"Less than 30 years after the university was founded, Harvard graduated Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck -- a member of Martha's Vineyard's Wampanoag tribe. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Geraldine Brooks has just published her historical novel about the scholar, "Caleb's Crossing."

The young Native American attended Harvard's Indian College with a few other Native American students and graduated in 1665. Brooks explains that Cheeshahteaumuck probably didn't grow up around the English, but as an accomplished academic, he transitioned successfully into the elite world of educated colonials. By the time he completed his education, he wrote fluently in Latin and spoke Greek.

Harvard was a different school in Cheeshahteaumuck's time. Brooks describes the institution:

What Harvard was in those days, if you look at the founding document, it says, "Dedicated to the education of English and Indian youth of this country in knowledge and Godliness." And this mission didn't really stick. As we know, Harvard became a place of great exclusion afterwards, but for a while, it was this inclusive place."

Get the Story:
"Caleb's Crossing": The story of Harvard's first Native American graduate (Public Radio International 6/13)

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