The 21st Show

What do land-grant universities owe Native Americans?

Produced by Jose Zepeda
 
a man with black hair pulled back wears a plaid flannel shirt, a black bandanna around his neck, and a cross-shaped earring in each ear; another image depicts the green grass of the University of Illinois' main quadrangle, with Foellinger Auditorium in the background

Tristan Ahtone, a member of the Kiowa Tribe, co-authored the "Land-grab universities" investigation; the main Quad at the University of Illinois. Ahtone: Grist / University of Illinois: Adobe Stock

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Tristan Ahtone is a member of the Kiowa Tribe and editor-at-large at Grist. His award-winning investigation, “Land-Grab Universities,” revealed how the 1862 Morrill Act turned nearly 11 million acres of Indigenous land into seed money for land-grant universities — including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Ahtone will deliver a lecture on these topics at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026 at the Spurlock Museum in Urbana. It's part of the Mellon Sawyer Seminar Spring Lecture Series called “At Risk U: The Past, Present, and Future of Academic Freedom.”

Guest

Tristan Ahtone
Member, Kiowa Tribe
Editor-at-large, Grist