Research Reports
Reflections on Traditional American Indian Ways, 1998
Threats to Tribal Sovereignty, 1998
Traditional American Indian Leadership: A Comparison with U.S. Governance, 1997
Reflections on Traditional American Indian Ways
Challenges for the Younger Generations
Younger generations of American Indians face many challenges in seeking to maintain the traditional way of life. Elders identified some of the challenges facing the younger generations.
A major challenge for younger generations is the confusion surrounding what constitutes traditional ways. Mike states, "There are different conceptions of what it means to be a traditional Indian. What is traditionalism?" Sam elaborates:
There are still a lot of people around who practice the traditional [American Indian] ways. But then what are we talking about when we talk about tradition? We use tradition so loosely it has started to lose its meaning. We need to examine what we are talking about when we talk about tradition. For example, I come to this coffeehouse every morning and have my cup of coffee. Is that tradition? To get up in the morning and do something good for the day, that's a good tradition.
Part of the confusion is due to non-Indian claims of knowledge about the traditional ways. Deb explains, "A lot of young American Indian people are confused because they're told many things. People put research together and make statements about all Indian tribes and it leaves them confused because they heard something else at home." Younger generations become confused by these non-Indian sources. Joe explains:
Today there are many groups of young people practicing the traditions. It's redeeming to see them come back to the traditional values. They are running into difficulty because much of what they do is borrowed from other traditions that are not their own. There are non-Indians out there who put together traditions and practices based on information from unreliable sources and they teach the young people. For example, there are many New Age people exploiting the Native traditions and using them to make money. These teachings are created not out of tradition, but rather constructed from history, books and creative storytellers. The New Age is a different world from the traditional Indian world. The younger Native Americans in college may not be getting the right information. This leaves a lot of young people confused because they don't know what is the right information. Maybe we need to have an information clearinghouse of some type.
Non-Indians are not the only people misrepresenting the traditional ways. Some American Indians make claims to knowledge or power they do not have. Tom states:
Many people misconceptualize the spiritual ways. They do not use what is passed down, but what they and others sometimes create. Some Indian individuals fool people to think they have power. They are really not medicine men, they just make things up. So much has been lost, but it is coming back. We have to be careful about how it is brought back.
Many of the traditional ways were lost with the older generations. Margaret relates:
I'm glad I don't have children growing up in this era of time. It is more difficult to raise them in the traditional ways. A lot of people want to go back to the traditions, but there really isn't anybody old enough to bring it back. There is a lot stuff in books written by white people, but these are not the things that were taught as Indians grew up, in the oral tradition.
Educational policies and practices were and continue to be one of the biggest issues for American Indians. Boarding schools took generations of American Indians from their homes and were a deliberate attempt to bring an end to traditions. This effort was carried out in collaboration with various Christian schools and churches. Margaret states:
Years ago we never thought of it as prejudice and racism. The government put us in schools to get an education and to keep us from getting our own culture. Catholic schools were subsidized by the federal government to teach us to destroy our self-image as Indians, but we never thought of it as that at the time.
Joe elaborates on the relationship between Christianity, the United States government and the effort to destroy American Indian culture, language and spirituality. He states:
The church attacked from two sides. One, it was in conspiracy with the government. Two, it made Indians believe it was our friend. The church handed Indians over to the government once it had changed Indian beliefs and Indian education. This was a deliberate conspiracy to take the land from Indian people. Many Native Americans today are Christians and don't practice the traditional Indian ways. I don't have anything against Christians and there are a lot of Native American people who practice Christianity. But, we need to recognize that this was a deliberate action to change and annihilate Indian people.
Boarding school education brought major changes to American Indian life. Joe elaborates:
Education has had a strong impact on American Indian communities. A major influence on the changes in Indian communities was education by the Catholics. The church had a strong influence. It brought several languages and stories of salvation and resurrection. We Indians already had our own stories for that type of thing. For Indians, spirituality was a way of life, not a denomination such as Roman Catholic or Presbyterian.
Boarding schools and urbanization has created a situation in which most of the younger generations have been educated in non-Indian educational systems. In reflecting on the impact of educational systems on American Indian ways of life, Dan relates a story. He says:
There is a story about an educator out east who asked a chief for ten people from his tribe to come attend the university. The chief then sent ten of his people to the university. Twice the educator asked the chief for ten people and the chief sent ten people both times. The third time the educator asked the chief for ten more people. The chief said to him, "You send me ten. The twenty I sent you forgot how to live. They're useless."
American Indian cultures, traditions and language have survived despite deliberate attempts in education to annihilate them. Even so, several generations of American Indian children have now been educated in non-Indian educational systems. The younger generations must learn the ways of mainstream European-American culture for survival in the U.S. educational system. Going to school and learning from books is not the traditional American Indian method of learning. Thus, many American Indian youth struggle in school. Frank explains:
I think probably there's a few things that give some difficulty to the teaching of culture and language to children. I think that number one, there's a difference in teaching and there's some difference in the way American Indians learn. Take for instance, I can go to a seminar on bookkeeping techniques. I go to class and read in the books and listen to the instructor. But how I learn the best, the fastest, is doing it. Doing the work and having someone walk me through it.
American Indian learning styles traditionally occurred through listening, observing and doing. This is unlike modern educational practices that focus on the transfer of knowledge through electronic or printed media. Consequently, younger generations may find themselves caught between the two methods of learning.
