Volume 2 Number 2
May 1962

Louis C. Bernardoni

Since the White-Mountain Apache population is growing rapidly and reservation resources are limited, it is becoming apparent that Apaches will need to make wise vocational choices if they are to become qualified to compete for jobs both on and off the reservation. During an average period of employment there are approximately 600 Apache men employed and approximately 650 unemployed on the White-Mountain Apache Reservation (see Note 3).

Historically, the Apaches had a definite division of labor based upon sex. Most men worked at hunting and raiding and were carefully instructed in these pursuits during adolescence by adults of the community (see Note 4). After conquest by the non-Indians, Apaches were initially restricted geographically and the old economic pursuits were necessarily abandoned. At the present time, wage work and raising of cattle constitute the two most important means of making a living.

While changes in Apache economy necessitate that Apaches make vocational choices, little information is available concerning the part that Apache parents play in the choice-making process. Most authorities in the field of guidance recognize that in our culture parents play an important part in the total process of vocational selection (see Note 1). This project was designed to assess the role that Apache parents play in assisting their offspring to arrive at a vocational goal.

The sample for this study consisted of the parents of all male Apache students attending the Whiteriver Public High School during the period from October, 1961 to February, 1962. The final sample included 46 families involving 51 students. Since some of the Apache boys did not live with their biological parents, the term "parents" in this report refers to the persons who have assumed the responsibility of providing food, shelter, clothing, money and parental guidance regardless of the consanguinity or legality of the relationship.

Structured interview guides patterned after that used by Donald Super (see Note 5) in his Career Pattern Study were the major instruments used. The guides were revised by adding items concerning Apache attitudes and behavior and were used in interviewing the students at school and the Apache parents at their homes. In addition to interview results, each family was rated on an acculturation scale by two Apache raters who were familiar with all of the families involved. Grade point averages for each student were also computed.

Most Apache families are seldom visited by non-Apache people that they do not know. For this reason, many of them were initially hesitant to talk to the investigator. When they were informed of the purpose of the investigation, however, most of them were agreeable to a discussion concerning problems faced by their sons in arriving at a vocational choice. In isolating the persons to be designated as parents, it was soon discovered that the best criterion in discovering the person(s) who had assumed parental responsibility was to discover who provided the money for feeding and clothing the student and for spending money. Parents who did not support their children refused to give opinions concerning their child's education or vocation and referred the investigator to the person who did supply money. When pressed for opinions, they would state that it would not be proper for them to give opinions since someone else was responsible. If the student resided with his parents but was supported by someone else, the parents either contended that they could not voice opinions concerning the student's education and vocation or were non-committal.

The relationship of persons who had assumed parental responsibility is listed in Table I. Of the 51 Apache students included in the study, only 22 (43 per cent) have both parents assuming parental responsibility. It is surprising to note that older married sisters have assumed this responsibility in six instances. Since most of these sisters are only a few years older than the students, there is some question as to the amount of influence they can exert. The data would also indicate that the families included in the study adhere to the matrilocal, matriarchal system. While 12 of the students' mothers were not present due to death or other causes, only one of the students remained with his father and stepmother. All of the others were being cared for by women related to their real mother. The results of this practice is that some of the boys do not have an apparent male figure in the home with which to identify. In other homes where there is a male figure such as a stepfather, brother-in-law, or uncle, there is some doubt concerning the influence they would exert on the students since they declined in almost all cases to voice opinions concerning the students. Most of the male substitutes indicated that they were not in authoritative position concerning their wife's relatives. On the other hand, when both the real mother and father were present, the fathers readily offered opinions concerning their son's education and vocation.

Table I

Relationship of Persons Assuming Parental Responsibility

The results of the process of isolating the persons designated as parents revealed that less than half of the Apache boys had real fathers who assumed parental authority and in less than half of the cases there was no male who indicated he had assumed parental authority. While it is difficult to determine the subtle influences that these male figures exerted, it would appear that over half of the Apache boys lacked a formal father figure while nine boys (18 per cent) had no father figure in the home.

In five instances, two of the Apache boys lived with the same family. Thus, while there were 51 Apache boys in the sample, only 46 families were included. The employment status of these families was investigated in the interviews and appear in Table II.

