SPRING 2004

NORTHWEST REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LABORATORY

NATIVE STUDENTS:

Balancing Two Worlds
VOLUME 9 NUMBER 3

SPRING 2004

Native Students

Balancing Two Worlds

ARTICLES

Native Education: 

Bitter Past, Hopeful Future

Educators look for ways to redress a painful legacy.

Healing Wounds

Programs in Montana, Alaska, and Washington battle the problem of high dropout rates.

In the Language of Our Ancestors

The race is on to preserve endangered tribal languages.

■ Charter School Keeps Native Language Alive

An indomitable teacher immerses students in words of the tundra.

Seeking Native Teachers

Universities offer financial and emotional support to grow the ranks of indigenous instructors.

Nets & Paddles

Fish and canoes carry meaningful lessons in Alaska and Washington.

■ Salmon Camp Spawns Career Options

Out-of-school programs hook youngsters into natural resource professions.

Creating a Culture of Readers

In Idaho and Washington, educators take two approaches to boost reading.

In Their Element

Urban Indian youth find a sense of belonging in Portland, Oregon.

■ Urban Exposure

Rural students travel to the city for educational experiences they can't get at home.

DEPARTMENTS

First Person: Slipping Through the Cracks

Letters

ON THE COVER: Trevor Felix, a student at Nelson Island School, surveys the frozen landscape in Toksook

Bay, Alaska. The image was captured by Donald Zanoff, speech and language pathologist for the Lower

Kuskokwim School District. Photo credits this page (top to bottom): Oregon Historical Society, William 

M. Berg, Donald Zanoff, Diana Welch

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10

12

19

22

28

32

8

21
I N T H I S I S S U E

T

he pungent smell of damp

cedar enveloped us as we

sat under cover of the

carving shed. Glenn, a personable Inupiaq teenager

who was my guide at the

Alaska Native Heritage Center

in Anchorage, had just finished demonstrating the

“seal hop”: a traditional game

that involves propelling yourself forward in military pushup position while balancing

on your knuckles.

As the lone tourist on this

chilly and drizzly September

morning, I was emboldened

to ask Glenn to sit and chat

about the subject that brought

me to the far north—Native

education.

He told me his own educational journey began 33 miles

above the Arctic Circle, in tiny

Kotzebue, a place where residents can readily compare

the tastes of bowhead, beluga,

and grey whale. At the age of

seven he left for Anchorage,

where his village accent singled him out as an interloper.

“By the second week of

school, I realized that I didn’t

talk like everyone else,” he 

remembers. “So, I didn’t talk

at all for the next three

months.”

His silence eventually broken,

Glenn went on to finish school

successfully. Some might 

attribute that to perseverance

or luck, but Glenn credits his

church and his family. In just

a few days, when his summer

guide job would end, he was

heading to culinary school to

learn a “back-up skill.” He

dreams of going to college

someday and becoming a

wildlife biologist.

Sadly, there’s no such happy

ending for too many Alaska

Native and American Indian

youth. Threaded through this

issue are appalling statistics

on school dropout rates and

achievement scores: the kind

of numbers that make you

look again and shake your

head in disbelief. But, there

are also stories that shine

bright with hope: preschoolers helping to keep alive an

endangered tribal language;

Native teachers and elders

passing on the wisdom of a

traditional lifestyle; school

leaders fighting for educational self-determination; and

caring individuals creating a

safe haven in a sometimes

harsh urban environment.

In 36 pages, we’ve just barely

scratched the surface of a

compelling and complex subject that has defied proven

solutions. You’ll find more 

information and resources 

at NW Education Online,

www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-03.

In both the magazine’s print

and Web versions, we’ve undoubtedly left out people and

programs that are worthy of

consideration. But the story

of Native education is still 

unfolding and will continue to

demand our attention and our

efforts. In the words of Sitting Bull, “Let us put our

minds together and see what

kind of life we can make for

our children.” 

—Rhonda Barton

bartonr@nwrel.org
2

Native Ed BITTER PAST, Hopeful Future

Boys in uniform pose at

the gate to the Chemawa

Indian School, in a photo

contained in a 1915 report.

(Photo courtesy of the

Oregon Historical Society)
You see, we have given you our children, not our 

servants, or our slaves, but our own. We have

given you our hearts—our children are our

hearts—but bring them back again before they become

white men. We wish to see them once more Indians, and

after that you can make them white men if you like. But

let them not get sick or die. If they get sick, we get sick; if

they die, we shall die. Take them; they are yours.

—Chief Illim-Spokanee, 1825, quoted in the 

Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall 2000

The legacy of Native education in America is tinged with

suffering, bitterness, and trauma. In 2000, the Assistant

Secretary of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Kevin Gover,

likened BIA’s past treatment of western tribes to “ethnic

cleansing.” He offered a formal apology on behalf of his

agency for pursuing an historic goal of “destroying all

things Indian.” “Worst of all,” he remarked, “(the BIA)

committed these acts against the children entrusted to its

boarding schools, brutalizing them emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually.” He promised it

would never happen again.

3

ucation

NATIVE STUDENTS
At the close of the 19th century, thousands of Indian children were consigned to off-reservation boarding schools

as part of the government’s assimilation efforts. The youngsters were separated from their homes and families—often

for years at a time—and forced to reject their traditional

dress, language, and religion. The goal of these schools,

as described by the founder of one such institution in Pennsylvania, was to “kill the Indian ... and save the man.”

One of the first of these boarding schools was the Forest Grove Indian Industrial and Training School, established in Oregon in 1880. Today, almost 125 years later,

it is still operating on 400 wooded acres in Salem as the

Chemawa Indian School. Home to 410 teenagers from 21

states, it has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operating boarding school in the United States.

A stroll around the campus, just off Interstate 5, reveals

just how far Native education has come: Gone are the uniforms, the focus on “the white man’s ways,” and vocational

courses like blacksmithing and dairying. State-of-the-art

computer labs prepare students for the 21st century;

regalia-making and drumming connect teens to their

past; and vibrant murals line the hallways, a source of

pride and a way for young artists to leave their mark.

Chemawa Superintendent Larry Byers, a member of the

Cherokee Nation, has had a major hand in the transformation. “I came at a good time—1976—so I didn’t

experience a lot of what was happening to students

before,” he says. “We started valuing culture. My job

was to move on, make sure students felt comfortable

with being Native, and give them every opportunity to

express who they were.”

Byers speaks proudly of the 87 students in Chemawa’s

talented and gifted program, the 100 kids who made the

honor roll last fall, and the monthly assemblies that celebrate student success. All, he believes, are the result of a

system that’s driven by students’ needs and “doesn’t penalize them for what they didn’t know before they got here.”

Still, some of the bleaker realities of American

Indian/Alaska Native education stubbornly linger on:

lower academic achievement, disciplinary issues, and

alcohol and drug problems. Just this school year, Chemawa

has struggled with the on-campus death of a popular

16-year-old girl by alcohol poisoning. “Whatever’s happening on the reservation is happening here because

those issues don’t go away on a plane ride,” Byers reflects.

“We’re going to work with whoever we get, and try to make

the best of it.”

The academic and social issues that continue to cast

a shadow over boarding schools like Chemawa also present challenges to tribal schools and public schools that

serve the overwhelming majority of Native students today. 

A CLASH OF CULTURES 

In recent years, a number of researchers and theorists

have suggested that minority students (including American Indians and Alaska Natives) achieve a lower degree

of academic success because of “discontinuities” between

these students’ traditional culture and language and those

of mainstream American society. As a research report by

Washington state’s Office of Superintendent of Public

Instruction points out, “According to this theory, minority students come from backgrounds that equip them

with linguistic, cognitive, and interactional styles that are

not fully supported by typical public schools, which are

instead usually structured to support those styles common

to white, middle-class students. It is believed that these

discontinuities often result in systematic and recurrent miscommunication in the classroom as well as a failure to

acknowledge and build upon the knowledge and abilities

that minority students bring with them to school.”

Researchers such as John Ogbu believe that cultural difference theory alone doesn’t explain why some minority

groups succeed while others fail. Ogbu argues that a key

factor is the difference between “immigrant minorities”

and “involuntary minorities.” Native Americans fit into the

latter category of those “brought into their present society through slavery, conquest, or colonization.” They

tend to view the social, political, and economic barriers

NW Education / Spring 2004

4

We’re trying to 

give our students

the opportunity to

succeed from where

they are when they

come to us, and

that’s a different

philosophy from

most other schools

that want students

to fit their 

system.

—Larry Byers, 

Superintendent,

Chemawa Indian School

“

”
they face in America as permanent and institutionalized

discrimination. Involuntary minorities also may believe

that education won’t help them get ahead and may in fact

be detrimental to maintaining their cultural identity.

PROVIDING CULTURAL CONTEXT

In an attempt to counter the effects of these discontinuities, Native tribal communities and educators have long

advocated programs steeped in Native culture and language. The seminal 1995 report, Indian Nations at

Risk: An Educational Strategy for Action, concludes that

“cultural context is absolutely essential” for Native students

to succeed academically and build meaningful lives as

adults. That belief is supported by the work of Jerome

Bruner, a pioneer in the fields of cognitive development

and educational psychology. Bruner states that “culture

shapes mind, ... it provides us with the tool kit by which

we construct not only our worlds but our very conceptions of our selves and our powers.” He goes on to say,

“Learning, remembering, talking, imagining: All of them

are made possible by participating in a culture.” 

A national coalition of experts, led by the Northwest

Regional Educational Laboratory, is looking for scientific

evidence to tie theories like Bruner’s to Native American

education and to affirm the belief that students thrive when

instruction is congruent with their culture, connected to

their history, and consistent with their community’s worldview. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, NWREL’s John Towner and William Demmert of

Western Washington University have just completed an

exhaustive review of the research literature on culturally

based education (CBE). In searching the research base,

Demmert and Towner defined CBE as having six critical

elements:

• Recognition and use of Native American (American

Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian) languages

• Pedagogy that stresses traditional cultural characteristics and adult-child interactions

• Pedagogy in which teaching strategies are congruent

NATIVE STUDENTS

5

Native Voices

Dawn Smith on Student Success

The key to our success is that we have an extremely

dedicated staff. The average number of years our

teachers have been in the building is 12. We only have

staff that really wants to be here and make a difference,

because we’ve made that a hiring priority: Don’t come

here if you just want to be a teacher, come here if you

want to make a difference for us and you’re willing to

give us the years. That’s been the best thing to happen

to this school. 

It used to be that teachers came and left. There was

no consistency for students, parents, or staff. Now,

many of us at the school have been here for so long

that a lot of the parents have grown up knowing us.

Over the past several years that’s made a tremendous

difference. We’re right here in the community, so they

get to know us very well. 

That consistency has also allowed us to move forward

much more effectively with reform. Our staff has

aligned the entire curriculum to the state standards—

everyone knows what they’re teaching and when it

needs to be taught in order for the kids to hit the

benchmarks. We’ve also developed a lot of in-building

assessments. We’re continually tracking the kids. We

know where every kid is, in every subject, all of the

time—who needs assistance, who needs supplemental programs, or who needs to be pushed because

they’re exceeding all of our expectations. 

Our biggest problem is attendance, and we’ve addressed that by going directly to the parents. We 

enlist them as partners in what we’re doing, rather

than just getting information from them and not using

it. And we’re always open and honest with them. We

surveyed them, then we sent out the results of the

survey so they could see what the other parents were

saying, and (finally) we implemented a lot of their

ideas. That helps build trust and it gives them a sense

of ownership in the school. 

Dawn Smith, an enrolled

member of the Klamath

Tribes in Oregon, has been 

at Warm Springs Elementary

since 1975, serving as principal since 1994. Located 

on the Warm Springs Indian

Reservation in central Oregon, the rural K–4 school serves more than 300 students, 98 percent of whom are Native American. 

In 2003, Smith was recognized as a National Distinguished Principal by the National Association of 

Elementary School Principals.

You can find more “Native Voices” at NW Education

Online, www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-03.
with the traditional culture and ways of knowing and

learning

• Curriculum that is based on traditional culture and that

recognizes the importance of Native spirituality

• Strong Native community participation in educating

children and in the planning and operation of school

activities

• Knowledge and use of the social and political mores of

the community

Demmert and Towner found that, with few exceptions,

CBE research has been descriptive or narrative rather than

anchored by scientific practices. “However,” says Demmert, “from my observations and experiences as an educator for more than 30 years, I clearly see a tie between

academic performance and culturally based education.

I think that when the research is done, whether it’s experimental or high-quality quasi-experimental, there will be

a connection.”

Demmert and others involved in NWREL’s work are now

looking at existing CBE projects that might lend themselves

to rigorous scientific study, as well as determining the feasibility of experimental studies. Meanwhile, their research

review presents the position that “knowing, understanding, and appreciating one’s cultural base are necessary

starting points for initiating a young child’s formal 

education.”

THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY

Understanding the child’s cultural base is inextricably

linked to involving the community in the child’s formal

education. A panel of American Indian and Alaska Native

master educators, gathered by NWREL in 2001 to create

a tool for improving schools for Native students, came to

this conclusion: “All the scientifically rigorous research

and well-validated tools will not improve school systems

unless thoughtful and open dialogue is focused upon

understanding, valuing, and committing to school

improvement as a community.” The resource that grew

out of the panel’s work—the Learn-Ed Nations Inventory

—is a framework for gathering data and assessing how

well a school is serving Native students. In presenting the

inventory, the authors stress that every student, school, and

community is unique, making local cultural context

essential to school reform.

The role of community is also underscored in research

on resilience, well-being, and school success for American Indian and Alaska Native students. In a review of studies, Joyce A. Strand and Thomas D. Peacock found that

an adolescent’s resilience—or “ability to bounce back

from adversity”—is rooted in her connections to family

and school and in personal characteristics. Strand and

Peacock quote statistics from the National Longitudinal

Study of Adolescent Health which indicate that:

• Healthy youth feel strongly connected with their families.

