American Indian Education: An Overview

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American Indian EducationAn Overview

• Comprehensive Counseling and
• Guidance Conference
• June 10, 2009
• David Shirley, Jordan High School
• Dr. Chuck Foster, USOE Indian Education

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A Brief Overview of American Indian Education
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Roots of Understanding

• In order for educators and policy makers to
  understand why the various programs in Indian
  Education exist and why certain curricula are
  more likely to lead to success, they must know
  about the past failures and successes of Indian
  Education. They must know the roots of Indian
  resistance to schooling and the educational
  empowerment that Indians are striving for.
• American Indian Education A History
• Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder (2004)

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A Brief History of American Indian Education

• Allotment and Dependency
• 1877 1924
• Indian New Deal 1924 1944
• Termination and Relocation
• 1944 1969
• Self-Determination 1969 1989
• New Directions in Indian Education 1989 - 2004

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American Indian Education Today

• Overview
• 568 federally recognized Indian Tribes
• 700 American Indian languages spoken
• 500,000 elementary and secondary tribal
  students
• 90 attend state public schools
• 190 elementary and secondary schools operated
  by Office of Indian Education
  (IOE) or Tribes (contract schools)
• over 30 tribal colleges and universities
• over 110 Tribal Education Departments
• Indian Nations at Risk Report (1991)
• NCLB ethnic racial group statistics

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American Indian Education Today

• Federal Programs
• Title I Grants to LEAs
• Title III ELL Grants
• Title VII Indian Education Formula Grants
• Title VIII Impact Aid
• Johnson OMalley
• Nationwide, federal funding is at 10 of all
  funding spent on elementary and secondary
  education. American Indian Education funding is
  a fraction of that 10.

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American Indian Education Today

• American Indian Education updates
• 35 states have some Indian Education law
• 16 states have laws on American Indian languages
  in public school curricula or certification of
  teachers of Native languages
• 4 states mandate the teaching of tribal
  sovereignty
• Model state on Indian Education laws New
  Mexico Montana and, Minnesota
• Few tribal-state compacts in education

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INDIAN NATIONS AT RISK TASK FORCE1990-1991

• Guiding principles
• The United States has a responsibility to help
  American Indian communities preserve, protect
  their culture and languages, which are not found
  in other parts of the world..
• Educational strategies and reforms are strongly
  recommended to improve and guide the success of
  American Indian children in schools.

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INDIAN NATIONS AT RISK TASK FORCE1990-1991

• Early intervention programs, counseling programs,
  after school programs and activities, etc.
• Schools must provide enriching curricula and
  assistance that encourages academic success,
  physical, social, cultural, psychological, and
  spiritual development.
• Parents, Elders, and community leaders must
  become involved in their childrens education, in
  partnership with school officials and educators.

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• INDIAN NATIONS AT RISK TASK FORCE,
• 1990-1991
• American Indian students who attend schools with
  an unfriendly school climate that fails to
  promote appropriate academic, social, cultural,
  and spiritual development will result in
  failure.
• Schools who had an Eurocentric curriculum, low
  teacher expectations, the lack of American Indian
  educators as role models, and overt and subtle
  racism lack student success.
• These factors contributed to Native students
  having the highest high school dropout rate (36
  percent) of any minority group in the United
  States.

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INDIAN NATIONS AT RISK TASK FORCE1990-1991

• A genuine commitment to real change will be
  required not only on the part of the school
  systems, but also by federal, state, local, and
  Native governments Native corporations
  educational organizations business, labor, and
  community organizations.

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No Child Left Behind (NCLB)2001

• Title VII of NCLB
• Continue the unique trust
• relationships and the
• responsibilities for the education
• of American Indian children

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No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 2001 Title VII of
NCLB

• Continue to work with local educational agencies,
  American Indian tribes and organizations,
  postsecondary institutions, and other entities
  towards the goal that programs serving American
  Indian children are
• Highly qualified (personnel, instructors,
  content, books, material, supplies, etc.)
• Provide basic educational needs
• Provide unique educational and culturally related
  academic needs
• Program development (academic, post secondary,
  community, etc.)

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New Directions in American Indian Education
- 1989-2004

• American Indian Languages Act of 1990
• the status of the cultures and languages of
  American Indians is unique and the United States
  has the responsibility to act together with
  American Indians to ensure the survival of these
  unique cultures and languages..
• Congress made it the policy of the United States
  to preserve, protect, and promote the rights and
  freedom of American Indians to use, practice, and
  develop American Indian languages . . .

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New Directions in American Indian Education
1989-2004

• American Indian Languages Act of 1990
• The right of American Indians to express
  themselves through the use of American Indian
  languages and shall not be restricted in any
  public proceeding, including publicly supported
  education programs.