Table 11

Employment Status of the Families

An analysis of Table 11 reveals that 22 of the 46 families (48 per cent) had no parent employed at the time of the interviews. While four of these families received a yearly income from cattle, this income was minimal in all but one instance. The rest of the families whose parents were unemployed received their income from a variety of sources including Old Age and Survivors Insurance, State Industrial Insurance, Veterans Disability Payments, Governmental Welfare, Tribal Welfare, and Unemployment Compensation. Since these sources of income are intended to provide a minimum standard of living, it is apparent that almost half of the families could be classified as having the minimal amount of income needed for living. What is probably more important as far as future vocational adjustment is that 48 per cent of the Apache boys live with families whose daily routine does not evolve around employed parents.

The families comprising the sample tended to be fairly large. There was an average of 3.45 persons in the families not including the parent(s) the students. With large families and the minimal income received by the families with no employed persons, money undoubtedly constitutes a problem. Those whose parents are employed are listed in Table III to indicate the occupational groups in which they are employed as classified by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles," and are compared to occupational distribution of the general population of the United States obtained from the 1950 census (see Note 7).

Table III

Occupational Grouping of Employed Parents

As Compared to the General Population

When compared with the general population of the United States as shown in Table III, Apache parents are employed less frequently in the professional and managerial, clerical and sales, agricultural, skilled and semiskilled occupational groups and are employed more frequently than the general population in the service and unskilled occupational groups. Apache parents are thus employed more frequently in occupational groups which usually require less training and education.

The educational level of the parents as obtained from parental interviews was 6.8 years, as compared to a median of 11.3 for the general population of Arizona (see Note 8). Since the students were all high school students, their educational level was considerably higher than that of their parents. Seven of the parents had no formal education and only two had graduated from high school, one of whom had gone on to business college. The students' parents thus had less education than their sons and lacked formal experience in college.

The parents were asked in home interviews if they would prefer that their sons remain on the reservation for employment or leave. This decision was felt to be important since vocational choice would be limited for those who chose to remain. Parental preferences concerning the decision of remaining or leaving the reservation are shown in Table IV, categorized according to the blood relationship of the parent.

Table IV

Parental Preferences Concerning Location of Sons! Employment

There is a tendency for real parents to prefer that their sons remain on the reservation while parent substitutes tend to prefer that the boys leave the reservation for employment. Since it was hypothesized that the acculturation of the parent might be related to parental decisions concerning whether their sons should leave the reservation for employment, an F test was computed for acculturation differences in these two groups of parents. However, an examination of the data revealed that all of the parents of the community of Cibecue preferred that their sons leave the reservation because they felt there were too few jobs available in that part of the reservation. Since the parents of Cibecue tended to rate low on the acculturation scale, an F test was computed excluding Cibecue parents and is presented in Table V.

Table V

Analysis of Variance in Acculturation and Parental Preferences

Concerning Location of Sons' Employment (Cibecue Excluded)

Of the 51 Apache boys involved in this study, 42 had indicated some type of vocational preference and 19 had discussed aspects of these plans with their parents. It would be incorrect to describe these discussions as a situation in which the desires and aspirations of the student and his parents are bared and a plan is evolved which is based upon a solution of the differences. Only three of the parents indicated that they plan to exert active pressure in making their wishes known and eight of them indicated that they will subtly make their wishes known if the student affords them the opportunity. The remainder of the parents plan to let the student make up his mind. Conversely, the Apache students plan to discuss their vocational plans with their parents but look at it as a process whereby they make up their minds and then inform their parents of their decision.

The freshman Apache boys feel that their parents can be of assistance to them in evolving a vocational preference; 10 of the 21 freshmen state that they plan to discuss vocational plans with their parents. They plan to make up their own minds but feel that the parents can be of assistance. The other 11 freshmen plan to eventually make their own vocational plans and inform their parents of their decisions. As the Apaches progressed through the grades, it became obvious that the students did not plan to utilize parental information or guidance in vocational plans but would inform their parents after they had made up their minds. None of the seniors felt that their parents could contribute much in vocational planning.

As described earlier, Apaches do not have a tradition of free vocational selection in that vocations used to be determined by sex. This does not explain the lack of discussion entirely, however. Except for the three families who planned to make their wishes known, the Apache parents held the attitude that it would be impolite to pry into their son's vocational plans until he brought up the subject, and the boys did not usually plan to bring up the subject until necessary. Those parents who wished their sons to remain on the reservation tended to regard possible plans on the part of the students to leave as rejection. This feeling was evidenced by comments such as "I think he wants to leave us."