• Youngsters tend to do well when they feel teachers at

their school treat students fairly; are close to people at

school; get along with teachers and other students; and

feel fellow students are not prejudiced.

• Adolescents’ well-being is affected by whether they

believe they have good qualities, like themselves, and

feel loved. 

Despite the differences among the 554 Native American tribes, Strand and Peacock point out that tribal families, schools, and communities all provide protective

factors that “enable children to alter or reverse negative

outcomes that might have been predicted for them.”

Though subjected to undue stress and adversity, youth who

possess resiliency can withstand serious threats and do

not give way to school failure, substance abuse, mental

health problems, or juvenile delinquency.

HIGH ACHIEVERS 

Back at Chemawa, there are plenty of examples of students

who are soaring above expectations. Students like Pat Lane:

a 17-year-old member of the Lummi Nation with an

engaging smile. He’s president of Chemawa’s student

council this year, manager of the campus store, a standout in three sports, and founder of the school’s peer

6

NW Education / Spring 2004

They help you get

into the classes you

need ... it’s 

all about 

education.

—Pat Lane, 

Chemawa student

“

”
mediation program. He modestly shrugs off the long list

of accomplishments by saying, “It’s good to stay busy” and

talks about the importance of maintaining a positive attitude and taking advantage of any opportunity thrown

your way. “Here they give you tests to see your capabilities, and place you where you need to be, even if it means

sending you to Chemeketa (Community College) for

courses not offered on campus,” he observes. “Back

home, if you were in eighth grade you were stuck in

algebra and it didn’t matter how good you were.”

Tasha Havacone is another kid who’s beating the odds,

excelling at academics and leadership. She admits, “I didn’t

do so well before I came here (from the Hualapai Reservation in Arizona), but I got a 4.0 last semester.” Fewer

distractions, more structure have been the keys to Tasha’s

success. Vice president of the student council, manager

of the boys’ wrestling team, member of the volleyball

squad ... her list of responsibilities and achievements

stretches on like Pat’s. “On the reservation, you know

everybody and everybody knows your business,” she

says. “Here you can be somebody different.”

And valuing that difference is what Native education

should be all about, in Larry Byers’ opinion. “You have

to find out what your students want for success,” he

advises, “and help them be successful with their values.

That’s the one thing we teach our teachers: Value these

students for who they are, and where they’re going. It may

be going back home to the reservation—but they’re

going back as a giver, not a taker. If we can do that,

we’ve contributed to the success of that person and their

tribe. That’s my goal.” 

FYI: A copy of Demmert and Towner’s A Review of the

Research Literature on the Influence of Culturally

Based Education on the Academic Performance of

Native American Students can be downloaded at www.

nwrel.org/indianed/cbe/.Learn-Ed Nations Inventory is

also available at nwrel.org/indianed/LENI/index.html.

NATIVE STUDENTS

7

Native Voices

William Demmert on Culturally Based Education

Many of us who have been successful academically, economically, and socially have been

brought up in an environment that supports or

has positive attitudes about being Native American. In our assessment of why schools fail, we

generally see a school that does not take into

account the influence of culture on one’s view

of the world, the learning preferences an individual might have developed, or the impact 

of environment on a person’s cognitive 

development.

From the colonial period in America, educators

told us that being Indian is not good, that

knowing the language and participating in and

or practicing the culture is not good. The long

cycle of poverty that followed reinforced that

idea. Now we have entered a period that says

“wait a minute—learning more than one language is good, even if it is a Native language,

and we might be smarter because of that second language.” And there is a greater recognition outside the Native American community

that the environment you grow up in and the

experiences you have not only define who you

are, but also significantly influence what you

learn and how you learn. 

In the southeast Alaska

Tlingit community

where he grew up,

many of William 

Demmert’s extended

family members made

their living as fishereducators, fishing

commercially in the summer and teaching

school in the winter. The family’s tradition of

teaching dates back to 1926, when his aunt

became one of the first Alaska Natives to earn 

a teaching certificate. Today, Demmert, who

holds an Ed.D. from Harvard University, is a

leading researcher on Native education. A professor at Western Washington University in

Bellingham, he co-authored the 1995 report

Indian Nations at Risk: An Educational Strategy

for Action and heads up the Native American

Research Coalition. 

Coming here 

lets you get away

from family and

friends and 

be different.

—Tasha Havacone,

Chemawa student

“

”
Slipping

Throughthe

Cracks

By Kara Briggs 

I

left high school with a whisper, not a bang. I was 15, and

the year was 1981. I told my

dad I was burned out, and needed a

break from the world. He said kids

don’t get burn-out. But he’d learn.

For a couple of weeks I put on

the charade of being sick. Then I

simply caught up to the low expectations I found for myself, a halfYakama girl in an all-white high

school in Spokane, Washington.

In grade school, teachers encouraged my advanced writing and

reading skills. But in a high school

of more than 1,000 students, I hung

close to the walls fearing the tidal

wave of teens would sweep me under.

The one time my French teacher

noticed me was when I sneaked out

of a pep rally—which bored me—

to go to the library. He roared, “We

expect you to go where we tell you 

to go.”

I felt more isolated than the average bookish teen misfit. After years

of my white classmates dissecting

my features—a prominent nose,

full lips, and coarse brown hair—

I felt ugly. The kids at school called

me whatever variety of brown was

down. To them I was a “wetback”

one week and an Iranian the next.

But I was never something so

mythic as an Indian. Native Americans didn’t exist in my formal education, except for world-weary men

sitting on the sidewalk outside the

Union Gospel Mission. Any time I

Kara Briggs is a reporter at

The Oregonian newspaper

and past president of both the

Native American Journalists

Association and Unity: 

Journalists of Color. 

She can be contacted at 

kara_briggs@yahoo.com.

(Photo by Patricia Cordell)

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004
asserted, “I am a Yakama,” someone was sure to look at my pale skin

and add, “Just a little bit,” and in so

doing take another bite out of who 

I was.

In this atmosphere, I could not

explore my growing pride in being

Yakama. Even when I did venture

an idea, someone would correct it.

In eighth grade I won second

place in a speech contest with a talk

about Native American rights. But

one judge, who was white, told me

that he was friends with Native

Americans, and that I wouldn’t get

any “brownie points” for criticizing

the white man.

That puzzled me as a child because I reasoned I had been in the

Campfire Girls, not the Brownies.

But the white man’s criticism ate

away at my win. Would his impact

have been different if he’d talked

with me about tone and style, rather

than presuming that he had the

right to tell me how I should talk

about my race?

Native American teenagers slip

away every day. Many of us will

check out of school mentally, if not

physically. We retell the stories of

how the government beat our languages out of our parents and

grandparents.

Some of us will drink to escape

the pain, only to wind up in car 

accidents, alcoholic, or dying from

alcohol poisoning. Others will have

babies, who run the risk of growing

up as skeptical of schooling as their

parents. Some will stand up to

teachers, only to be kicked out of

school. With those odds, we’d rather

gamble on making a living fishing

the Columbia like our cousins do,

like we will do even if we graduate.

We wonder what the white man

has to teach us, anyway. It’s a fair

question.

Indian educators in the Portland

Public School District reported in

2002 that one-third of the district’s

1,100 Native American students were

at some time in their schooling 

labeled as having learning disabilities. When tested, though, they were

found to be learning able. What did

these students learn under the

emptiness of low expectations?

Leaving high school was surprisingly easy for me. No one ever called

from my high school to find out

where I was. No matter how many

times my dad told me that a truant

officer would come after me, none

appeared at our door.

My dad, who was white, had

raised me since my Yakama mother

died when I was four. My parents,

Greg and Evelyn, had been high

school teachers together in Seattle,

Honolulu, and California’s San

Joaquin Valley in the 1960s. I was

their only child.

Looking back, I realize my dad

didn’t know what was happening to

me, and neither did I. I know now I

was suffering from depression and

post-traumatic stress syndrome. 

Native American health providers

identify these as the leading mental

health issues for Native Americans.

Researchers say we may even sense

in our bones the trauma endured by

generations before us.

The loss that has defined my life

occurred when my mother was killed

by a runaway bus before my eyes.

She was 31. My father and I lived

with her ever-present absence. As a

child, the memory of her accident

replayed in my mind like film footage. We never grieved; in fact we

didn’t know how to, in either my

mother’s Yakama traditions or the

mainstream culture’s psychological

treatment.

For many of us, school isn’t

nearly as compelling as our internal

pain, which only grows as we come

to realize the enormous personal loss

resulting from 500 years of genocide.

We need educators who are Native

American to guide us through these

realizations. We also need educators

who will shake off their racial preconceptions. We all carry them. 

Students need you to face them 

one human being to another.

For me, it took only a few weeks

to find something more resilient

than my pain. It was my intellectual

curiosity. The girl who was written

off by teachers took to reading the

classics.

Wandering the moors with

Heathcliff and Catherine was an 

antidote to my depression. I voraciously moved on to Anna Karenina’s

suicide, and figured that’s no way to

go. I crossed the Atlantic with the

suffragists. I traveled in time to the

Civil Rights movement, the women’s

movement, and as far as the collection at the Spokane Public Library

allowed. Only one topic, the Native

American rights movement, was 

absent from the shelves. 

Meanwhile, my dad—my first

and greatest teacher—spent evenings teaching me the genres and

styles of 20th century American

music, and the finer points of newspaper reading. When he was diagnosed and died of cancer in 1984, 

I was 18. He was 47. 

I looked to Jane Eyre for guidance. She made a life for herself,

and I determined I would, too. I

found Whitworth College and an

English department that would take

me. I moved on as if nothing unusual had ever happened. Until my

30s, I never breathed a word about

having dropped out of high school.

Now I’ve been a journalist for 15

years. I can’t help but wonder how

the Yakama girl I was, with all her

academic interests, could slip

through education’s cracks. And if it

happened to me, how many more

talented Native American students

are falling through the holes in

America’s schools every day? ■

NATIVE STUDENTS

9
NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

10

Dropout Prevention Programs in

Montana, Alaska, and Washington

he statistics are alarming:

more than a third of all

Native American students

don’t finish high school.

According to the National Center for

Education Statistics, the high school

completion rate in Northwest states

ranges between 55 and 65 percent.

In Oregon and Alaska, Native students are twice as likely to drop out

as their white, non-Hispanic peers.

In Montana, they’re three times as

likely. 

As a result, efforts are under way

across the region to stem the tide of

youth leaving school without diplomas. Many of these programs seek

to salve past injuries and engage 

the entire community in keeping

students in school. 

“We’re looking at ways to foster

trust and a relationship not only

with the child, but with their family

and their community,” explains

Julie Cajune, Indian education 

coordinator for the Ronan-Pablo

School District in Montana. “Distrust is a community issue, not just

a school issue. We need to recognize

there are wounds in order for healing

to take place.”

STEMMING THE TIDE IN RONAN

The Ronan effort, funded by a

$255,000 grant from the Kellogg

Foundation, is directed by a steering

committee representing the entire

community: elders, school staff,

business leaders, working people,

and even middle and high school

students. After conducting exit interviews with students who chose to

leave school, the committee developed several strategies to address the

most common causes. 

Since teen pregnancy is one of

the leading reasons, a child care 

facility now operates in a building 

donated by the tribe, enabling

young parents to stay in school. To

help failing students, computerized

classes are offered after school so

they can make up lost credits and

still graduate with their peers. A

mentoring program using community volunteers targets sixth-graders

and high school freshmen because

those are difficult transition years. 

Because research shows that 

feeling connected to just one adult

at school can increase a student’s

chances for academic success, faculty members meet daily with small

groups of eight to 10 students and

engage them in out-of-school activities throughout the year. These activities have included rafting, rock

climbing, and camping trips, as well

as community service projects such

as tutoring elementary students or

shoveling snow for elders. 

“The idea,” says Cajune, “is to

build a community of belonging.”

The approach seems to be working. A student Cajune describes as

“never excited about school—let

alone talking about a school activity” enthusiastically flags down 

Cajune in the library to show her

photos of his school-sponsored rafting trip. Quantitative data are beginning to support the qualitative:

During the program’s first year, the

dropout rate for American Indian

students in the district fell below the

rate for non-Native students for the

first time in years, perhaps ever. 

ELSEWHERE IN BIG SKY COUNTRY

A similar effort, the Montana American Indian Dropout Prevention

Program, targets other Native communities in the state. Funded by a

$300,000 federal grant, the program

involves a two-tiered approach at the

state and local levels. 

At the state level, an advisory

council is using existing data to develop a comprehensive plan for student retention. “Essentially, (it’s) a

research agenda to look at different

practices that could help,” explains

Lori Falcon, the Indian education

specialist with Montana’s Office of

Public Instruction who oversees the

project. The council is studying the

accreditation process for alternative

programs and reexamining absenteeism policies to make them more

culturally sensitive. For example,

when an extended family member

dies, a Native student may miss several days of school due to the cultural

traditions of his tribe, potentially

causing him to lose credits and fall

behind.

Studying achievement data has

been helpful in pinpointing trouble

spots for Native youth, says Falcon.

Though Indian students often enter

kindergarten with lower English

proficiency than their non-Indian

classmates, early literacy activities

can close the gap. However, “at

eighth grade, we see a real drop 

in achievement,” reports Falcon.

“Somewhere between fourth and

eighth grade, the whole phenomenon

of oppositional identity comes up.”

She explains that as young 

Native people begin forming their

identity, they often find their traditional values—beliefs that come

from family, home, and community

—at odds with the values they are

encouraged to adopt in school.

“Middle school is a tough time for

all kids, but especially for Indian

kids. They start disengaging,” she

says. “It’s in ninth and 10th grade

when they start dropping out.” 

