Native people believe in education and I think this is one of the most interesting continuities through our histories. Certainly many native people have this commitment to serve their home communities. So I think a lot of schools, tribal schools in particular, really have that at the kind of forefront of their agenda and at the forefront of their challenges. You see a clash between certain broad American assumptions about education and certain Native American goals. I think there's a lot of idealism in America about education, and Americans, I think, for a long time have had an inclination when faced with social problems to say, education's the answer.
Schools can make a difference.
Schools can make things better. We can educate our children to rise above racism, to achieve economic upward mobility, to provide a work force as America's economy changes. Whatever social challenges are, are there. And I think it's still true about America, and I think many Americans are very surprised when some of that idealism about education and schools is not necessarily shared by all Americans. And I think people may be surprised that some Native people would choose a segregated school, for instance, an all Native school, because segregation, oh, separating people, that's a bad thing.