DIALOGUING
Betty
Donohue, "Crisis in American Indian Education"
Andre Cramblit, "Assembly
Bill 2665 - Indian Education Commission"
“Florida AIM Letter
on Florida Alligator’s Editorial Cartoon”
CRISIS IN AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION
Betty Booth Donohue, Cooweescoowee
District, Cherokee Nation West, bdonohue@surfbest.net
This information may be of interest of members of this list-serve.
Recently, at the request of President Bush, the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs was asked to submit a budget that
drastically cuts funding for American Indian education in
Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. The proposed cuts are so extreme that schools
will no longer be able to operate. (Probably the intended outcome) Most cuts represent at least one third
of the normal operating budget which is mininal at best. Currently
most funding for BIA schools covers salaries and barely that. BIA schools typically run on a shoe string.
For instance, Indian students in BIA schools receive 250
percent less funding than students in public schools. The BIA
schools with which I am familiar are run-down, poorly maintained,
and deficient in the equipment and supplies one would expect
in any institution of learning. Now this.
In many areas, even today, attending public school is not an
option for Native American students given the isolation of many
reservations. Indian students
in boarding schools are often there because of the inevitable
result of five hundred years of colonization which has resulted
in the loss of language, loss of culture, deterioration of family
and clan systems, and disintegration of social mores.
Factor in increased alcohol and drug abuse, and the situation
of these students comes more into focus.
The students I teach are beautiful, intelligent, tender-hearted children
who deserve a chance in life. The vast majority of my students are truly
perceptive and articulate. (See
poems copied below.) These
students need a place where they can live and learn in an environment
that is supportive, culturally sensitive, and welcoming. They
should not be condemned to a life of material and intellectual
poverty and deprivation because the Bush administration is looking
for a fast buck to finance its various priorities which promise
that No Child Will Be Left Behind unless he is American Indian
and notwithstanding the fact that treaties with nearly all tribes
promised education in return for land and minerals. Land,
water rights, and minerals were duly handed over.
Education is not forthcoming.
If this situation bothers any of you, please email members of
the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
immediately if not sooner.
Time is critical since this move has been kept under wraps
until the last moment in order to avoid debate. Names
and affiliations of committee members are listed below.
If you write, please mention your academic affiliation
and be sure to place the Ph.D. behind your names.
Indian delegations to Washington are being ignored.
Knowledge that members of the Academy are interested
in this debacle may invite circumspection. Feel
free to pass this message on to any possibly interested parties.
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ASSEMBLY Bill 2665 ~ Indian Education Commission
Andre Cramblit,
<andrekar@ncidc.org>,
April 8, 2006
Republished with permission from
Andre Cramblit's IndigenousNewsNetwork@topica.com.
Here is my own personal response to the Goldberg (California AB
2665) Indian Education Commission Bill.
The Bill can be found @: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/bills/AB_2665/
I encourage you to look at this Bill carefully. All in all it is a good initial concept, but
I think it is being submitted far too early and with out enough
clarity to ensure adequate controls, community discussion or steady
funding for long-term stability.
I am concerned how much power it puts into an independent agency.
I am not implying that Natives do not have the capability
to administer programs in our own best interests; in fact I am
a staunch supporter of Tribal Sovereignty. This Bill puts Indian Education in California in the hands of 13
individuals with unknown personal and political agendas.
The way the Commission is proposed leaves several issues unanswered
for me:
- Why do
we need the state to authorize and fund what is basically a
Private Foundation or non-profit corporation to go out and seek
funds? What other Foundation is authorized and
financed by the State? If
Natives in California need a foundation then they should form
one (with a fair contribution coming from CNIGA).
- Why should
the California Department of Education (CDE) and other appropriate
agencies not maintain administrative oversight of programs supported
by the Tax Payer?
- This
Bill makes no clear provision for representing the Urban
Native population. There are five representatives to the Commission
appointed by Tribes and one each representing an accredited
Tribal College (of which there are none now), CSU, UC, Community
Colleges, CDE AIEC, BIA, and Title VII.
This could well serve to disenfranchise the majority
of Natives who come from tribes outside of California. The Bill
cites the statistic that California has the largest population
of American Indians in the Nation, many of them are here as
a result of reallocation policies of the Federal Government.
- The Bill
does not even mention the large number of non-federally recognized
Natives in California.
- If an
“Advisory Council on Indian Education was established within
the CDE for the purpose of providing educational recommendations,
but is no longer functioning” why do we not just revive it? That would be much simpler, less costly and wouldn’t even need
an assembly bill.
- The Bill
states, “American Indian pupils deserve additional and appropriate
support to meet the challenges of the No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001 (20 U.S.C. Sec. 6301 et seq.) in a manner consistent
with tribal traditions, languages, and cultures.”
I agree, but it is the Feds that implemented and under
funded NCLB. How is a California Commission going to
impact this? And what
will be the purpose when NCLB is gone in a few years?
- The bill
enables the Commission to “Formalize the government-to-government
relationship between the state and California's tribes and expand
the relationships with any entities that serve American Indian
pupils.” I believe this should be left to the Tribal
governments not a Commission.
This will be a detriment to true government-to-government
relationships by putting in place an intermediary body between
the Governor’s Office and the duly elected Tribal Council. 13 Commissioners cannot, nor should not,
try to represent the 109 Federally recognized tribes in California.
- One of
the Commission members is “A representative of the department,
whose background includes vocational and early childhood education
and who is appointed by the Superintendent.”
Why just those specific areas?
Why not Higher Education, American Indian Education,
Evaluation Design, Curriculum Development or any of the other
fields that are also critical for Native student success.
