Native Village
Youth and Education News
February 23, 2005 Issue 147 Volume 2
"I could not turn back the time for the political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail." Queen Lili'uokalani, Native Hawaiian
President's Budget Would
Cut Youth Programs
President Bush's 2006 budget calls for protecting or extending tax cuts
while it eliminates 150 programs--33% which are education
related. Among the cuts:
$2,200,000 cut for high school programs, mostly state grants for vocational education;
$440,000,000 cut in Safe and Drug-Free School grants;
$500,000,000 cut in education technology state grants;
$280,000,000 cut for Upward Bound programs for inner-city youths;
$1,700,000,000 – an overall cut of 89% from 2005 levels--for
vocational and adult education;
$362,000,000 or 62% to the Adult Education and Family Literacy
program.
Eliminating $637,000,000 Community Services Block Grant program, which helps fund tutoring
for low-income children.
$53,000,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services budget, to $3,215,000.
His budget also provides incentives to states to accept a rigid limit on federal support
for foster care.
www.ConnectforKids.org
In multicultural Hawaii,
achievement gap tied to income
Hawaii: Hawaii's Department of Education says the state's low-income
students lag 10%-15% test points behind low state averages. These academic gaps among students are solidly rooted in
race and income. A study by Kamehameha Schools found that Native Hawaiian students in charter schools are doing at least
as well -- and in some cases much better-- than Native Hawaiian students in traditional public schools:
Parental involvement — a major factor in student
achievement — is often greater in charter schools;
Charter
schools are much smaller than traditional public schools allowing for more individual attention from teachers;
The
Native Hawaiian-themes at many charter schools connect Native students to their culture;
Native
Hawaiian students in charter schools have a 400% better attendance rate than those in traditional public schools.
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Feb/07/ln/ln03p.html
Students protest barbed
wire set up around Indian school
Oregon: Students at Chemawa Indian School protested a barbed wire fence
set up around their Indian school. "Chemawa means 'happy home,' " student Jeremy Cummings said. "It
doesn't make a happy home with a fence around it." The $63,000 fence, which is intended to improve campus
safety and define the campus grounds, was ordered built by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The barbed wire, however, will
be taken down. "I don't know how it got on the work order," said Nedra Darling from the BIA,
"...but they'll put up the fence as fast as they can and then remove [the wire."] Chemawa's 200-acre campus is
home to about 320 students from 18 states in grades 9-12. The fence was erected just as the school prepared
celebrations for its 125th anniversary.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212826_barbedwire19.html
Virginia to revise history
curriculum
Virginia: What Virginia students learn about American Indians could
include how the state committed ''documentary genocide'' against Indians. Gov. Mark Warner has asked the Virginia
Department of Education to include some of the state's darker moments in Indian history. Changes to the history
curriculum could include information on the Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924. The VRIA resulted from the Eugenics
Movement, which protected the white race through selective breeding. While all Virginia Indian tribes and some of
the state's terminated tribes were targeted, the Monacan Indian Nation was the most fiercely harassed by state
officials. Also, several Monacan and Rappahannock Indians were jailed for not checking ''colored'' on the racial section
of military draft documents. Monacan Chief Kenneth Branham was harassed and ridiculed when he was among the first
Monacans allowed to attend public schools in the 1960s. The fallout from the Eugenics Movements, he said, is why
Virginia Indians aren't federally recognized today. ''Also, it shows that what took place in Virginia played a big part
in what happened to other people in the world,'' Branham said. ''The Eugenics Movement here was used as a model by the
Germans in the planning of genocide against the Jews. It's a very ugly part of our history."
http://www.indiancountry.com/
Montana needs tribal
teachers
Montana: Many believe that hiring more tribal teachers, principals and
staff would provide positive role models to inspire American Indian students to stay in school. ''Our children
relate to them,'' state Rep. Norma Bixby said of tribal teachers. ''They stay in school. They do much better.'' House
Bill 258, sponsored by Rep. Dave Wanzenried, would authorize public school districts to adopt an Indian hiring
preference for most positions. Preventing students from leaving school and helping them graduate ''is probably one of
the best economic strategies our state could take,'' said Rep. Carol Juneau. ''If you don't graduate from high school,
you're probably looking at a lifetime of poverty. We will never have economic progress in our Indian communities until
we take action on that.'' Currently, 11% of Montana's students are American Indian, but less than 3% of the
state's teachers share the same descent.
http://www.indiancountry.com/
Aboriginal Storytelling
Week
Saskatchewan: Schools and libraries across Saskatchewan took part in the
province's second annual Aboriginal Storytelling Week. The week-long project, held in public libraries, featured
aboriginals practising their tradition of oral storytelling. Deirdre Crichton, a coordinator of the project, said the 52
storytelling events in 39 towns, cities and villages promoted aboriginal culture, their storytelling traditions, and
public libraries across the province.
