Watch me!

Stereotypes about Native Americans...

Reflecting on the trailer for the 1995 animated film Pocahontas, what are some stereotypes about Native Americans?

Lomawaima and McCarty

Amanda, Christine, and Ellen

Cultural Diversity and Democracy

“Critical democracy demands that the United States be a nation of educational opportunity for all, not merely a homogenizing and standardizing machine, unable to draw strength from diversity” (Lomawaima, 281)

Stereotypes about Native Americans

• " 'Safe' versus 'dangerous' difference" (Lomawaima, 282)

• Safe stereotypes--the stereotypes from Pocahontas

• Dangerous stereotypes--those that paint Native Americans as savage, dangerous, and inferior

• Authors want to distinguish how some government policies (which seemed supportive of Indian schools) only supported the safe stereotypes without real awareness

1898 to 1969: Schools perpetuating "cultural genocide" (Lomawaima, 282)

• "Allowing for exceptional cases, the Indian child is of lower physical organization that the white child of corresponding age...In like manner his face...is without free expression, and...his mind remains measurably stolid because of the very absence of mechanism for its own expression”

--Estelle Reel, 1898

(Lomawaima, 285)

• Estelle Reel was considered a benevolent supporter of Native American education (the bar was clearly very low)

1898 to 1969: Schools perpetuating "cultural genocide" con't

"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” (History Matters)

Col. Richard Pratt said the quote to the left. Went on to found a boarding school like the type outlined on the next slide...

The History of Native American Education: Reflections on the Boarding School Experience

Check out this video:

After Viewing Questions:

What were the greater effects of the U.S.'s intervention in native American education( both by the state and the church)?

What responsibilities do current education systems have as a result of this particular history?

What would Paolo Freire say in regards tothe historical education of Native Americans?

Read me!

Think about it--how did boarding schools attempt to homogenize their Native American students?

Are these things schools still do today (to Native American students, or students of other races/ethnicities)?

1926: Meriam Report

"The position, taken, therefore, is that the work with and for the Indians must give consideration to the desires of the individual Indians. He who wishes to merge into the social and economic life of the prevailing civilisation of this country should be given all practicable aid and advice in making the necessary adjustments. He who wants to remain an Indian and live according to his old culture should be aided in doing so" (Lomawaima, 287)

Access the rest of this groundbreaking report here: HERE

Rise of Community Schools

1970 was marked as a turning point for the self determination of Native American schools.

That year President Nixon stated, "We believe that every Indian community wishing to do so should be able to control its own Indian schools" (Lomawaima, 289)

The success of community based schools was quickly established. Schools with bilingual and culturally relevant educations had better studnet outcomes.

Rough Rock School (1965)

The Rough Rock school continues to operate today! Visit its website In its Mission Statement the schools explains its policy on bilingual education, cultural and character education, and pedagogy.

In what ways does the Rough Rock School, with its emphasis on community involvement, parallel a similar movement as the Harlem Children's Zone in New York? Are the two too different to compare?

Current Challenges: Budgetary Restraint"The school at rough rock is typical; Its

funding rate of $3,300 per student per year is two thirds that of students in Arizona public schools - and Arizona ranks 50th in the nation on per pupil expenditures. " (Lomawaima 294)

"No other U.S. school system must invest prodigious time and energy that this chaos requires. The pernicious results are that funding is neither permanent nor adequate and that indigenous students are all but guaranteed inferior education." (Lomawaima 294 )

Institutionalized Racism?

Lomawaima and McCarty's article describes the financial and bureaucratic hardships which uniquely face Native American schools. We generally accept that educational segregation no longer exists in this country. But given that these are factors that do not affect schools with different racial compositions, does this constitute a form of institutionalized racism?

Linguistic Self-Determination: What is the cultural cost of the loss of Native languages?

"Languages are not mere abstractions or replaceable products; language issues are always people issues" (Krauss, 1998).

Look at the following cartoon. What societal/cultural implications would losing Native languages have for a community?

Current State of Native Languages

According to Lomawaima and McCarty, at first contact with the Europeans, there were at least 300 distinct Native languages spoken in the United States. Today, 175 are spoken but only 20 are being passed on to the next generation (295).

Lomawaima and McCarty report that "the pressures on families to abandon the heritage language are so intense that if left to individual families, the crisis of language loss will go unabated" (296).

