Script
By Kristy Campbell
Indian
Nations
at Risk
Related Links
The complexities that
come with being a Native American come at a very early age. I have always
had to live in that complex of a world. And for a five year old it can
be very heart breaking.
I'm very concerned when educators feel that the only way Indian youth can succeed is to become non-Indian. You know, the only good Indian is a dead Indian. I still see it in educational practices.
Learn to accept us as we are, as an Indian. And try not to make us as a white person.
It's clear Indians aren't going to give up being Indian. And so how do we deal with that? How do we educate our young and make them productive?
What I always think of is that metaphor Walking In Two Worlds, being Indian, staying Indian. And then you also have the other side which is schools being white.
Music
Narration: "Indian Education has always existed. It existed before the white came. When the white man came it became a different type of education. But Indian Education always existed because we taught out children how to be Indian and how to survive in the environment we live in." -- Henrietta Whiteman
Donna Deyhle: I think when we look at the history of American Indian education, we see the place that schooling had and in a way the destructive place that schooling had.
Nola Lodge: When we look at Indian education we need to look at the whole picture. Consider that at time of contact children were taught by elders who were experts, with bow making, or flint napping, or whatever, cooking, you know, picking the right plants, hunting. And so little ones played at those games.
Music
Then with contact, usually the educated persons were religious leaders and their goal was to convert Indians. Some felt that they needed to learn the Indian language in order to convert the people. Which often that was the Catholic perspective. Protestants felt that you needed to read the Bible in order to be converted. And that lead to Indians learning the English language and being able to read and write.
Then later on academies were established by religious groups. And again, Indians were sent to academies. Some of them, the earliest schools within Indian communities were church schools. Indians also sent young men to Europe to be educated. And they came back with a classic education, you know, Latin, Greek, and the classics. So in all those endeavors we were getting what was thought at the time an education. It didn't make a lot of sense to Indians. And there's the famous story about the Indian group that was approached by a school wanting to take their children and put them in school. They said "We're sensitive of your concern, but they come back and they're worthless. They can't hunt and they can't track. But give us some of your men and we'll make men of them." You know, it's a classic story, a perspective. But you have to get beyond that and think about what were they really saying? " Your schools don't do us any good." Instead of changing, schools got even worse. Because we weren't assimilating, and we weren't disappearing. We weren't putting down our guns and cease resistance. Then the goal was to assimilate us. And establishing church schools wasn't working, because some of the church teachers were saying "Well, I need to learn their language so I can work with them." Which is an issue that's still going on today. Then there was the goal of the boarding school where you removed the child from any influence of the parent or the tribe and teach them a trade. Which if you look at it one way was useful, but it was also limiting. You had no choices. Parents had no input into what the child went into.
Donna Deyle: The entire goal of schooling that started in the late 1800s with the formal Federal policy boarding school was to in fact eradicate Indian-ness. You took young Indian kids as far away from their home community as possible and you stripped them of their language and their culture, and you made white people out of them.
Music
Well it didn't work. And Indian peoples have resisted and resisted this. But it's part of the legacy of schooling. Some Indian, talking to older Indian people they will speak with pride of their boarding school experience because of the resistance that they developed. And that they managed to meet people from other tribes. And so you had a huge pan Indian movement. So that they made the best of a very bad situation. But the Federal policies of assimilation as the main goal, we have to remember that. Because when we use the term boarding school and we think of a rich boarding school in the east coast, they were not eradicating whiteness. In fact, they were reaffirming whiteness. And the policies were very different in boarding schools, where youth were ripped away from their homes, suffered greatly. Taking young children and moving them as far away as possible so that they couldn't run away
Marilyn Smith: I remember tribal vehicles, or government vehicles, going around recruiting students. And they came to our place. And I saw my sister run behind a hill, run for the hills, and I started running after them. But they caught me. And then they brought me back and they let me fill out a form so I can be registered to go to a boarding school.
Clayton Long: When we got there we couldn't speak our language or wear our clothes or do things that our culture taught us to do. But we were supposed to speak English and also do the things that were taught to us from the dominant society
Dan Edwards: Parents were sold that this was the right thing to do. I wasn't only Indians, but other minorities. If they live in a foster home or other substitute care like boarding schools that'll help them learn English. To compete better in this complex society. And we thought this was true, so parents sometimes sent their children to these kind of facilities, not realizing the richness of their own societies, and their tribes and their families.
(Jaime Holgate) We were kept mostly in the dormitory. We never got to see the outside world. It was only from the dormitory to the school building and back for nine months.
(Irene Cesspooch) At that time I guess it was a, it's a law that all Indian children have to go to school if they become of age. So as soon as I was six years old, along with my older brothers and sisters, I boarded the bus for White Rocks not knowing where I was going. I didn't want to leave home. And I cried but they told me I had to go to school.
(Gaye Leia King) A significant number of tribes gave up lands for education, health, housing, those kinds of economic support systems in lieu of land. It's an area than that the government somehow got involved in. First through a lot of the church schools were established and then taken over eventually by the Federal government. So that those are sill in place. And I think that there's still the opportunities to meet the special needs of Indian students. And that they have bad experiences in public schools. And as much as I'd like to believe things have changed from when I started working in Indian education right out of college, I'm still hearing the same stories from my own communities and public schools of the attitudes.
(Nola Lodge) Now with the '60s and the'70s, the 1960s and the '70s, the system has changed some. But we still have boarding schools, and we still have dorms where children go to public school but they live in dorms. We still have students going to schools on the reservation, in a variety of settings, whether it's a tribal run school or a district run school.
(Gaye Leia King) Lack of knowledge of the trust responsibility, tribal sovereignty issues of Indian country within the United States. And those are just seen as areas rather than little countries. We have to do a better job when we're teaching history what treaties are all about and that they still exist. It wasn't something in the 1800s, 1700s, but they're still in existence today.
(Nola Lodge) There were over 120 treaties that made provisions for education. We may not have been proficient in English, or been able to read, but we weren't stupid. And we knew if we gave up land that we were going to need tools in order to survive.
(Narration) The following ten goals of Indian education grew out of the work of the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force, whose final report was published in 1991. Almost simultaneously the White House Conference on Indian Education was being planned and held in January of 1992. This undertaking reflected the active involvement of American Indian parents, educators, tribal leadership, state education officials, and a coordinated Federal intra-agency response. This was one of the first national movements to invite American Indian people into the pivotal role of developing national and local goals for Indian Education. These ten goals were set by the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force to guide the improvement of all Federal, Tribal, private and public schools that serve American Indians and Alaskan Natives and their communities.
(Narration) By the year 2000, all Native children will have access to early childhood education programs that provide the language, social, physical, spiritual and cultural foundations they need to succeed in school and to reach their full potential as adults
By the year 2000, all schools will offer Native students the opportunity to maintain and develop tribal their languages and it will create a multi-cultural environment that enhances the many cultures represented in the school.
By the year 2000, all Native children in school will be literate in the language skills appropriate for their individual levels of development. They will be competent in their English, oral, reading, and listening and writing skills.
By the year 2000, every Native student will demonstrate mastery of English, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography and other challenging academic skills necessary for an educated citizenry.
By the year 2000, all Native students capable of completing high school will graduate. They will demonstrate civic, social, creative and critical thinking skills necessary for ethical, moral and responsible citizenship, which are important in modern tribal, national and world societies.
By the year 2000, the numbers of Native educators will double. And the colleges and universities that train the nation's teachers will develop a curriculum the prepares teachers to work effectively with the variety of cultures, including the Native cultures that are served by schools.
By the year 2000, every school responsible for educating Native students will be free of alcohol and drugs and will provide safe facilities and an environment conducive to learning.
By the year 2000, every Native adult will have the opportunity to be literate and to obtain the necessary academic, vocational and technical skills and knowledge needed to gain meaningful employment, and to exercise the rights and responsibilities of tribal and national citizenship.
By the year 2000, schools serving Native children will be restructured to effectively meet the academic, cultural, spiritual and social needs of students for developing strong, healthy, self sufficient communities.
By the year 2000, every school responsible for educating Native students will provide opportunities for Native parents and tribal leaders to help plan and evaluate the governance, operation and performance of their educational programs.
(Marianna DiPaolo) A very important part of anyone's social identity is their language. A lot of people in fact see language as a primary, um, external manifestation of who they are.
