HANOVER — Dartmouth is investigating the disruption by two students of an event celebrating Native American peoples and cultures on Sunday night.

The Midnight Drum Circle is held annually by the Native Americans at Dartmouth student group to mark the beginning of Indigenous Peoples Day.

The incident, which occurred on the college green, was addressed by Shontay Delalue, Dartmouth’s senior diversity officer, in an email to the student body on Monday afternoon. But the message didn’t detail the nature of the disruption.

“Such alleged behavior, particularly today, is antithetical to Dartmouth’s culture of integrity and the sense of responsibility we hold for each other and for the broader world,” Delalue wrote. “We fully support our Native American and Indigenous students and are committed to Dartmouth being a place where everyone can celebrate their identities with confidence and the support of the full community.”

Dartmouth was founded “for the education and instruction of Youth of the Indian Tribes in this Land,” reads a 1769 charter from British King George III. But in the 200 years to follow, fewer than 20 Native Americans graduated from the school. To reorient the college to its initial mission, in 1970, then-college president John Kemeny directed the Dartmouth admissions office to begin actively recruiting Native Americans to its student body. Since then, the college has graduated more Native American people than the other seven Ivy League schools combined.

But this hasn’t shielded the school from criticism for its problematic past.

In 2020, after calls from Native American students and faculty, Dartmouth removed a 600-pound weathervane depicting Dartmouth founder Eleazar Wheelock sitting next to a barrel of rum while lecturing to a Native American student from atop Baker-Berry Library.

This March, Dartmouth announced that it had discovered the skeletal remains of 15 Native Americans in the collections of the Hood Museum of Art and the Anthropology Department. The discovery pulled Dartmouth into a group of higher education institutions, including Harvard and the University of North Dakota, that also have recently reported Native American remains in their collection.

At the annual midnight drum circle, attendees sing songs, pray in tribal languages and share poems, according to a 2022 article in the college’s newspaper The Dartmouth. Apart from writing that “several people witnessed two Dartmouth students disrupt” the drum circle, Delalue’s message didn’t further characterize the disruption on Sunday or the motivations behind it.

With the incident still under investigation, Dartmouth wasn’t willing to discuss the event further, Diana Lawrence, a college spokeswoman, said on Tuesday. Hanover police were not called to the scene, a spokesperson for the department said.

The Native Americans at Dartmouth group didn’t respond to a Tuesday morning email requesting comment.

Indigenous Peoples Day is observed on what traditionally has been called Columbus Day to symbolize the rejection of the damage wrought on Native communities by the explorer. The day is officially recognized in Vermont, but not in New Hampshire.

Frances Mize is a Report for America corps member. She can be reached at fmize@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.