American Indian & Indigenous Studies Program
Source: https://cals.cornell.edu/american-indian-indigenous-studies Parent: https://admissions.cornell.edu/diversity-at-cornell/diversity-and-community-resources
The American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (AIISP) brings together AIIS courses, leadership and engagement opportunities, and a vibrant Indigenous community on campus. Students also have the option of an undergraduate residential experience at Akwe:kon, the first Native student residence hall in North America.
Land Acknowledgment
Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ are members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ leadership.
Learn more about land acknowledgments.
In addition to the Gayogo̱hó:nǫɁ land acknowledgment but separate from it, the AIISP faculty would like to emphasize: Cornell's founding was enabled in the course of a national genocide by the sale of almost one million acres of stolen Indian land under the Morrill Act of 1862. To date the university has neither officially acknowledged its complicity in this theft nor has it offered any form of restitution to the hundreds of Native communities impacted.
AIISP Events
AIIS Faculty Symposium (Cornell Botanic Gardens)
Faculty Fellows Apple Picking (Grisamore Farms)
Faculty Fellows Canoeing (Beebe Lake)
Student Leadership Retreat (Caldwell Hall)
AIIS Faculty Symposium (Cornell Botanic Gardens)
Faculty Fellows Apple Picking (Grisamore Farms)
Faculty Fellows Canoeing (Beebe Lake)
Student Leadership Retreat (Caldwell Hall)
AIIS Faculty Symposium (Cornell Botanic Gardens)
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Check out more events here!
Indigenous Student Spotlight
Celeste Groux, Ph.D. ‘30
From Nobel Prize–winning math concepts to optimizing e-bike battery systems, Celeste Groux’s journey shows how operations research can turn rigorous theory into real-world impact.
Zelazzie Zepeda, A&S ‘26
Rooted in a dream and driven by community, Zelazzie Zepeda’s work bridges linguistics and lived experience to help Indigenous languages move from archives back into everyday life.
Jesse Hernandez, CALS ‘27
Jesse Hernandez bridges heritage and science to study nutrient systems, preserve community seed traditions, and advance sustainable agriculture with real-world impact.
Learn more here!
American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program Minor
Learn more about undergraduate and graduate minor in American Indian and Indigenous Studies!
- AIIS Undergraduate Minor
AIISP News
Has taxonomy terms (with depth)
Article Type (field_article_type) CALS MagazineReportField NoteFutureCastMultimediaNewsSpotlight
Event Type (field_event_type) ClassConferenceExhibitFairFestivalField DayLectureMeetingSeminarWebinarWorkshop
News
November 25, 2025
Rowan Lopez ’26 supports students seeking undergraduate research
- American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program
News
November 3, 2025
Ǫgwahǫwéhneha:ˀ gyǫhéhgǫh: ‘Food of the Original People’ returns to Cornell
- American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program
Cornell University & Indigenous Dispossession Project
AIISP launched the Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project in June 2020 to examine Cornell’s ties to Indigenous land dispossession and pursue redress. Prompted by a 2020 High Country News investigation into the land-grant system, the project shares research through a public website and plans outreach to the 251 affected Indigenous Nations.
Learn more about this ongoing project.
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Photo by the Cornell Chronicle.
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