Coeur d’ Alene Tribe

Education Pipeline:

Rooted in Tradition,

Growing Toward the Future

National Congress of American Indians Mid-Year Conference

June 29, 2016

Presentation Overview

• Development and Purpose of the CDA Education Pipeline

• Acknowledge and understand ruptures in the pipeline

• Repair: CDA Tribal State Education Partnership

• Restore and Revitalize: Development of Schitsu’umsh Research and Scholarship Cohort

Pipeline

Purpose of the Education

Pipeline -Visual Roadmap for creating systemic change in Education

-Serves as a guide that our tribal leadership wants our membership to traverse in developing a highly qualified workforce.

-Demonstrates the Tribe exercising its inherent right to self-govern, and self-determine tribal sovereignty, and our increased obligation for Education from Cradle to Career.

-Illustrates a shift away from things to be done to us, to being fully engaged in teaching and learning.

-Nation-building

Value Driven - Data Informed – Relational

What drives the pipeline?

● T’u’lschint (Membership) - Capable, decent, moral, ‘a

good person’, upstanding in your tribal community, local community and world community. We will look at each other from the heart.

● ‘Ats’ Qhnt’ Wesh (Stewardship) - To be the best caretakers, socially aware, have integrity, be responsible, accountable, caring for human, cultural and natural resources for present and future generations.

● Snmiypnqwiln (Scholarship) - Lifelong learning with all

dimensions of scholarship; reading, writing, speaking, engagement with ideas that are rooted in tribal values and seek knowledge to understand the world and meaningful application within the community.

● Hngwa’ Yqn; Hnshat’ Qn (Guardianship) - To care for and protect our Tribal way of life for our children, our natural resources, culture, history, traditions and spirituality.

Pipeline ‘Components’ Cradle

❖Early Childhood (0-5)

❖Primary (K-2)

❖Elementary (3-6)

❖Middle (7-8)

❖High School (9-12)

❖Adult Education

❖Post Secondary

❖Graduate

Career

Value Driven - Data Informed – Relational

ACKNOWLEDGING & UNDERSTANDING RUPTURES

SELF-ASSESSMENT / SELF-DETERMINATION

❖ Traditional data collection and research

❖ Tribal Data Sovereignty

-Tribal Membership demographics

-Expanding program data and community feedback

PIPELINE RUPTURES– What story does the data and

research tell us?

❖ Analyze and dissect – painful process

❖ Our story – gaps in early childhood, elementary,

middle, high school & beyond

❖ Collaboration – Not just Department of Ed

-Comprehensive service delivery, youth support,

family strengthening, and community

improvement/development

ACTION – Positionality & Intentionality

❖ Successful Strategic Planning – Positioning Tribes as THE

problem solvers and measuring progress, actual outcomes

❖ Foundations - Culture, Values & Resilience

❖ Partnerships – Families, schools, Tribal entities, community

organizations

Repair:

Coeur d’ Alene Tribe

STEP Grant State/Tribal/Education Partnership

STEP Goals and Objectives

Overarching Goal:

To strengthen the cultural identity of students to improve academic success and graduates rates on

the Coeur d’ Alene reservation, as measured by local and state

methods

● Objective 1: Develop CDA Tribal Social Studies units for grade 4 Idaho history.

● Objective 2: Align, articulate and integrate culture, history and language in K-12 Idaho Social Studies standards.

● Objective 3: Provide preservice and in-service teacher education programs to promote Indigenous knowledge and culturally-responsive pedagogy for all LEA and TS teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals.

● Objective 4: Develop three High School Social Studies dual-credit enrollment or high school credit courses (e.g. Tribal Sovereignty & Policy, Tribal Government, Tribal Geography)

STEP Partnerships, Process and Insights:

Partnerships: State Department of Education Plummer/Worley School District Coeur d’ Alene Tribal School

Idaho Tribes

Idaho Indian Education Committee

U of I Faculty

Idaho State University Faculty

Parents

Community members

Process:

Culturally-sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy Culture, Language History Insights:

• Identity

• Place

• Story

• Revitalize, Restore, Renew

Restoring:

Indigenous Research

Relationship

Reciprocity

Respect

Responsibility

Indigenous Research

Certificate and Doctoral

Program

• Indigenous Epistemologies

• Tribal Sovereignty and Federal

Indian Policy

• Indigenous Research Theories

• Native Law

• Imperialism

Understanding the Ruptures:

Tribal Sovereignty course

• Initial development: Indian Land Tenure Foundation/UI Extension

• Students: Coeur d’Alene, Nez Perce, Spokane, Colville, Navajo, Chippewa, non-Native

• Remote Access: students in Athol, Moscow, Wellpinit

• Student expertise: enrollment, natural resources, early childhood, human resources, social work and child support, gaming, forestry, youth development

• Speakers: Tribal attorneys, Social Services Director, THPO, UI Tribal Liaison, Council leadership

Topics

• Tamanwit: Culture is Law • Doctrine of Discovery • Marshall Trilogy • Trust Doctrine • Allotment, Termination, Self-

Determination • Natural Resource issues • Water Rights • Economic development • Education • Historic Preservation • Future direction of Federal Indian Policy

Reframing:

Student Research • Boarding school experience • Blood quantum • Gun rights • Tribal Lake claim • Child Support • Community healing resources for

historic trauma • Climate change • Keystone Pipeline • Fisheries management • Traditional foods • Traditional fire regimes

Revitalizing:

using this knowledge in

the community

Chatq’ele’: Recentering the relationship with the lake

Questions?

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Photo: Kate Rau