Test 10/14/07
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American Indians
Information and Communication Technology in
education is a major challenge to the American
Indian population of Oregon and the other states in
the US. The map at the right shows the locations of
the nine Confederated American Indian Tribes in
Oregon.
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This Website page is designed to help people who are
working to improve the education of American Indians. While
the specific focus in on American Indians in Oregon, many of
the references are national in scope.
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Introduction
"Under treaties, statutes and executive orders,
the federal government has the responsibility to provide
Native Americans education and access to educational
institutions," says Davis-White Eyes. "Since institutions
of higher education are essential elements in fulfilling
this responsibility, it is the wish of the University of
Oregon to acknowledge and uphold both the concept of
tribal sovereignty for those nations currently within the
borders of the state of Oregon, and the aboriginal rights
of those nations which formerly resided within the state
and were forcibly removed or systematically dispossessed
of ancestral lands." (In-state Fees)
A number of states have agreed to charge only instate
tuition for American Indian students from outside their
state, but whose tribal roots are within the state, The
University of Oregon passed such an initiative in 1997 and
sponsored such an initiative at the State Board of Higher
Education. This was passed in 1998, and covers 44 tribes.
According to David Hubin of the University of Oregon
(10/23/02), the State Board of Higher Education is currently
considering the addition of a 45th tribe that is in northern
California.
There are many different aspects of the topic of
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in American
Indian education. One is access to telecommunications. Here
is a brief quotes from Porterfield (8/1/1999).
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On the San Carlos Reservation
in Arizona 83.9 percent of the people do not have a phone
in their home. For them and residents of many other rural
Indian reservations across the U.S., the prospect of
surfing the Internet is remote.
Based on 1990 census figures, 53 percent of American
Indian households do not have telephones, while only 5
percent of the total U.S. households are without a phone.
At the same time that split-second global communication
creates previously unimagined educational and economic
opportunities for many Americans, a number of American
Indians remain without access.
There is a reasonable amount of literature on American
Indian learning styles, and several sources are cited in the
references. A Google search using the terms <Learning
Style American Indian> produced a large number of hits.
The following is quoted from ERIC (1991):
At the same time, many reports suggest that
typical classroom learning environments interfere with
the way Native children learn. Philips' (1983) now
classic study provides a general model for looking at how
children from Native groups interact in the classroom. In
classrooms attended by Indian children in Warm Springs,
Oregon, Philips observed that Indian children hesitated
to participate in large- and small-group recitations. On
the other hand, they were more talkative than non-Indian
children when they started interactions with the teacher
or worked on student-led group projects.
Philips described a process of acquiring competence
that reflected Warm Springs' norms: observation, careful
listening, supervised participation, and individualized
self-correction or testing. The norms of their culture
helped explain why the children were reluctant to speak
in front of their classmates. Similar disruption of
cultural patterns in classrooms attended by Sioux and
Cherokee children had been reported previously by Dumont
(1972). The work of such researchers as these suggests
that for many Native children, a public display that
violates community or group norms may be an uncomfortable
experience. Perhaps it is this respect for norms that is
responsible for the stereotypic "silent Indian
child."
There are a large number of American written and spoken
languages. The following is quoted from American Indian
Languages. Anthropology Outreach Office of Smithsonian
Institution Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/outreach/
indian_l.htm.
In 1492 there were at least 350 different
languages spoken by the Native Americans north of Mexico,
including Eskimos and Aleuts, and perhaps some 1,500
languages spoken in Mexico and Central and South America.
These are totals of separate languages--not dialects. The
speakers of one such language could not understand any of
the other languages without special learning. If one
included the different dialects of each of these
languages, the totals would be much greater. As a general
rule, most Indian groups known to us as separate tribes
spoke separate languages. Presently, about 200 languages
survive in North America, perhaps 275 in South America,
and many more in Central America and Mexico.
Many Indian languages are related (in the same manner
as, for examples, English, German, French, Greek, and
Russian are related), going back ultimately to a single
ancestral language. Languages related in this way belong
to a single language family (English is a member of the
Indo-European family). There were about sixty such
families north of Mexico and an even larger number in
Latin America. Some linguists have tried to find remoter
relationships among many of these families and have
grouped them into more inclusive units sometimes called
stocks. One influential classification grouped all of the
languages of North America into six stocks, but recently
specialists have questioned the validity of studying such
larger units of relationship before the histories of the
individual families are understood. The wide diversity
that exists among many of the American Indian languages
can be compared to that found among English, Hungarian,
Arabic, Malay, Swahili, and Chinese in the Old World.
