Student Profile: Oregon Tribal Student Grant Recipient Supports PSU Graduate, Member of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, to Focus on Indigenous Knowledge in Social Work
A returning adult student who is active in his tribal community, the Oregon Tribal Student Grant (OTSG) allowed Mark Petrie to earn his degree in social work with a focus on indigenous cultural knowledge in social services. A member of Hanis Coos, one of the tribes of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, Mark has already devoted years to tribal community work, and he is excited to expand his career in this area. With the help of the OTSG, Mark recently graduated with a bachelor’s from Portland State University, and he says the fact that the grant supported him in a fully online program was especially helpful as it allowed him to be present at home in Coos Bay with his wife and children.
With his degree, Mark hopes to embed indigenous cultural knowledge into social work and health work in new ways, and to focus on meaningful connections and evidence-based health practices. Mark previously worked with his Tribe’s cultural, health, youth and family programs, and he also served as an elected leader on the Tribal Council. He says, “My degrees are helping me be a better advocate for and supporter of indigenous cultural ways of healing within the [tribal] community and wider community.”
Mark’s higher education experience was cut short when he was younger due to a family tragedy. Mark grew up with eight siblings, and has 17 siblings in his family. He says, “We went through a lot of challenges and hardship. I’d say we were from the lower socio-economic background ... and at times we actually became houseless. So our education was not the priority while we were trying to survive.”
After high school, he went straight into Southwestern Oregon Community College with a focus on business, hoping to start a construction business with his family. Tragically, Mark experienced the loss of one of his siblings during this time. He says, “The silent suffering of an opioid addiction led to my brother passing away; that really threw my life into turmoil and set me on a new path.” Mark was able to graduate with an associate degree but due to the loss of his sibling, his drive towards a business future fell flat, so he paused his education. Mark set out on a journey of healing and community building, with goals of learning how to prevent loss of life due to addiction. He ended up finding a position in cultural programs through his Tribe, and has worked in service to his tribal community over the last decade in paid and volunteer positions. He has worked supporting youth and cultural programs, helping with canoeing events, supporting community health such as commercial tobacco prevention, restorative justice, and most recently, as a member of the Tribal Council, an elected governmental position he held for two and a half years. When he stepped down from the Council, he decided to go back to school for social work, thanks to the OTSG, which he describes as a “game-changer.” He says, “[the grant] created an avenue, an opportunity I wouldn’t have otherwise taken. I really didn't feel comfortable taking on loans at the time because of my financial situation.”
With his bachelor’s, he sees potential in social work for “reconnecting medicine with communities and providing ceremony and meaningful connections, and he is applying for a master’s program to build further expertise. He says, “The cultural practices that have supported me through my life, such as being out on the water in a canoe or at sweat lodge ceremonies or solstice gatherings—just living and being in our environment in a healthy way—have offered me mental health benefits.” He adds, “so my life goal is to ... build more of that safe space or brave space as I sometimes call it, where our tribal community members don't struggle.”