“The American Indian Education System
….. American Indian students comprised some 644,000 public elementary and secondary school students, or about 1 percent of all public school students. If regarded as a state student population, American Indian students would represent the 27th largest state by student enrollment in the country, comparable in size to such states as Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The majority, some 92 percent, of American Indian students attend regular local public schools, which fall under the jurisdiction of pertinent state and local educational authorities.”
THE DAILY GRAND AND SUNDRY’s attitude toward Native Americans has been informed by two incidents.
Once I attended a house warming party at the home of a rich Canadian heiress in Malibu. She had found out that I was researching and drafting a screenplay about the Comanche Wars of the 1880s, so she took it upon herself to berate me for the American attitude toward Native Americans, how we,as Americans, had slaughtered our Native peoples; unlike the Canadian policy toward their aborigines(their term for Native Americans), which was big hugs. My reply to her Canadian self righteousness was very simple, Canadian Aborigines were wusses, you can always patronize a wuss with hugs. Great peoples fight for their land; they don’t get tamed by a handful of Canadian mounties. The American Indian are a great people, who fought for three hundred years. Does anyone think Dudley Do-Right could have hugged Geronimo into giving up his land, his birth right?
She was lecturing me in her living room, in this fabulous house, built on land stolen from the Chumash Indian tribe. Regardless of your politics, or how recently you have arrived in America, just by being here, and drinking the water, breathing the air, you are party to the original sin, the American policy toward Native Americans.
All immigrants who come to America, to profit off of America, are just as guilty of genocide as the men who did the killing. Antonio Banderas, Ryan Reynolds,Fareed Zakaria,Piers Morgan,Jerry Yang,Ang Lee are just as guilty of genocide as Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, George Armstrong Custer and Nelson Miles. They all profit off the death of Native Americans, and the seizure of Native American land.
That policy,genocide and seizure, has not changed since Jamestown was founded in 1607. That policy can be summed up as follows: meet, trade, talk, talk, kill kill, talk, talk, parley,kill kill, sign eternal treaty, kill, kill,pledge eternal good faith, betray, kill, kill and then when victory is assured-IGNORE, with the hope that alcoholism will kill off the survivors.
To make modern America, so chock full of illegal immigrants trying to better their individual lives, took a lot of work, but a lot more killing.
The second incident which informs these reflections is an aside from a splendid Native American, who is living on a remote Native American outpost. He told me that the reservation had two competing Gangs, one named the Bloods and one named the Crips.
Talk about cultural degradation, young Native Americans, the heirs of Geronimo, Captain Jack, Crazy Horse, Gall, were naming their gangs after Black gangs formed in Compton; Native American gang bangers were so culturally deprived that they did not even name their rival gangs, Dog Soldiers and Ghost Dancers. Alas, for the well being of my soul, I found that anomaly so enormously absurd that it was funny.
It is with that blended world view I read the American Education Report.
The full report can be accessed at:
http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/indianed/consultations-report.pdf.
The Report highlights a number of issues/problems in current Native American education, including cultural deprivation and despair, lack of funding, and inaction by the government in addressing these problems.
THE DAILY GRAND AND SUNDRY, in response to the Report, will now offer up some unsolicited suggestions.
1-Culture-
American Indians are a defeated people, like the Maoris in New Zealand, the Kurds in the Middle East, the Celts in Ireland. Defeated but remarkably intact, give or take a Mohican. In 2012 you can still meet an Apache, a Mohawk, a Lakota, that means something. In 2012 you cannot meet a Carthaginian, a Pict, a Hun, a Vandal…..that means something. The Native American has confounded history by surviving defeat, now he meets his greatest challenge, surviving survival. How does a defeated people survive their survival? They maintain their culture, like the Jews after the destruction of the Temple…..how does one maintain a culture when one is bombarded by trash TV shows? Through education.
By reading the testimony in the Report, the Native Americans understand the need for cultural maintenance. but they seem to be at an impasse as how to achieve that cultural maintenance in the 21st Century. They understand it must be through education, but how?
THE DAILY GRAND AND SUNDRY suggests this- Native Americans must pool their resources, their Casino profits, their mining profits, their energy profits,their government grants-all the tribes must work together and establish a series of private Colleges based on Native American Culture, like the Historically Black Colleges system, a glorified Kamehameha School system if you will, taken to the collegiate level.
These Native American colleges will offer degrees in Native American studies, will maintain Native American languages, will cross pollinate Native American students. These Native American colleges will learn Apache dances, and Sioux songs, in a Gestalt curriculum.