To combat that, six middle and

high schools located primarily on

Montana reservations—Browning,

Heart Butte, Rocky Boy, Box Elder,

By Joyce Riha Linik

T

HEALING

WOUNDS
Lame Deer, and Poplar—have received approximately $40,000 each

to develop local retention strategies.

As in Ronan, approaches here

involve developing community partnerships, mentoring, adding classes

in tribal culture, and building a

day-care facility in at least one

school. Efforts are also under way 

to improve the collection and use 

of data, including a survey of 12thgrade students to learn what has

helped them stay in school. 

While the program is currently

looking at short-term strategies for

students on the verge of dropping

out, Falcon has her hopes set on

some long-term solutions. She suggests policy changes like extending

the age range for public education

programs from two to 21 years old.

That would allow for the establishment of preschool programs to boost

school preparedness as well as alternative programs to help young

adults return to school and obtain

their diplomas into their early 20s.

AN ALASKA ALTERNATIVE

In Juneau, Alaska, alternative high

school Yaakoosgé Daakahidi—

Tlingit for “House of Knowledge”—

offers students who have been unsuccessful in the mainstream a “last

chance” to achieve their diploma

before pursuing a GED or leaving

school entirely. With a small staff

and just 90 students, Principal

Ronalda Cadiente reports the school

has been successful in creating an

atmosphere where kids who may

feel lost or invisible in a large traditional high school are able to find 

a connection. According to Cadiente,

it’s a common problem for Tlingit

students, who make up about half of

Yaakoosgé Daakahidi’s population. 

The program offers both structured and independent classes to

meet the needs of its students. That

may mean allowing them to make

up missed credits or arrange their

schedules to accommodate working

and caring for children. But, staff

and program graduates say, the key

is the personal attention and support

students receive. 

“What’s working?” Cadiente

asks. “Most obvious are a smaller

learning environment and a less

formal student/teacher relationship.

Students connect with our staff and

know that we care about their growth

and progress.” Cadiente says community involvement and cultural

inclusion are also important in 

serving Native students. 

Evidence of the program’s success lies in the numbers: The school

awards an average of 35 diplomas

per year. “Kids are graduating,” says

Cadiente, “and these are kids who

otherwise would not have.”

A JUMP ON COLLEGE 

IN WASHINGTON

In Washington, a dropout prevention program goes a step further to

help students not only complete high

school, but get a jump on a college

education. The Early College High

School Initiative for Native Youth is

part of a broader national effort for

minority students, funded by the Bill

& Melinda Gates Foundation and

others. It helps secondary students

obtain both a diploma and an 

Associate of Arts degree in their own

high school—with an added 13th

year—thus removing financial and

other barriers to advancing their 

education. Antioch University Seattle

coordinates the Washington effort.

Linda Campbell, an Antioch professor and project director, says she

had initial concerns the program

might be perceived by the Native

community as “the white man trying to do more in less time” for their

children, so she approached tribal

leaders at the outset for their opinion

of the early college concept. There

was “unanimous excitement” about

the potential, and tribal leaders have

been instrumental in helping design

what the program looks like in

practice.

Last year, Medicine Wheel

Academy in Spokane, Ferndale High

School in Ferndale, and Tulalip 

Heritage School in Marysville were

selected as the first participants. This

year, two more organizations joined

the program: the Wellpinit School

District on the Spokane reservation

and the Suquamish tribe, which

plans to start an early college high

school. Additional sites will be added

next year.

Though each school and its college partner have a unique program,

all must include local, culturally

relevant curriculum; family and

community engagement; and academic advising and support. “Often,

there’s a strong remedial/special 

education focus” to programs 

targeting minority students, says

Campbell. “(Instead), we’re setting

high expectations.” 

Students are rising to the challenge. At Ferndale, math teachers

were surprised by unusually high

grades, says Campbell. “In talking,

they realized kids were working so

hard because of the motivation of

early college.”

Campbell cites statistics from the

Manhattan Institute showing the

high school dropout rate for Native

students in Washington is 52 percent.

She believes that number is an 

underestimate “because there’s no

tracking of kids from fifth to sixth

grade or in middle school.” Native

students also have the lowest college

completion rates of any ethnic

group in the country. 

“There appear to be 9,000 to

10,000 Native students in middle and

high school in Washington. Our initiative will reach more than 1,000,”

Campbell observes. She adds hopefully, “We think this initiative may

serve to transform college achievement in a single generation.” ■

NATIVE STUDENTS

11
As students peer

out the window, 

Pat Pierre conducts

a weather lesson 

at a tribal-run 

language immersion

preschool

in Montana.
INTHE 

LANGUAGE

OFOUR 

ANCESTORS

PROGRAMS IN 

MONTANA AND WASHINGTON 

GIVE VOICE TO 

DISAPPEARING WORDS

Story by Mindy Cameron / Photos by William M. Berg

that existed here before the arrival of

white settlers, as many as two-thirds

may have disappeared. Of those that

remain, many could die along with

the elders, the dwindling brain trust

of tribal language.

Boyd’s story shows why so many

of these languages disappeared, why

some survived, and how they might

be saved.

THE TOLL OF ASSIMILATION

From the late 19th century until the

mid-20th century, the national policy regarding American Indians and

Alaska Natives was assimilation.

After decades of removing indigenous people from their land to reservations, the federal government

old when she went to boarding

school. Decades later, she explains

simply, “I didn’t like it, so I left.”

Three days after she arrived, Boyd

walked out and hitchhiked back

home to the Camas Prairie area of

the Flathead Reservation in Western

Montana. There, her grandmother

raised her in the language of their

ancestors.

Boyd, a former foreign language

instructor at Salish Kootenai College, came out of retirement to

teach three Salish language classes

at Ronan High School. For her, it’s a

simple matter of tribal survival. “If

we don’t keep the language alive our

tribe is going down. Without the language we won’t be Indians any more.”

Students in her class understand

that and struggle to learn the language. A difficult task is made more

difficult by a lack of resources. The

sole text is a Salish storybook, The

Story of a Mean Little Old Lady,

with English translation. 

“We have to do the best we can,”

says Boyd. Like her students, Boyd

wishes Native language instruction

could start earlier, at an age when

learning a new language is not so

difficult.

Julie Cajune agrees. She is 

Indian Education Coordinator for

the Ronan-Pablo School District.

She admires and values what Eva

Boyd is doing. “A teacher such as

Eva is one way to make the school

more reflective of the community,”

RONAN and ARLEE, Montana

—Students in Eva Boyd’s class are

typical teenagers. They fidget, wisecrack, talk to friends, and only occasionally pay attention. 

But when asked why they are in

this class, they speak with one voice:

We are losing our language; we

want to preserve our heritage. The

presence of these Salish teens in this

classroom, along with Eva Boyd, 

a tribal elder, is testimony to that

singular desire to save a culture by

saving the language. 

Across Indian Country, many 

efforts to revive and revitalize Native

American languages are under way.

And none too soon. Estimates vary,

but of the hundreds of languages

sought to mainstream them into

American society. 

Education was a critical aspect

of the assimilation policy. It was 

believed that through education,

Native Americans would learn the

white man’s language and culture

and develop the skills to function 

effectively in white man’s society. By

1887 the federal government had 

established more than 200 Indian

schools to carry out this mission. 

Like many of her tribal contemporaries, Boyd was sent to an Indian

boarding school. At the typical

boarding school, children were punished for speaking their traditional

language. Some were made to stand

in the corner, others had their

knuckles rapped or rags tied around

their mouths. Many children eventually forgot their tribal language,

and those who remembered were

often ashamed to use it. 

Eva Boyd managed to escape

that fate. She was a willful 10-yearNATIVE STUDENTS

13
she says, “but we are doing language

at the wrong end.” 

“Go to Nkwusm,” Cajune insists. 

STARTING EARLY

Thirty miles down the road at Arlee,

in a former bowling alley that also

houses a casino, is Nkwusm. It’s a

tribal-run language immersion

school for preschoolers. 

Five little ones squirm on the

floor at the feet of two elders, Pat

Pierre and Stephen Small Salmon.

Like Boyd, the adults are fluent in

Salish and committed to keeping

the language alive, even if it means

coming out of retirement, as Pierre

has done. 

On this damp and chilly day, 

he is reviewing the Salish names for

months, days of the week, and numbers. The children vigorously recite

the words. They follow Pierre to the

window where he points to the sky,

the ground, and the distant hills. It

is a short lesson in Salish about the

weather. 

Pierre explains, “The power and

wisdom of language is what has

kept our people together so that we

can do meaningful things. If I can

teach the little ones the language,

then we keep our identity.” 

The research is clear about

learning languages. A second language is more easily acquired early

on as children develop their language skills, rather than at a later

stage. That has great importance for

indigenous people facing the extinction of their ancestral language.

Language is more than words and

rules of usage. It is the repository 

of culture and identity.

USING LANGUAGE NESTS 

In Nkwusm, the Salish are replicating

what has worked elsewhere to revive

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

14

LEFT: Holly Burland and her classmates have just one storybook that’s

been translated into Salish.

BELOW: Eva Boyd came out of retirement to teach three Salish language

classes at Ronan High School.
indigenous languages; they are using

what’s called a “language nest.” As

the name implies, a language nest 

is more than just another language

program. It is language immersion

for the youngest members of a 

Native population. 

When the Maoris of New Zealand

faced the extinction of their language

more than 20 years ago, they created

language nests. Hawaiians soon

adopted the Maori model and, in the

mid-1990s, a similar program was

established on the Blackfeet Reservation in Northwest Montana.

Language nests are seen by

many as a key to reviving tribal languages. Last year Hawaii Senator

Daniel Inouye proposed an amendment to the Native American Languages Act of 1990. If passed, it

would provide federal government

support for Native American survival

schools, including language nests.

The 1990 act establishes as national

policy the government’s responsibility to “preserve, protect, and promote

the rights of Native Americans to

use, practice, and develop” their 

Native languages.

Last May, at a U.S. Senate hearing on the proposed amendment, a

delegation representing the Blackfeet Nation stressed the difference

between Native American language

survival schools and public schools.

“The academic outcomes of Native

American language survival schools

are as strong as, or stronger than,

public education systems and 

students become speakers of their

Native language,” they said. 

The Blackfeet Native language

school in Browning, Montana—

Nizipuhwasin—has become a

model for Nkwusm and for other

communities that hope to develop

programs for young speakers of

tribal languages. 

Few tribes, however, can sustain

such schools indefinitely. Founders

of Nkwusm, which is now supported

by grants and the Salish-Kootenai

tribe, hope eventually to be selfsustaining. They also seek to have

an endowment, run a K–12 school,

and provide distance learning for

the Flathead Reservation. 

As important as tribal programs

such as Nizipuhwasin and Nkwusm

are, the current reality is that most

Native youth are educated in public

schools, not tribal-run classrooms.

Native educators say if traditional

languages are to be saved, public

schools will have to play a key role.

INTEGRATING LANGUAGE

In Washington’s Marysville School

District, Tulalip Elementary offers

one example of how to develop an

integrated curriculum of language,

literature, and culture with Lushootseed—the language of the Tulalip

tribe—at the center. 

The program began several years

ago at the school, which is about 70

percent American Indian. Tribal

members and district staff worked

together to develop a Tulalip-based

classroom in the fourth grade. A

non-Native teacher teamed with a

tribal language teacher to create a

new curriculum, which has now

evolved into Lushootseed language

and culture instruction at every

grade level. 

Any curriculum introduced in

schools today must meet state standards and the requirements of the

federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The Tulalip-based curriculum in

Marysville has managed to do that. 

One of many challenges for

schools that already have—or would

like to start—Native language programs is finding qualified teachers.

Some states have responded to that

need by authorizing alternative 

certification for Native language

teachers. In Montana, Washington,

Oregon, and Idaho, the authority for

granting certification to these teachers has been delegated to tribal authorities. (In Alaska, this authority 

is reserved for each school board or

regional educational attendance

area.)

Once a tribe has determined an

applicant is fluent enough to qualify,

he or she is recommended for certification to the State Board of Education. Upon certification, Native

language teachers, usually tribal 

elders, get the same pay and benefits

and must meet the same requirements for continuing education as

NATIVE STUDENTS

15

Consider This

“Language nest” is defined in 

the proposed amendment to the

Native American Languages Act of

1990 as a site-based educational

program that:

• Enrolls families with children

under age 7.

• Is conducted through a Native

American language for at least

700 hours per year per student. 

• Has the specific goal of

strengthening, revitalizing, or reestablishing a Native American

language and culture as a living

language and culture of daily life.

The “Natural Approach” 

According to language instruction

experts, the best way to acquire a

second language is the same way

you acquire a first language—

immersion in a language-rich 

environment. Here are four principles of language immersion or the

“Natural Approach:”

• Comprehension precedes production. The teacher focuses on

a topic that interests students,

always uses the language she is

teaching, and aids comprehension with gestures, visuals, and

real objects.

• Students learn in stages, from

a silent period of listening to trying a single word, several words,

phrases, and—finally—sentences and more complex conversation. The goal is to carry

out a conversation in the language. Focus on activity, not

grammar.

• Create a warm, friendly, welcoming classroom; use activities

that are interesting and relevant;

encourage the expression of

ideas, opinions, and emotions. 

• Learning a language takes time.

Expect to spend about 500 hours

in language instruction to

achieve a basic conversational

proficiency.

—From Stephen D. Krashen 

and Terrell D. Tracy, The Natural 

Approach: Language Acquisition

in the Classroom
other certified teachers.

There have been some issues 

involving classroom management.

“(That’s) no small matter in a room

with more than a dozen teenagers,”

notes Julie Cajune. Even so, she

thinks it’s a good move. Without

certification, Native language teachers, who were paid at the level of

teacher aides, were devalued.