- The Bill
mentions Public Hearings but has held none so far in regard
to the creation of this Commission. It has not been done
in consultation with Tribes, or Native Organizations as far
as I am aware. What is the rush? Take it to the
people for input to make sure this is the best approach available.
- The Bill
discusses the importance of Tribal Languages, but has no specifics
about approaches, funding sources or curriculum to support languages. There are no linguists that are associated
with advising the board. As
there are over 100 Native languages spoken in California this
could be an issue that consumes many resources.
I agree with many of the tenets outlined within the Bill. I just do not see how a Commission is the most
efficient way of accomplishing that.
The Commission, as proposed, is too vaguely defined and
given far too broad of authority to oversee what it sounds like
can be just about anything they choose to define as being related
to Indian Education. We do not need another state boondoggle*, we
need to effectively use the resources currently available and
hold the state and federal government accountable to their treaty,
trust and moral obligations to Native Americans.
The money that would be used in creating, staffing and
operating this Commission could be best put into funding existing
programs and services to make a more direct, immediate, impact
on Native students. Another
bureaucratic and potentially overt political body is not the panacea
for the educational issues in the Native Community.
I welcome your replies or comments.
André P. Cramblit
andre.p.cramblit.86@alum.dartmouth.org
* From The Oxford English
Dictionary:
boondoggle : noun
1)
work or activity that is wasteful or pointless but gives the appearance
of having value : writing
off the cold fusion phenomenon as a boondoggle best buried in
literature.
2)
a public project of questionable merit that typically involves political
patronage and graft: they
each drew $600,000 in the final months of the great boondoggle.
verb [ intrans. ] waste money or time on such projects. ORIGIN 1930s:
of unknown origin.
<+>
On May 1, Assemblyman
Goldberg stated, "I am committed to working with tribal governments
and community members to further develop these bills so that it
continues to receive support and to ensure that its design will
truly benefit American Indian students.
There seems to be an assumption that these bills are a
final version, but this is simply untrue.
I respectfully ask for your attendance at a meeting to
discuss both measures, provide clarification, and hear concerns.
The Morongo Band of Mission Indians has graciously offered to
host the southern California meeting to discuss the legislation."
The Bill can be found at: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/bills/AB_2665/.
On May 5, - California
American Indian Coalition for the Advancement of Indian Services
announced that it opposes AB 2665 in its current form, and does
not believe there is trime to fix the problems with the bill in
the current legislative session. The coalition sees the difficulties
arising from the fact that it was proposed to Assemblyman Goldberg
by three people acting on their own, and "was not developed
with input from representatives of the vast majority of the 109
tribal governments, the 31 Indian Education Centers, the unrecognized
tribes, and the urban nor rural Indian communities in California."
For more information go to: http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/bills/AB_2665/
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FLORIDA AIM LETTER
ON FLORIDA ALLIGATOR'S
EDITORIAL CARTOON, November
30, 2005
Greetings:
The American Indian Movement of Florida (Florida AIM) is the
state chapter of the international Indigenous peoples civil, human,
sovereignty and treaty rights movement reborn in Minneapolis,
MN in 1968. AIM, through its international arm, maintains Non-Governmental
Organization Consultative status in the United Nations Economic
and Social Council and on the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples.
Florida AIM is critically concerned with the Florida Alligator's editorial cartoon depicting
the National Collegiate Athletic Association advising Albert (depicted
as a Gator representing the Univ. of Florida) not to continue
strangling an Indian. The NCAA is stating "Sorry Albert,
but its culturally insensitive to kill a Native American this
close to Thanksgiving."
Certainly the Florida Alligator
is keenly aware of the decades-old controversy regarding the use
of Indigenous human beings as sports mascots. The Alligator is
also most likely aware of Florida AIM and other Native organizations
opposition to Florida State University's racist depiction of Indigenous
peoples as a sports mascot. Their mascot looks far more like a
Hollywood version of an Apache who got lost in the Hollywood Lakota
dressing room riding a Nez Perce horse than anything resembling
the historic or contemporary dress of Seminole peoples.
Therefore the cartoon on that level alone is offensive and deplorable.
We are uncertain if the Florida
Alligator is aware of the US Civil Rights Commission which
investigated racism and hate crimes against American Indians in
the states of South Dakota and Nebraska and found less than vigorous
prosecutions against the perpetrators of hate crimes victimizing
American Indians. In fact the report noted the killing of a dog
had a more statistical likelihood of a vigorous prosecution-if
in fact the perpetrators were ever brought to justice. A recent
report on hate crimes showed that nearly 30% of victims of violent
hate crimes are American Indians, yet Indian people constitute
1/10 of 1% of the US population.
The names of the victims are known throughout Indian Country.
Candace Rough Surface, Robert Many Horses, Ronald Hard Heart,
Wallace Black Elk Jr., Allen Two Crows … and on and on the list
goes.
Therefore it was repugnant to see the Florida Alligator choose
to mock the opponents mascot, itself offensive to most Indian
people, by stooping to a level of making humorous light of the
murders of Indigenous peoples.
We believe the Florida Alligator owes the Native community at
large an apology and a retraction of this offensive cartoon at
the very least, and to educate its readership and itself on the
ongoing struggles of Indigenous peoples for justice in America.
Please write The Independent
Florida Alligator. at editor@alligator.org. and condemn them
for this ludicrously racist cartoon. Considering that hundreds
of Pequot and Wampanoag peoples were murdered on the first thanksgiving,
(the first thanksgiving Proclamation was by the Gov of Mass in
1632 for the slaughter of Indigenous peoples) and that Indigenous
peoples constitute 30% of all violent hate crime victims-yet are
1/10th of 1% of the US population this cartoon is not only offensive
but is an incitement to these crimes against Native peoples
Sincerely,
Sheridan
Murphy, State Executive Director, American Indian Movement
of Florida.
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