By Lynne Colombe
I consider myself a survivor of the Reservation education system because somehow, even though most statistics to date purport that the Native American child is years behind his non-Native counterparts across the United States, I managed to score in the top percentiles of any test I ever took as a child, on and off the Rosebud Reservation.
Therefore, when students grow into their high school years and ask me for my personal advice on what to do in high school to prepare for college; if the student is one living on the Reservation, for years I have only been able to offer the advice, “Teach yourself.”
I realize that my response is an apathetic one; reflecting my preference for the education I received off-Reservation in Apple Valley, MN during my freshman and sophomore years in high school, to the indifference of my junior and senior years at the Todd County High School.
You see, I had interpreted at fifteen years old, when transferring from one school to the other, the absolute difference in educational systems. In Apple Valley, I was in accelerated classes and was met with high expectations, real homework, choices in curriculum, and a pedagogy that demanded the thinking of a future educator, biologist, journalist, or etymologist.
However, the status quo of education I received from my Reservation education taught me to accept a rigid system designed for a rudimentary education in “the 3 R’s - Reading, Riting, and Rithmatic.” At seventeen, I had felt that this system prepared me for no more than work as a secretary or physical laborer. Reservation schooling never had an aim of teaching me to think; it just gave me a ton of multiple choices to choose from on an otherwise blank page.
Dr. John Rogers, Professor of Education at UCLA wrote an article (partial titled), “Just Talk: Voices of Education and Justice” (available at https://centerx. gseis.ucla.edu/the-struggle- for-educational-justice-in-the- age-of-trump/) and his words resonated with me for many reasons:
“Some of what is needed has long been the hallmark of educational justice work: Protect those most vulnerable from oppressive policies and systemic neglect; Connect progressive labor, community, and youth organizations in sustainable networks and coalitions for learning and action; and Construct robust models of school and community-based learning that expand youth opportunity and voice.”
My questions, next, become, “At what point when we fail to educate children to read and write, does it become criminal?”
And, if it does becomecriminal in our mentality to graduate students from the twelfth grade who cannot compete toward the educational paths leading to jobs and careers available to “other successful Americans;” then, “What?” I would ask further:
“What can justify the great loss to the children in our own communities via suicide, crime, drug addiction, and depression as the results of that failure? What more does it take for ‘the leaders’ to take a look at where we come from and where we are going, and create the vehicles for initiating social justice for Lakota children?”
Is the altruism of the Lakota Way “Wo-Lakota” no longer with us? From the Lakota teaching (cited here from the Sinte Gleska University website at https:// sites.google.com/site/sguvcte/ seven-values-of-lakota-life) we learn about:
Wa on’sila - Caring and compassion; concern for one another in a good way, especially for the family, the old ones, the young ones, the orphans, the ones in mourning, the sick ones, and the ones working for the people.
Wowijke - Honesty and truth with yourself, higher power, and others with sincerity.
Wawokiye - Generosity and caring; helping without expecting anything in return, giving from the heart; and
Wah’wala - Humility; we have a spirit and are not better or less than others.
In closing, as the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Elections come nearer for another round of leaders, I question the ability for others to feel anything other than an apathetic view that: “Nothing can change; or nothing will change no matter who is elected.”
It is a difficult walk to follow that of my great-grandfather and World War I veteran, Francis Bordeaux of old Horse Creek. As a Councilman in his time, he served on the Rosebud Sioux Tribal Council without pay. At that time, he had no car; and Grandpa Francis had to rely on the charity of his friends, his “kolas” to get him to meetings over 30 miles away.
When people are asked to serve their communities in an altruistic way, which means they serve their constituents and people without expecting anything in return, without nepotism, without pay, without recognition, or even without the peace to do their jobs; what can be said of being a traditional leader?
Are we all now apathetic or altruistic as we move into these Tribal, and national elections this summer and fall? And what social justice, if any, can we win on behalf of educating children? Is there any social justice at all? Or are we collectively, apathetic to change?
Author Credit:
Originally published Page 2 Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Todd County Tribune
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