Robert A. Roessel, Jr.

Director, Indian Education Center

Arizona State University

This is the first of a series of articles on Indian Education in specific areas and states.

One of the great challenges of modern American Education is Indian Education. The "Vanishing American" is no longer vanishing, but rather, the Indian population is increasing more rapidly than the non-Indian. The question then may be asked: Who is educating these Indian children and what are some of the trends in Indian Education?

In Arizona today there are over 30,000 Indian children of school age and yet in less than fifteen years there will be more than 130,000 (Note 1). The need for an, adequate education for Arizona Indians is also revealed in the fact that the average number of grades completed for Arizona Indians was less than three years of schooling while for the state as a whole the average was over ten years of schooling (see Note 2). As a result, the problem of Indian Education is commanding the attention of many interested agencies and individuals. These large numbers of Arizona children require both adequate classrooms and qualified teachers.

There are three basic types of schools which have accepted responsibilities for educating Indians: (1) Bureau of Indian Affairs Schools, (2) public schools and (3) mission schools.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1959-60 accounted for approximately 66% of the education of Indians in Arizona and they operated some 68 schools (see Note 3). The Bureau has several different kinds of schools to meet several different kinds of educational needs.

In the first place, the B. I. A. (Bureau of Indian Affairs) operates Off-Reservation Boarding Schools. In Arizona the only Off-Reservation Boarding School is the Phoenix Indian School. This school has an enrollment of nearly 1,000 students from a number of different tribes, such as, Hopi, Navaho, Pima, Papago, Apache, Mohave, and Yavapai. The majority of these children go home rarely, if at all, during the school year. Usually children attending Phoenix Indian School arrive in August and remain until May when they return to their reservation home.

The Off-Reservation Boarding Schools are the originators of the Special Program. This new approach to education began in 1943 and was developed to meet the needs of Indian children who never were in school before and consequently were over-aged and retarded. The function of this program was to provide a basic understanding of English and to teach the Indian youth a saleable skill, such as, carpentry, domestic service, or any of a number of other vocations. The Special Program was designed primarily for the Navaho because they had the largest number of over-age children out of school. Whenever all Indian children start school at age six then there will be no further need for the Special Programs, as there will be no large number of older children who have not been to school.

In the second place, the B. I. A. operates Reservation Boarding Schools. Arizona was the site of 29 Reservation Boarding Schools in 1959-60 with an enrollment of approximately 5,000 students (see Note 4). These schools are located on the reservation and vary in size from an enrollment of less than twenty-five to over one thousand. These Reservation Boarding Schools are designed to provide an education. for the Indian child without his having to leave the reservation. However, in many instances, the school is located a great distance from the child's home community and he still finds it difficult to come home except at infrequent intervals during the school year.

Boarding Schools were the most popular of Bureau Schools during the early 1900s as well as during the 1800s. Adequate all-weather roads were virtually non-existent on the Indian reservation and it was most difficult to get teachers to go to isolated and remote sections. Therefore, it appeared that the only logical answer was to construct and operate Boarding Schools which could be more centrally located and could be large enough to insure a small settlement of teachers and school personnel.

During this period—up to 1928—the Boarding Schools, both on and off the reservation, flourished and were the most numerous of Bureau Schools. However, in 1928 the Meriam Report was published. This report which was an exhaustive study of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, declared that the first and foremost need in Indian Education was a change in point of view. The Meriam Report was critical of Boarding Schools and favored the use of Day Schools. The report stated (see Note 5):

The recommendations of Meriam's Report were implemented primarily during the mid-1930s: For example, in 1934 there were but nine day schools on the Navaho Reservation while in 1938 there were some fifty additional Day Schools (see Note 6).

In the third place, the Bureau of Indian Affairs operates Day Schools. The Day School has many obvious advantages, such as those described in the Meriam Report quoted above. They have certain disadvantages which are related to school bus operation. For instance, World War II forced the severe curtailment of Day School operations because of tire and gasoline shortages and the inability to properly maintain bus routes. Also, many Indian families move from one place to another and a school with an adequate enrollment in the fall often found itself with only a few in the spring. As a result of these and other factors many Day Schools were closed or converted into small community Boarding Schools.

Indian parents have traditionally viewed Day Schools with mixed emotions: They enjoy having their children return home each evening; they enjoy having a school in their own local area which may serve as a community center; and they appreciate the opportunities for employment in their community. On the other hand, Indians are concerned over their children having to walk great distances or wait in the cold for a school bus; Indian parents are often hard pressed to provide adequate food and clothing for their children in school; and they wonder whether the quality of education at one of these small Day Schools is equal to that of a larger, better-equipped school.

Today there are fifty Bureau-operated Day Schools in Arizona with a total enrollment of over 7,000 children (see Note 7). Included in these figures are eighteen trailer schools with a little over six hundred students. The trailer schools are the result of imaginative planning by Bureau school officials. They were developed as a part of a crash educational program in 1954 designed to provide vastly expanded classroom facilities for Navaho Education. The trailer schools serve the dual purpose of providing classroom space at locations where school facilities are not otherwise available and that of proving or disproving the feasibility of permanent school construction.

The trailer schools usually consist of movable facilities including house trailers used for living quarters, or as kitchens and bathrooms for the children, and quonsets or prefabricated steel buildings which serve as classrooms.

A new type of educational assistance is provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to certain of Arizona Indians. This program is called the Peripheral Town Dormitory Program. In 1954, as a part of the previously mentioned crash educational program, the Bureau completed negotiations with school boards in towns surrounding the Navaho Reservation. The B. I. A. agreed to house and feed the Navaho children; in other words, to operate dormitories, and the school districts agreed to educate these children in their public schools, providing that major portions of the per capita cost was paid by the government. In 1959-60, over 1,200 Navaho Indian children enrolled in four Arizona public schools as a part of the Peripheral Dormitory Program (see Note 8). They live in Bureau dormitories located in towns such as Flagstaff, Holbrook, Winslow and Snowflake and attend the local public schools.

The Public Schools of Arizona enrolled approximately 26% of the Indian children in 1959-60 in more than 80 schools (see Note 9). The percentage has been steadily increasing. In 1918-19 there were only 19 Indian students in public school, in 1933-34 there were 553, and in 1953-54 there were 3,264 (see Note 10). The great increase in public school enrollment is the result of a combination of at least two factors: (1) the Bureau of Indian Affairs has as its stated policy the increased use of public school facilities by Indian students, (2) the state and local school districts are receptive to having Indians enroll partially because of financial programs which reimburse the local school for portions of the education costs involved.

The Meriam Report not only favored the expanded use of day schools but also urged the increased emphasis on Public school education for Indians. In recent years, as has been already noted, there has been a steady and at times spectacular increase in the number of Indians in Arizona Public Schools. Every county in the state has some Indians in the public schools while over forty per cent of the students enrolled in the public schools of Apache County are Indian (see Note 11). The county with the largest number of public schools which enrolled Indian students was Maricopa County with over 17 different schools involved (see Note 12).

There are two different locations for these public schools enrolling Indians. Some of the public schools are located on the Indian reservations while there are other public schools off the reservations. In 1959-60 there were over 60 public schools enrolling Indian children off the reservation while there were approximately 18 public schools located on the various Arizona Indian reservations (see Note 13).

The successful expanded influx of Indian students into Arizona public schools has cause a re-examination of certain school patterns and practices. Indian parents are for the first time learning to understand the unique characteristics of a public school and are making every effort to accept the increased responsibilities of public school education. Tribal leaders are urging the establishment of more and more public schools on every reservation.

There were approximately 2,500 Indian students or 8% of Arizona's Indian school population enrolled in some thirty mission schools in 1959-60 (Note 14). Religious denominations have long been active in Indian education in this state. In fact, the federal government encouraged the participation of religious sects in staffing its school program during the 1870s. The first known teacher among the Navahos was a lady who was a member of the Presbyterian Board of Home Missions; as was Reverend C. took, who taught the first classes for Pima children.