Sculpture from the Book, The Pueblo Storyteller: http://www.pueblopottery.net/Books.htm
The Star Phoenix
Reading program seeks help
New Mexico: Diné College is looking for volunteer mentors to help adult
Navajo students learn to read and write in English. “Illiteracy on the reservation is high,” said instructor Norman
Phillips. “We have a lot of people who never completed high school and because of that cannot function in society or
hold full-time jobs.” Almost 120 students, ages 16 and older, are studying for their GED, which is equal to a
high school diploma. In addition to the GED students, Navajo elders in their late 60s and early 70s need mentors
to help them with literacy and basic math classes. Classes are taught at six locations: the Gadiiahi Chapter
House, the Sanostee Chapter House, Newcomb Elementary School, Naschitti Elementary School and Ojo Amarillio Elementary
School in Upper Fruitland, in addition to Diné College’s Shiprock campus.
The Daily Times
Lessons
in Resentment, Resilience
Kenya: Last year, 85-year old Nganga Maruge made world headlines by
entering school after Kenya's government promised free primary education for all. Rejecting the local adult
education center where people sat around and gossiped, Maruge sold one of his sheep to buy the school uniform and black
shoes required by the primary school for youth. After Maruge's quest was met by a flood of positive news stories,
he earned the support of education officials. School principal Jane Obinchu made the old man's education her most
important project. "It's a dream," she said. "When I look at him, I feel sorry for him because had he
been given this chance earlier, by now he would have gone very far. He would be a scholar." Today, however, a
campaign is underway to get the old man out of the classroom and transfer the school principal. Some parents think
the old man is taking attention away from their own children. Others think donations must have been made because of the
international attention, and they accuse Maruge and school officials of pocketing them. Maruge says his neighbors
have hurt his feelings, and he has few friends left. He just has his homework and his Kiswahili Bible, which he
can't yet read. "They say that I'm stupid. They're saying this education cannot take me anywhere. It can't benefit
me," he said. "My only aim is to go to class, and I want to learn the computer, and they're just laughing at
me." Among his educators, however, no one discourages him from thinking about university and veterinary science.
"...even if he does not make it, he has been an inspiration to the whole world," said Obinchu.
"Inside himself he can say, 'I went to school like everybody else.' That thirst for education will be
quenched."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fgoldlearner6feb06,1,881092.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Haskell not alone with
budget shortfall frustrations
Kansas: Haskell Indian Nations University, along with 34 tribal colleges,
serves about 30,000 students. Most tribal colleges are located on reservations and are
two-year programs largely funded by Congress and controlled by their particular tribe. Haskell, the Southwestern Indian
Polytechnic Institute (Albuquerque) and the Institute of American Indian Arts (Santa Fe) are controlled and funded by
the federal government. The colleges need $67,000,000 for full funding. However, President
Bush has asked Congress for only $43,400,000. "It's definitely chronic underfunding,"
said Meg Goetz, congressional liaison for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Goetz added that tribal
colleges get money on a per-student basis and are losing money at current levels. "If they were funded at the
authorized level of $6,000 per student and you factored in inflation, they would be
breaking even," Goetz said. "But they're not funded at the authorized level. This year they're getting $4,447
per student."
http://www.ljworld.com/section/haskellnews/storypr/195525
Financial footing now in
sight
Five years ago, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe hoped to create a Sioux
Nation university to draw Native American students from all over the country. But today, financial problems and
competition for students with other colleges and universities are keeping Si Tanka University out of the
spotlight. Si Tanka administrators point to three signs the school is turning the corner in resolving its
financial problems: a tentative agreement with creditors to restructure millions of dollars in debt; a plan to free
up $1,400,000 in federal money; and the possibility that Si Tanka's enrollment is on the rise. Si Tanka
could be going into the spring semester with more students than it had last fall, according to STU President Francine
Hall. "Those numbers are up," Hall said.
