Volume 14 Number 3
May 1975

Arline B. Hobson and Joseph H. Stauss

THE responsibility for two-way communication and understanding generally rests upon both parties concerned. Cross-cultural understanding between the Indian world and the non-Indian world has created a situation where more often it is the Indian who has had to take the initiative in conveying an understanding of his value system and his lifestyle to the non-Indian.

Few students within our conventional system have had to contribute more to that process of cultural understanding than have American Indian students. They have been called upon continually to facilitate and to contribute to cross-cultural understanding. They themselves are asked to be understanding of others, and to be responsible to explain to an outwardly non-understanding world a system of values that are uniquely American Indian.

Indian college students continue to be exploited by the community through demands by schools, clubs, lodges, and churches, to bring some of their Indian world experience into the non-Indian world. Too often the interest manifested by the community is focused on a level equal to entertainment, or carries with it an expectation of novelty and thrill. Indian students at the University of Arizona have generously responded to such community requests, their only reward being that they have generally enlightened others concerning the Indian American world.

While preparing public presentations, the students often found they lacked data to support their understanding which they arrived at by "social osmosis"—in other words, by having lived within the Indian world and by being part of the Indian community. Appropriate research for presentations infringed upon the Indian student’s academic program, and their contribution to general cultural understanding has often been at personal sacrifice.

In some community contacts, Indian students have sometimes been hurt or embarrassed by insensitive questions and prejudicial viewpoints of the varied audiences. This has resulted in the Indian student not having had a favorable contact with the broader world. Sometimes, losing poise, they may not have made the kind of presentations that contribute to positive appreciations and extended cultural awareness.

Despite these difficulties there can be no doubt that the contribution of Indian students from the University of Arizona within the larger community has added to an increased community sensitivity. More of it is needed. The community is well aware that there are human resources at the University to which they can turn for enlarged understanding, rather than simply resorting to the library, to films, or to lectures.

Through our involvement advising the Amerind Club (the American Indian students’ club on the campus), we have become acutely aware of the tremendous value and needed service of community sensitizing done by Indian students. We also saw the need for Indian students to develop an expanded understanding of cultural differences and a base of data from which to meet community demands. We recognized their need for personal supportiveness and expanded clarity in struggling with some of the unfortunate, embarrassing or awkward interactions with non-Indian audiences. We were equally concerned that the personal generosity of the students was not being institutionally rewarded, especially when they were performing a community-wide service for the University. The public relations service that they provided merited some kind of real reward for the time involved to do the research required for presentations and for the care dedicated to organizing interesting and useful material.

The need became apparent for a formal course whereby the students could secure academic credit for their services to the community, for their public relations on behalf of the University, for their personal dedication and demanding work in performing such services, and for their sensitive interactions with the broader community.

We developed the curriculum and secured permission from the Registrar, the Liberal Arts Dean, and the Dean of Students to team-teach the special independent study course. The students were required to meet on a regular seminar basis so that sharing of experiences could be a substantial part of the course. Also, by meeting regularly with a minimum number of students, the Registrar’s Office allowed grades to be assigned on an A, B, C basis instead of the regular pass/fail basis for other independent study courses.

The Indian student who accepts the challenge of preparing for such community involvement usually does it with an enthusiasm and a zest accompanied by a very keen curiosity about his own and other tribal backgrounds, as well as a deep interest in pan-Indian concerns. He generally earns good grades, and this contributes to the improvement of his grade point average. The relatively small compensatory aspect of allowing a grade is very important to the instructors, who believe that much of the intellectual effort of the Indian student on the University campus goes unrewarded because he is not truly par of the conventional Anglo-related school system; and his particular viewpoints are frequently either misunderstood or ignored.

The seminar as it was developed is particularly interesting because it encompasses students from freshman through graduate levels. Credit is allowed on a 99 (freshman-sophomore), 199 (junior-senior), or 299 (graduate) basis, thereby stimulating a cross-class population. The number of credits assigned is variable (maximum of four), depending upon the number of presentations which are made in the community. The initial year the course was offered the program was an exploratory one, and the students helped the instructors to re-design the direction of the course. A syllabus has emerged which reflects this interaction.

The objective for the current syllabus reads: "To develop knowledge and skill of the student so that he can effectively educate the non-Indian about the Indian world, and so that he can sensitize the non-Indian helping him to appreciate Indian values and Indian concerns.

The general requirements include: (a) Attendance; because student sharing is a basic course benefit. (b) Public presentations; varied according to student classification, and written speech outlines. (c) Written speeches; varied according to class-level requirements. (d) Card-file system of research data; under subject headings organized and submitted for teacher/student feedback. (e) Contribution to a file of materials; for total class (pictures - drawings - notations regarding where to get objects). (f) Attendance in either speech or audio-visual lab sessions. (g) Assigned reading and research as class progresses.

The credit under the new syllabus for lower division, upper division, and graduate levels varies depending upon the variety of audiences the students encounter, the degree of involvement in helping other students - such as the training provided by a graduate student to a freshman - and the breadth of national Indian concerns which the student discusses and undertakes to research. The concerns may range from one’s own tribal involvement to pan-Indian matters at a national and controversial level.

