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American Indian Education KnowledgeBase

The American Indian Education KnowledgeBase is an online resource to aid education professionals in their efforts to improve the education of American Indian students and close the achievement gap American Indian students have faced in public, Bureau of Indian Education, and other schools.

Element 1: Foundations and Current Status of American Indian Education

Purpose: To ensure educators, in support of American Indian students, understand the historical principles which guides the academic journey of these students, the challenges and barriers which impacts these efforts, and current trends and research which are the basis for Indian education programs today.

Educators will:

  1. Understand the concept of tribal sovereignty and the relationship between Indian tribes, states, and the federal government's Bureau of Indian Education.
  2. Understand past efforts to assimilate Indians through English-only assimilationist schooling and the opposition Indians may show to efforts at forced assimilation.
  3. Know the lasting effects of the Indian New Deal of the 1930s on American Indian education.
  4. Understand the effects of the Red Power Movement, Indian Self-Determination, and United Nations human rights declarations on American Indians and American Indian education.

Activity 1: Understand the History of American Indian Education

American Indian tribes negotiated a multiplicity of treaties with the U.S. government, which then imposed upon them a number of laws and policies to promote the educational development of American Indian children.

Activity 2: Understand the Current Laws, Funding, and Academic Resources for American Indian Students

The federal government has responded to treaty provisions enacted between tribal governments and the United States which required educational support for American Indian children by developing and implementing educational programs in response to the federal trust responsibility of the U.S. Government.  The following Tasks will outline that response to treaty obligations.

Element 2: American Indian Cultures

Purpose: Educators will increase awareness and understanding of the breadth and scope of cultural diversity that exists among American Indian tribal communities, as well as shared values and traditions of American Indian people.

Educators will understand:

  1. What makes someone an American Indian, and what is a tribal nation today?
  2. What is an extended family?
  3. What is the significance of traditional American Indian values, such as humility, interconnectedness, and reciprocity?
  4. What should all Americans know about American Indians?

Activity 1: Understand Tribal and Family Structures

Educators will understand the process of federal recognition of tribes, tribal enrollment, and treaty making that has impacted American Indian tribal people since the founding of the United States. Educators will also learn about the structure and the importance of American Indian tribes, clans, bands, and extended families to American Indians.
 

Activity 2: Understand American Indian Traditional Tribal Values

Educators will understand and respect the importance of cultural values and traditional concepts which help to shape the mindset of American Indian children and their families.  Educators will understand the complex challenges faced by American Indian children in today’s classroom as a result of conflicting value systems.

Element 3: Understanding Your School and Community

Purpose: Assessing American Indian students’ academic performance and developing culturally-based education approaches in collaboration with local tribes, Indian organizations and Native communities are essential for improved educational opportunities.  Educators should:

  • Examine current American Indian achievement assessments, attendance, dropout and graduation rates;
  • Collaborate with tribes and Native communities, and;
  • Collaborate with national American Indian organizations and the National Indian Education Association (NIEA).

Activity 1: Take a Snapshot of Your School and Community

 

Activity 2: Work with and Involve Community and Parents

Element 4: Integrate American Indian History, Language, and Culture into School Curriculum

Purpose: Research indicates that it is important to affirm students’ identity and one reason for the academic achievement gap that American Indian students face is that a one-size-fits-all national curriculum represented in textbooks fails to give positive recognition to American Indian histories and cultures. 

Activity 1: Create an American Indian Curriculum

It is important for American Indian and Alaska Native students to have the standard state and national curriculums they are exposed to in school be supplemented with curriculum that reflects their background and the community that they live in.

Activity 2: Teaching Indigenous Languages

Too often, an English-only policy in American schools has suppressed American Indian languages and cultures. The Native American Languages Act passed by U.S. Congress, and signed by President George H. W. Bush in 1990, enforces United States Policy to support, preserve, and protect American Indian languages. Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act  Act of 2006 The 2007 United Nation’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has given further support to that goal. Today, Indigenous peoples are working through Indigenous language immersion schools to revitalize their languages and cultures.