Mission schools perform two major educational functions today: (1) providing sectarian education for Indians who want it; and (2) training religious leaders among the Indians.

There are several discernible trends in Indian Education. First, public school education is steadily overtaking the Bureau of Indian Affairs in educating the major portion of Arizona Indian children. Nationwide, more than half (56%) of all Indian children of school age attend public schools" (see Note 15). In Arizona the figure is substantially lower (26%) but there is an unmistakable trend toward the public school.

Second, there is an increasing demand on the part of tribal leaders for education on the reservation.

Enos Francisco, Chairman of the Papago Tribal Council stated (see Note 16): "Schools should be located as near the children as possible. They should teach our Indian children about the reservation and about tribal organization. At the present time Papago children are taught hardly anything about their reservation."

Dillon Platero, Chairman of the Navaho Education Committee declared (see Note 17): "We don't need to take our education off the reservation. Our people can be just as well educated on the reservation. I feel that the Navaho reservation is the place where the schools should be. I'm sure this will take place increasingly in the near future."

There are, of course, many reservations that are not the least affected by this trend: Such reservation examples as the Pima, Hualapai or Yavapai indicate that certain tribes do not need or desire education on the immediate reservation. These reservations are located near existing public schools and the reservation itself is not large enough to establish new public schools.

Third, Arizona Tribal leaders recently have become increasingly interested in having Indian history, traditions, and current Indian problems included in the Indian child's school curriculum. In other words, they believe that the Indian student should not only learn English, European, American and ancient history, but also the history of the Indian people and their contributions to the growth and development of this nation and state.

Maurice McCabe, Executive Secretary of the Navaho Tribe, speaking to the First Annual Navaho Youth Conference said (Note 18): "The Indian people do not know enough of their history: We do not know enough about ourselves. We must understand the things that have caused us to be the way we are. We must understand the past if we are to live creatively in the present. Our schools must help us in this important task."

Clarence Wesley, Chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, addressing the Indian Education Conference at Arizona State University in 1960, remarked: "We must be proud of our Indian heritage and we must see that our schools teach in a positive manner Indian culture and traditions. In our desire to be like everyone, we Indians must remember that we have something different and it is something we must be proud of; otherwise we will lose our identity."

Fourth, there is a growing demand for teachers who are qualified to teach Indian children. A successful teacher in Phoenix may not be a successful teacher of Indian children. Today, in an effort to meet this increasing need for qualified teachers, universities and colleges in the Southwest and elsewhere are developing Indian Education programs.

Arizona State College at Flagstaff for the past few years has offered several courses designed to help teachers achieve some understanding of the problems in Indian Education and how to solve them. The University of Arizona, through its excellent Anthropology Department, provides courses in this important area. Arizona State University has developed the first comprehensive and extensive Indian Education Program designed not only for educators, but also for tribal leaders.

One of the major functions of such programs is to provide prospective and practicing teachers with an understanding of the Indian child and a knowledge of the techniques and methods best suited to teaching Indians.

An experienced school administrator from a school located on the Navaho Reservation told this story which points up certain of the differences between teaching Indians and non-Indians (Note 19):

I know the teacher didn't mean to do any harm, but ignorance is no excuse. We must have teachers who understand the Indian child and his way of life if we are to be really successful in educating him. Another story, perhaps less glamorous, but equally revealing was told by a teacher on the Papago Reservation:

In other words, the teaching techniques that worked for me in Phoenix did not work for me on this Indian reservation.

These two examples, illustrate the need for teachers who understand the Indian child and perhaps provide some rationale for the Indian Education Programs developing in different sections of the country.

Indian Education is important in Arizona and the interested individual can visit different schools and materially increase his own understanding of the many problems.

Regardless of which type of school the Indian child attends in the future the fact remains he will go to some school. Arizona, with the largest Indian population of any state, is considered by many to be the center of activities related to Indian Education. Certainly, Arizona Indians will have the opportunity to contribute to the growth and expansion of this state and nation to the extent of the education they receive. All agencies, organizations and individuals concerned with and dedicated to the area of Indian Education will be able to make maximum progress through continued cooperation and mutual respect.