Do you agree with this statement? Thinking about Rodrigeuz's personal account of the "lack of intimacy" he increasingly felt with Spanish as he learned English in school, how do you think bilingual programs should look to avoid this?

"Legal" vs. "Effective" Right to Maintain Language

According to John Rehyner, the struggle for Native American communities for their legal right to maintain their languages and cultures has been won, for the most part, due to a large body of legislation aimed at protecting the land, rights, cultures, and languages of indigenous people worldwide.

However, many Native American communities lack the effective right to do so. Rehyner defines effective rights as "access to the knowledge, strategies, and resources necessary to resist the destruction of languages and cultures" (83)

In contrast to Lomawaima, Rehyner argues that the school should not be primarily responsible for preserving language and culture. Rather, the community should. Read the article and think about which author you agree with.

http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education2/stabilizing_indigenous_languages,center_for_excellence_in_education,_2007.pdf#page=29

"Preparing students to function in two languages and two worlds"

Rough Rock implemented a Navajo immersion/language revitalization program in which students would receive most of their instruction from pre-k to 2nd grade in Navajo, and starting in the 3rd grade about half the instruction was taught in English (Escamilla, 1994).Do you think it is possible for a bilingual educational model to equip students with the linguistic skills needed in both languages without making one language inferior to the other? Read the following article and think about it!

http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/rcd/BE021511/The_Sociolinguistic_Environment.pdf

Academic Achievement Results for Bilingual Education in Native Schools

In 1982, Bacon, Kid, and Seaberg conducted a study of the math and reading (English) scores of Cherokee students in Oklahoma who had received 3 years of bilingual education, 4 years of bilingual education, and no bilingual education.

The results show that the children in the bilingual programs showed no deficit compared with their peers (Krashen who were not in bilingual programs (Krashen, 2000).

To view the complete study click here: http://azbilingualed.org/AZ%20Hist-ALEC/bilingual_education_is_beneficial%20for%20Native%20American%20children.htm

Current Challenges: Life on the Res

"Economic and social indicators used to quantify and classify status and quality of life for the U.S. population are notoriously grim for Native American populations: lowest per capita incomes, highest rates of infant mortality, extraordinarily high rates of depression and teen suicide...it has been predicted that 60% [of youths] will leave school before graduating" (Lomawaima, 282).

Potential hope for the future?

Read Me!

How does this new model boarding school subvert the legacy of oppressive boarding schools?

How optimistic are you about the potential for this kind of school? What do you think is the solution for Native American students today?

Need a good beach read?

Check out Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (cartoon from the book) which is autobiographic-ish novel about a high school boy. You'll laugh, you'll cry.

BibliographyAlexie, S. (2007). The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little Brown Books.

Bear, C. (2008, May 12). American Indian boarding schools haunt many. NPR: Morning Edition. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16516865&ps=rs

Bear, C. (2008, May 13). American Indian schools a far cry from the past. NPR: Morning Edition. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17645287&ps=rs

Cantoni, Gina. , & Rehyner, John, (2007). Stabilizing indigenous languages. Retrieved from http://www.afn.ca/uploads/files/education2/stabilizing_indigenous_languages,center_for_excellence_in_education,_2007.pdf

Escamilla, Kathy. (1994). The sociolinguistic environment of a bilingual school: A case study introduction.Bilingual Research Journal, 18(1), Retrieved from http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/files/rcd/BE021511/The_Sociolinguistic_Environment.pdf

Krashen, Stephen. (2000). Bilingual education is beneficial for Native American children. Arizona Association for Bilingual Education, Retrieved from http://azbilingualed.org/AZ Hist

Bibliography Continued

Lomawaima, K.T., McCarty, T. L. (2002). When tribal sovereignty challenges democracy: American Indian education and the democratic ideal. American Education Research Journal, 39(2), 279-305.

Meriam, L. The Institute for Government Research Studies in Administration , (1928). The problem of Indian administration. Retrieved from THE JOHNS HOPKINS PRESS website: www.alaskool.org/native_ed/research_reports/IndianAdmin/Indian_Admin_Problms.htm

Otterman, S. (2010, October 12). Lauded Harlem schools have their own problems. The New York Times. Retrieved from http:// www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/education/13harlem.html?pagewanted=all

Pratt, Richard Henry. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Henry_Pratt

Kill the Indian, and save the man: Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the education of Native Americans. (n.d.) From History Matters. Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/