No American Indian language is derived from an
historically known Old World language. The affinities of
the native languages of the Americas are presumed to
reach back across the Bering Strait but date back to a
very remote period in the past. Not even the closest of
such relationships can yet be demonstrated conclusively,
so great have the changes been over the many thousands of
years since the ancestors of the Old and New World
peoples drifted apart.
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Confederated American Indian
Tribes of Oregon
There are nine Confederated American Indian tribes in
Oregon. The following map is from [Accessed 10/19/02:
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/or/ormap.html.
The following table provides addresses and phone numbers
for the Confederated American Indian tribes in Oregon
Burns Paiute Indian Colony
Burns Paiute General Council
Herbert H. Hawley, Chairperson
HC 71, 100 Pa Si Go St.
Burns, OR 97720
Tel# (503) 573-2088, Fax# 573-2323
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Klamath Reservation
Klamath General Council
Marvin Garcia, Chairperson
P.O. Box 436
Chiloquin, OR 97624
Tel# (503) 783-2219, Fax# 783-2029
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Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua &
Suislaw Indians
www.ctclusi.org
1245 Fulton Ave.
Coos Bay, OR 97420
(541) 888-9577 7
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Siletz Reservation
Siletz Tribal Council
Delores Pigsley, Chairperson
P.O. Box 549
Siletz, OR 97380
Tel# (503) 444-2513, Fax# 444-2307
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Coquille Indian Tribe Siletz Agency
Ed Metcalf, Chairperson
P.O. Box 1435
Coos Bay, OR 97420
Tel# (503) 276-4587, Fax# 269-2573
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Umatilla Reservation
Umatilla Board of Trustees
Donald Sampson, Chairperson
P.O. Box 638
Pendleton, OR 97801
Tel# (503) 276-3165, Fax# 276-3095
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Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians Community
Council
Sue M. Shaffer, Chairperson
2400 Stewart Parkway #300
Roseburg, OR 97470
Tel# (503) 672-9405, Fax# 673-0432
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Warm Springs Reservation
Warm Springs Agency
Raymond Calica Sr., Chairperson
P.O. Box C, 1233 Veteran St.
Warm Springs, OR 97761
Tel# (503) 553-1161, Fax# 553-1924
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Grande Ronde Indian Community Confederated
Tribes of the Grande Ronde Council
Mark Mercier, Chairperson
9615 Grand Ronde Rd.
Grande Ronde, OR 97347
Tel# (503) 879-5215, Fax# 879-5964
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This table is based on [Accessed
10/19/02]: American Indian Tribes. http://www.indians.org/
Resource/FedTribes99/
fedtribes99.html.
This 2001 reference listing all of the The American
Indian Tribal Directory is a service provided by
the American Indian Heritage Foundation.
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Languages (Oregon
Data)
There are a large number of different spoken American
Indian languages. The following Oregon data is
representative of the level of detailed information
available from Languages of USA (see reference given
below).
ALSEA (spoken language extinct): There were
fewer than 10 [speakers] in 1930 (1977 Voegelin
and Voegelin). Oregon, on Alsea River and Bay. Alternate
names: ALSÃâYA. Dialects: YAQUINA (YAKWINA, YAKON,
YAKONA). Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Coast
Oregon, Yakonan.
CHETCO (spoken language nearly extinct): 5 speakers or
fewer (1962 Chafe) out of possible 100 population (1977
SIL). Southern coast, Oregon. Classification: Na-Dene,
Nuclear Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific
Coast, Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.
CHINOOK (spoken language nearly extinct): 12 speakers
of Kiksht dialect (1996), out of a possible population of
300 (1977 SIL). Lower Columbia River, Oregon and
Washington. Alternate names: LOWER CHINOOK. Dialects:
KLATSOP (TLATSOP), CLACKAMA, KIKSHT. Classification:
Penutian, Chinookan.
CHINOOK WAWA (spoken language nearly extinct): 17
speakers in USA (1990 census). Formerly used along the
Pacific coast from Oregon to Alaska. All speakers are
probably now scattered. Alternate names: CHINOOK JARGON,
CHINOOK PIDGIN, TSINUK WAWA. Classification: Pidgin,
Amerindian.
COOS (spoken language nearly extinct): 1 or 2 speakers
(1962 Chafe) out of a possible 250 population (1977 SIL).
Southern Oregon coast. Alternate names: HANIS.
Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Coast Oregon,
Coosan.
COQUILLE (spoken language extinct); Probably no
speakers left (1977 SIL). Southwestern Oregon, formerly
on upper Coquille River. Alternate names: UPPER COQUILLE,
MISHIKHWUTMETUNEE. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear
Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast,
Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.