They will turn out credentialed teachers, who can and will teach Native American insights to schools on the Reservations, and in Public schools. A mandatory class will teach every one how close Tecumseh and the Prophet came to pulling off a free Native American nation, in Indiana.
One of the great experiences of my life is when, as a young man, an old grizzled Arapahoe taught me to track wild boar in the Oklahoma Panhandle. I never used that skill again, and it has certainly atrophied…but I did it. To this day, because of that skill, I feel a lot more manly than any guy on JERSEY SHORE or GLEE.
Not all the incipient Native American colleges will be dedicated to the culture, some will be dedicated to STEM(Science, Technology,Engineering,Mathematics); Native Americans will not only be allowed to attend either school but also to transfer from college to college at their own volition; the culture being learned parallel to or in tandem with a viable skill set.
All Native American schools, K-12 ,on Reservations will be removed from the purview of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and turned into Charter Schools, reporting to the Tribe. Those Native American schools reporting to the Bureau of Indian Affairs must be transformed into Native American Yeshivas.
In the morning the classes will be taught in English;the subjects taught to the Standardized tests. In the afternoon the Native American students will be turned over to the tribal elders to learn the use of the bow, the tribal dances, the story of the Tribal Creation.
The Native American student will learn his tribal oral history in his native language, and then learn that same oral history in English so his verbal skills will be enhanced.
Welding and auto repair, will be taught in the afternoon, as will hunting and holistic medicine, ballet(this nation could use another Maria Tallchief) and animal husbandry.
The mornings should be an Indian version of Silicon Valley; the afternoons should be a Indian version of Amish country. The Native American mind and spirit, psyche and grit should be and will be able to handle both.
2-Funding
By treaty, American tax payers owe Native Americans money for taking all that land,(the price of all that killing). The money for education should be block granted to the tribes and they should contract the local schools to teach Native American students. Every Native American student in every public schools system should be eligible for an Education Voucher; that Voucher should be payable to either the Public school, or a private school, or a religious school, or a charter school deemed educationally, and culturally sufficient by the Tribe.
Finally, I was once chatting with a high level executive from Microsoft and he told me that Microsoft had failed in its development of a video game, and lost $100 million on that failure….that money was spent in the Ukraine.
Native Americans sit on sovereign land, and can compete with the Ukraine as a foreign nation. I have been to Kiev; I have no doubt that Native American software people, if properly trained, can lose $100 million just as well as the Ukrainians did.
The reservations must learn to compete with foreign nations for business, for the reservations are indeed foreign nations-blame those pesky treaties.
N’ish T’a G’ol T’eh
EXCERPTS FROM THE REPORT
“The State of American Indian Education,
Report of the Consultations with Tribal Leaders in Indian Country
U.S. Department of Education
Office of the Secretary
Office of Indian Education, in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities
U.S. Department of Education
Arne Duncan
Secretary
Dear Tribal Leaders:
The Obama Administration is strongly committed to the education of American Indian and Alaska Native people. The President and I believe the future of Indian Country rests on ensuring that your children receive a high quality education. Improving academic outcomes for Native American children has never been more important. Unfortunately, too many Native American children are not receiving an education that prepares them for success in college – too few of them are going to college. In fact, as many as forty percent of Native students drop out of high school. We need to do better.
As Secretary of Education, I have had the privilege of visiting the Northern Cheyenne Reservation in Montana and the Rosebud Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. I witnessed the problems that Indian Country faces with high unemployment, poor housing, and inadequate school facilities. But the children I talked to on that reservation gave me hope. They were smart, committed, and passionate. …… the teaching of Native languages, cultures, and history in our schools, and tribal sovereignty and self-determination. This report documents what we heard during those consultations.
We also understand that consultations are not an end in themselves. We must follow up with meaningful reforms. .
We’re also working on creating a new senior Indian Affairs position at the Department.
Sincerely,
Arne Duncan
The State of American Indian Education, 2010
Report of the Consultations with Tribal Leaders in Indian Country
Please let us know what the results of all this is because I’ve been to many of these over 40-some years and, in most cases, nothing happens.
—Ivan M. Ivan, Tribal Chief, Akiak Native Community
Together, working together, we’re going to make sure that the first Americans, along with all Americans, get the opportunities they deserve.
—President Barack Obama
We have to dramatically improve the quality of education in Indian country and for Native American students, whether they live on reservations or not.