The Apache boys felt their parents are old-fashioned and would not understand their plans. The element of equating leaving the reservation with rejecting parents was also present in the boys and probably made the discussion of vocational plans difficult. To test this hypothesis, a meeting with three of the boys who planned to leave the reservation, but had not informed their parents, was arranged with their parents. All three of the boys refused to comment on their plans with their parents present although they were cooperative in all other respects. When pressed for comments the boys either would not comment or would say, "We haven't talked about that yet." It was apparent that in these instances there was real resistance to discussing the problem rather than just a laissez-faire lack of communication.

Since the three families that planned to exert pressure on their sons to discuss vocational plans were rated as being highly acculturated, the acculturation rating of the parents was compared to the amount of discussion concerning vocational plans. The students were divided into three groups-those who had had no discussions of vocational plans with parents, those who had had slight discussions concerning vocations, and those who had had substantial discussions of vocational plans. Table VI contains the comparison of these three groups.

Table VI

A Comparison of Apache Parental Acculturation

And Amount of Vocational Discussion

Table VI indicates that parents who are better acculturated tend to have more discussion with their sons concerning vocational plans than less acculturated parents. An F test was computed in Table VII to test the significance of acculturation differences among the three groups.

Table VII

Analysis of Variance of Acculturation

Grouped Upon Discussion of Vocations

An F value of 10.25 with two and 48 degrees of freedom is significant at the .01 level of confidence necessitating a rejection of the nun hypothesis. There is a significant difference in acculturation among parents who discuss vocations with their children and those who do not, with the more acculturated parents engaging in more vocational discussions.

Parents of the Apache boys were asked to evaluate the ability of their son to complete college, to ascertain whether parental evaluations corresponded to student evaluations. Only the parents of one boy indicated that they thought he could not do college work. Twenty-two of the parents indicated that they did not know whether their boy could do college work and 28 of the parents indicated that their boy could do college work. Almost all Apache parents either feel their boys can do college work or do not feel qualified to judge. Since none of the parents had attended college, they certainly lack first hand information to use as a basis for judgment. Although the parents receive report cards reporting their son's high school grades, only the parents of three of the boys mentioned high school grades as a criterion for judging college success. The grade point average of the Apache boys whose parents thought they were capable of college work was 2.48 while the grade point average of those whose parents had doubt about their son's ability to do college work was 2.68. The grade point average of Apache boys whose parents judged them as being able to do college work was thus lower than the boys whose parents had some doubts.

The evaluation of the parents concerning whether their sons could do college work was compared to the student's own evaluation to determine if they coincided. Of the 20 boys whose parents indicated that their son had the ability to complete college, eight (29 per cent) expressed doubt of their ability. Of the 23 boys whose parents expressed doubt concerning their ability to do college work, seven (30 per cent) expressed doubt about their ability to do college work. Thus, there is very little difference in student's self-evaluation to do college work, between students whose parents think their sons can do college work and those who have doubts.

Apache parents' evaluation of their sons' ability to complete college is not related to high school grades or their sons' evaluation of their abilities. Apache parents are thus not very helpful in realistically assisting their sons in evaluating their ability if grades are an adequate reflection of Apache ability. Impressions gained from the interviews led the investigator to believe that Apache parents based their appraisals of their sons on home situations where Apache language and culture are prevalent rather than to base their appraisals upon school performance or a projection of how their sons would perform in a non-Apache situation.

This study was undertaken to describe the role that Apache parents play in the vocational choice process of their sons. With the finding that only 19 of the 51 boys had even discussed the subject, it must be concluded that Apache parents play only a minimal role in this process. Familial factors that might mitigate against vocational discussions include a high number of substitute parents, a high level of unemployment or lesser skilled employment, and a low educational level. These factors, coupled with a history in which vocational choice was unnecessary, parents who are hesitant to initiate vocational discussion, and a tendency to construe leaving the reservation as parental rejection undoubtedly inhibit discussions concerning vocational choice.

The following recommendations seem appropriate to enable Apache parents to assist and support their sons in the selection of vocations: