Rebuilding cultures

Posted: November 7, 2024

Native American schools reclaim stolen traditions

Native American boarding schools are undergoing a massive change in the USA. In the 19th century, millions of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to boarding schools around the country.

The New York Times states the conditions of those boarding schools as follows: “Many children faced beatings, malnutrition, hard labor, and other forms of neglect and abuse. Some never returned to their families. Hundreds are known to have died,”

Children were being taken with no knowledge of where they were going and when they would be back. The European relocation of the Native Americans was solely to eliminate the Native American ways of life and replace them with mainstream European culture.

For instance, nearly 7,800 children attended a boarding school called Carlisle Indian Industrial School and their rules were according to the New York Times,

“Upon entry, children were renamed, and stripped of their tribal clothing and hairstyles.” If the parents or children resisted the boarding school system they would be severely punished.

Most of these boarding schools also heavily relied on the student’s labor to function.

The New York Times stated that the schools “relied on student labor to grow and cook food, sew clothes, handle building maintenance and construction.”They would make these children go to school to learn a whole new life and make them work for nothing.

Minnesota also had its share of Native boarding schools, with 16 institutions drawing students from all 11 reservations. The MN-Post notes that the discipline methods were harsh, with some children confined in cells and dungeons for days, leading to illnesses and even death from overcrowding.

“Students also died from accidents such as drowning and falls.” highlighting the grimness of these institutions.

Over 200 years later, Native American education is looking up. Sidner Larson, a Native American from the Gros Ventre tribe in Montana, shares about his work and commitment to improving education for tribes everywhere. Upon hearing about the opportunity to start a four-year tribal law college program at Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, N.M. Larson said,

“When I heard the opportunity to help and start this 4-year tribal law college program I jumped right out of retirement.” This program is a multi-cultural law studies program, teaching Navajo traditional law, traditional law, and mainstream law, providing a space where students can learn about their culture in a respectful environment.

“It’s important for Natives to have access to a high level of education that they once did not have,” Larson explains. “This is also a gateway for them to actively participate in our society.”

Before these tribal colleges, Natives would be sent away to current locational boarding schools away from their friends, family, and culture where they were taught that their culture was “weird” and forced to learn the European way of life. Now Navajo and many different tribes can stay in their tribal community while pursuing their education.

Just 50 miles southwest of Navajo Technical University is Rehoboth Christian School in Gallup, N.M., which a Minnehaha Core Formation Experience (CFE) group visited in March 2022. Three-quarters of the students at Rehoboth, a preK-12 private school, are Native American, mostly Navajo. In 2003, during its centennial year, the school addressed the damage caused during its boarding-school era by publishing “a message of confession and reconciliation.” The school is dedicated to reviving indigenous culture by teaching the Navajo/Dine language, promoting traditional culture, and celebrating the accomplishments of community members, including the “Navajo Code Talkers” of World War II.

In Minnesota, Native American schools are also growing. Culture is crucial for Native students, said Louise Matson, Executive Director of the Division of Indian Work in Minneapolis, and a founding board member of the Bdote Learning Center, also in Minneapolis. Matson emphasizes the importance of keeping Indigenous languages alive through education.

“Those languages belong to the people who were here first,” she said. Matson has dedicated years to developing programs that focus on language and cultural immersion.

“Initially, we had a lot of skepticism about our program, but we were able to look towards the Native Hawaiians,” Matson reflected. Native Hawaiians successfully transformed old boarding schools, achieving a 100% graduation rate, with 80% of students continuing their education. This success sparked a surge of interest in Native language and culture. Bdote Learning Center, a K-12 school, offers Ojibwe and Dakota language instruction.

Its mission is “to develop culturally aware, successful, high performing students by providing them with an academically rigorous education that is place-based, and rooted in Native language and culture of Indigenous peoples.”

Another school is Center School/Naawaylll School/ Cokatawa School. This school is a k-12 school with the mission of “providing transformative education, grounded in indigenous lifeways and a love for learning.”

And there are plenty of others in our community as well. The shift toward more culturally respectful and supportive education for Native American students marks a significant and hopeful transformation from the painful past of boarding schools. Programs like the Navajo Technical University and various immersion schools across the country not only provide high-quality education but also empower native students to reconnect with their heritage and not let culture die out.

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