—Arne Duncan, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
..During the Department of Education’s listening and learning sessions in urban Indian communities, tribal leaders testified that American Indian students face a number of significant challenges, including lack of access to culturally appropriate curricula, educators without sufficient cultural training, and poor learning conditions. The testimony revealed organizational challenges, insufficient resources, and, significantly, limited opportunities for members of tribal communities to meaningfully participate in the education of their own children. These challenges identified by tribal leaders and educators of American Indian children act as barriers to a quality education and lead to poor outcomes for American Indian students. As data from the 2009 Native American Education Report Card show, unfortunately, American Indian students face significant achievement gaps as compared to their non-native peers and low graduation rates. Tribal leaders testified that these outcomes perpetuate cycles of limited economic opportunity, resulting in significant health, welfare, and justice inequities in Indian country.
The Native American Education Report Card, 2009
Only 50 percent of Indian students are completing high school. This is unacceptable.
—Jennifer Flatlip, Tribal Education Director, Crow
Indian Education Study 2009, finding that American Indian student scores in both reading and math at both fourth- and eighth-grade levels have not improved since 2005. In addition, Alaska Natives at the fourth-grade level actually scored lower on this survey than in 2005. Specifically, in the 2009 assessment, fourth-grade American Indian students attending local public schools lagged behind the general population by 17 points and eighth-grade students by 13 points in reading. As for math, American Indian fourth-grade students scored 15 points lower than the general population and 17 points lower by grade 8.
American Indian students attending Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools fared worse in terms of achievement. Fourth-grade BIE students scored 25 points lower in reading than the general population and 23 points lower by grade 8. In math, fourth- grade BIE students scored 20 points lower than the general population and eighth-grade students lagged behind the general population by 19 points.
The Drop-out/Graduation Crisis Among American Indian and Alaska Native Students, 2010
American Indian students also suffer from high drop-out rates. For example, in 2008-09, 48 states and the District of Columbia reported sufficient data to calculate the Average Freshmen Graduation Rate (AFGR) by race/ethnicity. Across these reporting states and D.C., the AFGR for American Indians and Alaska Native students (64.3 percent) falls between Black, non-Hispanic students (63.3 percent) and Hispanic students (65.1); all of which are below the rates for Whites and Asian / Pacific Islanders (81.5 percent and 92.3 percent, respectively). This dynamic changes somewhat when looking at states where the percent of the estimated 2008-09 graduation cohort made up by American Indian and Alaska Native students exceeds the average percent of all students in the reporting states who are American Indian and Alaska Native (i.e., exceeds 1.25 percent). Across these states the AFGR for American Indian and Alaska Native students was 62.3 percent. This falls below the rates for black, Hispanic, white, and Asian students across these same states (66.2 percent, 67.0 percent, 82.6 percent, and 91.3 percent respectively).
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s BIE schools enroll approximately 8 percent of all American Indian public school students in 184 BIE-funded schools. Sixty-one of these schools are operated by the BIE and 123 by tribal authorities themselves, either under BIE contracts or with grants. During school year 2006–07, BIE schools served nearly 48,500 American Indian students. These schools were located on 63 reservations in 23 states. If treated as its own school district, the BIE would rank, by enrollment, in the top 100 out of nearly 16,000 in the nation.
In addition to Indian education’s unique place in the federal bureaucracy, the responsibility to provide education to American Indian youth is set out in federal statutes and treaties. Whereas the federal government maintains a unique trust obligation, brokered in the 19th century, which includes responsibility over delivery of education services, state and local authorities are not equally obligated by these same federal statutes and treaties. As it is with public education generally, much of the discretion as to policies and resources impacting the vast majority of American Indian students—more than 90 percent of whom attend regular public schools—is left to the judgment of state and local authorities, and, therefore, varies by jurisdiction.
In addition to the fragmentation that occurs within a federal-state-local education structure, there is further fragmentation within the federal agencies. For example, within the U.S. Department of Education there are several program offices that implement different programs and initiatives, including the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Title VII grant program, that have a significant impact on American Indian students and operate under distinct Departmental authorities. Over the years, the Department has changed its internal administrative structure of American Indian education, impacting the American Indian education office’s profile.
The U.S. Department of Education 2010 Plan of Actions
American Indian issues today are primarily within the U.S. Department of Interior where we compete … with animals, trees, rocks, etc. Meeting with U.S. “people departments” is refreshing.
—Anonymous, South Dakota consultation comment card submission
The U.S. recognizes the right of federally recognized Indian tribes to self-government, and supports tribal sovereignty and self-determination;
In general, this right forms the basis of every federal policy or program that has tribal implications;
Regular and meaningful dialogue is the appropriate vehicle for ensuring that this right is reflected in Federal policies and programs; and
Nationwide Consultations with Tribal Leaders in Indian Communities in 2010
The whole notion of equity is something that has oftentimes not served native people. It has actually worked against us because we’re not necessarily trying to be the same as all these other groups.
