Volume 10 Number 3
May 1971

REPORT ON A REPORT:

LAST DECEMBER, the 65-page Summary Report and Recommendations on the national study, The Education of Indian Children and Youth, by Robert J. Havighurst, Director, was issued.

The United States Office of Education project actually is reported in a 45-paper series, and the Summary is a quick overview of Dr. Havighurst’s compilations.

Tribes studied were in three categories according to geographical area: complete or majority population - Navajo, Eskimo, Papago, Tlingit and Oklahoma Cherokee; majority population on small reservations - Quinault, Makah, Blackfeet, Hoopa, Menominee, Lumbee, Rosebud Sioux, Pima, Apache, Hopi, Laguna; minority in an urban society--mixed tribal examples in Chicago, Minneapolis, Baltimore and Los Angeles, Prairie Island Sioux at Red Wing, Blackfeet at Cut Bank, Pawnee and Ponca in Oklahoma.

Four categories of people were interviewed: 735 parents, 2,422 students, 468 teachers, 190 community leaders. Both questionnaires and open-end interviews were used. The data was researched by many persons and then compiled. It has been a tremendous task—the first such report since the late 1920s under Lewis Meriam’s direction.

The most important facet of Dr. Havighurst’s Summary and Final Report is that, at last, under one cover, descriptions of all current situations in Indian education, the evaluations of problems, and the recommendations which Indian leaders have been desiring for years are gathered together. Studies can be made on this or that problem, reports made on certain tribes, schools, administrative situations, articles written about parents’ attitudes toward teachers and children—but generally they are isolated.

Of all the information provided, the highlight is the new theme in Indian education: Indian authority and responsibility in the education of Indian children and youth. Finances are always the paramount feature of any program, and the Indian administrators are slowly achieving more funds from both government and private sources. At the same time, legal responsibility is attained.

In the closely-integrated program, there are more Indian teachers, more Indian culture curricula, more youth attending institutions of higher learning. There are better programs in urban areas for the reservation Indian, and more knowledge disseminated to urban teachers about Indian problems—both of which are helping to "bridge the gap."

The privately-financed commission on Indian education is perhaps the least-known of the new recommendations, and this non-governmental entity could perhaps be a key in the process needed to strengthen the changeover from old concepts.

There is so much in the Summary (and in the 45-paper full report), that cannot be commented on here. As most persons connected with Indian education have received or know about the Havighurst summary, JAIE wishes here to welcome it as a needed addition to the Indian education bookshelf—an addition that should be "reference ready."