GALICE (spoken language extinct): Southwestern Oregon.
Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene,
Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon,
Tolowa-Galice.
KALAPUYA (spoken language nearly extinct): 1 or 2
speakers (1962 Chafe). Northwest Oregon. Alternate names:
SANTIAM, LUKAMIUTE, WAPATU. Classification: Penutian,
Oregon Penutian, Kalapuyan.
KLAMATH-MODOC (spoken language nearly extinct): 1
speaker of Klamath (1998 N.Y. Times, April 9, p. A20) out
of 2,000 population (1977 SIL). Oregon, south central,
around and to the east and north of Klamath and Agency
lakes; Modoc directly to the south. Classification:
Penutian, Plateau Penutian, Klamath-Modoc.
MOLALE (spoken language extinct): Washington and
Oregon in the valley of the Deschutes River, later west
into the Molala and Santiam River valleys, and to the
headwaters of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. Alternate
names: MOLELE, MOLALA, MOLALLA. Classification: Penutian,
Unclassified.
PAIUTE, NORTHERN: 1,631 speakers out of 6,000
population (1999 SIL). Northern Nevada and adjacent areas
of Oregon, California, and Idaho. Spoken on about twenty
reservations spread out over 1,000 miles. Alternate
names: PAVIOTSO. Dialects: BANNOCK, NORTH NORTHERN PAIUTE
(MCDERMITT), SOUTH NORTHERN PAIUTE (YERINGTON-SCHURZ).
Classification: Uto-Aztecan, Northern Uto-Aztecan, Numic,
Western.
SIUSLAW (spoken language extinct) Southern Oregon
coast. Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Coast
Oregon, Siuslawan.
TAKELMA (spoken language extinct): Middle course of
the Rogue River, Oregon. Alternate names: TAKILMA,
LOWLAND TAKELMA. Classification: Penutian, Oregon
Penutian, Takelma.
TENINO: 200 speakers out of 1,000 population (1977
SIL). Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon. Alternate names:
WARM SPRINGS. Classification: Penutian, Plateau Penutian,
Sahaptin.
TILLAMOOK (spoken language extinct): Northwestern
Oregon. Classification: Salishan, Tillamook.
TOLOWA (spoken language nearly extinct): 5 speakers or
fewer (1977 SIL). Southwestern Oregon. Alternate names:
SMITH RIVER. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene,
Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon,
Tolowa-Galice.
TUTUTNI (spoken language nearly extinct): 10 speakers
or fewer (1962 Chafe). Southwestern Oregon.
Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene,
Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon,
Tolowa-Galice.
UMATILLA: 50 possible speakers out of 120 population
(1977 SIL). Umatilla Reservation, Oregon. Alternate
names: COLUMBIA RIVER SAHAPTIN. Classification: Penutian,
Plateau Penutian, Sahaptin.
WALLA WALLA: 100 speakers out of 700 population (1977
SIL). Umatilla Reservation, Oregon. Alternate names:
NORTHEAST SAHAPTIN. Classification: Penutian, Plateau
Penutian, Sahaptin.
WASCO-WISHRAM (spoken language nearly extinct): 69
speakers including 7 monolinguals (1990 census), out of a
possible population of 750 (1977 SIL). North central
Oregon, south central Washington. Alternate names: UPPER
CHINOOK. Classification: Penutian, Chinookan. Nearly
extinct.
References
American Indian Languages. Anthropology
Outreach Office of Smithsonian Institution Accessed
11/4/02: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/outreach/
indian_l.htm.
Index of Native American Language Resources on the
Internet. Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.hanksville.org/
NAresources/indices/
NAlanguage.html
Languages of USA [Online]. Accessed
11/4/02: http://www.ethnologue.com/
show_country.asp?name=USA
Native American Languages. Accessed 11/4/02:
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stories/l
anguage.html.
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Non-Confederated American
Indian Tribes of Oregon
The following list of non-federally recognzed American
Indian Tribes of Oregon is from http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/or/ormap.html:
- Celilio-Wyam Indian Community, intertribal with joint
use property in federal trust
- Tolowa- Tututni Tribe, no info, there's a Tolowa
Nation in CA petitioning
- Tchinouk Indians , petitioned 5/16/79;
acknowledgement declined, 3/17/86
- N.W. Cherokee Wolf Band of S.E. Cherokee Confederacy
, petitioned 3/9/78;acknowledgement declined,
11/25/85
- Chinook Indian tribe, petitoned 7/23/89, funding in
preogress
- Chetco Tribe
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References
Aboriginal Studies. Accessed 10/18/02: http://ccism.pc.athabascau.ca/html/ccism/
deresrce/issues.htm#aboriginal
An extensive collection of links, last updated
in 1999.