—David Iyall, Cowlitz Tribe; University of Washington
As laid out in the Plan, the U.S. Department of Education organized, for the first time in its history, six consultations with tribal leaders in Indian communities, one town hall in Washington, D.C., and two teleconferences between senior Department officials, federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators
AMERICAN INDIANS SPEAK: MANY HISTORICAL CHALLENGES PERSIST
American Indians Emphasize Failure to Fulfill Historic Trust Responsibility
So the funding that you bring towards us … we look at this as a partial payment of the rental of our lands.
—Jesse Taken Alive, Tribal Council Representative, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
Summary
Federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators expressed outrage at the failure of the federal government to fulfill the “moral obligation of the highest responsibility and trust” to tribes. This historic trust responsibility states that the federal government has a responsibility to protect tribal self-governance, lands, assets, resources and treaty rights, fulfilling the direction of federal statutes, treaties and court decisions.
Testimony
The role of states in upholding trust responsibility must be defined … because a majority of Indian youth attend public school.
—Tulalip Tribes of Washington State
This was ours at one time. You’ve got to understand that there’s an obligation. … When are we going to quit begging?
—David Beaulieu, Lac du Flambeau Tribe, Wisconsin; Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
American Indians Seek More Tribal Control Over Education
If we’re going to be in control of our destiny, we have to be in control of our education.
—Everett Chavez, Governor, Pueblo of Kewa
Summary
Tribal leaders and American Indian educators indicate that state and local authorities do not consult them in meaningful and regular dialogue regarding American Indian education, resulting in a serious loss of control over their children’s education.
Testimony
We want more local control … not only for the Cherokee Nation but our public school districts. They’re the ones who know the daily challenges they face.
—Corey Bunch, Cherokee Nation Education Services
We ask that districts be required to include tribal governments when applying for grants.
—Tulalip Tribes of Washington State
Maybe we could tie into the roles of state funding and make it mandatory that … to accept that funding at the state level that they have to work with tribal consultation.
—Theresa Two Bulls, President, Oglala Sioux Tribe
Modern federal laws like ESEA need to reconnect these schools to tribal governments. … It’s about tribes helping to determine how Title I funds can be best used to help tribal students, no matter what the standards are in their particular state.
—Quinton Roman Nose, President, Tribal Education Departments National Assembly
The states have been operating to the complete exclusion of tribes within tribal jurisdiction areas for too many years.
—Ryan Wilson, Representative for Chairman Marcus Levings of Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Arapahoe Tribes
I’m not really satisfied with how those dollars come to our reservation because you run them through the state of Wisconsin. Does the state like the Indian people? … No! They don’t.
—David Beaulieu, Lac du Flambeau Tribe, Wisconsin; Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University
Need for Regular Government-to-Government Consultation
We are respectful and mindful that our work must be conducted from a framework that we’re dealing with a nation to a nation, government to government.
—Charles P. Rose, former General Counsel, U.S. Department of Education
Summary
To facilitate American Indian control over education, tribal leaders recommended regular, meaningful and ongoing consultation, dialogue and coordination between federally recognized American Indian tribes, local public American Indian education providers and representative groups; and federal, state and local governments. In order to obtain a clear picture of all American Indian students’ needs, tribal leaders and educators stressed that officials from the Department, the BIE and the public school system listen and learn from tribes.
Lack of Tribal Input and Inappropriate Standards, Assessments and Curricula
Captain Pratt used education to take away our language, culture, history. What we would like is for Obama to take education and use it to restore our language, culture and history.
—Tom Miller, Council Member, Chippewa Tribe; Superintendent, Hannahville Indian School
Summary
Federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators indicate that some curricula remain unfit for American Indian students. They are outraged that a failure to include Native languages and histories as part of core curricula has hastened loss of indigenous culture and language and perpetuated poor self-worth among American Indian students. They report a lack of school curricula that reinforce a positive image of American Indian cultures, programs for troubled youths and family, and culturally appropriate extracurricular activities.
They indicate that state standards and assessments fail to take into account American Indian students’ unique environment and that Native languages and histories must be included among core course work requirements in order for American Indian students to succeed. Tribal leaders stress that a narrow focus on math, reading and science, they emphasize, thwarts American Indian students’ educational attainment.
Tribal leaders also indicate that state assessments must measure student achievement in ways that credit American Indian students for achievements in culturally appropriate areas.