The Montana Board of Public

Education adopted its policy for alternative certification, called Class 7

Specialist Certificate for Native

American Languages, in 1995. At

that time one tribe identified only

five elders who were fluent in their

Native language. Today, there are

112 Class 7 teachers in Montana. 

Washington state adopted its 

alternative certification in 2003. It 

is a three-year pilot program with

the purpose of contributing “to the

recovery, revitalization, and promotion of First Peoples’ languages.” 

By the end of the first year, seven

teachers had been certified under

the program.

INDIAN ENGLISH

Teaching Native American children,

whether the subject is reading,

math, or their indigenous language,

presents a unique set of circumstances. While very few Native

youngsters speak the language of

their ancestors, their first language

is not necessarily the English of

their white classmates, either. The

first language of two-thirds of American Indian youth today is Indian

English, according to a research 

report by Washington state’s Office

of the Superintendent of Public 

Instruction and the Evergreen Center for Educational Improvement at 

Evergreen State College in Olympia. 

Authors of the report, Magda

Costantino and Joe St. Charles of 

Evergreen, and Denny Hurtado of

OSPI, describe Indian English as

English dialects used by American

Indians that do not conform in certain ways to standard English. 

Despite the differences, however, 

the dialects “are nonetheless wellordered and highly structured languages that reflect the linguistic

competencies that must underlie 

all languages.” 

In American Indian English,

W.L. Leap provides important context for the restoration of Native languages. He writes that distinctive

characteristics of Indian English—

what he calls “codes”—“derive, in

large part, from their close association with their speakers’ ancestral

language traditions. In many cases,

rules of grammar and discourse

from that tradition provide the basis

for grammar and discourse in these

English codes—even in instances

where the speakers are not fluent in

their ancestral language.” 

It can be argued, then, that 

Indian English serves as a language

bridge between the past and present.

Understanding the role and importance of Indian English, however,

may not be as big a hurdle as the

larger issues and prevailing attitudes

about language use and instruction.

Many people believe that because

English is the dominant language,

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

16

Stephen Small Salmon listens to a Salish story with one of his young students.

Native Voices

Joyce Silverthorne on Language

Language is an important vehicle of

culture. Everything we know and say

and do is learned through the symbol system of language. It only has

meaning if we all understand the

same thing. 

All across the country, I have asked

Native Americans of many tribes,

‘Do you have a word for I’m sorry?’

I have yet to find a word for it in any

Native American language. We only

invent words that we need. If your

way of life doesn’t allow you to

wrong others, you don’t need a

word for that. 

You can tell a lot about a culture by

the words you do and do not invent. 

Immersion programs and classroom instruction cannot be the only

way of revitalizing a language. It 

depends on people throughout the

community who recognize the need

to keep the language alive. What

should they do? Use the language.

We have a writing system: Use it in

signs, labels. I’m looking around my

room right now. Why haven’t I done

that?

Joyce Silverthorne is a member of

the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes and a student of the language. She is education director for

the tribe and has been a member of

the Montana Board of Public Education for 10 years. She serves as a

member of the Northwest Regional

Educational Laboratory’s advisory

committee on math and science.

You can find more “Native Voices”

at NW Education Online,

www.nwrel.org/nwedu/09-03.
instruction should be in English and

all students should learn its proper

usage. Disagreement about the role

and importance of bilingual education is a fact of life in many school

districts, tossing up one more barrier

to public school efforts to become 

involved in Native language revival.

WHAT RESEARCH SHOWS

Advocates of Native language revival

programs point to research that

shows academic advantages for

children who speak two languages.

Gina Cantoni, a language pedagogy

professor at Northern Arizona University, has written of “abundant 

evidence” that teaching the home

language does not interfere with the

development of English skills. To the

contrary, she notes, instruction that

“promotes proficiency in one’s first

language also promotes proficiency

in the second language.” 

Cantoni contends that “mastery

of more than one linguistic code 

results in a special kind of cognitive

flexibility.” Unfortunately, she notes,

the “special” abilities related to

mastery of more than one language

are not covered by most tests used 

to measure academic achievement. 

Research reinforces the argument

for expanding Native language instruction. Even more compelling 

are the voices of Native American

advocates, from the students in Eva

Boyd’s class to the elders teaching

youngsters at Nkwusm and to 

longtime Montana educator Joyce

Silverthorne.

Silverthorne, a member of the

Salish tribe of the Flathead Reservation in Montana, has been a classroom teacher, college instructor,

school board member, program administrator on the reservation, and

member of the Montana Board of

Public Education, where she worked

for passage of the Montana Class 7

certificate.

While language and culture 

are linked in all societies, “what is

unique to Native Americans is that

this is our homeland,” says Silverthorne. “There is no ‘old country’ to

return to. When language dies here,

it dies forever.”

Nkwusm founder and teacher

Melanie Sandoval is committed to

seeing that doesn’t happen. Now 28,

she says she has been trying to learn

the language of her tribe as long as

she can remember. She now learns

along with the children, thanks to

the two elders who come into the

classroom six hours a day, five days

a week. After years of formal study,

she is now learning useful, everyday

phrases like “blow your nose” and

“jump down off that.”

What’s happening at the school

is more than preserving the language. Sandoval observes that

preservation “is like having a bottle

on the shelf. We want to breathe life

into the language, to speak it, and

pass it on to the next generation.” 

BETHEL, Alaska—Though she

stands barely five feet tall, Loddie

Ayaprun Jones is a formidable force.

More than 30 years ago, she pioneered a bilingual, Yup’ik kindergarten program in Bethel, a hub 

for the tundra villages that dot the

Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Today, the

only Yup’ik immersion school in existence bears her name—an honor

she wryly acknowledges by saying,

“The parent who suggested it told

me you don’t have to be dead to

have a building named after you.”

In Jones’s sunny corner classroom, the “ACEs” take the place of

ABCs: There are no B’s or D’s in the

18-letter Yup’ik alphabet. Student

names like Angilan, Utuan, and

Eveggluar call out from selfportraits that adorn the walls. 

And, the Pledge of Allegiance is the

“pelak.” Looking around, Jones remarks, “Every day our students are

reminded that they’re Yup’ik. They

say ‘we have life.’” 

Yup’ik, spoken by the Native 

people of Western Alaska, is the

strongest indigenous language

group in the state. The geographic

isolation of the region helped keep

English at bay longer than in other

parts of Alaska, according to Walkie

Charles of the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of

Alaska Fairbanks. Yup’ik phrases 

remain at the heart of the subsistence culture—“yuungnaqsaraq”

—and 51 percent of the children in

the region are classified as Yup’ikspeaking.

Despite that, fluency becomes

more tenuous every year as television and pop culture wash over the

tundra. That fact fills Jones and her

fellow immersion teachers (called

“elitnauristet”) with resolve and an

almost religious fervor. They battled

a skeptical local school board to 

establish their elementary program

in 1995, after five years of study and

lobbying. In 1999, they successfully

applied for charter school status

from the Alaska Board of Education

in an effort to gain more autonomy

and secure grants for the development of materials. Now they are

gearing up for their charter renewal,

ready to battle critics who question

whether students are best served

learning in their ancestral tongue or

in the language that dominates the

modern economic landscape.

“We do have ignorant community members who think we’re trying to go back to the old way of

life—to using kayaks and living in

sod houses—rather than trying to

integrate the Western and Yup’ik

cultures,” says co-principal Agatha

Panigkaq John-Shields. “When we

hear negative comments from our

opponents, we use that as a critique

and strengthen our program. We

show them, rather than fight,” she

adds with steely determination.

While Ayaprun Elitnaurvik is the

only Yup’ik immersion school in the

NATIVE STUDENTS

17

CHARTER SCHOOL 

KEEPS NATIVE LANGUAGE

ALIVE

Determined teachers enhance students’ cultural identity 

By Rhonda Barton
Lower Kuskokwim School District

(LKSD), 22 of the district’s 27 schools

have strong Yup’ik programs and

one offers Cup’ig immersion. “What

empowers people out here is the

choices they have,” notes Abby 

Qirvan Augustine, another one of

the school’s founding members.

“The district doesn’t direct villages

to have certain kinds of programs.”

LKSD also produces a wealth of

Yup’ik storybooks and instructional

materials that find their way into

classrooms throughout the state.

At the immersion school, 10 certified Native instructors use Yup’ik

exclusively in kindergarten through

second-grade classes, 75 percent of

the time in third grade, and half the

time in grades four through six. The

school’s 189 students have reading

and language arts classes in English 

beginning in third grade and add

English-language health and math

a year later. All other subject matter

is taught in Yup’ik.

Jones’s voice rises with excitement

as she explains the difference between teaching in a traditional

classroom versus an immersion program. “Most of it is total physical response,” says Jones, the winner of a

Milken Family Foundation National

Educator award. “You use your

whole body to demonstrate concepts,

from the simplest to the most complex.” Her fellow teachers—Abby,

Carol, Sally—chime in with their

own descriptions: “heavy on handson, a lot of singing, repetition,

chants.” They stress a “natural approach” to language acquisition—

using Yup’ik in everyday situations

rather than emphasizing formal

rules and grammar.

While the teachers maintain that

their students achieve at higher levels than peers in English-only programs, the data aren’t quite that

cut-and-dried. Bev Williams, LKSD’s

director of academic programs, 

acknowledges that “English isn’t 

the only factor,” with attendance,

parental support, and social issues

contributing to test scores.

“Longitudinal research indicates

that students who begin literacy and

academic instruction in their indigenous language, as they learn

English, and then transfer into 

English do much better academically on English tests in the upper

grades,” notes Williams. “Also, students in good immersion programs

tend to do better academically in

English in upper grades.” However,

Williams continues, “The research

is unclear on what happens if students enter an immersion program

as limited English speakers and

their only instruction is in the target

or second language.” 

Still, whatever the end result, it’s

undeniable that pride ripples out

from these classrooms like a pebble

thrown in the dusky Kuskokwim

River. Parents who were never

taught Yup’ik are beginning to pick

up words from their schoolchildren.

Elders beam at the students who

perform traditional songs and converse in Yup’ik on visits to the nearby

senior center. 

“(For me) walking into the halls

of Ayaprun is like coming home,”

says Charles, one of the recipients of

a million-dollar grant for a career

ladder program for Yup’ik paraprofessionals. “Ayaprun Elitnaurvik’s

success comes from the commitment of teachers like Loddie and

Abby who are truly Yup’ik, who are

academicians, and who (can) take

ownership and orchestrate something as powerful and as humbling

as a Yup’ik immersion program.” ■

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

18

Loddie Ayaprun Jones is surrounded by students at the Yup’ik immersion school that

bears her name. Photo by Joy Shantz.

The Lower Kuskokwim School

District has created colorfully

illustrated books to increase 

Yup’ik language proficiency.
“AS A CHILD, I never had an

American Indian teacher,” reveals

Az Carmen, descendant of the

Chickasaw and Choctaw tribes and

now coordinator of Native American

enrollment services at the University

of Oregon. 

Unfortunately, Carmen’s experience is not unique. 

In the Northwest—where Native

students represent anywhere from

1.3 percent to one-fourth of the elementary and secondary school population, depending on the state—

Native instructors make up smaller

fractions of the teaching force. Nationally, they account for less than 

1 percent of all teachers. In Alaska,

where Native educators are more

prevalent, they still represent less

than 5 percent of the total while 

Native students fill 25 percent of the

seats in the state’s classrooms. And

even on Indian reservations and in

remote Alaska villages, the majority

of teachers come from outside the

Native community. 

Well-meaning as these outsiders

may be, the situation is less than

ideal for Native students who suffer

from the lowest high school completion rates in the nation. The research

suggests—and common sense tells

us—these students might benefit

significantly from having like role

models to guide them, as well as access to more culturally sensitive and

culturally relevant instruction. 

As a result, efforts are under way

across the Northwest to increase the

numbers of American Indian and

Alaska Native teachers serving in

schools with high populations of

Native youth. 

Taking Steps in Oregon

At the University of Oregon, a program called Sapsik’wala—Sahaptian for “teacher”—was instituted

in 2002 to recruit, train, and mentor

American Indian teachers. The program, funded by U.S. Department of

Education grants totaling approximately $1.7 million, was developed

as a partnership between the College

of Education and nine federally 

recognized tribes in the state: Coos,

Coquille, Grand Ronde, Klamath,

Siletz, Siuslaw, Umatilla, Umpqua,

and Warm Springs. The program’s

goal: to increase the number of Native teachers with the cultural sensitivity and training necessary to help

lower dropout rates and raise test

scores for Native students. 

Candidates selected for the program receive tuition and fees, a

monthly stipend, and a book allowance, provided they commit to

teaching in a school with a high

concentration of Indian students

after receiving their degree. 

The stipend is designed to cover

living expenses such as child care,

explains Carmen, since many Native

students are older and have family

responsibilities to juggle with

coursework. This provision was included on the advice of the tribal

consortium, Carmen says, and is especially important because “Native

people know that if you’re thinking

about their children, then you’re

concerned about their welfare.” 

Other important elements of the

program include a weekly seminar

on Native education issues, as well

as the use of Native mentors and the

implementation of a cohort model.

“We provide support,” explains

Sapsik’wala program director Pat

Rounds, “because we know it’s 

important to getting these trainees

through the program and keeping

them as teachers.” She notes that 50

percent of all teachers entering the

profession leave within three years. 

Support mechanisms are especially important for these students,

not simply because of the pressures

every new teacher faces on the job,

but because of the unique expectations placed on Native instructors.

Often, as minorities on staff, Native

teachers report that they are expected to serve as spokespeople and

provide “the Native American perspective.” This, they say, is an impossible role to fulfill, given the vast

number of tribes and varying cultures. Additionally, some individuals

may feel uncomfortable being

forced into the spotlight in this way. 