(Irene Cesspooch) The language is, is a very vital part of our culture. Really, they used to say, without knowing your language, you know, you kind of don't have your total culture.
(Carla Rossback) My language I feel is very important to me and my culture is very important to me. And you can't have them separated, you have to have them both.
(Marianna DiPaolo) The way we use language, if that's a way of showing each other who we are, where we belong, where we came from, what we are, what we want to be, then taking that person's language away from them and saying "No, no, you can't use that, ever, ever, ever. It's bad!" Not only is your language bad, but since we know that our language is a manifestation of who we are, we know that unconsciously if we can't make in conscious, since we know that, it's another way of saying "Your language is bad because you're bad. And not only are you bad, but this language shows other people who the people in your community are, and, you know, guess what, your community members are also bad."
(Nola Lodge) They were punished if they spoke their language. They had to give up any of their like medicine bundles, or things, talismans that meant something to them and connected them to their clan and to their tribe.
(Marilyn Smith) We had to stand in corners or hold books if we speak in Navajo. So we try our best to speak English all the time.
(Larry Mose) I had my mouth taped all the around my head here, and taped it up. And one time in classroom I remember too, I had my hand tied behind me, like this, and my legs tied down to the leg of a chair. I was bent back so I was looking up. That's for speaking Navajo. And I wasn't, of course I wasn't the only one. And there's been a couple times I spent all night scrubbing the dormitory floors because of speaking Navajo, my own language.
(Bruce Ignacio) When I got to kindergarten, first grade, and I have to say this, that I'm ashamed of this part in my life. But I remember my parents were talking to me in Ute, in a public place, and for some strange reason I just told them, I turned around and confronted both my parents not to speak Ute to me in public. So at that time I think I literally shut down that part of my life and probably spent the last forty-two years trying to reclaim that.
(Donna D.) I think our country is somewhat, has a deficit view of cultural differences. Unlike Western European countries where speaking three languages is an asset, we kind of beat it out of young kids. We don't want them to speak a second language in the elementary school and then we re-introduce it as a foreign language in the high school. And I think that we're losing some vary valuable resources as young people's languages are kept out of the school and they're often losing them, or there're weaker links of the language use in home communities.
Music
(Narration) Schools that respect and support a student's language and culture are significantly more successful in educating their students. Some communities, schools and individual teachers are leading the way for future generations. Educational philosophies are changing to include and place more value on local Native languages
Music
(Barbara Bacon) The Head Start program serves 215 children and our children aren't all Native children. We serve non-Indian children, Anglos as well as Hispanic.
Kids eating lunch Birds
(Barbara Bacon) We have six Head Start centers on the reservation. Our drivers travel twenty-six miles in some cases to deliver our children to the various centers so that we can provide them services.
School bus horn honks
(Beverly Mojado) Head Start provides these services for families that might not be able to afford these services. So these services are provided for the children and their families.
(Barbara Bacon) Which includes nutrition, health, the educational aspect, social services. We provide family services as well
Kids eating lunch
(Beverly) Remember how we did our names in Ute?
(Kid) Noona-nee-ah
(Beverly) Right Noona-nee-ah. What did that mean? My name is . . .
(Kids) Noona-nee-ah
(Nola Melo) In our classroom we try to teach the Ute language along with, we do a little bit of Spanish, some other different cultures because we have so many different children. But the majority are Ute, Ute children. And we want to expose them to their language, Ok, Ute language. And so we usually do the Ute numbers one to ten, colors, body parts.
(Sue Ann Cotonuts) Sometimes during the year we play powwow music so that they can learn by themselves. We don't push them or anything. If, you know, some girls put some shawls on, they'll come and tell us to turn the music on. So we will and they practice.
(Beverly Mojado) We do have a lady come in from the Ute Library. She's our Ute librarian and she reads us legend stories which the children enjoy
(Librarian read to the kids) . . . pushed his nose in and cut off his tail. See how short that tail is now? (Nola Melo) We're just doing the best that we can, try to incorporate that into the classroom and kind of give the Indian children a background of their knowledge, you know, background. And plus, give some knowledge to the other children of different cultures.
Kids give Ute names
We try to help them learn that differences are good and to celebrate it. Everybody's unique and everybody's different and that's OK, that's great. Because that's what makes that person special.
Music
(Kathy Carson) My name's Kathy Carson and I'm currently teaching a Kindergarten/First grade class at Bluff Elementary school.
Kids reading aloud ". . . when she caught the biggest fish."
I love it. I've been doing it for twelve or thirteen years. In my class most of them have heard the Navajo, may not very speak much. But I have a few things posted. There are, there'll be the two words in Navajo and English on the door for the word door, and on the window. And there's a lot of curiosity about that at the beginning of the year. I think it shows value, and valuing their language, that their words are just as valuable because they're posted right along with the English words. And then those that don't know the vocabulary usually pick it up too, because they're so curious about what all the words are.
Music
(In classroom)
"I'll say the Salish then you say the English then . . .
(Clarice King) At Two Eagle I'm proud of the Salish and the language classes. Our languages are dying out and I think this a way for us to help perpetuate the language.
(Clara Rossback) I feel the Salish language and keeping up with the culture is one. You can not have just one, the language or the culture, you need them both. At Two Eagle River the Salish language is a graduation requirement. In my class we go through the animals, greetings, like different parts of the facial parts, and different clothing, colors.
The non-Salish, or the non-Indian that are learning the language, I feel their experience with the language is, they're getting to know more from where we're coming from. Because they are learning the language. When you learn somebody else's language you're learning what they're going through and what they might be losing.
(Marshall Welch) The vast majority of the curriculum taught in American schools today is based on Euro-American history and culture. Dead white males.
(Nola Lodge) Children who come from the dominant society come with their culture. And it's set in a school setting that teaches that culture. It's like there's no other culture around. So that tells you as a student if you're not of that culture, you don't exist. That there's no value in what happened to you or your ancestors. That there's no place for you.
(Julie Cajune) All children have the right and deserve to see themselves and their family and their community represented in the curriculum in the school at some point. And historically Indian people have been excluded from the curriculum. If they have been added it usually hasn't happened in a very good way. Some teachers buy Indian In The Cupboard for their classes and they say "Oh! I'm teaching Native American literature!" Not realizing that it's a very derogatory, negative, stereotypical book.
(Nola Lodge) I see teachers, you know, thinking they're doing a lot for us by having a week on Indians, we're going to do an Indian Unit, you know, especially before Thanksgiving. And we're going to make a little headband with feathers, you know, and everybody's going to understand what it is to be Indian. That's ridiculous! It's insulting! And the older I get the more incensed I get.
(Donna D.) There are very serious problems with stereotypes, and they can be seen as benign but often they can be very damaging. And one stereotype is the Romantic Indian stereotype where teachers have a sense of this glory of the past, and assume that to be and Indian is to be in feathered head-dresses, riding a horse in the sunset.
(Nola Lodge) We talk about Indians as they were, we don't teach children about Indians as they are.
(Cameron Cuch) It often doesn't show Indian people as a living culture. And so when they think of Indian people it's almost as though they don't see that that culture is alive and within the students.
Music
(Donna D.) When the educational system turns their back on Indian youth, Indian youth simply turn around also, and we lose them. And it's boredom, it's resistance in that there's a great deal of pride of, I call it, you know, Cultural Integrity. And white folks have it, and we shouldn't be surprised that Indian communities and Indian youth also have it.
(Cameron Cuch) Acknowledge their Indian-ness, you know. Recognize it. Often I've heard so many teachers say "I don't see color," you know. And to me, I want you to see my color. I want you to see my Indian self. I want you to recognize me.
Music
(Donna D.) I'm very concerned when educators feel that the only way Indian youth can succeed is to become non-Indian. You know, the only good Indian is a dead Indian? I still see it in educational practices and it concerns me.
(Shandin Pete) They don't say it right out, but they, basically they're telling you you're not going to amount to anything, you know. And they basically tell you that you're not very smart and you can't keep up with the rest of the kids.
(Cameron Cuch) I can remember times when teachers would talk over me. Times when we would be ignored.
(Arnie McDonald) The teachers would always go to the white kids and help them more than any of the other Indian kids.
(Forrest Cuch) I was very traumatized by the first day of school. What I was traumatized about, I didn't understand why kids had to be so loud and noisy, and to yell at each other to communicate. I was really confused by that. The other thing that confused me was how aggressive, physically, they were. How they had to push each other, and to, someone had to race and compete to get chairs to sit down. All those things were very foreign to me.
