University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota enters the story through INMED, Indians into Medicine, and Lani Walker’s decision to study far from home. At Grand Forks, North Dakota, the university becomes both a place of preparation for a medical career and a setting where Lani can meet Native students whose experiences complicate the boundaries between Anglo and Indigenous cultures.

INMED and Lani’s education

Four years before the events surrounding her final exams, Lani’s parents urged her to complete her undergraduate work in Tucson. Brandon Walker was particularly reluctant to have her leave: he had already lost two of his three sons and feared losing his daughter, too. Lani nevertheless chose the University of North Dakota and enrolled in INMED at its School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Her decision was not simply a choice of school. Orphaned as a Tohono O’odham child, raised in an Anglo household, and educated at predominantly Anglo schools, she wanted to study somewhere she could encounter Native students from many tribes. She hoped to find people familiar with living between Anglo and Indigenous cultures, a position she understood as an uncertain and demanding one.

A community beyond the classroom

Lani’s three roommates helped make that hoped-for community tangible. Margie was Paiute from Nevada, Darlene was Rosebud Sioux, and Laura was Black-foot from Montana. Laura taught the others to ski, while Darlene helped Lani learn to ice-skate. The four shared values, humor, and a belief that storytelling belonged to winter. Their household gave Lani daily companionship with students whose backgrounds differed from hers but whose cultural negotiations felt recognizable.

The university also brought Lani together with Leah Donner, a White Mountain Apache student she met in a Society and Literature class during their freshman year. Both were outstanding students and both had been orphaned and raised by adoptive families, though Leah had grown up in an all-Indian household while Lani’s parents were Anglo. Their friendship became a place for confidences: Lani told Leah about the hair charm she wore and the medicine basket she had woven, and shared her growing worry about Fat Crack Ortiz’s illness.

Study interrupted by obligations at home

As Lani approached her final exams, she had already been accepted into medical school at the University of Arizona. She did not need to worry much about the exams, but she longed to be back in Tucson, where she believed she was needed. Her original plan with Leah was to volunteer with Doctors Without Borders together after graduation. Lani changed course because Fat Crack was so ill and she wanted to be home with him; Leah remained committed to the summer plan and was hurt that their agreement had fallen through.

Lani’s departure gives the University of North Dakota a defined place in her story: it has been the setting for academic achievement, cross-tribal friendship, and a community she deliberately sought, but it cannot keep her when family and cultural obligations call her home. She returns to Tucson as soon as her last exam is finished, carrying the relationships and experiences formed during her time at the university into the next stage of her education.