'Kill The Indian, Save The Man': The Dark History Of Indians In Schools

[Change.org welcomes writer and narrative journalist Marc Dadigan to the Education blog. --Eds.]

There’s a long, dark history of Indian boarding schools that’s rarely taught in American classrooms. The original motto was “kill the Indian, save the man.” Students at these schools had their native culture and language literally beaten out of them.

A few boarding schools still exist, and many Indians are not far removed from these haunting memories. So it’s no wonder some Indians view modern public schools with suspicion as their students drop out at a rate that’s twice the national average. The UCLA Civil Rights Project recently issued a report documenting this phenomenon, calling it a “crisis” that threatens the future of the American Indian community.

It’s a crisis that’s become more real to me in the last two years as I’ve worked with the small Winnemem Wintu tribe (only 123 of them remain) from Northern California.  Their chief and spiritual leader, Caleen Sisk-Franco, is a former educator herself, and she once ran a chain of charter schools that succeeded with at-risk Indian students by weaving native culture into the curriculum.

Not surprisingly, her efforts were upended by stifling bureaucracy and by district leaders who didn’t appreciate her efforts and her lack of interest in prepping students for standardized tests.

Now her tribe faces a pressing dilemma: With their numbers dwindling, do the young Winnemem go to public schools, where they’re likely to struggle and possibly fail because their teachers don’t understand their culture?

Or does the tribe protect them through homeschooling and run the risk they might not be adequately prepared to engage with the outside world?

It’s a choice they shouldn’t have to make.

Research shows that if Indian students attend a school that uses their native language and engages them in their culture, they will succeed. The Hawaiian language nests, which immerse students in the Hawaiian language and teach English as a second language, are a prime example.

Of course, if the Winnemem teens learn how to weave basket hats or how to speak their language, it’s not going to help them pass the California High School Exit Exam, or any standardized test for that matter.

Modern education reform is centered around standards and data, which, combined with budget cuts, has led to a widespread narrowing of curriculums across the country. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in turn, has also been pushing the Common Core standards in English and Math, the first step toward a national curriculum.

This all sounds good on the surface: Every teacher in the nation will be on the same page, and every student will be held to the same high standards.

But, looking at these changes through the Winnemem’s eyes, it can be seen as another step in homogenizing education, and the more rigid it becomes the closer it resembles another form of forced assimilation.

At a time when our country has an unparalleled level of diversity, this could spell disaster. It’s not just American Indian students who need to be engaged in their culture, but the myriad of students who have at least a foot in a culture outside the mainstream. To improve graduation rates, school districts not only need the flexibility to adapt to their student’s ethnic and religious backgrounds, but the funds, support and training to do so.

The United Nations Declaration for the Rights of Indigenous People has the potential to foment this sort of change. It’s a watershed document that, while not legally binding, asserts many rights for tribal people, including to be educated in their language and in a way that’s conducive to their culture.

The United States was one of four countries that shamelessly voted against it when it was initially passed in 2007, but now the State Department is consulting with tribes and re-evaluating the country’s position. It would be an important acknowledgment of the value of culture, indigenous and otherwise, in our country’s education system and in the effort to close achievement gaps. Tell President Obama to affirm the rights of indigenous people by signing this petition on Change.org.

Photo credit: Marc Dadigan