Alaska Native Knowledge Network. Accessed 10/23/02:
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/.
Quoting from the Website:
The Alaska Native Knowledge Network is designed
to serve as a resource for compiling and exchanging
information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems
and ways of knowing. It has been established to assist
Native people, government agencies, educators and the
general public in gaining access to the knowledge base
that Alaska Natives have acquired through cumulative
experience over millennia.
The Alaska Federation of Natives and the University of
Alaska, with support from the National Science
Foundation, have formed the Alaska Native/Rural Education
Consortium to provide support for the integration of
Alaska Native knowledge and ways of knowing into the
educational systems of Alaska.
American Indian Language Development Institute and
Southwest Memory Project. Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ModStrat/pt3a.html.
Quoting from the Website:
The American Indian Language Development
Institute (AILDI) was founded in 1978 by Hualapai tribal
educators, Native American parents, and experts in
linguistics to help several Southwest tribes develop a
written language and curriculum materials that reflect
attention to Native American students' heritage, needs,
and learning styles. According to the current project
co-director, "It started simply to meet the needs of the
community and to develop Native-language materials. The
1970s were a period of growth of Native American
languages throughout our country. There needed to be
materials written specifically for Native Americans."
Housed at different campuses during its first 12 years,
this four-week summer program has been held since 1989 at
the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, where the
university is hoping to institutionalize it. AILDI
enrolls about 100 students each summer.
Leadership of AILDI continues to include Native
Americans, both as professional educators and as language
and cultural specialists, and national Native and
non-Native experts on indigenous languages and cultures.
Currently, the institute is directed by two professors
from the University of Arizona--one a professional
linguist who is a member of the Tohono O'Odham tribe and
the other a non-Native specialist in Native education
programs. One of the founders, a woman from the Hualapai
tribe, lectures at the institute every summer and manages
a rural district and a Title VII-supported Native
language curriculum development project during the school
year. Originally designed for Native American educators,
today AILDI accepts both Native and non-Native
educators--administrators, aides, and teachers--who work
with Native American students.
American Indians:WWW Virtual Library. Accessed 11/4/02:
http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/.
Quoting from the Website:
This site is constructed primarily to provide
information resources to the Native American community
and only secondarily to the general community. The
information is organized, insofar as possible, to make it
useful to the Native American community and the education
community. The information presented here is the product
of much cooperative work. It would be impossible to
maintain this list without the email from the hundreds of
people who send me updates to their URLs and report new
sites. This email is crucial to the operation of this
index. The list of "don'ts" given below is simply to make
the sorting through of my email a less difficult task.
Please do not stop sending me this crucial information.
Certification in Oregon to Teach A Tribal Language.
Accessed 10/24/02: http://www.leg.state.or.us/orlaws/
sess0600.dir/0653ses.html.
Chapter 653 Oregon Laws 2001 makes provisions:
for a person to be certified to teach an American Indian
language . These provisions focus strictly on the
language, and have no other education requirements. The
certification is good only for teaching the American
Indian Language. Here is a piece of the provisions:
4) Each American Indian tribe may develop a
written and oral test that must be successfully
completed by an applicant for an American Indian
languages teaching license in order to determine
whether the applicant is qualified to teach the
tribe's native language. When developing the test, the
tribe shall determine:
(a) Which dialects will be used on the
test;
(b) Whether the tribe will standardize the
tribe's writing system; and
(c) How the teaching methods will be evaluated
in the classroom.
Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, Roseburg,
Oregon. Accessed 10/18/02: http://www.cowcreek.com/.
Quoting from the Website:
Summary; The story of the Cow Creek Band
of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is the story of a peaceful
people who were faced with an invasion by a society that
was overwhelmingly hostile, greedy and destructive of the
Indian way of life.
The Land: The Cow Creek Umpqua lived in the
Pacific Coast Range in Southwestern Oregon.
The People: Several closely related Indian
tribes occupied southwestern Oregon.
ERIC (1991). American Indian/Alaskan Native Learning
Styles: Research and Practice. ERIC Digest. Accessed
10/24/02: http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed335175.html
.
Contains a summary of the learning styles topic
as well as a number of references.The following is quoted
from the introductoin to the article:
Educators of American Indian and Alaskan
Native students are concerned for a growing number of
students who do not find school a meaningful place.
