Volume 19 Number 3
May 1980

Time constriction and estimation have been studied among a number of groups of persons outside the mainstream of society. Time estimation has differentiated between high and low achieving junior high school youngsters (see Note 3), high and low achieving college students (see Note 1), and many other groups (see Note 2). However, reservation Native American students’ ability to estimate time seems not to be reported in the literature, although there are frequent popular references to lack of punctuality among various Native American peoples. Indeed, the use of the term "Indian time" has gained currency among Anglos attempting to describe in a colloquial way the apparent differences in emphasis on the importance of time in Native American and Anglo cultures.

Since the ability to estimate time appears to be an important factor in school achievement, it seemed useful to study time estimation ability among Native American adolescents. The specific problem was to learn whether Native American adolescents who live in reservations in Montana estimate time the same as their non-Indian counterparts in Montana communities.

Sixty-three Native American adolescents who reside on three reservations (Crow, Cheyenne, Rocky Boy) in Montana were studied. One hundred seventy-nine non-Indians from several communities in Montana comprised the contrast group. The time estimation tasks used by Barabasz (see Note 1) were employed. These tests consist of four cartoon strips each with five segments depicting animal figures engaged in some activity from beginning to completion. They included the following tasks: cutting trees through completion of building a canoe; planting corn through picking it; starting to completion of construction of a small building; and starting to completion of construction of a larger building such as an apartment house.

The subjects were asked to select by circling the time segment the amount of time it would require to complete each of the tasks. The choices for each task were: I hour, 3 hours, 10 hours, I day, 2 days, 3 days, 5 days, 10 days, 1 month, 2 months, 6 months, 10 months, I year, 3 years.

The cartoons were shown to 10 white adults to determine which of four time segments (hours, days, months, or years) they thought would be required to complete the task. For two of the cartoons depicting a task from beginning to completion, all ten of the white adults were in agreement. For the cartoon depicting building a canoe and building a several-story building, the adults’ estimates were divided between two categories. Because the adult respondents in Montana may have been exposed to the forest industry located in Montana, it was felt that some respondents might include the amount of time it takes to dry lumber while other respondents might not. It was also felt that comparatively few respondents in Montana might have actually watched construction of a multi-story building because they lived in rural environments. Therefore it was decided to use responses to only the two cartoons which had yielded uniform time estimates by the adults. They were: planting through picking corn and construction of a small, one-story building.

The youngsters’ responses were tallied for each of the tasks according to chronological groupings (CA 14 and 15, and CA 16 and 17). The resulting information is presented in Tables I and 2. Then the youngsters’ responses were checked to see if they agreed or disagreed with the adults’ estimates. The combined number of responses which agreed or disagreed selected by the Native American and non-Indian groups were then compared. Chi square was used to determine whether the groups belonged to the same population with respect to the frequency of their responses which were in agreement or disagreement with the adult estimates. The results appear in Table 3.

1. Barabasz, A.F. "Temporal Orientation and Academic Achievement in College," Journal of Social Psychology, 1970, pages 231-237.

2. "Temporal Orientation: A Review of the Literature," Child Study Journal Monograph. 1973, 3; pages 43-49.

3. Teahan, J.E. "Future Time Perspective, Optimism and Academic Achievement," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1968, 32, pages 257-264.

The authors of this article are all associated with the Institute for Habilitative Services, Eastern Montana College, Billings (59101). Brooks Anderson is Director of Special Services/Upward Bound, and is a Visiting Instructor at the Institute. He holds a B.A. degree in history from the University of Montana, and a M.S. in rehabilitative counseling from EMC. Larry J. Burd, speech pathologist, holds a B.S. in speech communication from the University of Southern Colorado, and is presently completing his master’s degree in organization and administration of special education at EMC. He is serving an internship at Psychological Associates and The Child Study Center in Billings. John M. Dodd, Professor of Special and Elementary Education at EMC, received the Ed.D. at the University of Kansas. He has taught and served at several state universities, and was director of the EMC Institute for Habilitative Services. Katharin Alcorn Kelker, who holds a B.A. in English from Hiram College in Ohio, and was granted an NDEA Fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is a graduate student in special education at the Institute.