 

Task 2: Be Familiar with American Indian Charter Schools


Guideline: Tribes and American Indian organizations are opening charter schools to better serve American Indian students, many of whom have not done well historically in Bureau of Indian Affairs and public schools. These charter schools often emphasize teaching tribal languages and cultures, as well as mathematics, science, and other academic school subjects.

Guidelines

Sovereignty in Education: Creating Culturally-Based Charter Schools in Native Communities - A NIEA Handbook (2018)

The National Indian Education Association (NIEA), a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening Native education, released this 2018 handbook entitled “Sovereignty in Education: Creating Culturally-Based Charter Schools in Native Communities.” For nonprofit organizations working within Native communities and those considering starting charter schools, this handbook provides several key insights to understanding the unique landscape within Native communities in a way that respects their cultural heritage as well as their sovereignty.

References

Charter Schools Listing

This resource provides a listing of charter schools oriented towards native American students. This list was compiled by Kerry R. Venegas, National Indian Education Association, High School Policy Initiative. The Central and South Central Comprehensive Centers have not reviewed these schools nor endorses their programming.

Native American Language Immersion: Innovative Native Education

This report is a project of the American Indian College Fund and written by Janine Pease-Pretty On Top with the introduction by Richard Littlebear with research supported by the W.K.Kellogg  Foundation of Battle Creek, Michigan. The focus of this study is of a people’s initiative, Native American language immersion encompasses educational practices and social development that lie outside the mainstream language teaching, education, and socializing methods of American children.

Northern Michigan University Tribal Charter Schools

Northern Michigan University serves as the authorizer for two tribal charter schools, Bahweting Anishnabe and Nah Tah Wahsh.  The Charter Schools Office at Northern Michigan University is responsible for the oversight of NMU’s 10 public school academies or charter schools. A public school academy is a state-supported public school that may include any grade up to grade 12.

Public Charter Schools Growing on Native American Reservations

In this 2013 National Alliance for public charter schools article, new data from the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools shows that public charter schools are growing on Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) lands across the country. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of public charter schools on reservations increased from 19 to 31, accounting for 15 percent of all public schools on reservations.  Public charter schools are on reservations located in Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. Most Native American charter schools 61 percent are on reservations geographically located in Arizona and California. Between the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years, there was a 100 percent increase in the number of public charter schools and charter school enrollment on Native lands geographically located in California.

Research and Resources on Charter Schools and American Indian Students

This resource provides a compilation of academic dissertations addressing issues associated with charter schools and American Indian students. This list was compiled by Kerry R. Venegas, National Indian Education Association, High School Policy Initiative.

Tribes Look to Charter Schools for Help

This resource is a MSNBC news story about how American Indian tribes are looking to charter schools as a means to help Indian students who've dropped out or drifted through traditional public schools.

Tribes Turn to Charter Schools

A 2004 news article from the Washington Charter School Resource Center recounting the trials of a new charter school on the Umatilla Indian Reservation. It illustrates the many challenges that reservation based charter schools face in getting organized and embracing the students.

What Role Can Charter Schools Play in Preserving American Indian Sovereignty?

This Nonprofit Quarterly publication introduces the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening Native education, released a handbook entitled “Sovereignty in Education: Creating Culturally-Based Charter Schools in Native Communities.” For nonprofit organizations working within Native communities and those considering starting charter schools, the handbook provides several key insights to understanding the unique landscape within Native communities in a way that respects their cultural heritage as well as their sovereignty. The background and history of Native education cannot be ignored, as the need to reexamine and change policies and practices dates back to the founding of boarding schools as early the mid-1750s.

Presentations

*NEW* The Power of Place: Creating An Indigenous Charter School

In this 2009, Volume 47, Issue 2, article from the Journal of American Indian Education, author J. Kay Fenimore-Smith presents the findings of a two-year study, which examined the struggles of the school staff as they sought to provide a culturally rich environment and curriculum that would engage and challenge students academically. Cummins’ (1992) theory of cultural differences provides a schema for discussion of the findings. Analysis of the issues raised by the study foregrounds the complexity of factors affecting both the development of a culturally grounded charter school and the achievement of students attending the school.