These students are becoming "school weary." Studies of
learning style among Native students provide some
clues about this phenomenon, and this Digest presents
a brief review of that literature. It includes a
definition, specific examples, cautions about over
generalizing learning style research, and suggestions
for classroom practice.
The information is presented with a view respectful
of more than 500 tribal groups. These groups represent
an estimated 200 languages, each with its own unique
government and social system. Too often, the
significance of this variety is overlooked. Many
observers fail to recognize that American Indian and
Alaskan Native children are individuals who differ
dramatically from one another, even within their own
communities.
Grande Ronde. Confederated Tribe of Grand Ronde, Accessed
10/19/02: http://www.grandronde.org/ Quoting from the
Website:
Welcome to the Cultural Resources Program of the
Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The Grand Ronde
Reservation, located on a section of the Yamhill
Calapooia's home country 18 miles east of Lincoln City,
is currently home to The Confederated Tribes of the Grand
Ronde Community. This confederation represents the
Umpqua, Calapooia, Shasta, Rogue River, Mollallas and
Chinookan Clackamas. It supports an enrollment of over
4,700 tribal members who are all direct descendants of
these Native American Tribes and their associated bands.
…
The Tribe's vision is to be a tribal community known
as a caring people, dedicated to the principles of
honesty and integrity, building community, individual
responsibility and self-sufficiency through personal
empowerment, and responsible stewardship of human and
natural resources; a community willing to act with
courage in preserving tribal cultures and traditions for
all future generations.
Current American Indian Technology and Telecommunications
Projects (1994-Present). Accessed 10/18/02: http://www.benton.org/Library/Native/
information-currenttech.pdf.
This Website contains a 10-page PDF document (20
pages of journal text) that discusses a number of
projects. This is from the 1999 report mentioned in
Porterfield.
Firth, Simon (December 2001). Building a Visionary
Village. (A project funded by Helwett-Packard.)Accessed
1/18/03: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/
feature_stories/2001/visvillage01.html.
Quoting from the Website:
Welcome to HP's new Tribal Digital Village - a
community that is very real and completely virtual -
located in the backcountry of San Diego County,
California. It is real in the sense that it unites the
members of 18 American Indian tribes who are all
connected through bonds of language, kinship and history.
And it is virtual in the sense that these tribes live on
17 separate and relatively small reservations dispersed
over a huge area northeast of San Diego.
Selected in February as one of HP's Digital Villages,
the tribes, represented by the Southern California Tribal
Chairman's Association (SCTCA), received a $5 million
grant to assist them in bringing technology to the
reservations. The village represents a major extension of
HP's ongoing e-Inclusion initiative, offering the company
the chance to both demonstrate and expand upon its vision
of how e-Inclusion can address the digital divide.
-------
[Another story about this project is available at:
http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/dhpdigital.htm.]
Hewlett-Packard Project. Wednesday, 3 March, 2004. Accessed 3/5/04: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3489932.stm. Quoting from this BBC newscast:
Wireless technology is helping native Americans in California go online and learn computing skills, reports Elizabeth Biddlecombe from San Francisco.
…
The Tribal Digital Village (TDV) is based in Southern California's San Diego County. This mountainous and remote land is home to 18 native American reservations - each one a sovereign nation - with an aggregate population of 15,000.
Home Pages for Individual American Indians. WWW Virtual
Library - American Indians. Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAhomes.html.
Includes a few sites developed by K-12 students
and a wider collection of other sites developed by other
American Indians.
Indian Education Research (IndianEduResearch.Net).
Accessed 10/23/02: http://www.indianeduresearch.net/
This is a very extensive Website developed by
ERIC. This site is maintained through funding provided by
the U.S. Department of Education, National Library of
Education under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027 and by the
Office of Indian Education through special project
funding.
Instate Tuition. University of Oregon plan recognizes
right of Native American students from displaced Oregon
tribes to pay instate fees. Accessed 10/23/02: http://comm.uoregon.edu/newsreleases/
latest/apr98/O040298.html.
This 1997 initiative by the University of Oregon
led to the Oregon State Board of Higher Eduction
approving the same initiative for all of the Oregon State
System of Higher Education.
Learning Styles (August 1989). Special Edition of Journal
of American Indian Education. Accessed 10/24/02: http://jaie.asu.edu/sp/.
The full text of this issue of the journal is available
online. The following is quoted from the website:
The Styles Of Learning Are Different, But The
Teaching Is Just The Same: Suggestions For Teachers Of
American Indian Youth. Karen Swisher and Donna Deyhle
[pp. 1-14] Examines learning style and
interactional style differences of American Indian and
Alaskan Native students. Provides specific classroom
examples and research findings concerning culturally
influenced learning styles, the visual approach to
learning, field dependence, public vs. private
demonstration of learning, and cooperation versus
competition in the classroom.
