Ruffled feathers: The Dakota Sioux; Educational trends among the Sioux

This program was produced for national educational radio from the National Home Library Foundation and was compiled to the subtleties of the radio at the University of South Dakota. This is a story of ruffled feathers. The Dakota zoo in transition. This is the seventh in a series of programs about the Dakota or Sioux Indians in South Dakota the Dakota Indians moved into the area of present day South Dakota in the middle 17 hundreds and long before the first mission school was established the Dakotas were educating their young with time honored methods. This program deals with education among the Dakotas and the transition it has undergone since the early days. Considerable emphasis is given to the current school organization in South Dakota and some of the primary problems of elementary and secondary students today. In order to first establish the basic form of education among the Dakotas before the

impact of the settlers Dr. E. Adams and horrible chairman of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota describes generally the early education process for most of them and most tribes it was informal. They learned by watching and then learned by doing. They learned by playing games. For instance just as our small children will play house with dolls. Boys and girls would set up their own miniature camps and use their little brothers and baby sisters as children and the boys would go out on imitation Buffalo hunts and shoot rabbits perhaps. But instead of calling them rabbits they call them buffalo and then they would bring them back and the girl that was there play a wife for the occasion would cook them. And so they would go out in this way they would play at war. They would learn how to track mostly from each other

not from the adults. On this level they could watch the public dances and then a very important part of education was the telling of stories. And this was done usually in the winter time usually by the older people the person who did the instruction of children was the grandmother of the grandfather very close affectionate relationship between grandparent and child. But as a boy and the girl then began to reach adolescence. They were approaching the time in which they would learn the esoteric that is the secret deeper knowledge and this would usually be done in a more formal way. When the boys and the girls then begin to participate but more particularly the boys begin to participate in the great tribal ceremonies they learn much of the secret

knowledge of the tribes and then in what you might call in the s. asian schools. And this is done by the priests and the old man. So education shifts first from the kids learning from each other to their learning. A good deal from their grandparents particularly. Finally do their learning from the priests and the Chiefs. The higher education you might call it the early education process consisted of both formal and informal elements of instruction. The process was informal in that much of what was to be learned was part and parcel of everyday life. It was merely observed as a part of day to day living. The very environment and standards of the society in which one finds himself act is perhaps the strongest and longest lasting lesson of all life. The formal part of the education came about through the teaching of ceremonies to the children and through the legends told them by their grandparents. The purpose of the Dakota education was to prepare the individual for his role in his team by a or living group and to instruct him in

group values and customs. There was no instruction in grammar. This the individual picked up informally nor was there a math lesson or even to any great extent a hunting lesson. Education was by precept and example boys were instructed to be brave and daring. As Dr. Hubbell mentioned they learn from each other how to hunt or shoot a bowl. The education was not a how to do type of education because the manual skills developed very naturally. An example of a lesson comes from the Laureate Dakota anthropologist. She records the Hunka ceremony as the first training or schooling for the young Dakota child. The ceremony centers around the giving of gifts to the child by members of the BY A. This taught him that he should be generous and share with anyone who has a need regardless of personal sacrifice. The girls were instructed to be hospitable virtuous and loving. In 1892 many Indians were still moving in from the foothills to the reservations thus removing themselves from the list of hostiles by 1910 many of them were in government

schools usually small local schools. This is one of the first plays at the barrel. What about educating Indian people in establishing schools in the communities where the people were and at that time they were elementary and from there they went to the established the big high school to their small day schools were followed by the big high schools as more and more Indians were educated in 1892 few Indians could read or write. Today many full blooded decoders cannot fluently speak their native language. The early educational facilities for the decoder were provided to a great extent by the federal government and more specifically by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Center operated boarding school federally operated based schools based upon an obligation in the federal government feels that because the treaty obligations the homeland and the land is owned by the Indians attacked tax exempt. Therefore the federal government was obligated to support Indian education because if you

and this is been litigated I should say that revenue was derived from Indian land use of Indian lands it is not taxable but if you. This means the burden on the part of the states and in South Dakota for example are the main source of monies for education made on property taxes property taxes I should say there for any government at the present time the federal government obligated to support in education the government provided two types of schools for the Dakotas. The day school which was local in nature and provided the essentials of grammar and lower grade subjects and a federally owned and operated boarding school. Both of these schools are staffed by pure opinion affairs teachers and person how government operated a school of course around many private and parochial schools which follow the same format as the board and now perhaps a day school while the government teachers toiled in the federally supported

schools private schools as Dr Breggin pointed out operated with a similar format and even today there are many private or parochial boarding schools and some day schools on the reservation. Today when driving on any one of the reservations in South Dakota one will see signs pointing the way to a number of day schools. These days schools established many decades ago to serve the Indian population are still in use. A large number of Indian students have attended a boarding school. The function of the boarding school is gradually changing but a large number of its students still come to it because of unhappy circumstances. Morning students came from their home. I mean where there was problems in a homeless type of thing and lack of funds from part of the parent to take care of a student I was in school and these were the types of children had to be put into boarding schools but they didn't take just everyone. This is only a generalization and does not apply to all boarding schools in the state. The boarding school did and still does produce a problem that is causing problems within many families

today. This created a generation of people who abandoned people who grew up without a home life. We're running schools now these people now are our parents. They themselves never lived in the US. How can we criticize them for taking poor control of their particular kids who never experienced it themselves. We're reaping the harvest of these parents that were sent to boarding schools. And now we expect them back like parents are actually doing it whenever given an example of how a parent should. And this is why. I think more than any other. Parents force their kids to school were promising to do this and do that. They don't know how the boarding school problem is twofold then. First the parents are not able to establish a satisfactory home life and second it is harmful

to their children because they are not able to control them. Although it is desirable to have a good home life many Indian children at boarding schools didn't. Thus the administrators of the school had a decision to make. I can state that I have. Heard individual I was. And I want to I want specify the school and the individual house and the saying that. We wish we can find some place. To send this Indian. During the summer so that she doesn't go back to the situation she doesn't revert that she doesn't lose what she has gained here and I would interpret this as a continuation of the same notion of the referred to that in order to bring about this transformation of the consecration. That it is necessary to make a break here a real problem was presented. Should the child be allowed to go home and risk losing all he had acquired or should he be kept away

from his home and subsequently not be able to provide an adequate home life for his children. The problem is very real and still exists in some cases today. I asked a young man how he had felt about attending a boarding school not on the average I like I like it in a way in everything and sometimes I didn't and I think a lot of these kids. You know but maybe in a boarding school it's their home the home life would have a lot to do with us if they were probably encouraged more in end and home life was better than this. They would have been just as do if anybody asked completed if they come from a good family and. The family there really pushed against a little bit and maybe step down I don't love it it just would you know give them maybe something to to go by. But a lot of times you have people have their families or the parents aren't interested in whether you complete school or not then you will naturally be able to quit anytime they want to and I just you know lose lose what they had before.

Well the boarding school was not a panacea for the educational problems facing the young Indian. The public school provided and still provides an easy escape route merely skipping school. Almost every tribal council has school attendance requirements that are in excess of what the state requires. But many students its clauses the problem becomes in first of all this particular tribal regulation. We still have a very serious problem in truancy. So obviously the travel law is not being enforced. Going to school presents one of the biggest conflicts facing the young Indian today especially if his family still holds to the traditional virtues and the old culture life was on a day to day basis. Let tomorrow a look out for itself. The individual is not supposed to rise above the group. Yet the teacher encourages individual progress and praises the one who excels. Well of the lawyer has stated that one interference to the modern education system was the kinship system and its lessons. It was pointed out in the last

programme the Indian who tries to live by both Indian and non-Indian standards faces an impossible job. Quitting school is a good method of avoiding the problem. There may be an answer to the problem though. The new approach one of the new approaches anyway. It's a rosary mission by Pine Ridge and this is described as psychological to quote duration and then these are grade school and high school children and they teach them a short course on the history of the Sioux their tradition and background. Indian wars and so forth where he was successful and then they teach him American history what they call the non Indian culture. And then the third step teach these children their position in present day society. There are those however who have reservations about this approach and qualify the content of the course.

I would hope that there would not be too much emphasis. Upon. The wars in the sense of. How terrible how terrible this is what the white man did to us. To be sure the white man has done plenty of terrible things. And then the point is this doesn't help much today in getting on with the job which must be done today. And are there times when it seems to me that too much emphasis upon having been abused in the past makes it difficult to get on with the job. The physical structure of education is also in a state of transition. First years ago the Bureau of Indian Affairs day schools and boarding schools. However as more non-Indians moved into the reservation areas to ranch in farm city and county school systems also sprung up. There is now a move to consolidate facilities and also to break up the segregation that nature has brought about in the reservation schools. John Wade Indian education specialist with the South Dakota Department of Public Instruction explains the situation on the Rosebud Reservation on the rose bed.