(Nola Lodge) Then in high school, you know, it was even tougher because people were starting to date. And again, you know, I wasn't asked to the slumber parties, and I didn't go out with anybody, and, you know, it was lonely. And I felt like an idiot going to football games cheering kids that I knew didn't like me.
(Forrest Cuch) It's so important that these kids feel good about themselves. And it's so important that teachers accept and legitimize their, these students' humanity.
(Donna D.) So accepting not the assimilation model to success, but that youth can be Indian and successful.
Music
(Narration) Schools that adjust their curriculum to reflect the variety of cultures they serve are more successful. Nationally, educators are implementing programs that help American Indian students walk in two worlds with balance. Throughout the Intermountain West youth are learning to become contributing members of American society while building their cultural identity and pride.
Music
(Pat Seltzer) I have read a lot of information about the high drop out rate among Native American kids. And I find it just really surprising and interesting because we do not have a very high drop out rate at this school. We have kept it under ten percent and I think the national statistics show it to be, as what, much as eighty percent, in some cases of kids that start in the ninth grade and don't end up graduating? Part of it, I think, is because we will find ways to blend Native American ideas, materials into the core curriculum that's required by the state. It's been an all-out effort by our staff to figure out ways to do that. And I think we've been pretty successful at it. We've built on the N'dahoo'aah program which is the idea of blending technology and traditions and the intergenerational communication that goes with that.
(Larissa Oliver) In the N'dahoo'aah project there, it has a craft component and it has a technology component, and also a math that's kind of hidden, you know, in there.
(Don Mose) The N'dahoo'aah program, we started this about four years ago now. And the N'dahoo'aah word is very interesting because the community people chose this name because it has such a strong meaning. And the meaning is "New Learning and Re-learning." We're talking about the traditional way but using modern technology to help preserve the culture. You use computers. And one day the principal told me that there was going to be a group from the University of Utah. These were people that work in the Math Department. They wanted to do an experimental project with a computer called Logo. And what they wanted to do was help them find some people that knew how to do rug weaving, beading and basket making in our community. They were interested in the Navajo rug. Now you take a look at the rug, you can just imagine how much math it must take to do those kind of pattern.
Music
And so my job was to go out and find these Elders. And I knew these Elder ladies who were very well known for their arts and crafts. And I brought them in and I introduced them to the people who wanted to run this program. Their job was to teach the young people how to do arts and crafts. And they in turn was to take whatever pattern that was established by the students and they were to do hand on hand weaving projects. You know when we first brought them in, these ladies do not know how to speak the English language. And a lot of them were not familiar at all with the computer. The kids did not know how to speak Navajo, some not at all, and some very little. And you can see, you think well there's going to be a communication problem.
Navajo elder talks in Navajo with subtitles
(Don Mose) And this is a new unique way of doing things. In the olden days the Navajo people used to count, say well, this is where I'm going to start my next pattern by using the counting of the knuckles or maybe the palm of the hands.
(Larissa Oliver) We use the Logo program to teach students how to draw objects, manipulate objects, and how to write procedures. And within using the Logo program they learn mathematics. They learn how to repeat commands, and also formulas, Pythagorean theorem formulas and, you know, those kinds of mathematical procedures that are used in creating designs and objects.
(Don Mose) And once the have established a pattern, then the students figure this out using geometry, using math, they set and come up with a perfectly designed rug. Then they take it back to, with the Elder and they actually sit down and begin to do the rug weaving.
Navajo elder talks in Navajo with subtitles
(Larissa Oliver) The Elders are usually excited to see what the kids have created and to see the design, you know, a mimic design that they're weaving or they're in the process of weaving. And it shows them that, I think, the kids are really thinking about what they're doing.
(Don Mose) The communication gap was gone. I mean, here was something that the students were using to learn math, something that they were familiar with in their own culture. And here were the Elders learning a new way of doing things.
Music
(Jess Kennison) Here at Sho-Ban we have about 165 students this year. And our school encompasses grades seven through twelve.