Native Indian Learning Styles: A Review For
Researchers And Teachers. Arthur J. More [pp.
15-28] The article discusses four areas of research
that provide evidence for important differences in
Learning Style between Indian and non-Indian students:
(1) internal cognitive processes or learner
characteristics, (2) external or environmental
conditions, (3) teaching and communication styles, (4)
traditional learning styles. According to the author,
differences in Learning Style "occur frequently but are
not found with sufficient consistency to suggest a
uniquely Indian learning style. However, they occur often
enough to warrant careful attention." The article
suggests seven areas of learning style strengths and
weaknesses among Native people and outlines four
implications for teachers and three other specific
implications. The author concludes that the "most
effective application of learning style theory lies in
the greater understanding and ability to adapt to
individual differences, and in identifying and building
on the strengths of Indian students."
Coyote's Eyes: Native Cognition Styles. Terry Tafoya
[pp. 29-42] The author attempts to explain the
story involving Coyote's eyes. From the story he extracts
the development of certain cognitive schemes and
establishes methods for Piaget's assimilation and
accommodation. The author includes a discussion of the
circle as associated with Indian tribal philosophy and
believes that legends and stories form the basis for
traditional teaching paradigms which are not recognized
as the same style of teaching one discovers in
"school."
American Indian Academic Success: The Role Of
Indigenous Learning Strategies. Cathaleene J. Macias
[pp. 43-52] Eleven American Indian women enrolled
in a MSW program participated in an interview study
designed to identify effective learning strategies. Most
of the women reported relying on writing and
verbalization as study strategies and preferred essay
tests to multiple-choice or true-false tests. This
preference for essay tests was linked in the interviews
to a strong ability to synthesize knowledge, a cognitive
skill identified by researchers as characteristic of
Indian people. The women also described themselves as
good listeners and as being reluctant to pass judgment
before careful, subjective reflection, behaviors which
are also characteristic of Indians. These women's
introspective reports and high academic performance are
evidence that there are distinctive Indian cognitive
strengths that facilitate graduate school success.
Learning Styles: A Study Of Alaska Native And
Non-Native Students. Joan K. Wauters; Janet Merrill Bruce
[pp. 53-62] Research on learning styles,
particularly those of minority students, is still very
new and technically unrefined. This study examines the
results of one learning style instrument, the
Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS), used
to evaluate 200 Alaskan high school seniors. A
multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to
analyze differences between Native and non-Native
subjects. Rural and urban subjects were also compared.
Significant differences were found in learning styles
between Native and non-Native subjects on the
Persistence, Peer, Authority, Auditory, and Visual
subscales. The two groups, however, were both strikingly
dissimilar to the PEPS norm group. Pedagogical
implications for Alaskan students are included which
suggest the use of diverse teaching modalities and
frequent student-teacher interactions.
Learning Preferences Of Capable American Indians Of
Two Tribes. Barbara J. Walker; John Dodd [pp.
63-71] A preference scale based on four types of
learning preferences was employed to determine which
preference would be indicated most frequently by a
selected group of Native American adolescents. The
pattern symbols preference was selected by the majority.
When the group was divided by sex, it showed the females
were more evenly divided in their learning preference
than the males. Suggestions are made for teaching
activities which would be compatible with the preferences
indicated by the majority of males. The key factors
indicated were a preference for small group activities
that allow for personal interpretation of the subject in
a cooperative rather than competitive learning
environment.
Brain Hemispheric Functions And The Native American.
Allen Chuck Ross [pp. 72-76] (Reprinted from Vol.
21, No. 3, pp. 2-5, May 1982, JAIE.) Focuses on the
discussion of the linear, or left brain orientation, of
the American educational system's ideals and identifies
the inappropriateness of using the orientation with the
American Indian student. According to the author, it has
been determined that traditional American Indians are
more dominant in right hemisphere thinking which may also
be a reason for the psychic phenomenon and miracle
healing performed by spiritual people.
The Right-Brained Indian: Fact Or Fiction? Roland D.
Chrisjohn and Michael Peters [pp. 77-83]
(Reprinted from Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 1-7, January 1986,
JAIE.) An article which describes the hopes for
"right-brain" curriculum development as "ill founded."
