Post by Marks - the Earth's Sun on Jul 23, 2005 0:37:39 GMT -5
The challenges of education
© Indian Country Today July 18, 2005. All Rights Reserved
Â
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Since the late 19th century, American Indians have been migrating to urban areas. Some were lured by the false promises of the federal urban relocation programs while others went on their own, seeking economic opportunities away from their tribal bases.
Though education is a problem facing Indian country generally, urban Indians have often faced special challenges in regard to education over the last century. The loss of culture affected urban Indians in a way that was at least as profound as the now-discredited boarding schools.
Federal programs to help American Indians are often tribally based and are therefore disbursed to tribal governments. In a state like California, for example, this can have particularly disproportionate effects. Most Indians living in California are urban and the majority of them, by an approximately 6 - 1 ratio, are from out-of-state tribes.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the largest tribal population in California by a large margin is Cherokee, followed by Navajo; while the various Sioux tribes come in third and outnumber the Yurok, the largest rural California-based tribe, by over 2,000 people.
The tale of how urban Indians came to this particular place mirrors federal policies and their effects on American Indians. Increased awareness in recent years has led to some innovative solutions to these problems and perhaps offer hope for the future. History
Education in traditional societies was done by most of the adults within the framework of a given community; later, when the first vestiges of European-style education appeared, it was the missionaries who came to the various Indian communities.
However, by the time of the reformers in the late 19th century, owing in large part to conquered Indian lands as well as technological innovations such as relatively easy long-distance transport, that center of gravity changed. The education of Indian children was for the first time taken out of their local communities. For the first time, Indian education was in the world of the conquerors.
Nightmarish tales abound of how cultures were systematically destroyed. Many middle-aged American Indians can recall their parents' and grandparents' horrific stories of how they were sometimes savagely punished for speaking their own languages and forced to cut their hair and don Western clothes. Early 20th century pictures of these boarding schools show obviously stiff and uncomfortable American Indian children - boys in suits and ties and girls in white dresses - staring row upon row into the camera.
The results of the boarding schools were nothing short of a disaster. Children were ripped from their homes and local communities and isolated at Indian schools with other children in a very foreign environment.
Eventually, a report issued by the Institute for Government Research in 1928 showed that American Indians who attended boarding schools were not likely to go on to college. Congressional legislation soon followed in the form of the 1934 Johnson-O'Malley Act, which essentially allowed American Indians on reservations to go to public schools. According to a Journal of American Indian Education report from 1979, most American Indians have gone to public schools since the passage of Johnson-O'Malley and attendance at boarding schools began to wane.
The second wave of reform in the mid-20th century brought about urbanization. By that time it had become increasingly clear that rural reforms were not working. Although vestiges of the allotment and termination policies survived in California into the Kennedy administration, the main thrust was to integrate American Indians into mainstream society by forcing them to relocate to urban areas, the idea being that they would find jobs and fall into the prevailing model of society at that time: the melting pot.
Taking their cue from the various Iroquois peoples of upstate New York who left their rural areas beginning in the late 19th century and found small degrees of success - primarily in the construction field in New York City, such as the fabled ''sky walkers'' - the new generation reformers helped institute urban relocation policies for rural American Indians.
Similar conditions greeted American Indians, who were later relocated to other urban areas. Tens of thousands of American Indians poured into cities across the nation. Some of the biggest destinations included Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Seattle and Minneapolis, as well as smaller migrations into various other urban areas.
In the urban areas, conditions did not much improve and, like the boarding schools, produced negative effects in regard to American Indian views of education. Newly minted urban Indians had trouble finding jobs and often felt isolated in such an unfamiliar environment. Because their economic standing did not much improve with the move to the city, American Indians often found themselves relegated to the poorer areas of town such as Chicago's historically poverty-stricken Hyde Park and other nearby areas that represent the focal point of that city's estimated 30,000 American Indians.
Also, the social politics of racism can not be ignored. Since the age of the first generation of reformers over a century ago, social limits have been placed even on those American Indians who braved the adversarial nature of the school systems.
The problem today
Former NIEA president Cindy La Marr said that urban Indian centers such as the one in Chicago usually are the main sources of educational outreach to the urban Indian communities. However, after a spate of these began in the 1960s and '70s, many faced funding challenges and had to be discontinued. Though the programs in some larger cities - Chicago and Los Angeles included - have managed to survive, others, such as the Ya-Ka-Ama Indian Education and Development Center near Santa Rosa, Calif., have lapsed into disuse because of funding issues.
Though La Marr said some funding exists for urban Indians' education through the Johnson-O'Malley Act, this presents its own set of challenges. Urban Indian students seeking Johnson-O'Malley funding have to go through the tribe in which the student is an enrolled member. La Marr contended that the problem with this is that oftentimes tribes with funding problems of their own do not want to take the time and effort required.