(Jackie Yokoyama) The entrance of our school has spiritual meaning. Each pole, the four poles which hold up the twelve poles, represents the four seasons, Spring, Summer and Fall. And the twelve poles across represent the twelve months out of the year. The four foundation poles also represent North, East, South and West. As you go into our school you can see we chose the colors red, white and black, and they all represent different things. As white represents purity of the body and soul. And the red represents all human beings are created equal whether you're red, white, black, yellow. It also represents life, the red blood flowing through your veins. And the black represents Mother Earth, representing one-ness. And all the designs in the building are created by local Native American artists.
(Ramona Waleman) I feel at home when I'm here. And I've noticed, like when you walk down the hallway, the Indian names are on each door, the words. For example, like the bathroom, plus the cafeteria, I have noticed that.
(Jess Kennison) Since were are a tribal school we have a lot of programs that are unique to tribal schools.
(Ed Galindo) We actually have two major research projects that Shoshone-Bannock Junior High/High School involved in. One has to do with space and one has to do with fish. Helping rear endangered salmon and steel-head populations in our state, and some efforts to boost their populations. We take old refrigerators, clean those out, make the environmentally safe, get eggs, place the eggs in the refrigerators with some other little runways that the students have built and rear about, well last year we reared about 1 million steel-head eggs. And release those into the stream. The whole idea, the thesis behind the experiment is that we think we can rear a salmon and steel-head species cheaper than the hatcheries can. We think we can, um, we can have our young fry, the small fish that exit the refrigerators, more stream-smart.
The other project we're doing involves NASA. It involves taking phosphate ore from the reservation, mixing that with water and ending up with liquid fertilizer.
(Jess Kennison) The Science Department created a little box. This little mechanism is battery operated. We call it "Baby" because it's been for the last three years, been babied so much by the people in the Science Department as they were building and experimenting with and playing around with it. Baby will be in the space capsule that will rendezvous with the Muir space station. Baby will be put in the Muir space lab to create fertilizer for the plant life that is growing in the space lab.
Music
(Ed Galindo) I spend ninety percent of my time teaching about self esteem, about letting students know from the heart that they're worthwhile. That they, that there is time set aside for them and that I care about them as a person. That's something that's good for all people not just Native students. And so, one way to modify anything is to get the pulse of your student.
Sounds of kids doing field research
There has to be a quest, or how does this knowledge apply to me type of attitude. (at river) Would you guys drink any of this water coming from these filters? No I don't need to, I'd just drink it like how it is. Yeah, but you'd get a lot of sediments, but yeah, you could. That'd be one way.
That's in a nutshell what we do here at Sho-Ban School.
Music
(Regina Sievert) A kid comes to our school we have to first help him to understand what his or her ability is. You know, it's not an inherent quality that Indian kids can not succeed in education, it's just been that the typical American education has failed them. It doesn't jive a lot with their culture, their traditional ways of learning. And so, first you help a person realize that they are not only valid as a person but their culture is valid.
(Clarice King) We have the Home Cultures class. I think that's a big part of our total program. Every student goes through the Home Cultures class. They learn, you know, different things about our culture.
(Jennifer King) I work with the Home Cultures program and I was hired on as the certified teacher. My partner is Kathy Tapia and she is from here. And so we make a pretty good team because she is more of the expert as far as the cultural crafts and the way they make their wing dress and their ribbon shirts and things here. And then I pick up more of the academic side of it and make sure that all of the requirements are getting met for the State and that kind of thing.
(Kathy Tapia) There was a need for somebody local, somebody from the tribe to teach something other than just Home Ec. And they wanted somebody that knew something, a little bit about the culture.
(Jennifer King) In a way you could look at the Home Cultures program as Home Ec Indian style. But it's slightly different than Home Ec. We don't do "Here's your breakfast, learn how to cook it, here's your lunch." We do dry meat. We do canning foods. We go out and collect berries in the fall and do different things with them. We do sewing but we don't do a shoe bag, per se, we do ribbon shirts. We do shawls. We do star quilts and other things that are meaningful to the kids here. So that they walk out of out class with skills that they can use for the rest of their life. And it's all cultural.
(Clarice King) We try to incorporate some of the academic classes in with the Home Cultures class. So if a student writes a paper on how to tan a hide, that paper will also go to the English teacher. And she will grade it for punctuation, language other, you know, English areas. So the student is academically learning English as well as learning a part of our culture
(Arnie McDonald) We get to learn about our culture as well in the classrooms no matter what class it's in. We learn about our culture in that class too along with our other work.