The authors outline some general reasons for their
"uneasiness" about the "right-brain" curriculum for
Indians; the authors point out that the sort of evidence
that has been used to argue in favor of the
"right-brained Indian" does not in any way support the
conclusion that Indians differ in brain organization from
non-Indians. The article covers Neuropsychology and
Performance on Intelligence Tests. The authors conclude
that the evidence supporting a "right-brained Indian" is
too weak to justify any emphasis on "right-brain"
curricula in Indian Education.
A Cognitive Pattern Of The Yakima Indian Students.
Rhett Diessner; Jacqueline L. Walker [pp. 84-88]
According to the authors, patterns of Bannatyne's
recategorized Weschsler Intelligence Scales (WISC-R and
WAIS) scores for 75 Yakima Indian students, enrolled in a
private, tribally controlled and operated Junior and
Senior High School in the Columbia River Basin, were
investigated. In congruence with similar studies, a
statistically significant pattern was found: Spatial
Ability, Sequential Ability and Verbal Conceptual
Ability. The authors believe evidence is presented
indicating that the discovered cognitive pattern may be
typical across American Indian populations. The authors
believe the evidence presented increase the possible
validity of a particular American Indian cognitive
style.
Native Americans in Marine and Space Sciences. Accessed
10/19/02: http://www.oce.orst.edu/native/.
Quoting from the Website:
The Native Americans in Marine and Space
Sciences Program (NAMSS) housed in the College of Oceanic
and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University,
provides internship opportunities for undergraduate
Native American, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native
students interested in gaining internship experience in
math, science, engineering and other technical fields.
The NAMSS Program is funded by grants from the
National Science Foundation & NASA Oregon Space
Grant. The program gives undergraduate Native students
the opportunity to directly participate in research on
and off campus.
National Congress of American Indians. Accessed 10/18/02:
http://www.ncai.org/
Quoting from the Website:
Indian Nations are sovereign governments,
recognized in the U.S. Constitution and hundreds of
treaties with the U.S. President. Today, tribal
governments provide a broad range of governmental
services on tribal lands throughout the U.S., including
law enforcement, environmental protection, emergency
response, education, health care, and basic
infrastructure.
The National Congress of American Indians was founded
in 1944 and is the oldest and largest tribal government
organization in the United States. NCAI serves as a forum
for consensus-based policy development among its
membership of over 250 tribal governments from every
region of the country.
NCAI's mission is to inform the public and the federal
government on tribal self-government, treaty rights, and
a broad range of federal policy issues affecting tribal
governments.
National Indian Education Association (NIEA). Accessed
10/23/02: http://www.niea.org/.
Quoting from the Website:
The mission of the National Indian Education
Association is to support traditional Native cultures and
values, to enable Native learners to become contributing
members of their communities, to promote Native control
of educational institutions, and to improve educational
opportunities and resources for American Indians, Alaska
Natives and Native Hawaiians throughout the United
States.
Native Americans in the Northwest. Accessed 10/19/02:
http://www.orst.edu/dept/press/native.htm.
This is the Website of the Oregon State
University Press. The Oregon State University Press
publishes about 15 books per year. Over the past few
years, the press has published more than a dozen books on
Native Americans in the Northwest.
KEAMS CANYON - Hope springs eternal at Hopi High School.
Every spring, that is, when this school in isolated Keams Canyon graduates another large group of seniors, bucking the trend for Native American graduation rates. Nearly 87 percent of students graduate within five years of starting Hopi High, well above the 63 percent statewide average for Native Americans.
Office of Technology Assessment Report (1995). Accessed
10/18/02: http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl
/~ota/disk1/1995/9542/954203.PDF
This 15 page document is Chapter 1 of a much
longer report commissioned by the US Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs. Quoting from the document:
As the Internet, electronic mail, compact
discs, and digital telephones sweep through much of
the United States, Native American activists are
asking themselves whether and how the new technology
can empower Native communities. Or will the new
technology of telecommunications and computers serve
only as a modern-day version of the telegraph and
railroad that ran right through Indian lands with
little benefit to the tribes? Will the technology
serve to bring together or further disconnect Alaskan
and Hawaiian Natives from their continental and island
homelands?
At the time of the American Revolution, what is now
the United States was home to hundreds of indigenous
peoples with a variety of forms of self-government,
organized at the tribal, village, or island level.
Today's Native American--American Indians, Alaska
Natives, and Native Hawaiians--are the descendants of
these indigenous peoples. Over the last 200 years,
indigenous peoples have struggled to maintain their
cultures, sovereignty, and self-determination in the
face of population pressures and ever-expanding
national and state governments.