If students in the program need

guidance, they can turn to Shadiin

Garcia, a Laguna Pueblo and coordinator of student support services,

who serves as a Native mentor for

the program. They can also turn to

their program cohorts. “We want to

get them thinking as a community,”

Rounds says. “We want them to

think of going to each other for

problem solving.”

Connections forged in the program can serve participants beyond

graduation. As grads head separate

ways for teaching positions, they can

still connect with their former colleagues via a new online support

program called “Tapped In.” 

Laurie Evans, a student in the

program, says she and her colleagues have benefited from both

the mentoring and cohort approach:

“Natives work by community for the

most part, so it’s been very positive.”

In the program’s first year, one

student earned a master’s degree in

education. This year, 16 more will

join the ranks. 

Opening Doors 

in Montana

Near Billings, Montana, where Crow

and Northern Cheyenne students

outnumber Native teachers by 54 

to one, Montana State University’s

NATIVE STUDENTS

19

SEEKING NATIVE 

TEACHERS

NORTHWEST PROGRAMS RECRUIT 

AND TRAIN INDIGENOUS INSTRUCTORS

BY JOYCE RIHA LINIK
Bighorn Teacher Projects are opening doors for American Indians who

dream of teaching. Since 1999,

more than $4 million in government grants has been funneled into

four Native teacher education projects: Three target Crow and Northern Cheyenne students, while one

program helps Bureau of Indian Affairs school employees who are seeking credentials in special education.

To date, the Bighorn Teachers

Projects have helped 16 American

Indian teachers obtain their degrees

and find teaching positions. Another

33 are now in the program, thanks

to the help of scholarships, stipends,

and other support. 

“We provide tutoring and mentoring by a master teacher—an 

Indian teacher, whenever possible,”

says Reno Charette, Bighorn project

director. “And we send students to

conferences sponsored by the National Indian Education Association, the Montana Indian Education

Association, and the Montana Federation of Teachers. We try to get them

professionally networked before

they’re out of the program.” 

The Comprehensive System of

Personnel Development project also

relies on a cohort model to provide

extra support for students and offers

monthly seminars on Native education issues. For example, an upcoming seminar focuses on multiculturalism. Specifically, Charette says,

they’ll discuss the cultural differences that often exist between Native

teachers’ home and community 

environments and those they’ll encounter as educational professionals

in the school and larger non-Native

community.

Charette compares this transition to a “doorway”—a resonant

symbol in Native culture—through

which Indians must learn to consciously walk back and forth. For

example, she says, a Native woman

may defer to her father-in-law as

head of household at home, avoiding excessive eye contact, and not

being confrontational out of respect.

At school, she may be forced to confront a male principal, using direct

eye contact, being assertive, and

stating her needs precisely. Charette

says, “I try to get them to understand that they are not sacrificing

their value system (by this change

in behavior), it is just a necessity for

contemporary living.” 

Reaching Out in Alaska

In Alaska, a program called Preparing Indigenous Teachers for Alaska

Schools (PITAS) has grown out of

the need to curb dropout rates and

provide more culturally relevant instruction while addressing a shortage of qualified teachers and

extremely high turnover rates in

rural communities. Based at the

University of Alaska Southeast in

Juneau and funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the program

seeks to develop Native teachers who

not only have the training and experience necessary to help Native

students succeed, but who are also

more likely to stay long term in

rural assignments. 

“If you’re from a rural area,

that’s your home—the mountains,

hills, streams,” says Rhonda Hickok,

PITAS project manager. “Your sense

of belonging is strong, you have a

network that’s supportive already,

and it’s more likely you’ll want to

stay there.” 

The PITAS program, now in its

third year, has helped two students

obtain master’s degrees with the aid

of scholarships and other support.

There are now 36 students in the

program working toward bachelor’s

degrees.

Hickok explains that the program relies heavily on mentor

teachers who recruit high school

students interested in becoming

teachers. These mentors meet with

students throughout the year, provide them with information on joining the profession, and help them

hone their study skills in preparation

for college. A two-week summer 

institute at the university gives 

students a chance to experience

campus life, become familiar with

support services, and participate in

bonding activities with faculty and

other Native students on the same

career path. This kind of induction

and ongoing support is especially

important, Hickok notes, because

the transition to university life 

can be a shock for any student, 

especially those from tiny, remote

villages in the far reaches of Alaska. 

Other Factors at Play

Rising Native enrollment figures

and graduation rates show these

programs are making a difference.

But there’s a long road ahead and

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

20

A teacher trainee in the PITAS program goes berry-picking with students at

Auke Lake in Juneau.
A MORALE BOOST

I am writing to thank you for 

your issue in support of licensed

teacher-librarians (“Nexus of

Knowledge,” Fall 2003). It is not

often that we see such strong

support for our profession. Those

of us who work in public schools

in Oregon often feel misrepresented in the press or—at the

very least—misunderstood. Your

articles did much to improve our

morale. Librarians who fight for

their programs and their jobs

every day in school districts

throughout Oregon appreciate

every bit of good publicity. 

Martha Decherd

President-Elect

Oregon Educational Media 

Association

Portland, Oregon

SALMON RECOVERY

I am a 23-year-old Athabascan

male who is going to school to be

a fisheries biologist. I am familiar

with the lifestyle of rural Alaskans

as well as their concerns for the

wild stocks of Pacific salmon 

(described in “Fin and Feather,”

Spring 2002). 

I tend to look at myself as a

mediator between local residents

and the state or federal government or, in other words, the

urban-rural divide. I understand

the frustrations that come forth

about outside enforcement (by

government agencies). I also understand the position of the government, having spent the past

two seasons working for U.S. Fish

and Wildlife counting, monitoring, and sampling salmon that

run up the Kwethluk River. 

I am aware of the dismal runs

that plagued both the Yukon and

Kuskokwim Rivers over the past

few years. However, this past

summer, the runs of the chinook,

chum, and coho salmon were

counted in record proportions

compared to previous years.

I just thought that I would share

with you that I had the pleasure 

to be part of a year when salmon

counts were so high that they definitely bring hope for future runs.

Besides my normal duties as a

fisheries technician, I took it upon

myself—as a self-appointed advocate—to inform as many locals

as I could on why we are really

there: to save a valuable resource

so that future generations can utilize what we have been blessed

with—rivers full of salmon.

Derek Van Hatten

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Fairbanks, Alaska

LETTERS

NATIVE STUDENTS

21 the path is not without obstacles.

One unanticipated challenge 

involves the federal No Child Left 

Behind Act. 

In a recent study by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory on how the legislation affects

small, rural, and isolated schools,

administrators and teachers in the

region listed among their top concerns quality teacher recruitment

and training, as well as educational

requirements for paraprofessionals.

Under NCLB, Title I school 

instructors must have state certification, a bachelor’s degree, and

demonstrate subject area competency. Paraprofessionals must have

at least two years of postsecondary

education or a high school diploma

with proof of passing a formal state

or local academic assessment. 

The increased educational qualifications for teachers and paraprofessionals are proving to be difficult

challenges for some districts, due to

financial and logistical constraints.

For example, in Alaska, 100 schools

have three or fewer teachers; about 

a third of these employ just one instructor. To expect these teachers to

be qualified experts in multiple 

content areas seems unrealistic. 

Additionally, many longtime 

Native paraeducators don’t have 

the formal credentials now required,

though they provide critical links to

the community and its culture. Expecting them to take the time and

expense to meet the requirements

may be unrealistic as well. 

Administrators are working hard

to find creative solutions to these

problems. Some districts are offering

seminars to help teachers prepare

for subject area competency tests or

providing signing bonuses in an attempt to prevent qualified teachers

from taking positions elsewhere. To

keep valued paraeducators, districts

are looking for ways to bring college

credit courses on-site and seeking

funding for tuition reimbursement. 

So hope lives on. 

Carmen says she may have

missed out on having an American

Indian teacher as a child, “but it has

to start somewhere. So we start with

what is most elemental: our children. My hope is that in the next 10

to 15 years, we will see more Indian

principals and vice principals and

superintendents.”

And perhaps Carmen’s own

daughter will help realize that vision. Now a master’s candidate in

the Sapsik’wala program, she’s well

on her way. ■
&

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

Nets Paddles

Fish and canoes carry meaningful lessons 

Story and photos by Rhonda Barton

“Only catch enough fish to last 

you through the winter. Use and/or

preserve every part of the fish that is

edible. Fish are easy to spoil, especially

the whitefish, so take care of the fish

as soon as they are caught. If we are

lazy and idle, food won’t come to us.”

—Henry Frank, elder, 

in Thematic Unit on Fish–Grade One

Fishing boats line the Johnson River in

Kasigluk. In a village without bridges, some

students use the boats to get to school.
KASIGLUK, Alaska, and

PUYALLUP, Washington—

Flying into Kasigluk in a “puddle

jumper,” miles of red and yellowflecked tundra unfold below you. A

spidery network of lakes glistens in

the autumn sun and the Johnson

River cuts a wide swath, slicing the

village into “old” and “new” sectors.

In this barren Southwest Alaska

landscape, where temperatures dip

to minus 40 degrees and permafrost

dwarfs the growth of trees, water is a

life-giver. Making up 10 percent of

the village’s 12-square-mile area,

water is a primary source of food, 

an income generator, and a way to

travel from one place to another. It’s

no wonder then that water—and

the fish that live in it—make their

way deep into the curriculum of

Akula Elitnauvrik or “Tundra

School.”

The school, with its own warehouse stocked with a year’s worth of

cafeteria lunches barged in when

the weather is good, has just under

100 pupils. All but one, a teacher’s

child, are Alaska Native. From kindergarten through 12th grade (or

“phase” in this ungraded school),

students study things that prepare

them for life in a harsh environment and connect them to the subsistence culture. Uses of fish parts,

where edible plants grow, traditional

ways to prepare for winter, how animals move: They’re all part of thematic units that blend modern state

standards with Yup’ik traditions that

stretch back thousands of years.

“We asked our elders what they

wanted us to teach our students,”

says Levi Ap’alluk Hoover, who grew

up in the village and has taught

here for 25 years. “They came up

with the topics and then we (teachers) came up with the units.”

Kasigluk was the first school to implement the Yup’ik cultural curriculum that’s now found throughout

the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. 

“For our students to only learn

about skyscrapers and cows would

be dumb,” admits Principal Felecia

Griffith-Kleven. “This curriculum

validates the traditional lifestyle,

helps them appreciate it, and

teaches them the skills they need to

be successful in the community.” 

Griffith-Kleven, who grew up in

Illinois but was inspired to move to

Bush Alaska by her second-grade

teacher’s stories, says her school’s

goal is to produce students who can

succeed in the local culture, as well

as outside it. “They should be able

to choose, and if our graduates leave

to learn a trade or profession, we

hope they will bring that knowledge

back to the Delta and have the best

of both worlds.” 

Indeed, a 2003 statewide study of

Native perspectives concluded that

“subsistence is overwhelmingly important to Alaska Natives in both

rural and urban areas, and they believe it will continue to be important

in the future.” Of those surveyed by

the Alaska Humanities Forum and

the McDowell Group, 85 percent

rated subsistence as important or

very important to their households.

Dr. Oscar Angayuqaq Kawagley, a

leading Native educator at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, believes

“it is essential for Native students to

receive an education that is clearly

tied to their cultural worldview.” He

observes, “Although non-Native

people tend to view the subsistence

NATIVE STUDENTS

23
way of life (as) being very simple,

the Native practitioner sees it as

highly complex. A subsistenceoriented worldview treats knowledge

of the environment and each part’s

interdependence with all other parts

as a matter of survival.” 

From Akakiik to Manignaq 

In Levi Hoover’s classroom—with

its view of the river—phase 9/10

students sprawl on the carpeted

floor, practicing how to attach mesh

to the rim of the fish net. A chart on

the wall, hanging just under a 10-

foot-long dip net, advises that whitefish liver is an excellent source of

vitamin A while herring and dried

salmon contain vitamin B. 

Down the hall, which is lined

with photographs of elders, Caroline

Ataugg’aq Hoover—Levi’s wife—

tests kindergartners on the parts of

fish. They enthusiastically shout out

the Yup’ik names, as she waves laminated flash cards in the air. The

children then move on to the next

activity, picking up strips of construction paper and weaving them

into a “lake” where cut-out pictures

of lush (manignaq) and pike

(‘luqruuyak) can swim.

Youngsters in phase 5/6 create 

illustrated books on boating safety

and study the life cycle of whitefish

(akakiik), one of four indigenous

species. Levi comes in to lead a

Yup’ik studies lesson, and plastic

needles and skeins of mesh start

tumbling out of kids’ desks and

backpacks. Soon everyone is industriously turning out chains of threeand-a-half-inch squares that grow

into fish nets. Nicholson proudly

holds up the results of three hours’

work. What’s the secret to his netmaking prowess? “Being a boy,” 

he shyly confides. 

For Levi, there’s a stark contrast

between the cultural lessons he

shares with pupils and his own formal education. Attending a Bureau

of Indian Affairs boarding school, he

painfully recalls that students were

“severely punished” for speaking

Yup’ik. “They washed our mouths

out with soap, slapped our hands

with a ruler, and made us stand in

the corner.” He vowed, if he became

a teacher, to never treat his students

that way. Not only did he earn a

teaching certificate—after 13 summers of attending university—but

he and Caroline have seen four of

their six children go on to college so

far. “We have to keep kids interested

and motivated,” he knows, “any

way we can.” 

