A 23-year-old Penobscot Nation member is one of five people being honored nationally as an advocate for greater Indigenous representation in higher education.
Sage Phillips, who grew up in Old Town and attends the University of Connecticut as a graduate student, was named one of this year’s “Champions for Change,” an annual program from the Aspen Institute’s Center for Native American Youth in Washington, D.C. She will travel there Sunday for a week of advocacy training and conversations with tribal leaders, among other opportunities, she said.
The Champions for Change program, which launched in 2013, recognizes young people fighting for Indigenous representation in various areas, including tribal sovereignty, increased civic engagement, climate justice and entertainment. Phillips appears to be only the second person from Maine chosen for the program.
In 2017, Carroll “CJ” Francis, who is from Pleasant Point Perry and a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, was selected. This year’s other champions are from Alaska, Arizona, Oregon and South Dakota.
Phillips is studying human rights at UConn, and she will graduate in May. She will be involved in the program for the next year, and she wants a job where she can create more opportunities for Indigenous young people in New England, particularly when it comes to higher education.
“Receiving this award is insane. It’s incredible,” said Phillips, who only applied when the deadline was extended, taking it as a sign. “I haven’t met the other four champions, but reading about the advocacy work they’re doing, it’s just an incredible honor to be recognized alongside them.”
The Center for Native American Youth, founded by former U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, is a policy program designed to bring national attention to issues facing Native American youth and foster solutions, with emphasis on youth suicide prevention, accoring to its website. The organization works with Native people who are ages 24 and under in cities, rural villages and on reservations to improve their health, safety and wellbeing.
Phillips’ work in advocacy began in 2018, when she was a freshman at UConn and realized that despite five on-campus cultural centers with budgets, professional staff and other resources, the Native American Cultural Programs were treated differently.
“It was housed in a storage closet, hidden from the campus, and I couldn’t find other Native students to connect with,” she said. “I realized there was a lot of work to be done, which turned into petitions and advocating for support for Indigenous students who wanted a better future for generations to come.”
By Phillips’ senior year, the department had a new space on campus, and overall awareness of Indigenous representation has grown, she said. Now the university’s Native American Cultural Programs has a tribal community member-in-residence — Chris Newell, a member of the Passamaquoddy tribe — and Phillips works there as a graduate assistant.
There was also a “cluster of Indigenous faculty hires” around 2020, which has continued to grow, Phillips said. That was a significant improvement because lack of representation in the classroom and in curriculum are among the barriers that Indigenous students face, she said.
As an undergraduate, Phillips created the Native American and Indigenous Students Association, which is still active today. The club’s name is intentional because there are students who identify as Indigenous and felt excluded when they learned about the university’s Native American Cultural Programs, she said.
Phillips worked with a team of students and faculty on Land Grant CT, a project that “contextualizes the University of Connecticut’s place in the colonial system by focusing on the acquisition and control of the land UConn currently resides on,” according to its website.
It is meant to educate people about the trauma that land-grant institutions have historically inflicted upon Indigenous people and their land, Phillips said.
“At the start of my advocacy, I tried to be a team of one and quickly realized that wasn’t going to work,” she said. “I had to reflect on my ancestors and the power of community. I’m not the only one who has created change here at UConn, and students worked together to cultivate that community.”
Phillips spent last summer in Maine as a fellow at the Wabanaki Alliance, a group focused on securing sovereignty for tribes in the state.
She draws inspiration from her father, Scott Phillips, and grandfather, Butch Phillips, who were involved in the Penobscot River restoration project, she said.
The project, which began in 1999 and was completed in 2016, was an effort to balance fisheries restoration and hydropower production in the state’s largest watershed, according to the Natural Resources Council of Maine. It involved the Penobscot Nation and conservation organizations.
“I was a shy child,” she said. “I think seeing them use their voices allowed me to find mine.”