The established framework of federal Indian law
recognizes tribal sovereignty, a federal trust
responsibility for those tribal lands and resources
ceded to or taken by the United States, and a
commitment to tribal self-determination over programs
and services vital to tribal well-being. Federal law
and policy apply this framework to the 550 federally
recognized Indian tribes--including about 220 Alaska
Native tribal or village governments (Indian Aleut, or
Eskimo). Federal policy of Native Hawaiians is more
ambiguous, although the United States has apologized
for its role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
The strong parallels between the history and
experience of Native Hawaiians with those of American
Indians and Alaska Natives provides a basis for
including Native Hawaiians within this framework.
Porterfield, K. Marie (8/1/1999) Digital divide narrowing
according to technology report. Indian Country Today.
Accessed 10/11/02: http://www.kporterfield.com/samples/benton.html.
This reference is a newspaper article based on a
1999 extensive report available in PDF at http://www.benton.org/Library/Native/.
Quoting from the newspaper article:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - On the San Carlos
Reservation in Arizona 83.9 percent of the people do
not have a phone in their home. For them and residents
of many other rural Indian reservations across the
U.S., the prospect of surfing the Internet is remote.
Based on 1990 census figures, 53 percent of
American Indian households do not have telephones,
while only 5 percent of the total U.S. households are
without a phone. At the same time that split-second
global communication creates previously unimagined
educational and economic opportunities for many
Americans, a number of American Indians remain without
access.
Sterns, Ron and Sterns, Pam. Native American Influences
Along the Oregon Trail. Accessed 10/11/02: http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:
JToxhM_w4ZIC:trails.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/Pdfs/
LessonPlans/Oregon%2520City/Stearns.pdf
This is a detailed Social Studies lesson plan
for students in grades 3-6. The authors are from John
McLoughlin Elementary and Mt. Pleasant Elementary, Oregon
City, Oregon.
Swisher, Karen (Spring 1994) American Indian Learning
Styles Survey: An Assessment of Teachers Knowledge. The
Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students,
v. 13 pp. 59-77, Accessed 10/24/02: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/jeilms/vol13/
americ13.htm.
Quoting the last two paragraphs of this survey research:
The implications of the survey results indicate
that teachers should have a balanced presentation of
theory and practice in preservice and inservice
education. They do need to understand the theoretical
frameworks upon which good practice is based. Action
without theory is like a trip without a map; you might
get there by intuition, but you might not make it, or you
might get lost and wander aimlessly until you finally
reach your destination or give up and go back home. A
common understanding and definition of learning styles is
needed when a school or community members have decided
that learning styles of their children present a priority
focus for guiding teaching and learning. The definitions
given by respondents in this survey demonstrate the
disparity in understanding that apparently exists in
schools attended by American Indian students across the
country.
This study was exploratory; it is a beginning point
for discovering what teachers know about learning styles.
It is a topic which is given considerable attention in
the milieu of topics related to the education of American
Indian youth. The topic is regarded with optimism as an
important key for understanding the behavior of American
Indian young people in education settings. Frameworks or
paradigms such as the one set forth by Ramirez and
Castaneda (1974) provide a window through which to view
the topic of learning styles. We must look from the
general, i.e., American Indian, to the specific, for we
know that while there are similarities, there are
important differences between and among tribal cultures.
It has been said that "Native cultures differ so
fundamentally from European cultures that they will hold
certain things in common--concept of time, spatial
relationships, a unified awareness of what we call the
spirituality and physical realms" (Lopez, 1978, p.109).
Furthermore, while there seems to be some universality in
cultural values such as generosity and cooperation among
American Indians, there is diversity within groups which
must not be forgotten when we are tempted toward
generalizations.
University of North Dakota: American Indian Programs and
Initiatives. Accessed 11/5/02: http://www.und.edu/naprograms/.
This university has made a major commitment to meeting the
needs of Native American students. Quoting from the
Website:
Already one of the top choices for American
Indian Students, UND is further expanding its programs
and services. You will find UND to be a great place to
get started on your path through life. Located on the
North Dakota-Minnesota border, Grand Forks is a lively
and welcoming community. Find out more about what UND has
to offer you! More than 150 undergraduates and graduate
fields of study, including an outstanding Department of
Indian Studies.
- More than 400 currently enrolled American Indian
students and nearly 2,500 American Indian almuni
.
- A Native American Programs Office to assist
students and provide a central gathering place for
study and recreation.
- More than 30 special programs focus on the needs
of American Indian students and citizens .
- Affordability - modest costs, cultural diversity
tuition waivers, and reasonably priced campus
housing.
================================ Work in progress
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http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed385424.html
Assessment for American Indian and Alaska Native
Learners. ERIC Digest.
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