The initial semester of course development involved 15 students who made a total of 51 presentations as follows: (a) Nine presentations to community groups; (b) 19 presentations to elementary grades; (c) four presentations to parochial schools; (d) four presentations to University classes; (e) 15 presentations to high schools. Fifty-one presentations do not imply 51 different audiences, necessarily. In some cases several presentations were made to the same audience.

Student resumes of presentations revealed interesting material which became part of the materials’ file for subsequent classes’ use. At the elementary level, audience interest was high about the Indian student as a person, and as an inheritor of a tradition. Tribal location, family customs, foods, crafts, dress, traditional stories, language, and music characterized these presentations.

At the secondary level, audiences were similarly interested in the Indian student, but they expressed added concern regarding specifics of geography, current academic problems of Indian students, and interest in the historical and legal concepts of tribe and reservation. Tribal government issues, school problems, religious rationale, political structures, and economic development, constituted the major substantive content.

At the community and college-group level types of audiences ranged from informal social mixing as ethnic representatives, to University classes both on campus and at extension class sites, to church groups, city parks and recreation groups, and to public media, such as television and radio. In these situations the students usually were expected to have a much wider range of knowledge across all Indian concerns and tribal groups. It was important to teach students how to define what they were and were not willing and capable of discussing. These students were also exposed to standard stereotypes, and they found themselves in the role of unteaching as well as teaching. This content dealt largely with detailed culture, foods, cooking methods, current student problems, and historical interpretation.

After the first semester’s experimentation, a developed syllabus reflected requirements for considerably more time in special workshop situations for practice in actual speech techniques, theory of speech preparations, and use of audio-visual equipment, both for presentation and for self-evaluation. In introducing these new elements into the syllabus, other departments on campus became involved, and the course became more inter-disciplinary in teaching, technique and content. In arranging for varied departmental credit, we drew on all the disciplines that the students represented. Cooperation came from both Indian and non-Indian faculty and staff, and we were able to allow any type of credit the student needed for his or her degree requirements. The departmental response was so positive that students can now receive independent study credit for this seminar from more than one department by repeating the seminar. This reflects a growing concern by many departments on campus that experiences of Indian students should be related to their own needs and demands of their heritage as Indian Americans today.

Watching Indian students grow, over the period of a semester in this seminar, leads us to the generalized importance of this type of course, the benefits being:

A. Individually strengthened awareness of self worth.

B. Clear definition by the individual of his or her ethnic identity.

C. A sharpened capacity to differentiate between fact and opinion, especially between one’s own opinions and the facts that can either support or contend against one’s own opinions.

D. Heightened sensitivity to thoughtlessness and stereo-type audience responses with an improved skill to lift the question or the comment to a more universal concern. This is a capacity to transcend the awkwardness of a moment and to prod the non-Indian to a new awareness or sensitivity of self. For example, the student encounters such questions as—"How come Indians are so superstitious?" within the seminar. Time has been devoted to analyzing how to respond to similar ill-couched or ignorant questions.

The student might be able to respond—"I will try to help you to see how Indians live every moment of their lives within their own value system and according to their own religious beliefs." In this manner the student transforms the concept of superstition into something pertaining to culturally pluralistic value and religion.

To a more mature group, however, the response might be—"How do you define superstitious? When I understand your idea of superstitious perhaps I can respond to you. As an Indian I see so much in the non-Indian world that is based on illogic or superstition and that has no apparent value."

E. Increased effort on the part of the students to demand a reliable support or check on information they unearth in their reading or in their interaction with Indian elders.

F. Greater recognition on the part of the student concerning his or her own limitations in presenting material. This is added to an increased skill in taking the initiative to set parameters on discussions. The student is able to say, "I can talk with you about Hopi cooking, but I am not able to discuss with you all Indian cooking."

Each semester is based upon ideas and experiences of past semesters. Old materials are constantly reanalyzed and new materials added. The student has in his or her notebook throughout the seminar historical, educational, bibliographical and research data to refer to and use. Students shared their sources and their researched information which increased individual and class files. Each presentation was supported by a written outline. These outlines with bibliographical sources were duplicated for all students. Students could then use each other’s material to prepare for later presentations, especially when it referred to values within another tribe.

A teacher in a third-grade class, at which one of the students made a presentation, wrote to us:

"An Indian student gave a presentation to several third-grade classes at Marana Elementary School. The presentation was a culmination of Indian units being taught. Because she presented artifacts from numerous tribes throughout the United States-which varied widely in dress and custom-her information enhanced what had already been covered by reading, discussing, and seeing various films on the different tribes. She held the children’s rapt attention throughout the 45-minute presentation with stories of her own childhood and the customs of her tribe. She even sang a song in her language which she had translated as a child from a church hymn she had been taught. We were all fascinated.

"At the close of her presentation she allowed everyone to see the things she had already shared with us. The children tried things on, such as her eagle feather headdress, and played with the turtle rattle. This was a perfect presentation for our purposes. It gave a chance to have questions answered by someone with first-hand information the children were full of questions -and it gave them a chance to see how one person has combined the best of two cultures into her own life."

We believe similar courses are a way of building strong crosscultural bridges with two-way traffic going both ways. Participating students are rewarded and not just exploited. The non-Indian student and community has a source of authentic information from which to draw without relying on just the good will of Indian students or current John Wayne reruns on television.