Testimony
Our hope and dream is to teach our children about our history, culture and language, and to instill in them the word called “hope.” If they have that in their heart they’re going to survive any kind of impact no matter what it is. … These kids become so proud of the language they want to come to school to participate in that.
—Ivan M. Ivan, Tribal Chief, Akiak Regional Community
All students, not just the Native students, benefit from a curriculum which addresses local culture, history and language.
—Sealaska Heritage Institute
If my children are proud and my children know who they are, they’ll be able to encounter anything in life. And so that’s the core that I really think reflects the kind of education, or lack of education, that we have received from the western educational system.
—Lolly Carpluk, Yup’ik, Mountain Village
Language and culture coming from the ideas and the base of who we are makes a difference. It isn’t an addendum idea. It has to be the core and the base.
—Shirley Tuzroyluke, President, Alaska Native Education Association
I have a son who’s going into eighth grade. There are many days he does not want to get up and go to school because the curriculum, the techniques are irrelevant to him. He’s a hunter. He’s a fisherman. He’s a Native boy. He’s a boy. He’s a human being and oftentimes the whole child is not addressed.
—Doreen Brown, Title VII Education Program, Anchorage School District
Until we teach Lakota every day in the classroom, until we teach Lakota history from our perspective, along with American history every day in the classroom, until we teach tribal government every day along with U.S. government and civics in the classroom, it’s not going to change; it’s not going to get better. We’re going to continue to struggle.
—Richard Tuffy Lunderman, Rosebud Sioux Tribe
We continue to fear that standardization of assessments and curriculum will result in a generic education that will exclude local tribal history and culture curriculum that is so vital to the success of our tribal students and their non-native peers.
—Leonard Forsman, Chairman, Squamish Tribe, Washington
The state school system does not have a Yup’ik-speaking high school to continue the language and classes taught K–6 at the high school level. They offer a class only if you want to take it, but it’s not part of the curriculum.
—Bing Santamour, Orutsararmuit Native Council
In addition to language arts, science, and math required there should also be native studies as a core … not as a foreign language.
—Sandra Freeland, Dine Education Administrator
Utilizing our language in every subject will return the spirit of who they are. With that comes holistic learning—mental, physical, emotional, spiritual learning.
—Beverly Tuttle, Porcupine School Board, Oglala Sioux Tribe
The standards are terrible. They have a terrible effect on us.
—Dave Archambault, Chief Executive Officer, Sitting Bull School
The reauthorized ESEA should encourage proper inclusion of English Language Learners in state assessment in a manner that is most meaningful that considers the full range of an ELL student.
—Ramah Navajo School Board of Trustees, New Mexico
Current regulations for determining Adequate Yearly Progress do not allow small schools to represent their accomplishments properly. One or two children can skew a baseline when the grade band only has twenty children.
—Ryland Bowechop, Makah Tribal Council
Accountability methods must include recognizing that students come from different environments, have different support bases and learn at different rates.
—Fernie Yazzie, Navajo Nation
American Indians Stress Disconnect Between Federal, State and Local Governments
There is a huge disconnect. In order to truly meet the needs of our people in our society at large, we need to connect the dots better between the federal government, the state, and finally, the local governance and the community stakeholders.
—Deborah Jackson-Dennison, Arizona State Impact Aid Association
Summary
They expressed frustrations regarding educational outcomes, processes and the exclusion of American Indian input into education policy. They stressed that the lack of collaboration and coordination between government agencies hampers the tribal and local level pursuit of funding to fuel educational success for American Indian students.
In particular, federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators indicated that education services provided to the 48,500 American Indian students attending BIE schools were subpar, attributing some problems, at least in part, to falling under a federal authority that is isolated from other federal education programs.
Testimony
Here we are, out in the school system, being affected by lack of direction and leadership because the seamless approach has not been sewn together. … We, in our schools, get marching orders from different directions on any given day, and they could change any given day. And sometimes when you change on any given day or any given hour, it’s disruptive. It is really disruptive. We have to get beyond the politics.
—Ray Lorton, Superintendent, Chief Leschi Schools
An example of the disconnect are the many presidential executive orders indicating and supporting culture and language programs for American Indian children, yet state law, such as in Arizona, dictate to public schools the philosophy of English only.
—Deborah Jackson-Dennison, Arizona State Impact Aid Association
Our students are served by state public schools, tribally run schools, and BIA schools. There needs to be more coordination among these schools. And all three systems need to be encouraged to formally require more tribal involvement.
—Walter Dasheno, Governor, Santa Clara Pueblo
You have contract schools. You have private schools. You have all these different schools. We have state public school systems from Arizona, from New Mexico, and from Utah, and all those three states have their own rules that govern those public schools on this reservation.
