| |
|
|
The following article appeared in the Fall/Winter
1999/2000 issue of the Indian Education Newsletter. The basis for much
of the information in the article was taken from Portland Public School's
"American Indian Baseline Essays" written by C. Landon and Gary
Fields. Additional updated information on Indian students was provided
by Jeanne Nathanson of the National Center for Educational Statistics
(NCES).
THE MILLENNIUM IS NOW HERE TO CELEBRATE BUT WE
SHOULD ALSO CELEBRATE 1900s!
The over-hype of the new millennium is just about over for now, but it
should get us thinking about how we should celebrate the conclusion of
the last one hundred years. During the 1900s, there were major events
that took place over the 20th Century that involved American Indian and
Alaska Natives.
1900s:
Beginning in 1900 with Charles Curtis (Kaw/Osage) who was named to chair
the U.S. House Committee on Indian Affairs (he later served as a Congressman
and Senator before being elected as Vice- President of the United States
under President Herbert Hoover), there was a concerted effort to do away
with American Indian Tribes and pursue a policy of assimilation that proved
to be so destructive to Tribes. Later, the U.S. Congress would formally
apologize for its errors in judgement. The efforts made it very difficult
for Tribes to maintain their traditional governments and sovereignty,
but they did. This was especially true in Oregon where Tribes were formally
terminated by the U.S. government as a means to disband them. These and
other efforts were difficult times for the Tribes since most reservations
were either abolished or severely shrunk in size using the Dawes General
Allotment Act to legitimatize those efforts. Still, Tribes continued to
maintain their Tribal governments and eventually almost all of the Oregon
Tribes regained their Federal recognition. All this happened within the
last one hundred years.
Wars:
In World War I, about 8,000 American Indians joined the armed services
where they were most often assigned to reconnaissance duties on the assumption
that they would be superior scouts. They suffered higher casualty rates
because of stereotypes that continued to adversely affect them. Two years
after World War I, Congress passed a law granting citizenship to any honorably
discharged non-citizen Indian veteran who served for the U.S. and choose
to apply to an appropriate court for citizen status. It wasn't until 1924
that Congress passed an Indian citizenship act to make citizens of all
other American Indians not yet deemed citizens (about 1/3 of the total
Indian population). Later, during World War II when over 25,000 Indians
entered the Armed Forces, two Indians won the Congressional Medal of Honor,
51 received the Silver Star, 47 the Bronze Star, 34 the Distinguished
Flying Cross, and 71 the Air Medal. The Navajo "Code Talkers"
helped win the war with their unique language skills that were coded and
proved indecipherable by the enemy - but were not formally honored for
their work by Congress until 1999. During the Vietnam War, 41,500 American
Indians served in the U.S. combat forces with distinction. During the
infamous My Lai massacre, Hugh Thompson (Cherokee) risked his life to
protect civilians by repeatedly putting his helicopter between civilians
and the firing of unfriendly troops. During Operation Desert Shield/Desert
Storm, 12,000 American Indians served in the U.S. volunteer military forces
and made up almost 25% of the total complement of 48,300 active military
personnel involved in the conflict. During these and other wars, American
Indians fought for the U.S. with distinction during the last one hundred
years.
Congressional Actions:
In 1934 Congress passed legislation for the Johnson-O'Malley Act (JOM)
which provided funds to states for having Indian students in public schools.
Previously, Indian students did not attend public schools since their
parents did not pay property taxes on reservation land holdings. In the
same year, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) that ended
the practice of allotment of tribal lands to individual non-Indian ownership
and repealed the Curtis Act of 1898 that outlawed legitimate Tribal governments.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs also did away with its efforts to eliminate
traditional Indian ceremonial practices. In 1940 Felix S. Cohen published
the Handbook of Federal Indian Law that summarized and analyzed statutes
and case laws applicable to Indians in the U.S. Still used today in regularly
updated editions, it was followed the next year with the completion of
another monumental compilation of Indian law documentation by Charles
J. Kappler listing Indian treaties, statutes and leading Supreme Court
cases that became the foundation for future Indian law efforts. In 1944
the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was formed and evolved
eventually into a lobbying, networking and educational group to counter
the Federal "termination" policies that began in 1953 to terminate
the treaty-established, government -to-government trust relationships
between the U.S. and Indian Tribes. In Oregon, termination was a terrible
ordeal for terminated Tribes to go through and they each began work to
regain their Federal Tribal recognition during the last one hundred years.
Educational Growth:
At the start of 1960 there were only 2,000 American Indians enrolled in
higher education in the United States, 12,000 by 1970, and by 1980 109,000
had completed four or more years of college. By the end of the 20th Century,
enrollment of American Indian/Alaska Native students in public institutions
increased substantially. By 1997, 138,800 American Indians were enrolled
in all institutions of higher education, up from 76,100 in 1976. A greater
percentage of American Indian students than all other students were enrolled
in public institutions. In 1994, 87 percent of American Indian students
compared with 78 percent of all students attended public institutions.