''For example, if you have a Navajo kid in L.A., it's not very likely that the tribe would help [funnel the funding],'' said La Marr.
Also problematic for dealing with urban Indian issues is that their concentrations can vary widely. La Marr cited the cities of Oakland and Sacramento, which have comparable populations and are home to large numbers of Indians. The main difference is that Oakland has a geographically centered urban Indian population that is easy to identify, whereas the urban Indian population in Sacramento is spread much thinner and over a wider area.
This makes identifying the needs of urban Indians more difficult in a city like Sacramento, whose San Juan School District, with a mere 600 or so Indian students, has the largest concentration of Indian students in a city in which over 20,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives reside.
La Marr said that these kinds of demographic issues may require a varied approach to find and identify needs for students.
Rays of hope
Brenda Peltier is the principal of the American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul, Minn. and is in the Penn State Indian Education Department. Peltier recounted personal experiences in which she said she was discouraged from going on to college, but she went anyway.
''I'm sure that many of you have similar stories,'' said Peltier.
The American Indian Magnet School is an example of a diverse urban school. The largest ethnic group at the school is American Indian. Thirty-four percent of the school's students are American Indian, 22 percent are black, 21 percent Asian, 15 percent Caucasian and 8 percent Hispanic.
After her school and others in the district were placed on academic probation a few years ago, the magnet school came up with a creative model that brought about improvements in the school to meet state standards.
''Data is a powerful tool for the schools, and you need to use it well,'' contended Peltier.
Team-based approaches are also an important element of bringing teachers together, and she strictly organizes her staff and tries to communicate with teachers to prevent surprises throughout the semester.
Another idea is to have a ''book of the month'' which is, Peltier said, in turn tied to all aspects of curriculum and often to the Ojibwe and Lakota cultures. This ties in cultural aspects and is tied to meeting standards.
New NIEA President David Beaulieu pointed to some encouraging developments regarding educational opportunities for urban Indians. These developments largely include creating special schools for Indians living in an urban environment that seek to form a sense of their own identity in the urban sea of ethnicities.
Among these specialized institutions are ''focus schools'' in Denver that address the Indian population. In St. Paul, where Peltier is principal, and in Milwaukee, there is an Indian school for students that goes up to the eighth grade.
''The goal is to end the [urban] isolation of [American] Indian students,'' contended Beaulieu.
© Indian Country Today July 18, 2005. All Rights Reserved
Â
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Since the late 19th century, American Indians have been migrating to urban areas. Some were lured by the false promises of the federal urban relocation programs while others went on their own, seeking economic opportunities away from their tribal bases.
Though education is a problem facing Indian country generally, urban Indians have often faced special challenges in regard to education over the last century. The loss of culture affected urban Indians in a way that was at least as profound as the now-discredited boarding schools.
Federal programs to help American Indians are often tribally based and are therefore disbursed to tribal governments. In a state like California, for example, this can have particularly disproportionate effects. Most Indians living in California are urban and the majority of them, by an approximately 6 - 1 ratio, are from out-of-state tribes.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the largest tribal population in California by a large margin is Cherokee, followed by Navajo; while the various Sioux tribes come in third and outnumber the Yurok, the largest rural California-based tribe, by over 2,000 people.
The tale of how urban Indians came to this particular place mirrors federal policies and their effects on American Indians. Increased awareness in recent years has led to some innovative solutions to these problems and perhaps offer hope for the future. History
Education in traditional societies was done by most of the adults within the framework of a given community; later, when the first vestiges of European-style education appeared, it was the missionaries who came to the various Indian communities.
However, by the time of the reformers in the late 19th century, owing in large part to conquered Indian lands as well as technological innovations such as relatively easy long-distance transport, that center of gravity changed. The education of Indian children was for the first time taken out of their local communities. For the first time, Indian education was in the world of the conquerors.
Nightmarish tales abound of how cultures were systematically destroyed. Many middle-aged American Indians can recall their parents' and grandparents' horrific stories of how they were sometimes savagely punished for speaking their own languages and forced to cut their hair and don Western clothes. Early 20th century pictures of these boarding schools show obviously stiff and uncomfortable American Indian children - boys in suits and ties and girls in white dresses - staring row upon row into the camera.
The results of the boarding schools were nothing short of a disaster. Children were ripped from their homes and local communities and isolated at Indian schools with other children in a very foreign environment.
Eventually, a report issued by the Institute for Government Research in 1928 showed that American Indians who attended boarding schools were not likely to go on to college. Congressional legislation soon followed in the form of the 1934 Johnson-O'Malley Act, which essentially allowed American Indians on reservations to go to public schools. According to a Journal of American Indian Education report from 1979, most American Indians have gone to public schools since the passage of Johnson-O'Malley and attendance at boarding schools began to wane.