An Exploration of Best Practices Among Charter Schools Serving Native Students

This Harvard University study and report outlines the attributes and practices of three successful charter schools serving native youth. The report includes a review of research on the topic and case studies of three schools: Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods of Klamath, California; Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Immersion School off Haywood, Wisconsin; and Pemayetv Emahakv Charter School of Okeechobee, Florida.

Examples

*NEW* Deep Community Engagement at the Native American Community Academy (NACA)

This National Charter School Resource Center website states students who attend the Native American Community Academy (NACA), who are a part of the NACA Inspired Schools Network (NISN), demonstrate academic achievement, proficiency, retention, graduation, and college attendance rates that far outpace their Native American peers at the district, state, and national levels. This is just one proof point that NACA, a charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is delivering on its mission. It was founded in response to community demand for a school that addresses the identity, wellness, and college preparation of Native American Indian and Indigenous students.

Bay Mills Community College

Bay Mills Community College, a community college in Michigan controlled by the Bay Mills Indian Community, authorized its first two public charter schools in 2001 and now authorizes 44 charter schools. One of the charter schools, Ojibwe Charter School, is located on BIA lands and serves a majority Native American population. The other charter schools are located in 27 non-reservation cities throughout the state and enroll largely African-American students, consistent with the colleges mission to serve students who are urban, minority and/or poor.

Charter School Blooms for Indian Students in Arizona Desert

Charter schools provide an opportunity for innovation in K–12 education, but succeeding typically requires getting over a wide range of barriers. An Arizona charter school located on an American Indian reservation provides an example of how a charter school has progressed in a complex regulatory setting while addressing unique educational needs of students. This feature of the National Charter School Resource Center January 2013 newsletter focuses on the development, leadership, and instruction methods of the Akimel O'Otham Pee Posh Charter School, located on the Gila River Indian Reservation south of Phoenix, Arizona.

Charter Schools Serving Native American Students

Native American students have been historically underserved by our nation's public schools, but research shows an incorporation of cultural content into the curriculum can have a promising impact on student academic success. In this report, prepared for the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), case studies are presented exploring the attributes and practices of 3 charter schools serving Native youth.

Charter Schools Serving Native American Students

Native American students have been historically underserved by our nation's public schools, but research shows an incorporation of cultural content into the curriculum can have a promising impact on student academic success. In this report, prepared for the National Indian Education Association (NIEA), case studies are presented exploring the attributes and practices of 3 charter schools serving Native youth.


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Element 5: Explore Schools Serving American Indian Students

Purpose: Charter and immersion schools are offering American Indians more flexibility in working to improve the education of their children by affording American Indian communities more power to shape the schooling their children receive.

 

Activity 1: The Role and impact of American Indian Charter and Magnet Schools

Learn about charter and immersion schools and how they can provide alternatives to public, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools, and tribally controlled schools, allowing American Indian communities to provide more culturally appropriate education for their children.

 

Activity 2: Discover how Tribal Operated Schools and Indian Charter Schools Relate to One Another

The Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and mainstream public schools have not been successful in bringing up the average test scores and graduation rates of American Indian students to national averages. Learn how Tribally Operated and Indian Charter Schools are providing alternatives that show promise in improving the academic and life success of American Indian students.

 

Element 6: Use Culturally Responsive Teaching Methodologies

Purpose: Research suggests one reason for the achievement gap faced by American Indian students is cultural conflicts between American Indian homes and schools. Accordingly, teachers should be prepared to meet the needs of American Indian and other Indigenous students, including using culturally responsive teaching methodologies that incorporate American Indian learning styles, avoiding biased teaching and stereotypes, and addressing the needs of gifted education and other special needs students.

Activity 1: Prepare Educators to Teach American Indian Students

One-size-fits-all educational reforms, despite being somewhat “evidence based”, have left behind many American Indian students. Learn how adjusting teaching methods and materials to fit American Indian students’ cultural and experiential backgrounds can make them more engaged learners and improve their academic performance.