When Deron Marquez looks to the future, nothing is more certain than the importance of education—for himself and for his tribe.

Marquez is the first member of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to earn a bachelor’s degree. As of May’s commencement, he can also add a master’s degree from the School of Politics and Economics. Now in his doctoral program, if all goes as planned, he will be only the fourth Native American in history to obtain a PhD in government.

He hopes his academic endeavors will inspire others in his tribe to enroll in colleges, universities, or trade schools—anywhere they can gain knowledge and skills critical to ensuring the future cultural and economic welfare for themselves and the San Manuel Band.

“Once you get a degree at any level, no one can take it away from you,” he said. “You have security, you have built-in wealth. What you do with your education once you have it, that is the big question.”

There’s no question Marquez has an impressive record of achievements, especially considering that he was simultaneously pursuing his education. In October 1999, two months after beginning his studies at Claremont, he was elected tribal chair of the San Manuel Band at the age of 29. During his six-and-a-half-year tenure as chair, Marquez helped guide the tribe into a period of unprecedented prosperity that continues today.

A JOURNEY BEGINS
Marquez grew up 20 miles east of Claremont in the suburban town of Fontana. As a youth, he visited his mother’s family on the San Manuel reservation, which lies nestled in the rocky hills just north of the city of San Bernardino.

It was a confluence of history and personal determination that shaped Marquez’s future. The ancestors of those who now comprise the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians had lived in California for centuries before coming into contact with Spanish settlers in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was Spanish settlers who rounded up the Native Americans, uprooting them from their ancient homelands and placing them into the mission system.

The mission system was still in place in the mid-1800s, a period that saw a huge influx of new settlers to California. In those turbulent times, tracts of land were taken for ranching, farming, and logging; tribal leader Santos Manuel led his people from the mountains to a safer area near the mountains. In 1891, this reservation was formally recognized as a sovereign nation by the American government, and the tribe took on the name of its heroic leader and became the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.

However, it wasn’t until 1975 that federal authorities guaranteed Native Americans’ right of self-governance. Marquez was still a young child at this time, and the long period of economic hardship had greatly affected his people, and the surrounding area.

“Growing up in Fontana you always heard of the Claremont Colleges, but you never felt it was for you,” he said. “In Fontana at that time the options were the military, the steel mill, or jail.”

Even at an early age, Marquez dismissed these limited options and, after graduating from high school in 1988, began his educational journey at the University of Arizona, a choice that—due to its distance from home—appealed to his young man’s yearning for independence. He received his bachelor’s degree in history and then headed to San Francisco State University to pursue a graduate degree in ethnic studies. But while there he found himself drawn to a different field.

“I never wanted a career in ethnic studies,” said Marquez. “I always enjoyed politics and the theory of politics. Being born into a tribe you are born into politics. There are little enclaves of different political views, but instead of political parties, we have families. I was always interested in the formations, like how can two individuals agree on one topic and be polar opposites on another?”

While in San Francisco, Marquez was contacted by Alfred Balitzer, then a full-time faculty member at Claremont Graduate University and Claremont McKenna College, who had been impressed by the young man’s intelligence and drive.

“Deron is a person of enormous energy,” he said. “He has an ability to focus on many things at the same time. This is not usual; it is very rare. Few people have his executive and leadership skills, his focus and energy.”

After learning of Marquez’s desire to study politics, Balitzer urged him to come to Claremont. “I thought the small university quality made it a perfect place for him,” he said.

Marquez heeded his advice, and soon found himself making the drive between Claremont’s leafy campus and the San Manuel Band’s reservation, splitting his time between his studies and his responsibilities as tribal chair.

REBUILDING A NATION
Marquez took office at a time when the state first allowed tribes to expand gaming operations, a decision that meant increased revenue for the San Manuel Band. With increasing financial resources to draw on, Marquez set to work improving quality of life for the roughly 200 tribal members.

“From when I was starting as chair it was more about putting back together this very full society that at one time had a lot of wealth, spiritual and cultural wealth, not just material wealth,” he said.

The reservation and its inhabitants saw many improvements: paved roads and streetlights, sewer lines and health care, college scholarships and home loans. San Manuel’s lone full-time government employee was joined by more than 300 others as the tribe, a sovereign entity like all Native American Indian tribes, established its own agencies, including fire and public safety departments.

“There was pitifully little, if any, infrastructure before Deron became chairman,” said Balitzer. “Of course, he was aided by a willing tribe and excellent tribal business committee. Still, his accomplishments are extraordinary.”

As the tribe’s wellbeing improved, the tribal council took steps to establish sustainable means of income. “My message since the beginning has been: let’s plan for a changing future,” Marquez said. “Gaming’s not going to be here forever. At San Manuel, we will be prepared.”

That preparation includes investments in office buildings, a hotel in Washington, DC, and an upscale restaurant in Pasadena, California, as well as a state-of-the-art water-bottling facility on the reservation. The tribe’s newest project, currently under construction, is San Manuel Village, a 12-acre complex in Highland, California.

“Our tribal compacts with the state are due to expire in 2020,” said Marquez. “Our goal for that year is for our tribe to say we are no longer going to be involved in gaming because we have all these other sources of sustainable revenue on the table.”

One of the tribe’s most important goals is to promote a secure future for its members by investing in education. Millions of dollars have been invested in K-12 education, and at the university level as well. These programs benefit the tribe and other non-tribal American Indian youth in general. “The more education our people have the better off we will be,” said Marquez.

THE FUTURE IS WIDE OPEN
In 2006, Marquez decided not to run for reelection to the tribal council. His job as tribal chair required so much travel that he spent approximately three months of the year away from his wife, Cindy, and their two young children, ten-year-old Skyler and eight-year-old Keely. He had missed Keely’s earliest words and first steps and some of Skyler’s soccer games and school performances.

“I wanted the opportunity to spend more time with my family,” Marquez said. “And I felt that my job as tribal chair was complete and I had accomplished what I set out to do.”

He’s also happy to spend more time in the School of Politics and Economics.

“I love the faculty; they have been absolutely wonderful,” he said. “The professors have practical experience and can translate theory into practice. It’s very helpful to learn about a topic and then hear how a professor was working at the White House and dealing with that issue and how it worked or, sometimes, didn’t work.”

Marquez’s immediate plans are to complete his doctoral degree in the next few years. After that, he’s keeping his options open.

“The day may come when I find myself going back into politics,” he said. “Who knows? Like I tell my parents, I’m only 37. I have time, and I’ve only begun this journey.”