24

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

CONSIDER THIS

Whether jigging for pike or casting a net from a skiff, the fisherman’s experience is steeped in Yup’ik beliefs in the tundra villages of the Kuskokwim River Delta. Traditional practices hold

that fishing will be unsuccessful:

• If you waste fish 

• If a relative passes away and you fish before the anniversary

of that person’s death

• If a woman has a miscarriage and she fishes before one year

has passed

• If a young girl fishes before the anniversary of her first 

menstrual period

Such beliefs are woven into the thematic unit on fish, developed by the Lower Kuskokwim School District. Nita Rearden, an

LKSD education specialist, worked with teams of teachers to develop units on a dozen themes: Some are used, as is, by all the

district’s 27 schools while others are adapted to reflect local traditions. The subjects cover everything from family and community to celebrations, storytelling, plant and animal life, land,

geography, and weather. 

Bridging Western and Yup’ik culture, the material uses the

child’s background knowledge to explore social studies, science,

literacy, and language arts. “It serves as an anchor and helps the

learner become a powerful thinker in understanding other cultures—whether through books, videos, television, or radio,”

says Rearden. “If a child understands what a moose is, she can

find out what an elk is, and even compare it to an elephant, even

if she’s never seen one.” Rearden adds, “My hope is that we’ll

make children feel good about themselves and feel curious

enough so they’ll want to learn.”

The thematic units—and an extensive line of bilingual and

Yup’ik storybooks, CD-ROMs, posters, and literacy materials—

are available for purchase from the Lower Kuskokwim School

District. You can find their catalog at www.lksd.org.
The Pull of Tradition

William Gilstrap also knows the

value of doing whatever it takes to

keep youngsters on course. Even the

most languid student in his sixthgrade class at Chief Leschi Elementary in Puyallup, Washington, snaps

to attention when Gilstrap grabs a

chunk of cedar and forcefully splits

it with an antler wedge in one hand

and a stone maul in the other.

How did the First People fell

mighty trees and build sturdy canoes without chain saws or axes, 

he asks? Students venture guesses—

“fire, sharp sticks, rocks”—and

then go on to pose their own questions about canoes. “Why don’t they

sink?” wonders Nicole. “How many

people can they hold?” Paul adds.

Dennis pipes up, “How long do they

last?” Soon, there’s a list of 15 guiding questions that will shape assignments for the weeks to come.

Students will research and

record the answers in their individual tribal notebooks. They’ll create

miniature models of the river canoe

found throughout the Northwest

and compare this to the many

canoe types that traveled along the

inner and outer coastal waters.

Using historical sleuth work, the

class will investigate the types of 

canoes in turn-of-the-century photographs, increasing their perspective about their ancestors and the

ways they built and honored the

canoe.

To Gilstrap, a strapping man

with a ponytail and carefully waxed

mustache, studying canoes here in

the Puget Sound is a “no-brainer.”

Although this tribal school sits

among berry fields in the shadow 

of Mt. Rainier, the jagged coastline

of the Sound is only about a dozen

miles away. And, even villages in the

region’s high mountain valleys used

canoes to transport goods to settlements on the Sound and the Pacific. 

The starting point for Gilstrap’s

inquiry-based lessons is “Canoes on

Puget Sound: A Curriculum Model

for Culture-Based Academic Studies,” developed by educator/author

Nan McNutt and Washington 

MESA (Math, Engineering, Science

Achievement) at the University of

Washington. The curriculum blends

language arts, history, health, and

most particularly, math and science.

It’s designed to engage all learners

but resonate especially with Native

students.

“What this curriculum does is 

to center the study on a cultural object,” says McNutt. “This presents a

platform for academic studies from

which students also examine their

own questions about the canoe to

formulate a total understanding.”

Making It Personal

In preparation for teaching the

canoe curriculum, Gilstrap attended

a weeklong summer institute on the

Olympic Peninsula. But the secondyear educator and former law enforcement officer has put his own

stamp on the material. Although he

is not Native, Gilstrap’s knowledge of

American Indian lore is encyclopedic and he’s able to tie his lessons to

the 11 different tribes represented in

his classroom of 21 students. He reminds Jonathan, fidgeting in the

back row, that his Haida ancestors

depended on canoes, and they certainly had to understand principles

NATIVE STUDENTS

25

Left: Levi Hoover helps students

make fishing nets as part of a

Yup’ik studies class.

Below: William Gilstrap splits a

cedar log as he describes how 

to build a canoe.
26

PORTLAND, Oregon—It’s

early—very early—on a chilly

Saturday morning and seven

bleary-eyed teens pile into a van,

clutching pillows and tossing

sack lunches in the back. They’re

headed down the Willamette Valley, from Portland to Corvallis, on

a road that could very well lead to

their future.

The contingent of kids from

Yakima, Eugene, Seaside, and

Portland are members of Salmon

Camp, a natural science and career training program for Native

American youth run by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). During summer

and spring vacations, campers

can be found restoring streams in

a Central Oregon watershed, collecting soil samples deep in Redwood National Park in Northern

California, or tracking fish in

Washington’s San Juan Islands.

On school-year weekends the activities tend to be more prosaic,

though still geared toward introducing students to opportunities

in fields like forestry, botany, 

archaeology, and fishery and

wildlife management.

“The real key is getting kids

out in the field, learning about

science by actually doing science,” says program director

Joseph Jones. “We offer residential

programs so kids are literally living with resource managers and

scientists, and they get to know

them not just as professionals but

as friends.” 

“Today, reservations are in

control of a lot of natural resources,” adds Ben Muir, camp

coordinator. “The Native Americans working there tend to be

technicians while the managers,

who make the decisions, are

largely white. One of our goals 

is to interest kids in natural resources so they can get training

and go back to the rez to make a

difference.”

That’s where today’s road trip

comes in: Students will tour the

Oregon State University campus

on this busy homecoming weekend and get a sales pitch from

faculty and students in the fisheries and wildlife program. 

Tables heaped with elk antlers,

beaver pelts, bonefish floating in

jars of alcohol, and taxidermic

porcupines await the group at the

College of Agricultural Studies.

Salmon Camp Spawns

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

like symmetry and buoyancy to be

successful. While they may not have

had rulers, they used another unit 

of measurement—body parts—to

determine the circumference of a

prospective cedar log and the proportions of a well-made craft.

Taking pride in such accomplishments is a theme that constantly resurfaces. From canoes to

the handmade drums that poke out

of students’ cubbyholes and the

“Salmon Society” regalia that

Gilstrap uses to reward good attendance and completed homework,

Native culture is embedded in the

classroom and throughout the 

643-student school.

Three times a week, the beat 

of the sacred drum reverberates

through Chief Leschi’s hallways as

boys and girls start their day with a

traditional circle. Kindergartners to

sixth-graders all join in the songs

and chants and dances. “We have 

to give our kids back their identity,

because they’ve been stripped of it,”

says Principal Bill Lipe, who identifies himself as “Tsalagi,” the Native

translation of Cherokee. “For 150

years, Indians were told how to live

their lives. Call it assimilation or call

it genocide. We’re trying to salvage

what we can, which means going

back and teaching the old ways

while living in a contemporary

world.”

“I’ve had more families thank

me for allowing their child to learn

about canoes, make a drum, tell a

story,” Gilstrap remarks. “It’s exciting when I can share these things

and see a light come on.” 

FYI: For more information about

the “Canoes on Puget Sound”

curriculum, see NW Education

Online, www.nwrel.org/nwedu/

09-03.
NATIVE STUDENTS

27

“We have one of the most extensive

museum collections in the U.S.,”

faculty member Rebecca Googans

points out. “The best part is you

can handle it, touch it!”

Googans, who’s in charge of internships, shows the high schoolers

an enticing presentation on where

she’s placed OSU students: working

for a cheetah conservation group

in Namibia, monitoring 

otters in Monterey Bay, and studying grizzlies in Alaska’s Katmai

National Park. 

By the end of the session, excitement is running high among

the salmon campers. Aron, a

sophomore, sees himself coming

back here to study forestry after

taking a fire science course at Clatsop Community College. It’s a career path that grew directly out of

his camp experience. “Last summer we worked with a couple of

‘hot shot’ firefighters at Olallie

Lake,” he explains. “I did my presentation (at the end of camp) on

how fire lines are used for controlling fires and how things grow

back after a burn. I didn’t know

anything about it before camp, 

but boy, it really turned me on!”

OMSI recruits middle and high

school-aged tribal members from

around the region for the free

camps, which are underwritten by

private donations, contributions

from tribes and government 

agencies, and a National Science

Foundation grant. Applicants are

selected based on an application,

personal essay, and recommendations.

“It’s a diverse student population,” notes Jones. “Some are excellent students, while others are

on the edge. They need to be given

a concrete reason for applying

themselves academically.”

Once in the program, OMSI

helps the students find academic

and professional mentors: university, tribal, and agency scientists;

researchers; and natural resource

managers. Much of the work focuses on salmon recovery efforts

but the students learn to use sophisticated equipment and computer modeling to examine other

complex ecological issues. At the

conclusion of the one- to threeweek residential sessions, students

present their research findings at 

a public gathering. Often they’re

able to get school credit for their

work, and sometimes the experience has a more lasting impact.

“At the end of one camp, about

eight years ago, an elder sat with

us around the fire and shared 

an oral history about the Warm

Springs tribe,” recalls Jones. The

elder related his story to a site where

campers were doing an archaeological dig that summer. When the

land came up for sale soon after,

Salmon Camp approached the

tribe and jointly worked to get

35,000 acres protected through

federal funding.

Jones observes, “It was the first

title land ceded back to the tribe 

in the John Day Basin since the

1850s. We were there this spring

with elders and our students collecting roots for the first time in

150 years that it’s been back in 

Indian hands—all because of a

story around a campfire.” 

FYI: For more information

about the Salmon Camp program, contact salmon@

omsi.edu or check out

www.omsi.edu/education/

camps/salmon.cfm. ■

s Career Options

Salmon campers tour

OSU’s fisheries and

wildlife department.
FORT HALL, Idaho—Sherman

Alexie’s fictional character, Corliss,

loves books, an obsession that sets

her apart from family and friends

on the Spokane Reservation where

she grew up.

Throughout the Northwest,

teachers of Native American children

are looking for ways to cross cultural

boundaries and help youngsters 

discover, as Corliss did, the thrill of

reading books. In today’s environment of testing and measuring, it is

a must-do task. 

Educators know that reading

and language skills are essential

building blocks to student success.

For Native American children, however, language and reading too often

are stumbling blocks. For example,

figures from the National Center for

Education Statistics show that reading proficiency rates for American

Indian and Alaska Native fourthgraders in the Northwest last year

were anywhere from one-fourth to

one-half as high as their white 

classmates.

Reasons for this achievement

gap are many and complex, but research on Native American learners

points to one key strategy for changing the status quo: Bridge the 

cultural gap between Native American students and their learning 

environment.

Concrete examples of how to do

that can be found in a classroom at

Ft. Hall Elementary School near

Blackfoot, Idaho, and in a new 

reading curriculum developed by

Washington researchers.

Partnering for success

Ft. Hall Elementary is on the

Shoshone-Bannock Indian Reservation in southeastern Idaho, near

Pocatello. All but 3 percent of the

167 students in kindergarten

through fifth grade are enrolled

tribal members. 

Faced with low test scores, Principal Ryan Wilson decided to try

something different. In fact, Ft. Hall

began doing a lot of different things.

Four years ago, it became one of

nine schools in the Partnership

School Program of Idaho State 

University’s College of Education. 

The program involves a number

of strategies: training existing school

staff in local culture and Native language; emphasizing school as a

“community of learners”; and infusing the system with ISU student

teachers and interns. Also central to

the partnership program is building

and maintaining connections with

students’ families and other members of the local community. 

It seems to be working. Attendance at Ft. Hall has grown from 68

percent to 97 percent. The parentteacher organization has been revived; local residents are using the

school for activities such as making

fry bread, beading, and quilting.

Parents are encouraged to attend an

evening computer lab and some are

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

28 CREATING 

a

CULTURE

of

READERS

BY MINDY CAMERON

“She wasn’t supposed to be in college 

and she wasn’t supposed to 

be as smart as she was 

and she wasn’t supposed to 

read the books she read 

and she wasn’t supposed to 

say the things she said. 

She was too young 

and too female 

and too Indian 

to be that smart.” 

—Excerpted from 

“Search Engine,” 

Ten Little Indians, 

a collection of short stories 

by Sherman Alexie 
volunteering as teacher’s aides. Last

fall, so many families turned out for

the annual school-sponsored powwow that it had to be moved outside. 

“If teachers make the effort, the

community responds,” says Wilson.

He beams with pride about the 

accomplishments, even though he

now has a new assignment, principal of the middle school. 

Wilson seems most proud of

progress in reading. In the fall and

spring, students in grades K–3 are

assessed through the Idaho Reading

Initiative to determine their reading

level. Results are scored on a scale 

of 1 to 3, with 3 being at or above

grade level. 

At Ft. Hall, Wilson notes, most

kids start at level 1. Before introducing an intensive reading program,

“a good year was having 20 percent

at level 3 by the end of the school

year.” In spring of 2003, all but a

few of the 42 children were at levels

2 or 3. “It’s just outstanding to move

them that far,” Wilson says.

Reading specialist Brenda Wolfe

may be one reason for the progress.

To the visitor, her classroom looks

like organized chaos. Forty firstgraders are divided into eight small

groups and seated at small tables. A

teacher or aide—sometimes an ISU

student teacher, a foster grandparent, or a parent volunteer—works

with each group. Some groups are

reading, some are coloring, others

are wearing headsets at the listening

station. At Wolfe’s table, children are

working with large, colored letters

changing “plate” to “plane.”

There’s not a worksheet in sight. 

Children rotate through the

reading room throughout the week.

First-graders spend two hours a day,

others one hour. They work in small

groups, receiving lots of interpersonal contact and focused attention

on the words and language skills

expected for their grade level. 

Monday through Thursday, “we

hit it hard,” says Wolfe. “They are

worn out.” Fridays are fun days, 

taking the subject matter—always

culturally relevant—and making

an art project out of it.