—Peterson Zah, Navajo Nation
The Department of Education needs to monitor the Bureau of Indian Education. The Oglala Sioux Tribe is requesting that the BIE restructure at the administrative level.
—Lydia Bear Killer, Oglala Sioux Tribe
I work at a BIA-funded school. We are a government school. We should have the best school on this Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, I would like to think it is, but it is not. We are way behind.
—Ruth Pourier, Teacher, Pine Ridge Elementary School, South Dakota
If we can initiate a partnership, a partnership between the tribes, NCAI, NIEA, the White House, and the Department of Education, as well as the BIE, then we’ve got the right group of people moving toward a common goal.
—Joe Garcia, Chairman, All Indian Pueblo Council,
There’s no communication with the Bureau of Indian Education. … We were looked down on. We weren’t being heard.
—Theresa Two Bulls, President, Oglala Sioux Tribe
No Overarching Education Authority
We’re actively considering elevating or creating sort of a senior level position around education here in our Department to help drive this on a day-to-day basis.
—Arne Duncan, Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
Summary
During the consultations, federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators expressed serious concerns at the lack of cross-cutting authority in American Indian education policy positions at the highest federal levels. Specifically, tribal leaders indicated that current positions at the U.S. Department of Education, including the Director of the Office of Indian Education, lacked sufficient authority to direct coherent American Indian education policy beyond the programs they administer.
Lack of Accountability
Who will listen to us? Who will listen and implement change in our school? … Who will finally listen and be accountable? The educated hear each other. They speak with words full of many meanings.
—Jennifer Flatlip, Tribal Education Director, Crow Tribe Education
Summary
When you, the officials in Washington, make a decision on how or when our tribal schools should do something, and even distributing the money that the tribal schools receive, everything is channeled through the [BIE] Albuquerque Service Center in Albuquerque. And whatever it is that will be affecting our tribal schools, is held up in Albuquerque for any extended amount of time.
—Tammy Lafferty, Oglala Sioux Tribe
We just encountered one thing after another trying to work with BIE. … Every time we meet, we get a different direction or something has been thrown up just to prolong it or not even get it done, and we were promised a decision that never came or will come several years later.
—Raymond Maxx, Navajo Nation Department of Dine Education
American Indians Cite Insufficient Funding
It’s always about funding. That’s the only way we can do anything for our children, and yet we are denied that.
—Karen Archambeau, Vice Chairman, Yankton Sioux Tribe
Summary
Federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators stressed that existing federal, state and local funding is insufficient to provide a quality education to American Indian students. They criticized mandates and programs that can remain unfunded due to gaps among federal agencies, state, local and tribal education authorities and legislatures.
Testimony
The biggest thing, I think, is the funding. We are underfunded, and until the funding comes in and the people here on the Pine Ridge Reservation are in charge of the money, I don’t think there’s going to be very many changes, and I think that’s the bottom line.
—Marnee White Wolf, Principal, Wounded Knee District School
I cannot emphasize enough the importance of stable funding. … The state of Alaska manages our school district’s funds. And with all respect to the state of Alaska, what they are providing is not adequate. … We’re trying to change systems that are clearly not meeting the needs of the most at risk and in need. The only way that we’re going to be able to do that is if we have stable funding.
—Kristin English, Cook Inlet Tribal Council
Underpinning all the other themes is the overall, clear need for coordination among funding streams to reduce the isolated progress of related programs.
—Oglala Sioux Tribal Council
A lot of these policies that come down from the higher levels have no money attached to it, and yet we’re expected to do and cooperate and make, you know, things happen with no money at all.
—Lydia Bear Killer, Councilwoman/Education Committee Chair, Oglala Sioux Tribe
According to the Code of Federal Regulations, 25-CFR, which is primarily Indian programs, they were supposed to fully fund all operation and maintenance costs by 1981. Well, it’s 2010. We’ve got 29 years of being underfunded.
—Michael Brooks, Business Manager, Wounded Knee District School
Lack of Direct Funding to Tribes
Fund our programs directly. When you funnel funds through the state or its systems they wash out and we absolutely get nothing.
—Jaylene Petersen-Nyren, Kenaitze Tribe
Summary
Federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators reported an inability to receive federal grants directly, without having their funds channeled through state or local education authorities. They decried federal grants that could permit state and local authorities to allocate the funding without the specific input of tribal leaders.
They also expressed indignation that funding intended to serve their students can instead be dedicated to alternative purposes. They attribute this diversion to several causes, including an administrative structure that permits them little voice among federal agencies, state and local authorities and legislatures, lack of meaningful consultation, failure to consider recommendations from parent committees and lack of cultural competency.
