COMING FULL CIRCLE:RECLAIMING AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION

Office of Public Instruction

Indian Education Summit

Helena, Montana

October 15, 2004

Henri(etta) Mann, Ph.D.

I want to acknowledge:

• All of our relations• Montana's twelve culturally unique nations • All of our Indian students• Linda McCulloch, Superintendent, Office of

Public Instruction• Everall Fox• Mike Jetty• the conference planners

I. Pre-contact Tribal Specific Education was Competency/Performance-Based.

A. Developed competent individuals, who were knowledgeable skillful, self-confident, and hopeful about life.

B. Produced individuals who spoke their tribal respective languages fluently.

C. Trained historians who kept tribal experiences in their hearts and minds and transmitted them orally from one generation to the next.

D. Established the first schools on this land and educated this country's first teachers.

American Indians are no strangers to education

II. Traditional curricula was comprehensive

A. PhilosophyB. HistoryC. LanguageD. GeographyE. Biology and ScienceF. Mathematics & GeometryG. Medicine and HealingH. The ArtsI. EcologyJ. Home EconomicsK Bachelor Survival

III. a basic belief in the concept of interdependence

A. We live in an interdependent, interrelated world.

B. Life is characterized by mutuality and reciprocity.

C. There is a life-sustaining exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between humans/four-legged people and the trees/plant people

D. Interdependence is illustrated in the Circle of Interdependence which is also a way of visualizing the Cheyenne Journey of Life.

IV. the Cheyenne Journey of Life:

A. White: Water 65%-75%-90% of human body is water.

B. Red: Earth we are earth, earth is us we are the red children of earth.

C. Yellow: Air winds from the 4 sacred directions gave us breath of life

D. Black: Fire sacred fire of life hidden within each of us

V. great prophet Sweet Medicine :

A. Were advised to avoid contact with the Ve-ho'e, the "spider" white people.

B. Contact with them would result in misfortune and hardships.

C. They would bring diseases, illness, loss, and grief.

D. They would hunger for the land and take it.

E. Contact would result in cultural contamination and disorientation

1. Impacted by the government, church, and education

2. Education would be the tool of assimilation or indoctrination

F. He gave them the assurance, however, that they would endure so long as they kept their sacred tribal objects and remembered him [Sweet Medicine] and his teachings

G. Sweet Medicine exerted positive influence upon the people with the power to envision the future.

VI. Native people were on an earthly pilgrimage

VII. Then came the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Lewis and Clark, and Sacagawea.

VIII. Treaties

• Over time, the new United States government negotiated an approximate 800 treaties with the various Indian nations, 371 of which were ratified by the United States Senate.

IX. Cheyenne-Arapaho Education: 1871-1982

A. Personal HistoryB. Family History: 1. My great-grandmother White Buffalo Woman. 2. three generations of my family

C. Tribal History: 1. It documents the treaties the Cheyennes and

Arapahos negotiated with the federal government. 2. pre-contact and post-contact education among the

Cheyennes and Arapahos.

D. American Indian History1. The Medicine Lodge Treaty of 18672. All total one hundred-twenty treaties called for the

education of native children in Ve'ho'e schools.

X. Thus, the Ve-ho'e began the process of educating native children

XI. This was Compulsory Education.

A. Included in treaties.

B. Education was mandated for children, male and female.

C. Compulsory age was between ages of 6 and 16.

D. One school house was to be provided for every thirty children.

E. One teacher was to be provided for each school house.

F. Such educational provisions were to be in effect for no less than twenty years

XII. Explanation of Circle of Education

A. Reservation Schools1. Federally subsidized church group schools

a. Manual labor schoolsb. Industrial training schools

(vocational)

B. Mission schools on ReservationsC. Off Reservation Boarding SchoolsD. Public Schools (1934 passage of JOM Act)

XIII. Three components of those early schools

A. Elementary English educationB. Vocational TrainingC. "Civilizing" Influences

XIV. Off-Reservation Boarding Schools

A. Carlisle Indian Industrial Training School

B. "Outing" System: Apprenticeships in farming and as domestics

C. Twenty-five ORBS by the turn of the century

D. In addition to Carlisle, Pennsylvania the list included:

1. Busby, Montana 8. Intermountain, Utah

2. Ft. Shaw, Montana 9. Pierre, South Dakota

3. Chilocco, Oklahoma/Kansas 10. Flandreau, South Dakota

4. Concho, Oklahoma 11. Stewart, Nevada

5. Riverside, Oklahoma 12. Chemawa, Oregon

6. Fort Sill, Oklahoma 13. Haskell Institute, Kansas (HINU

7. Genoa, Nebraska

XV. Early Indian Controlled Schools

A. Rough Rock Demonstration School, Arizona B. Rocky Boys' School, Montana

XVI. Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities

A. The Indian Higher Education movement began with Dine` College in 1968.

B. TCUs currently number around thirty-five.C. TCUs are organized nationally:

1. American Indian Higher Education Consortium2. American Indian College Fund

D. A TCU is located on each of Montana's seven reservations.E. TCUs are accountable to our :

1. Ancestors2. Communities3. Present and future generations of Indian youth

XVII. Native American Studies Department/Programs

A. Re-introduced in Institutions of Higher Education in the 1970s

B. Proliferated on the west coast in California in the early 70s

C. Currently located in major IHEs across the nation

D. Complement and expand education offered at TCUs

E. Bachelor's Degree in NAS at University of Montana

F. MA Degree in NAS at Montana State University

XVIII. Special IHE Projects and Programs

A. Bighorn Teacher Training Program at MSU - Billings

B. UM , Division of Educational Research and Service - Rocky Boy Reservation Investigation and Treatment of Childhood Trauma

XIX. the contemporary status and issues affecting Indian education

XX. We need to return to competency based education

A. listen, read, speak, write, and to think critically and develop solutions.

B. tribal kinship patterns and obligations.C. tribal value system and act accordingly D. tribal language and history.E. an appreciation of beauty, high standards for living, live

accordingly.F. respect cultural and individual differences.G. the flexibility to cope with a changing world.

XXI. I have shared the sacred land of native Montanans, and the common experience and destiny

of all American Indians

A. I have seen changes in Indian education

B. I have patiently awaited other changes

C. I have witnessed a change in political climate and the election

D. I have seen assurance and reassurance of Indian educators, parents, and concerned advocates year after year in conferences of this type

E. The native commitment to the education of our children is alive and thriving.

XXII. We need to be proactive about developing and

ensuring an American Indian Student Bill of Rights.

A. An Indian student has the right to an education.

B. to be who he/she is in terms of being a tribal member

C. a strong sense of cultural identity.

D. to enjoy his/her childhood and youth.

E. to learn his/her traditional cultural ways.

F. to speak and learn his/her tribal language.

G. to a curriculum that teaches his/her own history.

XXII.We are living in an incredible time.

A. We are in the fourth year of a new millenniumB. We are in the ninth year of the United Nations’…C. We are in the exciting process of implementing Montana's statewide

programD. Montana Indian Education is again on the road to compliance.E. Educators, native and non-native, have another chance.

XXIII. Post ORBS

A. We survived the cultural trauma imposed by the off-reservation boarding school

B. B. We are tenaciously holding on to our languages,

C. There are thirty-five tribally controlled colleges and universities

D. We have a state mandated Indian education initiative, Indian Education for All,

E. We are alive, we are still here, and we will always be here.