Wolfe, who is non-Indian, has a

passion for what she’s doing. The

reading room/coach idea grew out

of the success she had with a summer school program. “If I were a

millionaire, I’d still do this,” she

confides, “because it works.”

Thanks to Wolfe’s gentle yet firm demeanor, organization wins out over

chaos. “We have rules and we have

consequences,” she states. “There

are no threats. I mean what I say

and they know it.” 

The intensity spills out of the

reading room in the form of homework. “Homework is a challenge for

Indian culture,” observes Wolfe.

“We start it in kindergarten so kids

and parents know they have certain

things to do.” Children take the assignment home in an envelope with

a note explaining the task. On the

outside, the envelope lists what the

child is expected to know by the end

of the year, and this advice for parents: “Say it. Spell it. Write it. Read

it. Repeat it.” Children are expected

to return the homework in the envelope with the parents’ signatures.

Wolfe focuses on K–3 students,

but intensive work in reading is a

schoolwide emphasis. So is the use

of culturally relevant material and

teaching styles.

Through the partnership with

ISU, Ft. Hall teachers have deepened

their understanding of how Native

American children learn. Faculty 

receive training in classroom techniques that emphasize the use of 

visuals and plenty of activity. Dr.

Beverly Klug, the ISU partnership 

liaison, assists teachers in the use of

culturally based curricula and encourages them to fill hallways and

classrooms with objects and posters

representing American Indian life

and culture.

In her book, Widening the Circle, Klug and coauthor Patricia T.

Whitfield write that “teachers, not

NATIVE STUDENTS

Miss ShoshoneBannock, Michelle

Ellsworth, pays a visit to

Ft. Hall Elementary. 

First-graders proudly

show off headbands

which they made for the

school’s powwow.

Teacher Polly Pearson

(kneeling) and Aide Tilda

Edmo integrated the

activity with a math

lesson. (Photos by

Beverly Klug)

29
NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

WHY BLUEJAY HOPS

A Skokomish legend as told by Georgia Miller

Illustrations by Bruce Miller

Long ago at a big meeting, Raven boasted about his arrow shooting.

He was the best shot in the world. This is what he told everyone.

He prepared for someone to challenge him.

Skatefish came along. He made himself as big as he could. Dancing,

he teased Raven’s marksmanship. He gave Raven three chances to

hit him. 

Whizz! Raven’s arrow shot forth. Laughing, Skatefish turned sideways.

Teasing Raven, Skatefish spread himself out again. Whizz! Another

miss, another laugh.

Once more again! Raven missed three times!

Then Bluejay stepped forth. “I can do that too,” he said. “I’ll give you

three chances.”

Bluejay planned to copy Skatefish. He spread himself out like 

Skatefish and teased Raven.

Whizz! Raven’s arrow shot forth. Bluejay turned sideways. Ping!

Right in the hip! “Ow!” screamed Bluejay. He forgot he wasn’t

skinny like Skatefish. And ever since, because of his vanity, 

Bluejay hops.

The charming tale of Bluejay and Raven is one of 140 culturally 

relevant stories comprising The Indian Reading Series: Stories and

Legends of the Northwest. Guided by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Native authors and artists created the series

cooperatively with a dozen Northwest Indian reservations. 

This collection contains materials relevant to life in rural Native

communities and is designed as a supplementary reading and language arts program. It’s not intended to be used to teach Indian

“culture,” according to Robey Clark, a Blackfeet tribal member 

who works on Indian education issues at NWREL. 

Long out of print, the popular series is now available online.

Booklets and teacher’s guides may be downloaded at www.nwrel.

org/indianed/indianreading and used free of charge for educational

purposes.
just students, need to become bicultural,” so that they can operate effectively “within the cultures of their

students.” They assert that “if teachers are not sensitive to their American Indian students and do not

attempt to integrate their cultures

within the classroom, school, and

curricula, they will have failed their

Native students.”

Integrating cultural

traditions

In Washington, educators have developed a curriculum that does what

Klug and Whitfield urge, integrating

Native culture into the classroom.

They’ve designed three units—The

Canoe, The Drum, and Hunters

and Gatherers—for Native American students from kindergarten

through second grade. “A good

teacher,” notes Denny Hurtado, 

director of Indian Education at

Washington state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

(OSPI), “could use it pre-K–20.” 

Indeed, the material is rich in its

cultural detail of Northwest tribes,

including the role of myths and legends, an introduction to the intriguing “trickster tale,” and hunting

and gathering as a way of family

and tribal life.

The curriculum grew out of a 

research report prepared by Magda

Costantino, director of the Evergreen

Center for Educational Improvement at the Evergreen State College

in Olympia, and Joe St. Charles, a

center researcher.

Their study, Reading and the

Native American Learner, was

published by OSPI in 2001. They

conclude, much as Klug and Whitfield do, that mainstream teachers

of American Indian children can

help their students by learning more

about the children’s communities,

culture, and language use and by

adopting teaching practices best

suited to the learning styles of their

students.

Costantino and St. Charles emphasize the negative impact of what

they call “discontinuities between

cultures and languages” of mainstream classrooms compared to 

Native American students’ homes

and communities. 

An example of a “discontinuity”

occurs when a mainstream teacher

confronts what seems to her “a confounding degree of silence” from a

Native American student. Costantino

and St. Charles explain that the 

silence is most likely a mixture of

cultural norms, discomfort with 

expectations of classroom behavior

and language, conformity to different standards of etiquette about

speaking up, and general resistance

to the school and teacher. 

Another critically important discontinuity has to do with learning

styles. St. Charles and Costantino

cite research that shows American

Indians tend to learn in cooperative

environments and by watching and

doing, “perhaps practicing in private.” The typical classroom, however, is based on trial-and-error

learning with a lot of direct instructional discourse. 

Since Native American children

are at a high risk of having reading

difficulties, the challenge for mainstream teachers is to recognize the

reality and pitfalls of discontinuities

and develop strategies for overcoming them. 

Hurtado, a member of the

Skokomish tribe, says the key is to

help Native students improve their

English language skills, which are

essential to future success in school

and beyond, “while at the same time

avoiding casting these students’

home language in a negative light.”

The new Northwest Native

American Reading Curriculum is

designed to link the language development process with subject matter

of interest and relevance to Native

American children. According to

Hurtado, “We wanted to do five

things: Develop a Native American

reading curriculum; encourage the

use of technology; motivate Indian

students; develop trust between

tribes and schools; and embed the

curriculum with an emphasis on 

involvement of tribal communities

and families.” 

The last two goals were central to

the development of the curriculum.

The project is successful, says 

Hurtado, because it was a true 

collaboration, not only between his

office and Costantino, but also with

Washington’s tribes, Indian educators, and specialists in culture, reading, and curriculum. Collaboration,

which is highly valued in Indian

culture, helps to build trust and 

acceptance of the outcome. In this

case, collaboration involved the production of 22 original stories by 

Native American authors and 

illustrators.

A new curriculum is fine, but

aren’t teachers today loaded down

with too many new demands—testing, accountability, and state and

federal standards? 

“No Child Left Behind is no 

excuse for not using the new curriculum,” answers Hurtado. The

material is based on the latest research about learning to read and is

aligned with the state standards—

Washington Assessment of Student

Learning or WASL. 

Wouldn’t it be something if

book-crazy Corliss, the fictional

character created by author Sherman Alexie, could be seen as a role

model rather than an oddball? What

if today’s Indian children could

break through the stereotype that 

is the basis of Alexie’s story about

Corliss—“too smart to be Indian?” 

Researchers, teachers, and tribes

in Idaho and Washington are showing how to make it happen. ■

NATIVE STUDENTS

31
IN THEIR ELEMENT

Joe Ball helps students with homework in the after-school program

sponsored by the Native American Youth Association in Portland.

32

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004
PORTLAND, Oregon—Policeman. Six letters. Copper.

Everything but the kitchen? Zinc.

Cerise Palmanteer cranes over a

periodic table of the elements. Joe

Ball leans in, just over her shoulder.

Next question: The ruler of Davy

Jones’s Locker.

“Huh?” says Cerise.

“Davy Jones’s Locker,” Ball repeats. “Tough one.” He searches for

a hint. “It’s like when a ship sinks it

goes to Davy Jones’s Locker. So, who

is the ruler of the sea?”

Cerise pauses. “Poseidon.”

Ball nods. “What did the Romans

call Poseidon?”

“Neptune,” Cerise answers

quickly. 

And there it is. Nine letters across.

Neptunium.

Every day after school, Ball helps

Cerise with her homework. Cerise

wears tennis shoes, jeans, and a

baggy sweatshirt. She has a warm,

round face. She likes to write poetry,

and her teachers say she has real

promise. She hopes to go to college

after high school, but hasn’t made

up her mind. For now, she just

wants to get through chemistry. A

high school junior, she is as typical

a teen as any other. 

And Joe Ball, age 33—he’s slender and soft-spoken. Short cropped

hair, just starting to show flecks of

silver. He sits quietly beside Cerise at

a small circular table. Sometimes

he offers hints, but mostly he listens.

He is an unassuming and empathetic after-school tutor. 

But Cerise and Joe share something more than homework; they

also share a common heritage.

They’re both Native American—

or more descriptively, they are both

“urban Indians.” And the place they

meet after school—the Native

American Youth Association—is not

your average after-school program,

either. It’s an integrated social service provider for youth and families,

run by and for urban Indians. And

even the city—Portland, Oregon—

the second-largest urban center of

the Pacific Northwest, is more than

just a city—it’s a former endpoint

for Indians following the government-sponsored Indian Relocation

Act. It is the weave of these factors,

more than any single thread, which

makes the urban Indian experience

at NAYA so unique, and so effective.

THE DROPOUT RATE

When it comes to Indian education,

“effective” is often synonymous with

a single word: “graduation.” The

dropout rate for Native American/

Alaska Native students is not just

high, it’s the highest of any minority

group in the school system. Nationally, more than three of every 10 

Native students drop out. Here in

Portland, a study of 408 Native high

school students from 1998 to 2001

revealed that only 40 graduated. 

This fall, NAYA received a $1.2

million, three-year federal grant to

help Native teens meet benchmark

standards in math and science, keep

them in school through graduation,

and point them toward college. Ball,

now in his second week working 

at NAYA as one of four after-school

tutors, has been hired to help.

Today’s homework is a crossword

puzzle where the answers are one of

the elements on the periodic table.

The hints, to say the least, are corny.

Example: “What do you do if CPR

fails?” The answer: barium.

The next hint: a six-letter word

for Apache. Ball groans. Cerise rolls

her eyes. Another Indian reference

and they dread finding the answer.

The stereotypes come easily to mind:

chief, red man, squaw... 

“We better get this one,” says

Ball. “Wouldn’t it be embarrassing

if the only Indian in class got the

only Indian question wrong?”

LOST IN THE FRAY

Native students are a minority even

among minorities. Statewide, they

represent about 2 percent of public

school students, but in the Portland

metropolitan area, the 2,700 or so

identified Native students are scattered among slightly less than a

quarter of a million students in 28

different school districts and constitute, basically, about 1 percent. 

“You know how a lot of high

schoolers will say they feel alone?”

says Ball. “Well, the Native kids 

really are.”

By extension, so are their parents

and guardians. Once, when Portland’s Roosevelt High School held 

a parent-teacher night, they divided

guests by race—Asian, Latino,

black. In the designated room, a

Native American grandmother, who

had come on behalf of her granddaughter, sat alone. 

“We are so often the invisible

minority,” says Nichole Maher, the

executive director of NAYA. She’s

Tlingit, but you might not guess it.

Though she has raven dark hair, her

eyes are blue as a glacier. “So often

we are mistaken for other minorities, thrown into the mix of the

mainstream, or lost in the fray.” 

NAYA gathers them together.

Modoc, Umatilla, Warm Springs,

Siletz, Nez Perce, Yakama, Wasco,

Colville, Klickitat, Klamath, and

Tlingit: At least 300 other tribal

backgrounds are represented in Portland, and they are all welcome here.

For the past few years, NAYA received county funds to serve 41 Native youth; the recent federal grant

extends that to 200 students. The 

actual numbers in the door come

closer to 450. “With enough funding,

staff, and resources, we could be serving 2,000 kids, easily,” says Maher.

Unlike the Indian education support offered at public schools under

Title VII (which requires that either

the student, parent, or grandparent

be an enrolled member of a federally

NATIVE STUDENTS

33

URBAN YOUTH 

FIND MORE THAN JUST TUTORING 

IN AN AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM Story by Ian McCluskey / Photos by Diana Welch
recognized tribe), NAYA serves any

student, parent, or community member “self-identified” as Native. It’s a

particularly significant point in an

urban center like Portland.

When asked how she selfidentifies, Cerise will say with a soft

chuckle, “I’m an urban Indian.”

She has never been to her tribe’s

reservation in northern Washington.

And Ball, a Klamath, didn’t even

have a reservation when he was

growing up. 

“In order to understand what

these kids are going through, you

have to understand what their 

parents went through,” says Nora

Farwell, the high school program

manager. She recounts that her

mother, like so many of her generation, was taken from her reservation, away from family and cultural

connections, and placed in a federal

boarding school. For more than a

century, the boarding schools assembled a medley of children from

many nations, changed their clothes

and hair to fit Euro-American styles,

enforced a strict English-only policy,

and offered vocational training.

Chilling “before and after” photographs document the “success” 

of the boarding schools. The actual

effects were harder to record. Many

students drifted back to their reservations, but found they no longer fit

in; many scattered to nearby cities,

notably Portland.

