WASHINGTON – Opening the National Indian Education Association conference Feb. 11, William Sakiestewa Gilbert delivered a speech he dedicated to his great-great-grandfather, Kikmongwi Looloma, Hopi. Looloma went to Washington in the 1890s and returned to his people preaching strength in combination with ”the good things of the white man’s way of life.”
Gilbert gave words of hope that education can still be one of those good things for Native peoples. And by speech’s end, the Native combination needed to make it work had encompassed Native language and cultural instruction, safe healthy communities and increased funding from the federal government.
The new NIEA president had expressed no profound doubt about the efficacy of a solid education on the Western or ”white man’s” model; but the Native virtues that Looloma could represent as a single string tied with another of white origin had become multiple strands, difficult to grasp in their totality – yet no doubt strong as steel cable if the day comes when they can be gathered into a policy unified for implementation.
While no one could accuse Gilbert or the NIEA of avoiding the grimmest facts of Indian education, a few towering items of both potential and achievement received only glancing attention. Among them:
”The number of American Indian students earning degrees has more than doubled at each level of degree since 1976.
”We now have 36 tribal colleges and universities throughout Indian country and the number and enrollment of students continue[s] to grow.
”Indian Head Start programs have graduated thousands of Native American children who do remarkably better than their counterparts who have never had those opportunities to attend Head Start.
”We are very proud that NIEA and its membership made some great gains last year. We strongly advocated restoring funding for critical educational programs such as the Johnson O’Malley program, Native Hawaiian education programs and the Alaska Native Education Equity program. NIEA was part of the effort that reauthorized the Head Start Act and sought to increase the set-aside for American Indian and Alaska Native Head Start programs. Lastly, NIEA was proud to lead the effort that resulted in the passage of the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006, a bill that increased federal support for Native language immersion programs, survival language schools, language nests and other activities in classrooms throughout the nation.”
Among the efforts NIEA will be part of in the coming year is reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, which for that matter dominates the Native education agenda. It is the top legislative priority of NIEA, Gilbert said. ”NIEA is committed to strengthening NCLB for Indian country through provisions that provide for meaningful tribal involvement in setting the educational priorities for Indian students and the inclusion of Native language and cultural instruction.”
He added that contrary to NCLB testing criteria, cultural education can be integrated into the classroom to provide instruction based on Native cultural norms. Current research demonstrates as much, he added, citing the Lower Kuskokwim School District near Bethel, Alaska.
Finally, Gilbert called on the White House for renewed funding to Native education programs. ”A pattern has developed in recent years where Native education programs get smaller increases in years where overall funding is up, and bigger cuts in years when overall funding is down. … The continued decrease in Indian education funding is a direct violation of the federal trust responsibility. Every year our funding is decreased and the educational mandates that we must meet are increased. Native students cannot make adequate yearly progress [a key NCLB measure] if education funding does not make adequate yearly progress.”
In concert with the conference, NIEA released a ”Native Education 101” brochure, produced jointly with the National Education Association, in an attempt to enlighten the cultural and other blind spots that hinder Indian education.
