Racial discrimination complaint filed against Northern

An adjunct professor at Montana State University-Northern has filed a racial discrimination claim with the Montana Human Rights Bureau against the university, an attorney with the bureau said Wednesday.

Human Rights Bureau Attorney Tim Little said Yvonne Tiger, who is listed as a professor in the university’s Arts and Sciences department, filed the claim in December and the investigation is ongoing. Little said the bureau has 180 days to investigate and resolve the claim.

Tiger declined to comment on the complaint.

“My private life is not any of your business. Do not print my name in your article, or you can talk to my lawyer,” Tiger wrote in an email Wednesday.

This isn’t the first claim Tiger has filed with the bureau, Little said. She filed another claim in the past, one that has been closed since. Little did not have anymore information on the closed case at the time.

Tiger taught Native American Language I at Northern in the spring and is scheduled to do so again in the fall, said Northern’s Dean of the College of Education, Arts and Sciences and Nursing Carol Reifschneider.

Racial tensions at Northern have received statewide attention as of late, including a recent issue regarding a student who allegedly made racist comments mid-April after leaving a Native American studies class.

That student was banned from campus while finishing the year, other than being allowed in the gymnasium and to play on the football team.

Lee Enterprises reported May 7 that Northern student Mia LameBull said she later heard other students saying “we should just kill them all anyways,” referring to Native Americans.

The school administration originally declined to comment much on the complaints, citing student confidentiality issues.

Chancellor Greg Kegel later issued a statement saying the comment was taken seriously and the matter was being looked into, as well as saying the administration could have communicated better during its investigation and decision.

Other staff members have said the university has a race issue.

In the article Tiger is mentioned, as one of six who met to discuss the issue.

Neither Kegel nor a representative of the Montana State University flagship campus in Bozeman had commented on Tiger’s complaint by printing deadline this morning.