017

Louisa Harstad, Columbia College 2012

Christian White, Columbia College 2015

Monica Sekaquaptewa, Columbia College 2019

Braudie Blais-Billie, Columbia College 2016

Mariah Gladstone, SEAS 2015

Kelly Luis, Columbia College 2015

Sarah Stern, Columbia College 2016

Olivya Sydnea Caballero, SEAS 2017

Grace Bulltail, SEAS M.S. 2012

India Lovato, Barnard College 2014

Génesis Mancheren Ab’äj, School of Journalism 2017

Diana Gates, School of Social Work 2015

Kyle Chetan-Lutah Sebastian, Columbia College 2016

Zeriyah James, Columbia College 2022

Kalena Zimmerman, Columbia College 2014

Ben Snyder, SEAS 2022

Taylor Francisco, Columbia College 2021 and School of Arts and Sciences 2024

Ty Fierce Metteba, Irvine Medical Center 2022 and Teacher’s College 2028

Danielle Rowland, General Studies 2019

Devin Etcitty, SEAS 2018

Keisha Whitehair, Columbia College 2014

Arachelle Harrisom, SEAS 2023

Skylar Fetter, Columbia College 2021

Christian Gould, SEAS 2018

Callie Singer, SEAS 2021

Lakota Hobia (née Pochedley), Columbia College 2013

Sara Merrick, Columbia College 2014

DeAnalisa Jones, SEAS 2015

Grace Fox, Columbia College 2023

Kate Christensen, Columbia College 2018

Ariana Leones

Jonathan Gonzalez Ortiz, Columbia College 2007

Charitie Ropati, SEAS 2024

Marianne Almero, School of Social Work 2024

Ivanna Charlotte Rodríguez-Rojas, Barnard 2021

Elsa Mäki, Columbia College 2017

ofi davis, School of the Arts, 2025

Olivia Lease, SEAS 2023

Elan Pochedley, Columbia College 2016

Halley Hair, Columbia College 2011

Nancy Gharib, The Climate School, 2023

Anthony Sertel Dean, School of the Arts 2022

Haseya Kee, Columbia College 2021

Di’Zhon Chase, Columbia College 2024