Another challenge for the younger generations is to see the value and importance of maintaining traditional American Indian ways even while there are other things competing for their interest. Margaret indicates, "Today our kids are so into mainstream space-age technology. Everything is at their fingertips through computers. Kids today have so many other things in their lives." It is a challenge to stay close to American Indian ways when the European-American lifestyle permeates their lives. In reflecting on the situation, Deb maintains, "It's not like there are two worlds anymore, because they are only learning one way and that's from the books and the white people. It's like being brainwashed to think and act like white people." This is not to suggest that American Indians should reject everything offered by the European-American way of life. Deb explains, "I can borrow from the white world and be Indian. For example, we borrow paper when our teachings were passed down by mouth. It doesn't make me less of an Indian to borrow things from other people."
Changes in American Indian families have affected learning in American Indian homes. Unlike the old days, younger generations may not be learning traditional teachings in their families. Joe states, "A major difference between now and when I was younger is that children grow up in a different type of home, often with only one parent. Or, when the social system takes kids out of the home, kids grow up without stories of history." Without extended family or an American Indian upbringing, children often do not learn the traditional ways. The separation of elders from the younger generations is a major problem. Nancy indicates:
One of the problems is that elders belong with their families. We have a beautiful and well-run nursing home, but I view the fact that we have a nursing home as a failure. The elders should be at home with their families. Kids need the unconditional love of grandparents. Grandparents play an essential function in raising them. They are patient and they talk things out with the kids. It's a different relationship than kids can have with their parents.
Still another challenge is parents who do not maintain the traditional lifestyle. Margaret relates, "Some parent's are trying to teach them, but not all. We have lost a lot of our people to alcohol which has destroyed good minds."
Racism is identified as a particular challenge for younger generations seeking to learn the traditions, language and culture. Racism occurs at an individual level, and also manifests itself institutionally when American Indian ways of life are not represented or are devalued by mainstream institutions. Deb states, "The main difficulty is racism and prejudice. That's why we have our own Indian schools, treatment centers, colleges, and half-way centers."
It is a challenge to survive in non-Indian systems that do not value American Indian culture or traditions. Joe relates, "Part of it is survival. Survival is important.How do we survive? Part of it is that we survive in the system." The clash between American Indian and non-Indian ways of life make it a challenge for younger generations to maintain their traditions, values and beliefs. Mike indicates, "How do you change kids values? They see that the people who study the traditions are dirt poor on the rez and they ask, 'What did it give them?' Because the system didn't value their way of life."
In reflecting on the situation, Nancy contends, "Racism is alive and out there, but that only makes us more determined to be there for our kids." She points out that, "The great irony of the reservation, of having put Indians all together, is that we've been able to preserve what we are." A major challenge for the younger generations is how to preserve American Indian traditions while living within the confines of non-Indian systems.
Moreover, it is important that American Indians not be racist. Ray relates:
In our traditional way of doing things, when the enemy came through our camp we took care of them. We welcomed them, shared our food with them and gave them a place to sleep. White people are not our enemies, they are just people. The same as the Hmong, or the blacks or the Mexicans, they are not our enemies, they are just people. We can start overcoming racism by ourselves not being racist.
Policies and practices of the United States government have been and, for the most part, continue to be unsupportive of American Indian ways of life. As Carol points out, "Every governmental policy was designed and calculated to either exterminate or assimilate Indians." Despite these deliberate efforts to end American Indian ways of life, American Indians continue to maintain their traditions. However, it is difficult to do so within the current governmental systems. Mike states, "It is difficult to recapture the culture and language, given current constraints placed on tribes by U.S. policy and a lack of support by the U.S. government. The only way up and out is to latch onto the U.S. system."
Governmental systems that make attempts to help American Indians generally do so from a paternalistic mode of helping, rather than helping American Indian tribes gain the resources they need for self-determination. Joe notes the tragic irony of this saying, "The U.S. government likes to parade Native American people as a noble people. Behind that they don't care about the people or try to help them maintain some connection with the past. On one side they cure us, on the other they try to kill us." Carol elaborates:
This country works in funny ways. We were oppressed by the government. They took everything away and now they are giving us money to get it back. First they took us out of our homes and put us in boarding schools where we were forbidden to speak our language. Now they are giving us money to bring the language back in our schools.
Elders express a desire to have governmental policies which support tribal self-determination. Mike explains, "Indian land is being managed by the state. Indians need to have control over their natural resources to be able to control anything. It is almost as if all the tools tribes had were stripped by the U.S. government." Many would like the U.S. government to return tribal resources and power needed for self-determination.
Tribal governmental systems and some of the people working within them are a challenge for many American Indian people. Many contemporary tribal governments are fashioned after European-American patterns of government and do not reflect traditional American Indian ways of leadership. This can create a problem for those working within these systems. Because of the way tribal governments are structured, they may find themselves operating from a European-American perspective rather from an American Indian perspective. Joe states:
The politics of people sent to represent American Indians are also part of the problem. Part of the solution is making good choices about who is sent to represent us in the governmental systems. There are currently many people who are representing people of dual positions from only one position - the government point of view rather than the "people of the land" point of view. That's what we are truly, people of the land.
There is a desire for tribal governments to provide real support for maintaining traditions, culture and language. Mike relates:
A lot of lip-service is given to how important language is, but nobody takes the time to learn it. Tribal governments talk a lot about maintaining the language, and a year later they are still spouting the same empty echo. We've gotta move beyond lip-service. Tribes need to make language a major tribal initiative and back it up with real support and follow through.
In addition, many elders would like to see greater inter-tribal unity. Tom states, "A long time ago, the Ojibwe, Potawatomi and Ottawa lived together. Maybe one day we'll come back together." Many elders share the hope that tribes will come back in unity as a way of strengthening tribal power. Mike states:
Indian nations need to maintain a larger connectedness with each other. In the past 20 years there has been a movement for tribal governments to fragment and assert themselves as individual Indian nations. This weakens the Indian position. There is more strength in unity.
The
Well-Being of American Indian Children in Minnesota: Economic Conditions,
1994
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