We want to talk about either high school or high school by the federal government for the public school system for the education of all the Indian children. This of the lot of the children within the school system on the roads but have all been turned on a public school. Rush about county being Wednesday school on the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the federal government are still in the education business around the reservation. But more from a financial end than from the teacher again. Cooperation between the neighboring schools and the reservation is emerging that shining a beaut. We have the cooperative agreement between the school district and the urban affairs there with the Marine affairs providing the administration of the think the school there are several of these schools that are run on the same water such as a day's school at Port times and it is also a cooperative agreement between

the rural and local school districts with the bill for the ministration. The change in administration in the absence of the government schools is noticeable to the people on the reservation and most of them seem to be in favor of the move. We had a lot of governments to support schools before that in different places bring that on one hand he sold brick non-space but you find that a lot of students there now commute between the different towns and attack time school districts so they're better off phased out the result of the change has been that the schools are now more integrated than they were before. Well there are course far more Indian children than an Indian children because of the large Indian population and adjacent to the reservation areas. One resident of Rosebud describes a situation there that's fully integrated into the talker I schools the school district and we work all of ours right and all school districts we have no government schools to her relations between the Indian tribes and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have never been the favorite topic of conversation on the reservation. And as you may have noticed almost everyone has been quick to note that the

government schools have closed for good. At rose by the new integrated public schools seem to have good acceptance among the people and many look to the new system is superior to the old. I would think it would be for the better because the facilities are are better teachers are now being employed by school systems are far better equipped this time. I think you're being overall improvement. The general pattern of integration through various arrangements has been the norm over the state. The fully segregated school will soon become a thing of the past. Many social historians point to the education system on the reservations at least as they used to exist as one of the main factors preventing assimilation of the Indians. As long as the Indian children are able to establish a noncompetitive situation in the fully segregated school where group norms can be very strong education will probably be stifled or will not reach its full potential. Many an Indian student of the past has blossomed when placed in an integrated school situation where the reservation ideals were not in force through social behavior.

A fully segregated school is a rare case in South Dakota today only only segment strictly indoor high school. Our Indian schools in South Dakota at the present time. Either to operate schools want to glam girl and are in poor Mr. Wade goes on to reiterate what has already been said about the segregated school situation. When you have too many of the same class of people in one area that I think tend to level off in their achievement sooner than. We're a mixed population through the physical rearrangement of school locations the segregation problem will be or in most cases has been solved to a considerable degree. There are still other problem areas which remain to be solved which also affect the Indian student just as the home life or lack of it was an important factor in the lives of those Indian students who attended boarding schools. The home life and the home itself are very important to the

student of today. Society places an ever increasing emphasis on the necessity of the individual to interact with the others around him. Young people like to get together with their classmates for parties or just plain old get togethers on the reservation though many students live with their families in tents or old frame houses that let the cold in through the cracks with the force of a gale wind. And they were ashamed to bring their friends home with them. The non-Indian society stresses status and nice homes and cars and pretty clothes. Something that is alien to older Indians who depend only upon having the necessities of life. Perhaps they too would like nice things but know that they do not have the money to buy them. What is a child to do when his parents in his home do not conform to the American ideal. If you are ashamed to bring a person in your home or even show him where you are where you live because of the condition your house is in. And you've got problems. But yeah I think these kids were getting decent homes and not only kids in south but the families are. From mothers and

fathers and grandparents. They have something good to look at. It's can actually make them feel better. And these kids are going to be able to to be able to go home and not be in programs that are in effect on the reservations today may help the situation in the future. But for today the problem exists and it's a very meaningful problem to the families that have to cope with it as long as there is a distinct Indian settlement. There will always be those who hold on to the old culture the children of those people will also always be faced with the conflict between cultures just as many are today. There are strong cultural ties when they reach that age when they begin to think for themselves. You know in this. In this term. They began to feel this. There's a family back here wanting to keep them here and really there is nothing here. STUDENT You might see I think kind of gives up the Dakotas have traditionally stayed

