Projects
American Indian Community Data Profile, 2002
Namadji Youth and Elders Project Report, 2001
Forum Reports
1997 Fall: Tribal Sovereignty and
American Indian Leadership
1996 Fall: Tribal Governments: What will they look like in the year 2010?
1996 Spring: The Threatened State of Tribal Sovereignty
Namadji: Youth and Elders Project Report
Perceptions of the Generation Gap
Unsurprisingly, most American Indian youth and elder interviewees living in St. Paul did not interact with members of other generations on a daily, or even a weekly, basis. However, everyone interviewed had some intergenerational contact. The amount and quality of intergenerational contact varied greatly. But the problem is not simply a matter of elders and youth losing contact; it seems to be a larger problem of entire families breaking apart. Many of the youth interviewed have in some sense, "lost" grandparents, parents, and siblings to various causes: death, unstable housing, correctional facilities, substance abuse, or prior generations of assimilation to mainstream Anglo culture. Many elders described similar events in their families. Some of the youth recognized that they were at a distance from elders and wanted to correct it. But these youth also recognize that they are involved in greater struggles to grow up successfully, make it through school, strengthen their cultural identity, and keep up their responsibilities to their family members. Elders may play a key role in these processes, but seeking elder contact is not the primary concern. Elders also recognize the many different challenges facing youth.
Youth Perspectives
"Most of our parents passed away when we were young and we were left to fend for ourselves. And we're trying to protect ourselves and our siblings. People just don't understand that."
In the above quote, Eric Wolf, a seventeen-year-old boy, illustrates his own experience of the generation gap. The generation gap for him means an overall lack of involvement from adults. Eric talked about his own and his brother's struggles to make it on their own. About youth in general, he says, "We ain't lost. We just need extra support from adults."
Misty Ronin, who is also seventeen, talked about her family's struggles to find housing and stay together. While this certainly contributed to her lack of intergenerational contact, in her case, the generation gap means something else as well.
"Of my whole family, I'm the one who knows the most about our native culture. Because when my mom was growing up, even though she was Indian and her mom was a full-blooded Indian too, her mom and all her brothers and sisters grew up in the Christian world. She didn't know nothing about her culture."
The transmission of American Indian culture effectively skipped a generation. She is striving to make up for this loss by consciously seeking cultural knowledge from sources outside her family.
These two youth stated that they want elder mentors, and described their struggles in finding elders from whom they could learn about their culture. They both described situations of abandonment by adults and isolation from their culture. Both talked about trying to learn everything they could from contacts and sources available to them, including an American Indian non-profit organization serving youth.
Two other interviewees described contact with elders on a very occasional basis - every year or so - but did not view this as much of a problem. However, they did mention several potential benefits of more interaction with elders, which will be discussed further in a later section of this report.
"I see my mom's mom and dad almost every day. They teach me things all the time. Like what happened back then, things about our culture and talking Indian. I speak it about half way. They said that if I keep on working, talking my language, I could be fluent by the time I'm twenty."
At the other end of the spectrum, Tony Mallard, a fifteen-year-old boy, lives with one set of grandparents who have been teaching him his native language for years. He participates in cultural and spiritual activities, and is involved in teaching his younger siblings about Indian culture and ideas about how to live well. But he sees the generation gap in other young people's lives. Tony talked about how elders don't really understand what youth are doing and why. About other people his age, he says, "More Indians are in gangs now than being at home and listening to what the elders say."
Others like eleven-year-old Alicia Peterson were in contact with elders on a regular basis, though less intensively than Tony. Alicia sees her grandfather "practically every week or so" and visits her grandmother in a nursing home about every month. About the generation gap, she says, "I don't think we talk enough now. It's mostly about work now, the older people are always at work."
Some youth expressed the thought that older Indians ought to come teach them about being Indian. One youth stated, " …they should be here more for us and teach us our culture, and teach us that we can actually achieve things in life." We asked another youth what she would talk to an elder about if the opportunity arose. She replied, "Native culture, and just about everyday life. I used to talk with … all about my native culture, and she said 'wow,' someday you can be an advocate for Native Americans. I am so strongly proud of my native culture and I believe everybody should know about our native culture, the truth about our native culture."
One 13-year-old girl talked about talked about a struggle she had with school, "I went to Indian Education for six years. I like it. They talked about drugs a lot. I get tired of hearing it. I already know not to do drugs. I do not need to hear it all the time. At first, I liked it that they were taking me out of math class. Then my friend found out about it and said, 'you know your culture, you know who you are.' Actually, I felt kind of relieved to go back to math class. I need to know math."
Elder Perspectives
"Nobody's teachin' 'em, nobody's teachin' 'em."
Many of the elders lamented how infrequently their grandchildren visited, and expressed an inability to interact comfortably with youth when the opportunity arose. In the above quote, Albert Hendricks was both commenting on the current situation and placing at least partial responsibility on older generations for youths' shortcomings. Young people's lack of discipline, lack of respect for elders, and unwillingness to "calm down and listen" were often cited as detractors from quality interaction with youth. As Laura Chance elaborates,
"There is a problem with kids not learning important things form their parents. It's the family circle. We wanted our kids to have a choice and learn only what they wanted to learn. That's the mistake. We gave them too much choice and not enough guidance from adults. There's not enough discipline for kids or guidance in teaching them what they should know."
The common theme in these comments is the notion that today's culture is too youth-centered. Parents cater to whatever children want to do and what their attention spans seem to be capable of handling, and little time is given to molding youth's behavior to what adults deem appropriate. In other words, elders complain that no one is taking the time with children.
By merely being in contact with children does not necessarily mean that the elders are involved in passing down cultural knowledge. "It seems as though urban Indians are getting away from the language. They're turning more toward the white man's ways," says Robert James. Yet, he states that "I don't really spend time with them teaching cultural things. I do try to teach my daughters and grandchildren a few words, but none of them speak the language." The problem that the elders describe can be characterized as a breakdown in the traditional role of elders. In traditional American Indian society, families look toward elders to play a very active role in educating youth. In mainstream white society, elders are typically relegated to a lesser role and often removed from families. These elders may recognize and dislike this situation, yet they do not feel that they are empowered to change it.
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Tuesday November 1, 2005