Since many Indian students attended 2-year institutions (which were mostly
public) this impacted the percentage of Indian students attending public
institutions. Enrollment jumped from 34,900 in 1976 to 74,500 in 1997
for American Indian women, while American Indian male enrollment rose
from 34,800 to 52,600 during the same period. As for tribally-controlled
colleges, by 1995 more than 12,000 American Indian students were enrolled
in tribally controlled colleges, or about 8 percent of all American Indian/Alaska
Native post secondary students. The total Fall 1997 enrollment of American
Indian/Alaska Native students in degree granting institutions for the
state of Oregon was 2,736. This was an impressive growth in higher education
for American Indians/Alaska Natives during the last one hundred years.
"Termination" And Self-Determination:
By the close of the active period of the U.S. Federal governmentÍs
policy of "termination" in the mid-1960s, 109 Indian Tribes
and over 12,000 individual Indians lost official recognition of their
treaty status as legally-recognized Indians. Over 2.5 million acres of
reservation land formerly protected by the trust relationship between
treaty Tribes and the Federal government had passed into non-Indian control.
Among the largest Tribes affected were the Menominee in Wisconsin and
the Klamath Tribe in Oregon. Northwest Tribes conducted a long struggle
to regain their recognition and honoring of their treaty fishing rights.
In a landmark case, the "Boldt Decision" finally passed through
the U.S. Supreme Court in 1980 to recognize those treaty rights. Confrontation
increased in the 1960s to maintain treaty rights of Indian Tribes and
its members. The American Indian Movement (AIM) and other Indian activist
organizations were formed to maintain treaty rights, tribal sovereignty
and traditional cultures. By 1970 the U.S. census reported that 44.6%
of American Indians were living in major urban centers - away from reservations.
In 1971 Congress passes the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act that took
traditional village governments off their land base (almost 90% of Alaska)
and many powers of self-rule by creating 13 regional corporations in their
place that could be purchased by non-Native investors after 1991. In 1972
Congress created the Office of Indian Education in the U.S. Department
of Education to involve local Indian parent committees to work with local
school districts in being more involved in the education of their Indian
children. A National Advisory Council on Indian Education (NACIE) was
also formed. The National Indian Education Association (NIEA), the Oregon
Indian Education Association (OIEA), and other Indian education organizations
were formed. In 1975, Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act of 1975 which significantly increased tribal
control over programs on Indian reservations and helped fund public school
construction on and near reservations. In 1976 the Coos County Indian
Education Coordination Program was initiated with Jim Thornton as its
Coordinator. From Coos Bay School District's first Indian Education Program,
Indian Education Programs quickly grew into all six Coos County school
districts and also began in five other Oregon south coast school districts
with Jim's active participation. Education has been a major goal of American
Indians/ Alaska Natives over the last one hundred years.
Restoration And Growth:
In 1978 Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act that
declared the public policy of the United States to "protect and preserve
for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express,
and exercise the traditional religions of the American Indian, Inuit,
Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to access to sites,
use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to worship through
ceremonials and traditional rites." The same year, Congress passed
the Indian Child Welfare Act that gave Tribal courts jurisdiction over
reservation Indian children in an effort to stop the placement of Indian
children into non-Indian families. In 1977, the terminated Confederated
Tribes of Siletz in Oregon were restored to their Federal recognition
of their Tribal existence and government through an act of Congress. In
1982, the Cow Creek Band of Upper Umpqua Indians in Oregon regained their
status as a Federally-recognized Indian Tribe, followed by the Confederated
Tribes of the Grand Ronde of Oregon the following year. During that year,
President Reagan issued a statement reaffirming the government -to-government
relationship between the U.S. and Indian Tribes and the Federal government's
policy of self-determination for Indian nations. Other Oregon Tribes that
regained their Federal status included the Confederated Tribes of Coos,
Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, the Klamath Tribe, and the Coquille
Indian Tribe. By the early 1990s, there were 325 recognized American Indian
tribes in the U.S., including another 242 recognized Alaskan Native bands
and village governments. There are also almost 200 unrecognized or terminated
tribes and bands who continue to struggle to obtain Federal recognition.
"Indian Country" land base in the U.S. has been reduced to a
total of about 53 million acres out of the 2,316,012,800 acres of land
used by American Indians at the time of non-Indian contact - 2.3% of its
initial land base. The 1990 U.S. census reports that just under two million
U.S. citizens claim American Indian or Alaskan Native heritage. There
are 27 Indian-controlled accredited colleges operating in the United States
and over 138,800 American Indians are enrolled in these and other colleges
and universities throughout the U.S. There has been major progress for
American Indians/Alaska Natives during the last one hundred years - and
much more to achieve in the new century!
|
|
