By Dale Tsosie
5/3/05 -- The National Caucus of American Indian/Alaska Native School Board Members was well represented at NSBA’s 65th Annual Conference in San Diego.
From the opening General Session, where the caucus president offered a prayer, to the historic first-ever caucus-sponsored luncheon and several workshop presentations, the caucus played an active role. However, our caucus tends to be overlooked by many other conference participants.
I would like to share a brief history with you to help you better understand the challenges and plight of American Indians/Alaska Natives and why it is hard to bring attention to our caucus activities.
Even more pressing is the need to bring attention to the issue of academic achievement among Native American students.
As an example of how our people are treated as insignificant, a document from the U.S. Education Department states, “Due to relatively small sample sizes, American Indians and Alaska Natives . . . are included in the total but are not shown separately.”
This statement, from the department’s statistical charts, refers to the small sample sizes of these students in calculating academic performance as a reason for not including them in the total calculations.
Consequently, the statistics on the dismal academic performance of these students are shoved under the carpet and are out of view to those in decision-making circles.
But history tells us that the Native Americans have contributed much to the development of this country, and in our view, we are still contributing -- although unseen and unnoticed.
It is always good to know your neighbors and friends to understand them better and to appreciate their values and struggles.
We have had differences and conflicts in the past but must now come and join with one another to find ways to bring equity and quality to our students’ education and, ultimately, their economic livelihood. For us, it has always been about survival of our way of life and culture.
Ever since the coming of the Europeans, the “Indian problem” has been a challenge to solve. The original inhabitants of Turtle Island, as this great land is known to Native Americans, have been pushed aside and run over by the expanding “progress” across the land -- without regard to the cultural values or cares of the inhabitants.
Policies, such as “Manifest Destiny,” which gave settlers the right to grab land and push the Indian aside, left Native Americans fighting for survival against insurmountable odds by the ever-expanding United States. Those who resisted were dealt with severely through extermination or other processes, such as assimilation.
Finally, Indians in the lower 48 states were removed to federally controlled trust lands known as reservations. The idea was, “If they can be contained, they will be tamed,” thus solving “the Indian problem.”
In stories of the ancient people, tales of journeys to the “big waters” to the East, South, West, and North are passed down orally. We have been given this great land to hunt, cultivate, rear our families, and seek unity with the Creator.
We do not think of ourselves as small and insignificant, but rather, that we are given this commission of stewardship for this land by the Great Spirit.
Scientists who have discovered the trade routes used by the indigenous people crisscrossing the continent are amazed at the scale of trade that had taken place. Artifacts native to certain locations have been found at the extreme ends of the continent.
At the time of first European contact, about 300 languages were spoken in Canada and the United States.
Although the number of languages in daily use has steadily declined because of persecution and pressures on the Indians to adopt English, Spanish, or other European languages, about 200 native languages are still spoken by some 300,000 people.
Sadly, some have predicted that nearly all native languages will be gone within the next 10 years, if no actions are undertaken to preserve them. Many native people have accepted this fate.
At this year’s NSBA Conference, the National Caucus of American Indian/Alaska Native School Board Members played the most active role since the caucus was established in 1997. The caucus sponsored three workshops showcasing student achievement in Alaska, Washington, and Arizona.
This also was the first year that the Native American Caucus was able to sponsor its own luncheon for American Indian and Alaska Native school board members. In the past, the event was held jointly with the Hispanic Caucus, and we greatly appreciate their support over the years.
The luncheon speaker this year, Ron His Horse Is Thunder, the great, great, great grandson of the Lakota Chief, Sitting Bull, spoke about the challenges of bringing economic development to the reservations and creating career opportunities for Native American students in the face of competition from large organizations outside the reservation.
But these obstacles are being overcome, as he spoke about how Sitting Bull College, of which he is president, is meeting these challenges.
Another successful conference event sponsored by the caucus is the Pow Wow, which is held annually to share our heritage with all conference participants. This four-hour event featured two drum groups and several dancers.
Another accomplishment of the caucus was the submittal of two resolutions to NSBA’s Resolutions and Policy Committee. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has brought tremendous strain on teaching native cultures and languages. These often are the first programs to face cuts when budget time comes around. Reservation schools are in isolated rural areas, and one of their biggest challenges is recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers.
The resolutions proposed by the caucus dealt with these two issues. One, calling for revisions to NCLB to address the challenges of attracting high-quality teachers for schools serving American Indian and Alaska Native children, was adopted. The other proposed policy, which called for Congress to support the preservation of native languages, was rejected by two votes.
However, we are not discouraged by this defeat, as this action tells us that we need to educate our peers on the issues important to the original inhabitants of this land.
As American Indians and Alaska Natives, we want our children to be counted as equals -- along with all other children -- and not be excluded or overlooked by those who are in the decision-making process. The statistics of our Native students need to be included -- no matter how small the numbers are -- in the same context and intent of the NCLB mandate.
We also want to be included in the decision-making process of NSBA. I believe that has begun to happen, but these efforts need to be sustained by both sides as we expand our participation in the conferences and we welcome everyone to our circle of celebration.
We want to make all of you aware of our challenges to make sure that the status of the American Indian and Alaska Native student is known and that none is left behind.