Testimony
Other than the indirect costs and administration monies they make off of channeling federal programs to Indians and Indian tribes, the states really have little interest in carrying out federal programs or seeing successes on Indian reservations.
—Member Tribes of the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association
I put forward a bill saying the state shall send allocation dollars straight to the tribal school, if that’s what the tribal school wants. Some tribal schools have wonderful working relationships with their local school districts, some don’t. … I just want the dollars to go straight.
—Claudia Kauffman, Senator, Nez Perce Tribe
Maybe we can sort of think about redefining some of the parameters where tribes can go for those funds directly, and we can manage them ourselves.
—Matthew Martinez, Ohkay Owingeh
Instead of being part of the state’s Title I education plan, the tribal education agencies should be allowed to develop a reservation-wide or a tribal-wide plan for Title I funds, which the tribe should submit directly to the U.S. Department of Education.
—Dayna Brave Eagle, Tribal Education Director, Oglala Sioux Tribe
The public schools, they receive a lot of funding for our Indian children, and yet our Indian school receives hardly anything. The money is funneled down, and we can’t even have a football stadium for our students.
—Rachel Bernie, Tribal Secretary, Yankton Sioux Tribe
In the state of Alaska, we get forgotten. Look at the students up there: There’s no running water, no toilets, no nothing. … In Kenai, Alaska, I’m constantly fighting with the borough to use our Title VII monies. … We need your help in order for the state of Alaska to tell them they have a fiduciary responsibility to the tribes in education.
—Rosalie Tepp, Kenai, Alaska
Lack of Tribal Grant-Writing Capacity
It’s too complicated for me. I don’t know the CFRs, the state regulations, all that, that comes with this money. Audit us, yes. We’re ready to be audited at any time. But let us teach.
—Ivan M. Ivan, Tribal Chief, Akiak Native Community
Summary
Federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators indicate that they struggle to successfully garner federal funds when required to compete against districts with higher grant-writing capacity. They emphasize that schools with large numbers of American Indian students are precisely the institutions addressing the needs of the most disadvantaged student populations and, therefore, deserving of federal funds. They suggest that, until districts with large American Indian student populations are operating on a comparable capacity level to comparable districts, competition may not be an equitable means to allocate resources.
Testimony
Some of the small schools in the state of Oklahoma can’t afford professional grant writers. And because of that, they don’t even apply for the grant.
—Jim Parrish, Choctaw Nation
Out of those 560 tribes, there are only 25 tribes who actually applied … They weren’t ready. The tribes did not have the capacity.
—Quinton Roman Nose, National Indian Education Association
Due to Limited Funds, Facilities and Transportation Severely Subpar
Summary
Federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators report receiving inadequate funding to maintain quality facilities and transportation, and attribute this to little American Indian input in state and local distribution of federal education funding. They point to facilities as one of several reasons for poor student morale and disappointing educational outcomes. They stress that BIE schools in particular are in disrepair and that, oftentimes, inadequate funding leads to diversion of resources intended for instructional purposes to be used for urgent facilities maintenance instead.
In the place where I’m from, it’s currently 55 below. That’s a problem when you have people building California-style schools in a place where it’s going to get [to] -60 this week. So what does that have to do with equity in education? Eighty-four percent of our local budget goes to overhead—84 percent. Only 16 percent of the dollars that are allocated for our school actually reach the instructional level.
—Edward Alexander, Second Chief, Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in Tribe, Yukon, Alaska; Teacher; Principal, Arctic Village School
[There are] safety and health code violations in many of these schools that have been ignored. … Children are in remote areas and are really in harm’s way when those facilities have not been kept up.
—Chairman Joe Garcia, San Juan Pueblo
The facility in which we reside at … is 50 years old. It’s outlasted its useful life. It’s uninsurable. … We’re forced to use our Indian School Equalization Program (ISEP) dollars, our title funds in ways in which they’re not beneficial to the children in order to keep our facilities operational.
—Michael Brooks, Business Manager, Wounded Knee District School
Due to Limited Funds, Instructional Materials and Access to Technology Inadequate
Summary
Likewise, federally recognized tribes and American Indian educators indicated that funding deficits limited their ability to acquire adequate instructional materials and access technology to ensure American Indian students were prepared for 21st-century economy.
Testimony
We need funds to develop electronic and digital materials, those kinds of things that can be used to enhance the teaching of language in our immersion schools.
—Margaret Raymond, Cherokee Nation
Because of this isolation we need our libraries just full of information. … We don’t have a library in our community.
