Master of Science / This thesis concerns a predominantly white university, Western Carolina University, with historical links to the Cherokee people as well as contemporary links to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. I chose to analyze WCU's student newspaper within a 50-year period before and during the beginning emergence of the American Indian Movement to determine in what ways, if any, do students engage with settler-colonial narratives to selectively remember events and express their student body collective identity. Within the analysis process, I determined the narratives of Ancient Peoples, Exoticism and Romanticism, and Civilized and Uncivilized Peoples most significantly impacted student identity formation. My results demonstrated how students' newspaper articles intertwined campus identity narratives with a perpetuation of settler-colonial beliefs.