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Contact: Mary Jane Dunlap, University Relations, (785) 864-8853.

December graduate earns first indigenous nations degree

LAWRENCE -- A graduate student whose interest in Native Americans grew out of an undergraduate volunteer program will be the first student to graduate in a new master's degree program at the University of Kansas.

Christine Wittenbach, Rochester Hills, Mich., will receive the first master's degree offered in KU's new graduate program in indigenous nations studies. She plans to work at the Four Corners Home for Children near the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.

Wittenbach was in the first class of eight students admitted in fall 1998 to the cross-disciplinary master's degree program established by KU in 1997 to understand the complexities of indigenous peoples in the Americas. The program's faculty, staff and students honored Wittenbach at a reception Dec. 8 in the Kansas Union.

Donald Fixico, program director and history professor, said this is a two-year program. "Christine was able to complete the program in one-and-a-half years. Others will be graduating in May 2001."

Wittenbach completed the non-thesis option for the program that required a summer internship. She interned at the children's home in New Mexico where she will be working in January 2001. Her graduate paper from that internship focused on a proposal that a return of traditional Navajo law would prevent further development of chronic juvenile offenders among the Navajo.

Wittenbach was one of two non-native students in the first class. She learned about KU's program while researching a paper on the Indian Child Welfare Act as an undergraduate at Anderson University in Anderson, Ind. Her interest in Native Americans, particularly the Navajo, grew out of volunteering for three winter breaks to work with the Navajo in Kagetoh, Ariz. The volunteer experience was part of Anderson's Tri-S program -- study, share, serve.

Wittenbach earned a bachelor of arts in family science, a field that includes human development and family counseling. She is the daughter of Alan and Patricia Wittenbach, 111 E. Maryknoll Ave., Rochester Hills, Mich.