away from the schools in the early days they kept their children away from them when the government schools opened the choice was either to go or to not go. The Indians had no voice in the curriculum or the policies of the school. This is created an unusual situation now that schools are consolidating the government control of the schools is being turned over to the county school boards. The Indian people still do not take any great efforts to become involved in the administration a decision making process of the school mostly because they have never had this power before they're not familiar with what they can do that I think people by and people recognize it and associate with the plane ride school but what they have had little say in what is being taught at planned at the end of the day school principal and these people probably haven't had much to do to see what goes into the courses the schools and so so if if the public school would it take for these schools

they couldn't expect these people all at once to start participating. What's the decision making of what's being taught in the schools. Mr. Clinton people that haven't been involved as the education process is changed. Those people who are indirectly involved with it the parents of the children who attend the schools will have to be re-educated will have to be made aware of their new responsibilities. They will have to know what the reservation superintendant is no longer the decision maker but that they are however not all the problems associated with the new educational systems lie with the Indian people. There will have to be concessions in adoptions made by parties on both sides of the fence by both Indian and non-Indian alike. We will keep working on one set of them have to be there. These 19 school boards and teachers and

superintendents restraint were left to bend a little bit to them to learn a group deal about Indian people. I think this is the thermos problem right now we're talking about Indian people adjusting to the nonunion culture will have to grow a little bit the other way to let police prevent a successful job in teaching or education to the people. This adjustment is going to have to be made by those people who are concerned with the education process who have not worked with Indian people before they are going to have to understand the people their customs their way of life and be able to translate this way of life into the philosophy of the educational institution. There is a complaint in some circles the validity of which is uncertain what the message is clear. Many of our non-Indians school administrators that they do not have any problems with Indian students as in the know that are they at the drop of the sort of thing. As soon as they reach the

mandatory drop and we are in school we think of madness you know. And it's easy to deal with a problem like this that can get out you know get rid of it. But this isn't but this is the way too many of our problems who printed up have been tuned in people the path to the future is clear to Indian and non-Indian alike in South Dakota. The changes that are taking place and will take place in the near future could spell the success or the failure of the attempt to provide equal adequate and meaningful education facilities to the Indian children of South Dakota. Together with a vocational education programs which will be discussed in a future program the grid school and high school educational programs will have a lasting effect on the Indian people on the Dakota Indians. We hope that the effect will be beneficial to both the Dakotas and society at large. Many of the education programs started under the Indian Community Action Project are too young to

evaluate although they will be discussed on the final programme of this series. In conclusion I'd like to cite an example of what education has accomplished just recently on the Rosebud Reservation. There are several things in education that have changed some of the people around here. I know of. Two girls. Who were in high school. And was in 11th grade and one is a senior and they're from the same family were ready to drop out of school because they didn't have what the other kids had and that's what they said it was true. They couldn't pay for the typing fees they couldn't pay for some of the fees that had to go into you know for different things and you doff your books and whatnot. And they were just ready to drop out. In fact one of them did and the other was going drop out soon after that. But we got this adult education program going on to the Community Action Program. And the mother of these children attended

classes herself. She wanted to learn how to talk English better. So she started in these classes. And I went to these to this home all a month a month and a half after this woman started school and I asked him when he see the girls I said What were your daughters he said they're in school. And the daughters I see them actors and I ask why do you stay in school when she quit when you're going to. Let him save off my mother can go to school. My mother can continue our education at her age and we certainly can and let him graduate this year she planned to college and the other graduate next year. So this is really making a difference I mean right now and you know like a lot of lives I mean I these kids lives kids that might have dropped out this year or maybe last year but didn't drop out because maybe their families. Or their friends or something that they they knew and maybe admired in a way you know went to college education classes.

I would like to thank Dr. Adams and hold the regents professor of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. Well a DeLorean anthropologist of Vermillion South Dakota John Waite of Pierce South Dakota Cleveland this sand away in the bowl of Rosebud South Dakota. Dr. Everett Sterling and Dr. Earl bright going to the Department of History at the University of South Dakota for information used on this program This is Arlin diamond speaking. Rock or rather the Dakota soon transition was produced through the facilities of care you Ice-T radio at the University of South Dakota a grant from the National Home Library Foundation has made possible the production of this program for national educational radio. This is the national educational radio network.