Dominic Leading Fox – Indigenous Recognition Awardee

By Joshua Foreman

Image of Dominic Leading Fox, provided by himself

As a show of appreciation from AP College Board, The Owasso Rampage’s very own Dominic Leading Fox has recently been awarded the Indigenous Recognition Award for his exceptional AP scores and membership as a Pawnee citizen.

“At some point, I was just hanging out in my room, probably doing some important activities like Battlefield 1… and then I saw the email… it was from College Board, and it was like, ‘congrats, you won…’” Leading Fox notes about how he received the award.

To Leading Fox, College Board’s effort to hand out such awards is an important step toward the inclusion of native students. Throughout history, especially in Oklahoma, native students have been disregarded and discriminated against  due to their heritage. 

“I mean, we have a bad reputation with poverty and poor, forced education” Leading Fox reflects. “So, whenever we have people out of our community doing good stuff, you know, they might not be sending us millions of dollars, but our name’s out there and people are seeing that native kids have the capability to be real smart,” he says with a chuckle.

Leading Fox, among other native students being recognized with the award, represents the majority within the minority, proving their intellect and destigmatizing the bigoted views forced onto their relatives. The Indigenous Recognition Award is important not only for the individual, but for the entire community of native people previously undervalued in society; a step toward righting wrongs done in the past and appreciating their people in the present and the future.

Even if the award doesn’t come with a scholarship, tuition money or a flashy trophy, it is extremely important. The award doesn’t just signify the intelligence of high school students; it represents a community overcoming prejudice, the reversal of generational abuse and forced education. Because of this award, Leading Fox is able to see the progression made for his family’s culture, and other native students are being recognized as more than they have been in the past.