—Jennifer Flatlip, Tribal Education Director, Crow Tribe Education
American Indians Stress Need to Recruit and Retain Highly Effective Teachers and Leaders
When my youngest daughter was in high school and told one of the teachers that she wanted to be a teacher, the response from an educator was, “Oh, Jeanette, you could be so much more.”
—Susan Murphy, Lower Kuskokwim School District
I’m the only Native language teacher in the whole district where students can get credit for taking my class. They’re anxious to learn a Native language, even if it’s not their own.
—Shirley Kendall, Tlingit Language Instructor, Anchorage School District
We need ongoing staff development to deal with educating our American students, our high rate of alcoholism and drug use and the damages it does to the unborn child. These are the types of children that we, on the reservations in South Dakota, are educating today.
—Ruth Pourier, Teacher, Pine Ridge Elementary School, South Dakota
Something’s happening within our schools; our students aren’t engaged. And I think that really does relate back to cultural relevance and the teachers that are teaching them.
—Josephine Edwards-Vollertsen, Title VII Indian Education, Anchorage School District
The ESEA reauthorization should promote providing incentives to Bureau-funded schools to create a best-teacher pool of Native American teachers that continually promotes highly qualified teacher standards. The incentives should come in terms of professional development and performance base.
—Ramah Navajo School Board of Trustees, New Mexico
Administrators and teachers need to be more aware of the Native culture of their students because, if we do acknowledge their culture, it makes them feel valued and gives them self-identity.
—Jean Froman, Tulsa Public Schools
Preparation for teachers working successfully with Native students is different. … Native students expect culturally integrated instructional methodology and content, and the majority of teachers coming to our schools don’t have a clue.
—Theodore L. Hamilton, Superintendent of Tiospa Zina Tribal School
In this district we only have about 80 Native teachers for 10,000 Native students. It’s appalling. … How do we increase that? Utilizing our paraprofessionals. Developing professional development plans so that they can become teachers. … Many of them are working parents. We need to make some flexibility within our educational systems so that they can go to school and still get paid.
—Doreen Brown, Title VII Education, Anchorage School District
We must look at the reasons our students are not succeeding. Our students [are] in substandard housing. They live off muddy roads and can’t attend school if they can’t get to the road. They must sit all day at Indian Health to be seen by a doctor or must travel long distances to receive dental care, resulting in their absences. They are hungry and distracted. Yet they come, and they come to learn.
—Mary Brown, Teacher, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe
It’s very, very unfortunate that we have broken families within the reservation. That’s just a symptom of trying to adapt to the society, the dominant society. It’s going to take some time.
—Virgil Lewis, Yakama Nation
We have unemployment rates that go from 12 percent to as high as 87 or 93 percent, depending on what tribal nation you’re talking about.
—David Gipp, President, United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, North Dakota
As long as we have the social conditions that our children live under, as long as there’s drinking and fighting and violence, as long as things are in disarray on the reservation, for sure our children are not going to learn, for sure our children are already damaged at an early age. … We have to factor in the impact of poverty on learning.
—Cecilia Fire Thunder, President, Oglala Lakota Nation Education Coalition; Vice-Chair, Little Wound School Board
I have got a tremendous amount of kids that graduate with GEDs working in my casinos that are very smart and very capable. They just didn’t see a future beyond working in that casino. They could have been doing a lot of other things, but nobody instilled the confidence.
—John Shotton, Otoe-Missouria
Our school is just constantly in trauma. You know, we’ll see our flag is at half-mast, and we’ll say, “I wonder who died today.”
—Elizabeth Johnstone, Spokane Tribe
It makes me sad because I look at our young people and I look at the drugs and alcohol that are in our communities and I look at the gangs that try to take our children from us. We need to stop that. We need to make a safe place for our children.
—Mary Wilber, Lake Washington, Bellevue, and North Shore School Districts
The community I was in had no running water, a community of 150 people about 300 hundred miles away from the nearest city. That led to an outbreak of a disease called MRSA. … How does this affect equity in education, you ask? When 80 percent of the community has MRSA, it affects education. When people don’t have access to clean water any place in the entire community other than at the school, it affects education and it affects equity. What I’m talking about is the type of interagency collaboration that needs to occur. … The Department of Health and Human Services offered no assistance; neither did the CDC; neither did the Department of Education. … It’s a problem. And it affects equity. Now, what I mean by equity is that [each] person has [an] equal chance to receive an education.
—Edward Alexander, Second Chief, Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in Tribe, Yukon, Alaska; Teacher, Principal, Arctic Village School.
