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
Education - The Road to Success
If the road to a successful future follows a pathway that includes educational achievement, then such a future for American Indian youth is elusive. Failure in the educational system places young Indian people at risk for contact with the criminal justice system. Educational failure means students receive poor grades, are excessively tardy, and experience high absenteeism. Students with excessive absences or tardiness miss out on instruction and guidance. They fall behind and have difficultly recovering through mandated make-up work.
Schools have varying policies on how they deal with absenteeism and tardiness, yet these are but merely institutional responses that often overlook important human factors.
Talking circles and interviews indicate that the educational system contributes to disparities in apprehension, arrest, and incarceration rates. The educational system is clearly unresponsive to cultural and social needs of American Indian youth. For example, the political mandate for a separation of church and state is often interpreted to disallow Indian spiritual and cultural practices, which may often be seen as religious activity. In fact, spirituality is the foundation on which Native cultures are based. Spirituality provides purpose, balance, and identity to Indian people. Without attention and development of spirituality, a void exists that prevents individuals from developing into well-balanced, healthy individuals.
America’s education systems also contribute to disparity rates by failing to include Indian history in the curriculum. Much of what is taught in the classroom is irrelevant to the experiences of Indian students. Eventually, as alienation grows, students see involvement in criminal activity an alternative to excelling in school.
“So if I find myself with less than high school education which means that the types of jobs that I might be able to get are minimal and they’re not going to pay me enough,
Extracurricular factors also play a role. Mainstream educational systems do not support programs that are integrated into the school’s curriculum that are geared specifically to meet needs of Indian children.
“I think a lot of the problem is that they don’t have anything to do after school. They’re just walking the streets and out in parks that are largely patrolled, so they’re in police presence. There are not a lot of positive things for them to do.”
Underperforming American Indian students seem to be the norm in K-12 education. Responsibility for this, of course, cannot be placed solely on educators, Indian or non-Indian. It cannot be placed solely on the student or parent either. As already noted, several factors impact a student’s educational experience, but failure, according to participants must also be measured through a systems perspective. This approach does not consider the student solely as the failure but recognize failings of the educational system.
In exchange for the millions of acres ceded to the United States by Indian tribes, the federal government promised to provide education services to Indians, this was a guarantee. This promise emerged as a “Trust Responsibility” doctrine by the federal government. The Trust Responsibility provides assurances that include Indian education, economic development, general welfare, and resource management. The fulfillment of the trust responsibility including the provision of education for Indian people is clouded and controversial, particularly in Minnesota, which assumed much of the trust responsibility for education with passage of Public Law 280 (Ibid).
The
Well-Being of American Indian Children in Minnesota: Economic Conditions,
1994
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