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EXECUTIVE ORDER 13336 ON AMERICAN INDIAN AND
ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION, 2004

• It is the purpose of this order to assist
  American Indian/Alaska Native students in meeting
  the challenging student academic standards of No
  Child Left Behind Act of 2001 in a manner that is
  consistent with tribal traditions, languages, and
  cultures.

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• EXECUTIVE ORDER 13336 ON AMERICAN
• INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION
• 2004
• . . . to recognize the unique educational and
  culturally related academic needs of American
  Indian/Alaska Native students . . .
• This administration is committed to continuing
  to work with these federally recognized tribal
  governments on a government-to-government basis,
  and supports tribal sovereignty and
  self-determination..

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AI/AN Counseling
American Indian Cultural Awareness and Sensitivity
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Monument Valley Experience

• To develop a direct encounter with the culture as
  a process for learning through action.
• Recognizing the different life-ways of Native
  people, not all are traditional.
• Enlist community members who are in touch with
  and know community resources, people, and needs.
• One-on-One site contact to clearly communicate
  family participant role.

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Navajo Nation Monument Valley High School
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White Mesa Ute Reservation
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Hopi Reservation
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Home Stays
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Service Projects
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Food
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The Long Walk
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Local Educators
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Beading
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Basket Making
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Mitchell Mesa
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Community Pot Luck Dinner
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Community Concert
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A Life Changing Event

• It was only through living with people
• outside my particular fishbowl that I was
• able to finally perceive the true nature of my
• previously invisible milieu.
• Gary Howard

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Genocide of a Culture

• Until the 1970s, generations of Indian children
  were
• forced from their homes and placed in schools run
  by
• the U.S. government and later by Christian
• missionaries, where they were beaten for speaking
• their language, their traditional clothes and
  hair
• were stripped from them, and they sometimes were
• Given new Judeo-Christian names.
• Dwayne Hollow Horn Bear
• Lakota Studies professor, Sinte Gleska University
• Teaching Tolerance, Fall 2006

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We didnt solve the problems that have evolved
over centuries of dominance and cultural
conflict, but we did manage to shift the focus
away from blaming the Indian student and their
parents. Working together, we gradually began to
take mutual responsibility for creating a more
positive educational environment for American
Indian children. Gary Howard We
Cant Teach What We Dont Know
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Peer Groups and Risk Taking Behaviors(2001)

• 1217 yr AI/AN National
• Illicit drugs 22.2 9.7
• Binge alcohol 13.8 10.3
• Heavy alcohol 3.8 2.5
• Cigarettes 27.2 13.4
• Serious fights 22.1 19.9
• Group fights 22.4 16.1
• Hand guns 3.3 3.2
• 20 heavily involved in drugs

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Peer Groups and Risk Taking Behaviors

• 15-24 Age Group
• rank Ntl Ave
• Accidents 1 3x
• Suicide 2 2.5x
• Homicide 3 1.2x
• Gang activity 15 of all 15-24 year olds on
  reservations have some involvement
• HS diploma 65.6 25 yrs and older
• Bachelors Degree 9.4 25 yrs and older

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Native American Values
Sharing Cooperation Being Emphasis on the group
Extended family Harmony with nature Time
orientation to the present Natural phenomena
linked to supernatural
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European American Values
Saving Domination/Competition Doing Emphasis on
Individualism Nuclear Family Mastery over
Nature Time orientation toward the future Natural
phenomena linked to science
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Cultural Discontinuity
Cultural conflict as a result of the two sets of
values being incongruent. Traditional
values/practices CHASM Mainstream
expectations
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Cultural Commitment

• Traditional Those who generally speak and think
  in their native language they
• practice only traditional beliefs and values.
• Transitional Those who generally speak both
  their native language and English
• they do not fully accept the cultural heritage
  of their tribal group nor identify
• completely with mainstream culture.
• Bicultural Those who are generally accepted by
  dominant society they are
• simultaneously able to know, accept, and
  practice both mainstream values and
• traditional values and beliefs.
• Assimilated Those who are generally accepted by
  dominant society they
• predominantly embrace the mainstream culture.

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Recommendations for Counseling

• Ask permission whenever possible and always give
  thanks.
• Never interrupt.
• Be patient.
• Use silence whenever it seems appropriate (or
  even when it does not).
• Use descriptive statements rather than
  questioning.
• Model self-disclosure through anecdotes or short
  stories.
• Make use of metaphors and imagery when
  appropriate.
• Support connection to spirituality and
  affiliation with tribe.
• Approach students with a childs mind.
• Provide tangible solutions