http://www.argusleader.com/news/Tuesdayfeature.shtml
Plans proceed for Native
American center
Indiana: Plans are underway to construct a Native American Culture Center
in Jay County. With the site survey completed, funds must now be raised. "Our goal now is to be able to break
ground in 2008," said Kay Neumayr from the National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture. "So we are
giving ourselves a few years to raise the money." The site is located on original Miami homeland, close to the
Salamonie River. Scott Shoemaker, who is a Miami of Indiana, led the survey and land analysis. He said the project
would be "good for educating people about Indian people from around the Great Lakes area because people don't think
there are any Indian people left east of the Mississippi." The NACC's mission is to preserve traditional
Great Lakes Native American art, history and culture, and educate the general public about the importance of the Great
Lakes Native peoples.
http://www.thestarpress.com/articles/6/033223-6786-004.html
Grand Ronde woodsman works
on longhouses and master's degree
Oregon: At the University of Oregon, Don Day is working on his
master's thesis which includes building a traditional cedar longhouse using primitive technologies."... my
ancestors - the Kalapuya people, a band that were here in the Willamette Valley - that's what they used for their
houses, Western red cedar,'' said Day, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. There's a
regretful tone in Day's voice when he speaks of how he learned primitive wood and stone technologies. ''A white person
had to teach me,'' Day said. ''I'm sorry that there's not an elder in my tribe that knows how to do this.'' But things
are changing as he and other elders educate themselves about ancient arts. ''Over the past 10 to 15 years, we've been
progressing more toward identification. Now people are saying things like 'oh these Native people, they lived here
11,000 years in harmony with the salmon as their mainstay.'''
Clatsop Longhouse: www.voyageur.drake.edu/.../ clatsop_longhouse.jpg
american_indians_news_source_tulanappes_list@yahoogroups.com
Linguist, poet, professor
encourages students
Arizona: Ofelia Zepeda, is a linguist, poet, professor and recipient of
the MacArthur Fellowship. Zepeda, who is a member of the O'odham Nation, was the first in her family to go to high
school. After graduation, she went to Central Arizona College for her associates degree, then earned her bachelor's,
master's, and doctorate in linguistics at the University of Arizona. "But the whole time ...I always had the
O'odham language with me," she said. So, Zepeda learned to read O'odham and published "A Papago Grammar,"
the first O'odham grammar. She also began teaching written O'odham to native speakers and teachers, then began her
own writings . "That's how I got started writing in O'odham," she said, "for my students. And I
continued writing. I still write in O'odham today." Most of her poetry is about the childhood memories,
people in her life, the desert, and the rain. Zepeda says the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham people know the
ocean, even though they live in the desert. "Our summer rains come because of the ocean," she
said. Zepeda now teaches O'odham at UA and the new community college in Sells. O'odham also is taught at
Scottsdale Community College on the Salt River Indian Reservation. "I am very old," Ofelia said, "old
enough to be a grandmother." She is unsure of her age, which is 49, 50, or 51, because her birth date was unknown
when she started school. Because she is "so old," she added, she hopes to see more young O'odham going
to the university and getting their doctorates, so she can retire in 10 or 15 years.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13406877&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6
Bull named president of
consortium
Washington: Cheryl
Crazy Bull, president of Northwest Indian College, has been elected president of the American Indian
Higher Education Consortium. Composed of 35 U.S. tribal colleges, the AIHEC supports the work of tribal colleges and the
national movement for tribal self-determination. "Tribal colleges have two jobs: to ground people in their
culture and to give them a good, solid education,'' Crazy Bull said. Consortium directors also elected the following
officers:
Dr. Richard Littlebear, Cheyenne, Chief Dull
Knife College, vice president;
Dr. Jeff Hamley, Turtle Mountain Chippewa,
Saginaw Chippewa Tribal College, secretary;
Dr. Jim Shanley,
Assiniboine, Fort Peck Community College, treasurer;
Dr.
Joe McDonald, Salish/Kootenai, Salish Kootenai College in Pablo, Mont., member at large.
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