Samson Occom Scholars

The Dartmouth Class of 1911 has established a permanent fund to provide financial assistance to one or more Native American undergraduates who will be known as Samson Occom Scholars.

The new scholarship derives, its name from Samson Occom, the Connecticut Mohegan Indian who became a pupil of the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock in 1743. Occom, who became a minister, went to England and Scotland in the mid-1760s and raised 11,000 pounds to help fund the establishment of Dartmouth College. Although Occom never came to Dartmouth, he did attend and graduate from Moor's Charity School in Connecticut, out of which Dartmouth College grew in a new location.

There are now more than 40 Native American undergraduates attending Dartmouth and the number is expected to grow to more than 65 by 1974.