(Regina Sievert) Have the kids realize that you feel that their culture is important, and just as they should feel their culture is important.
Music
(Lori Colomeda) Tribal colleges provide education for Tribal members in a cultural way. That's their mission, at least that's the mission of Salish Kootenai College.
(Joe McDonald) The Tribal colleges throughout the United States meet the needs of the local community and the community it serves much like a community college would meet the needs of the people it serves. And then we had a great need to try to maintain the culture of the tribe and the language of the tribe. Elders wanted to teach and were concerned about it. But they didn't have a formal setting to do it in. So the Tribal college provides that setting for them to come in and teach the language and teach the various cultural skills that our tribe wants to maintain.
(Lori Colomeda) Here at Salish Kootenai College all of our classes have a cultural component. That's the mission of the school, to have those cultural components in the classes, in the courses.
(Shandin Pete) It offers a lot of culturally relevant material for you to learn. And I think a lot of it, it's not, it's not written, it's not in the syllabus or it's not in the curriculum, it's just, it's just around you.
(DG Okpik) It was a whole realm of study of life. And that pride in seeing the youngsters or the young, younger students coming from high school and the elders also teaching, you know. That, um gave me a sense of pride and respect and dignity, to have those role models.
(Lori Colomeda) Mentoring has always been a part of American Indian life, and it goes back to the culture. When American Indian people had extended families and there was always someone there to mentor them. We looked at how the young people learned their skills through a mentor. How the girls learned their skills. And we applied some of those ideas into the Mentoring Course.
Music
(Frank Tyro) We've had students who started here who were high school drop outs and are now completing Ph.D.s. We have students who were thought of as troublemakers, or whatever, that probably did have some social interaction problems. But that, once they were given that chance, once somebody took an interest in them, didn't necessarily push in the same way that they might have been pushed in high school or in other situations, were just able to blossom.
(Mike O'Donnell) In 1970, .9% of the adult Indian population on the reservation possessed a college degree. By 1990, that had risen to 15%. Which is also the percentage of non-Indians on the reservation who hold degrees. So I think that was a tremendous impact on the reservation.
(Joe McDonald) We found that 88% of our students either went on to Baccalaureate training, or got a job, or their job situation improved as a result of their school.
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(Mike O'Donnell) I can't tell you the number of students here that have come into classes that I've taught who have been very nervous, who didn't want to speak at all. Who didn't think they could get through college. And by the time they graduate you'd almost wish that that quiet, shy student was back again. They become very, um, very aggressive, very confident, very sure. It's, uh, it's nice to see.
(DG Okpik) When I came to a Tribal College I built my self esteem and my pride through the community and the family that circles us here. And gives us, instills pride and respect and integrity into our, our learning experience. And now I receive straight A's. (laughs)
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(Sound Bites) We have to step out of our comfort zone to meet the needs of our children. We have to maybe look at it through a child's eyes
Look at our difference, we have to have courage to look at those differences. And if we have that courage, then we'll be able to see what we have in common also.
And the old saying is "Walk a mile in their moccasins." Because our children do come with baggage.
We're a very complex group of people.
Please don't give up on our children. They're our future, they're worth it.
Those kids are very precious to us. They're little human beings that need understanding, but most of all, love.
Narration: Our Blessing Educating the Native American people is enduring as the teaching of the tribal elders, grandparents, aunts, uncles and with the love and care of a mother. Long journey is a difficult path for our young people today. Education is key to give them security and happiness in this accomplishment when they go into the world. For our young people, they are not alone. We give our prayers and good spirit to guide them to walk in the path, to make wise choices which will make them grow even more stronger. With that and all of our relations, go with our blessings, with all that we wish for you. It is our prayer the experience received was meaningful and lasting. Thank you for sharing your time with us, for all of us, we wish you good life.
Narration: We wish to recognize and honor all First Nations people for their efforts in maintaining cultural integrity through language programs and indigenous education approaches. We honor those Nations who are reclaiming who they are through instituting educational programs in their schools and having elders share their wisdom and knowledge with the children. We wish to honor parents, educators and community leaders for their courage and generosity.
the Lawrence T. and Janet T. Dee Foundation.
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