In 1954, the Termination Act

disbanded more than 100 tribes 

nationally, including several in the

Northwest. Two years later, the Relocation Act began a federal program

to ship hundreds of Natives from

reservations to selected urban centers, like Portland, and provide them

job training on the condition of a

signed agreement that those Natives

would remain in the cities and not

return to the reservations. The result

was a Native diaspora—a one-way

bus ticket to the city, both metaphorically and literally. By the mid1970s, more Natives lived in cities

than on reservations.

As a result, a first generation of

“urban Indians” was born in the

cities. Like Joe Ball. His family moved

to Portland after termination of the

Klamath tribe in southern Oregon.

Ball grew up in North Portland and

learned what other urban Indians

learn: If you don’t stand out, you

can get by. No one knew if he was

Middle Eastern, Mexican, Italian, 

or Native. If he kept quiet, no one

asked. “And that’s what kids learn,”

he says. “If you’re quiet, they leave

you alone.” 

The racism runs deep, he explains, and often manifests subtly. He

recalls his high school history textbook, a massive volume with the first

200 pages devoted to pre-European

settlement. “And guess what page we

started on?” asks Joe. “Page 201.”

Another big obstacle for Native

students is attendance. Many Native

families move around and sometimes children are transferred between relatives. On rural reservations,

there may be only one school and

nearby relatives to help support the

student. In the city, however, each

move may mean a transfer of schools

and even school districts. Credits can

be lost. Assignments missed. And the

student has to start over, both academically and socially, with new

teachers and new peers. In addition,

with parents often working one or

more jobs in the city, child care that

might have been picked up by a

grandmother or aunt on a reservation, often falls to the older siblings,

namely the middle and high schoolers. Families may also leave a city

early in the spring, before school’s

out, or return late in the fall after it’s

in session, often for seasonal work,

powwows, or return trips to reservations for funerals. “We’re not just

talking an afternoon service,” says

Shirod Younker, NAYA’s event coordinator, who recently returned to the

Warm Springs reservation in Central

Oregon to attend a funeral with his

wife. “We’re talking a full week of

ceremonies, all day, all night.”

“Teachers only see the absences,” he says, “not the reasons

behind them. All they can do is

hand over a stack of past-due homework, and hope the student can

catch up.” 

This is where NAYA comes in.

A HOME AWAY FROM HOME

After school, students arrive one at 

a time, or in twos and threes, but

when the big white van pulls up,

they pour out en masse. The middle schoolers skip upstairs to the

computer lab; the high schoolers

saunter downstairs to the mostly remodeled basement. Some shove into

the kitchen and get fruit and snacks. 

NAYA turns 30 this year, but has

only recently come into its own. It

started humbly, in a subbasement of

Portland State University, with borrowed computers. Tawna Sanchez,

who was with NAYA in the formative

years, describes it mostly as a night

school to help Natives get their

GEDs. The first years were lean, and

they bounced between locations, before landing grants to develop an

after-school tutoring program and a

domestic violence program, which

Sanchez directs.

The domestic violence program

is one way NAYA not only addresses

academic symptoms, but also the

social roots underlying them. The

Girls’ Talking Circle encourages 

Native teens to openly discuss dating,

relationships, and domestic violence.

NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

34

At NAYA, traditional dancers 

sometimes follow hip-hop beats.
Native girls are twice as likely as

their white or black classmates to

experience some type of abuse. Studies also show that teaching girls to

address these issues will greatly reduce the risk. NAYA also offers crisis

intervention for families, assistance

in getting into shelters and, in some

cases, emergency food and clothing. 

Upstairs Sarah Gellman, education retention coordinator, is on the

phone, explaining to a student how

to write her résumé. “Yes, put down

taking care of your brothers and sisters,” she says. “Put child care. That

shows responsibility.” There’s Jayme

Hamann, a high school advocate,

organizing a coaches’ meeting for

the basketball program, and Dustin

Harmon, a tutor, in the kitchen, 

getting food for the kids. Most have

been here since 9 a.m., and most

will stay until nine at night. 

While addressing the ills of the

urban Indian community, NAYA 

emphasizes the strengths. It offers

culture classes, such as crafts and

regalia making. “I made my first

choker here at NAYA, I learned to

bead,” Cerise says proudly. “I hope

to learn to dance here, too.”

Rebecca Payne, NAYA’s receptionist, teaches traditional dancing, but

with a distinctly urban twist. When

teaching jingle dress dance, she

sometimes has her students bring in

hip-hop music. Just imagine: A room

full of Native youth, some in street

clothes, some wrapped in elaborately

beaded shawls, following footstep

patterns old as human memory to

the beat and lyrics of rappers like

Eminem. That’s urban Indian.

“The teachers who are able to

adapt to change are the ones who

reach our students,” says Ball. He

knows that his after-school hours 

at NAYA cannot solve the problem

alone. He points out that teachers

share a large responsibility in helping Native students succeed. “There’s

no way to sugarcoat this,” he states.

“Adjusting curriculum and creating

a safe environment for students to

succeed will take work.”

The advice Ball offers teachers is

simple and straightforward: “Always

expect the same of a Native student

as any other. Low expectations don’t

allow room for a student to rise.

They’re individuals and, after all,

they’re kids. Tell them you believe 

in them, and let them surprise you.”

A NEWFOUND FAMILY 

“Remember my math test I told you

I was going to fail?” Cerise sighs.

“Well, I must be psychic.”

Ball is quiet for a while, then

says gently, “How big of a dent did 

it put in your grade?”

“Not a big one.”

“Can you bring the test in to

work on?”

“Yeah. That’d be all right.”

From her office, Nora Farwell

overhears and joins the conversation. “I remember your grandma,”

she says, pulling up a chair beside

Cerise and Ball. “She’d always tell

stories about Chief Joseph, about

Celilo.” The talk around the table

doesn’t skip a beat. 

“Oh yeah,” says Cerise, “I’d

come in, Grandma would be making coffee, I’d sit down, she’d start

telling me a story. When her coffee

was ready, she’d get up, fetch her

coffee, come back, and tell me the

same story from the beginning.” 

Everyone at the table laughs. 

“Indian humor,” Farwell describes. But it’s hard to explain. The

joke about a grandmother repeating

a story is not about a senior’s forgetfulness (or maybe it is a little), but

more a form of repetition in itself.

Telling the story with apparently no

beginning, no end—just a moment

—reaffirms a much older form of

learning through oral tradition. But

more, Cerise’s grandmother passed

away about a month ago, and telling stories is a form of dealing with

loss, remembering, and honoring. 

For all the problems on the reservation—and Farwell knows them

well—at least, she says, you are all

together, with family, united by clan

and custom. In the city, you’re adrift

and you’re alone. At NAYA, Farwell

has found a sense of community in

the city, and for today it is enough to

be among other urban Indians, to

share a story and a laugh, without

having to explain a thing.

Attention returns to the periodic

table crossword puzzle. A six-letter

word for Apache.

Ball and Cerise scan the names of

elements one by one ... palladium,

silver, cadmium ... then they both

pause and groan. “Oh, indium.” 

“Well,” Ball says, half smiling, “at

least we got our own element.” ■

NATIVE STUDENTS

35

Cerise Palmanteer struggles with

high school chemistry but sets

her sights on going to college

someday.
NW EDUCATION / Spring 2004

36 the state’s largest city. Students from

the district’s three far-flung schools

travel to Anchorage House for an

education in urban survival.

Starting at the junior high level,

kids come to the city four times for

anywhere from three to 10 days. At

the most advanced phase, the stay

may stretch up to 10 months while

an older student completes a job 

internship. Although the program

isn’t mandatory, 97 percent of the

students make the trip, which the

district has dubbed the “Voyage to

Excellence.”

“The kids can hardly wait to

come,” says Carol Wilson, life skills

teacher. “It’s like a carrot dangling

in front of them.” She points out,

though, that it’s no vacation. A typical day begins at 7 o’clock in the

morning and goes nonstop until

9:30 p.m. The television that beckons in the cozy den hardly ever gets

turned on, and students are as likely

to pluck an SAT preparation book

off the bookshelf as one of the board

games that’s alongside.

Wilson and other staff members

serve as everything from den mothers to camp counselors, motivational trainers, and career advisers.

They help the kids learn to balance

checkbooks, purchase groceries,

write résumés, and perfect their

team-building and decisionmaking

skills. The live-in advisers also keep

a sharp eye on the masking tape

“boundaries” that place the boys’

and girls’ sleeping quarters offlimits to the opposite sex.

During their visits, Anchorage

House students complete job shadows, perform community service,

and visit college campuses. Statistics show that the program, together

with other Chugach innovations, 

is making a difference: Since 1994,

14 of Chugach’s 17 graduates have

gone on to postsecondary schooling, compared with only one student between 1975 and 1994. 

Whether they enter college or 

return to the village, the experience

leaves its mark. “You helped me

find the right path,” writes one

Chugach student. “You showed me

what I should have known about

myself a long time ago. Now I know

how to be a leader and a friend.” 

FYI: Anchorage House hosts students—and some adults—from

about 65 other Alaska school

districts during the year. More 

information about the program

and Chugach’s nationally 

acclaimed practices can be

found online at www.chugach

schools.com/. The winter 2003

issue of Northwest Education,

“Compound Interest: Business

and Philanthropy in Education

Reform,” also features information about the Chugach School

District and its replication efforts,

funded by the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation. ■

ANCHORAGE, Alaska—The

meticulous two-story house on a

wooded cul-de-sac looks just like 

its well-heeled neighbors. But, you

won’t find a typical suburban family behind the mullioned windows

and beige wood facade. More likely,

the residents on any given day will

be a dozen teenagers getting a taste

of life outside the confines of their

isolated villages.

Anchorage House is home to the

Chugach School District’s life skills

program. The award-winning

school district—headquartered 

in Anchorage but sprawled across

22,000 square miles of remote

Southeast Alaska terrain—boasts

an individually tailored, standardsbased system that places heavy 

emphasis on real-life learning situations. For Chugach students—

half of whom are Alaska Native—

demonstrating skills in career 

development, technology, service

learning, and personal development is as important as mastering

traditional subjects like writing,

math, and science.

But, learning how to read a bus

schedule can be difficult in a roadless fishing village where snow 

machines, skiffs, and ATVs are the

preferred ways to get around. Likewise, it’s tough to investigate job

opportunities in the midst of a subsistence culture. Recognizing that,

Chugach purchased a residence in

“Voyage to Excellence” 

takes students from the village to the city

By Rhonda Barton

Urban Exposure
NORTHWEST EDUCATION

(ISSN 1546-5020)

Quarterly magazine of the 

Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

Chief Executive Officer:

Dr. Carol F. Thomas 

Director, Office of 

Development and Communications:

Dave Wilson

Communications Program Director:

Karen Lytle Blaha

Issue Editor:

Rhonda Barton

Coeditors:

Rhonda Barton

Denise Jarrett Weeks

Assistant Editor:

Bracken Reed

Consulting Editor:

Lee Sherman

Contributing Writers:

Kara Briggs, Mindy Cameron, Joyce Riha Linik,

Ian McCluskey

Graphic Design:

Dan Stephens, Denise Crabtree

Technical Editing:

Eugenia Cooper Potter

NORTHWEST EDUCATION

can be accessed on NWREL’s Web site:

www.nwrel.org/nwedu/

This publication is based on work sponsored wholly or in part by the U.S. Department of

Education under contract number ED-01-CO-0013. The content of this publication does

not necessarily reflect the views of the department or any other agency of the U.S. government. This publication was not printed with government funds. Articles and information

in this publication are in the public domain and may be reproduced and disseminated

without permission. Please acknowledge NWREL as the source.

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

Dr. Teresa Bergeson

Washington State Superintendent 

of Public Instruction

Susan Castillo

Oregon Superintendent of Public Instruction 

Jerry Colonna

Superintendent

Beaverton School District (OR)

Dr. John Davis

Superintendent

Bering Strait School District (AK)

Rubén Degollado

Teacher

Hillsboro School District (OR)

Jeff Estes

Manager

Office of Science Education Programs

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (WA)

Dennis Haverlandt

(Secretary-Treasurer)

Teacher

Great Falls School District (MT)

Dr. Marilyn Howard

Idaho State Superintendent of Public 

Instruction

Steven Jacquier

Teacher

Southwest Region School District (AK)

Dr. Michael Jaeger 

(Immediate Past Chairperson)

Dean, School of Education and Business

Eastern Oregon University

Nancy Larsen

Elementary Teacher

Coeur D’Alene School District (ID)

Richard Mauer

Chair

Alaska State Board of Education 

and Early Development

Linda McCulloch

Montana State Superintendent 

of Public Instruction

Dr. Richard McCullough

Superintendent

Snoqualmie School District (WA)

Dr. Bill McDiarmid

Higher Education Institution Researcher

Vashon (WA)

Dr. Elmer Myers

Superintendent

Lolo Elementary School District (MT)

Ted Popplewell

Principal

Oregon Trail Elementary School 

Twin Falls (ID)

Velma Pretty on Top-Holeman

Executive Director 

Native American Development Corporation

Billings (MT)

Kay Purcell

Principal

St. Rose Parish School 

Longview (WA)

Dr. Jan Rauth

Teacher

Longview School District (WA)

Lawrence Rigby

Superintendent—Retired

Soda Springs (ID)

Barbara Riley

Project Director 

Women’s Opportunity and Resource 

Development, Inc.

Missoula (MT)

Perla Rodriguez

Elementary Principal

Cornelius School District (OR)

Roger Sampson

Alaska Commissioner of Education 

and Early Development

Roger Wheeler

Businessman

Pocatello (ID)

John Pugh

(Chairperson)

Chancellor

University of Alaska Southeast 

Sharon Parry

(Vice Chairperson)

School Board Member

Idaho Falls School District

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Dancers by students at Wa He Lut Indian School, Olympia, Washington—(Left to right:) Kalea Salvador, Christy Harp, Thomas BlueBack, Tenaya White Star,

Sam LeClair, Skyla White Star, George White Star