The second wave of reform in the mid-20th century brought about urbanization. By that time it had become increasingly clear that rural reforms were not working. Although vestiges of the allotment and termination policies survived in California into the Kennedy administration, the main thrust was to integrate American Indians into mainstream society by forcing them to relocate to urban areas, the idea being that they would find jobs and fall into the prevailing model of society at that time: the melting pot.
Taking their cue from the various Iroquois peoples of upstate New York who left their rural areas beginning in the late 19th century and found small degrees of success - primarily in the construction field in New York City, such as the fabled ''sky walkers'' - the new generation reformers helped institute urban relocation policies for rural American Indians.
Similar conditions greeted American Indians, who were later relocated to other urban areas. Tens of thousands of American Indians poured into cities across the nation. Some of the biggest destinations included Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Seattle and Minneapolis, as well as smaller migrations into various other urban areas.
In the urban areas, conditions did not much improve and, like the boarding schools, produced negative effects in regard to American Indian views of education. Newly minted urban Indians had trouble finding jobs and often felt isolated in such an unfamiliar environment. Because their economic standing did not much improve with the move to the city, American Indians often found themselves relegated to the poorer areas of town such as Chicago's historically poverty-stricken Hyde Park and other nearby areas that represent the focal point of that city's estimated 30,000 American Indians.
Also, the social politics of racism can not be ignored. Since the age of the first generation of reformers over a century ago, social limits have been placed even on those American Indians who braved the adversarial nature of the school systems.
The problem today
Former NIEA president Cindy La Marr said that urban Indian centers such as the one in Chicago usually are the main sources of educational outreach to the urban Indian communities. However, after a spate of these began in the 1960s and '70s, many faced funding challenges and had to be discontinued. Though the programs in some larger cities - Chicago and Los Angeles included - have managed to survive, others, such as the Ya-Ka-Ama Indian Education and Development Center near Santa Rosa, Calif., have lapsed into disuse because of funding issues.
Though La Marr said some funding exists for urban Indians' education through the Johnson-O'Malley Act, this presents its own set of challenges. Urban Indian students seeking Johnson-O'Malley funding have to go through the tribe in which the student is an enrolled member. La Marr contended that the problem with this is that oftentimes tribes with funding problems of their own do not want to take the time and effort required.
''For example, if you have a Navajo kid in L.A., it's not very likely that the tribe would help [funnel the funding],'' said La Marr.
Also problematic for dealing with urban Indian issues is that their concentrations can vary widely. La Marr cited the cities of Oakland and Sacramento, which have comparable populations and are home to large numbers of Indians. The main difference is that Oakland has a geographically centered urban Indian population that is easy to identify, whereas the urban Indian population in Sacramento is spread much thinner and over a wider area.
This makes identifying the needs of urban Indians more difficult in a city like Sacramento, whose San Juan School District, with a mere 600 or so Indian students, has the largest concentration of Indian students in a city in which over 20,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives reside.
La Marr said that these kinds of demographic issues may require a varied approach to find and identify needs for students.
Rays of hope
Brenda Peltier is the principal of the American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul, Minn. and is in the Penn State Indian Education Department. Peltier recounted personal experiences in which she said she was discouraged from going on to college, but she went anyway.
''I'm sure that many of you have similar stories,'' said Peltier.
The American Indian Magnet School is an example of a diverse urban school. The largest ethnic group at the school is American Indian. Thirty-four percent of the school's students are American Indian, 22 percent are black, 21 percent Asian, 15 percent Caucasian and 8 percent Hispanic.
After her school and others in the district were placed on academic probation a few years ago, the magnet school came up with a creative model that brought about improvements in the school to meet state standards.
''Data is a powerful tool for the schools, and you need to use it well,'' contended Peltier.
Team-based approaches are also an important element of bringing teachers together, and she strictly organizes her staff and tries to communicate with teachers to prevent surprises throughout the semester.
Another idea is to have a ''book of the month'' which is, Peltier said, in turn tied to all aspects of curriculum and often to the Ojibwe and Lakota cultures. This ties in cultural aspects and is tied to meeting standards.
New NIEA President David Beaulieu pointed to some encouraging developments regarding educational opportunities for urban Indians. These developments largely include creating special schools for Indians living in an urban environment that seek to form a sense of their own identity in the urban sea of ethnicities.
Among these specialized institutions are ''focus schools'' in Denver that address the Indian population. In St. Paul, where Peltier is principal, and in Milwaukee, there is an Indian school for students that goes up to the eighth grade.
''The goal is to end the [urban] isolation of [American] Indian students,'' contended Beaulieu.