"To Remain an Indian": Lessons in Democracy from a Century of Native American Education / Edition 1

by K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Teresa L. McCarty, James A. Banks

Overview

What might we learn from Native American experiences with schools to help us forge a new vision of the democratic ideal—one that respects, protects, and promotes diversity and human rights? In this fascinating portrait of American Indian education over the past century, the authors critically evaluate U.S. education policies and practices, from early 20th-century federal incarnations of colonial education through the contemporary standards movement. In the process, they refute the notion of “dangerous cultural difference” and point to the promise of diversity as a source of national strength.

Featuring the voices and experiences of Native individuals that official history has silenced and pushed aside, this book:

• Proposes the theoretical framework of the “safety zone” to explain shifts in federal educational policies and practices over the past century.
• Offers lessons learned from Indigenous America’s fight to protect and assert educational self-determination.
• Rebuts stereotypes of American Indians as one-dimensional learners.
• Argues that the maintenance of Indigenous languages is a fundamental human right.
• Examines the standards movement as the most recent attempt to control the “dangerous difference” allegedly posed by students of color, poor and working-class students, and English language learners in U.S. schools.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807747162
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	08/18/2006
Series:	Multicultural Education Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

K. Tsianina Lomawaima is Chair of American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona. Teresa L. McCarty is the Alice Wiley Snell Professor of Education Policy Studies at Arizona State University.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword   James A. Banks     xi
Acknowledgments     xvii
Preface     xxi
Overview of the Book     xxiii
Where Do We Stand?     xxiv
Choice and Self-Determination: Central Lessons from American Indian Education     1
Schools as "Civilizing" and Homogenizing Institutions     4
Safety Zone Theory: Explaining Policy Development over Time     6
Key Terms and Concepts     7
Methodological and Theoretical Approaches     10
The Strengths of Indigenous Education: Overturning Myths About Indian Learners     16
Indigenous Education Versus American Schooling     16
How-and Why-Do Stereotypes Endure?     17
What Is Education?     20
Native Voices Teach Lessons of Shared Humanity     22
Indigenous Knowledge Guides Human Societies     23
Carefully Designed Educational Systems     27
Language-Rich Contexts for Education     31
Learning by Doing     37
A Return to Choice and Local Control     40
Women's Arts and Children's Songs: Domesticating Indian Culture, 1900-1928     43
Indians as Children: "Insensible Wards"     45
Boarding Schools Versus Day Schools     47
A Political Economy of School Practices: The "Dignity of Labor"     48
Jobs Not Available Outside the Schools     50
Race and the Safety Zone: Finding the Right Level     51
A Place for Native Songs: "Innocent in Themselves"     53
A Place for Native Women's Arts: "Most Attractive Jardinieres"     55
Attempts to Domesticate Difference     58
An Unprecedented Possibility: "To Remain an Indian"     64
Conclusion     66
How to "Remain an Indian"?: Power Struggles in the Safety Zone, 1928-1940     67
The "New" Vocational Education     68
Indian History and Lore Courses     73
Native Teachers in the Federal Schools     77
The Revival of Arts and Crafts Instruction     82
The Keystone of Control: Reforms Versus Business as Usual     85
Conclusion     90
Control of Culture: Federally Produced Bilingual Materials, 1936-1954     91
Willard Walcott Beatty and Ann Nolan Clark     92
Pueblo Life Readers     96
Sioux Life Readers     98
Navajo Life Readers     102
Native Translators and Interpreters     103
Legacies of the First Translators     108
New Developments in Bilingual Materials     108
Indigenous Bilingual/Bicultural Education: Challenging the Safety Zone     114
Seeds of Transformation     115
A "Window of Opportunity"     116
The Rise of Indigenous Community-Controlled Schools     117
Taking up the Challenge: "Why Not?"     118
Lessons Learned     131
Confounding Federal Forces     132
"The New American Revolution": Indigenous Language Survival and Linguistic Human Rights     134
Indigenous Languages in and Outside the Safety Zone     135
Hawaiian Immersion: "I Think They Thought We'd Give Up"     138
Navajo Immersion: "Bucking the Tide"     141
Keres Immersion: "The Community Must Defend Their Rights"     144
Native Youth Language Attitudes and Ideologies     146
Creating New Indigenous-Language Safety Zones     148
Testing Tribal Sovereignty: Self-Determination and High-Stakes Tests     150
Race and Intelligence Testing in American Education     152
The Present Standards Movement     154
Consequences of the Standards Movement for Indigenous Students and Schools     156
The Larger Context: Standards and Dangerous Diversity     157
Reasserting Local Control: A Native Charter School Example      158
Accountable to Whom? Alaska Native Standards for Culturally Responsive and Responsible Schooling     162
Concluding Thoughts: Beyond the Safe Versus Dangerous Divide     165
Coda: Consummating the Democratic Ideal     167
A Vision of the Future     170
Notes     173
References     177
Archival Records     177
Works Cited     178
Index     199
About the Authors     213

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“To Remain an Indian chronicles the resistance, resilience, and imagination of generations of Native American educators. It is a profoundly moving book that highlights the opportunities, and ethical responsibility, that educators have to expand student identities and challenge coercive relations of power in the wider society.”
— Jim Cummins, University of Toronto

"A must read for both seasoned and young scholars, practitioners, and others interested in culturally based education, including the importance of Indigenous languages.
John Tippeconnic III, Director, American Indian Leadership Program, Pennsylvania State University

Editorial Reviews

It offers a balm against despair (and) provides an inspiring theoretical frame for those who continue to fight for indigenous control.”

—Tribal College Journal (for first edition)

From the Publisher