Volume 22 Number 2
January 1983

Graham Hurlburt, Ray Henjum and Lyle Eide

IT WAS REPORTED by the National Advisory Council on Indian Education (1974) that, in 1944, A House Select Committee on Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C., had proposed that "real progress" in educating Indian children would be made only when these children at elementary school age were taken from their homes and placed in off-reservation boarding schools. Brightman (1971) reported that, at that time, 67 per cent were attending day schools on reservations.

There is some evidence that American Indian children fare better in these so-called white schools. For instance, Just (1970) found that American Indian high school graduates who were more successful in educational advancement displayed increased identification and/or acceptance of the white culture. Patton and Edington (1973) reported that Indian students who were most apt to succeed at college had graduated from larger public high schools. On a related topic, Scott and Anadon (1980) have reported that Indian college-bound students produced American College Testing Program Interest Inventory results not significantly different from those produced by their white counterparts. The inference was that American Indian and white students probably have similar interests, preferences, and work potential.

The wisdom of removing Indian children from their parents and communities, however, has been questioned by Indian leaders. Onstad (1971) thought that one of the prices American Indians pay for going to white-controlled schools may be that "you lose part of yourself, part of your Indianness" (p. 104). Then, Blowers (1981) explained that in white schools there may be a tendency for some teachers to assume that Indian pupils understand considerably more English than is the case. Pupils may have learned, rather, that their questions are not welcomed or that they are considered rather dull and are not really expected to understand. Perhaps local control of their children's educations would produce better results.

Local control may imply that school programs could be designed to counteract assimilation forces, extend family socialization patterns, and generally broaden students' knowledge of ethnic heritage. The major objective of such programs, according to Dubbs (1980), is to extend the institutional awareness of the community and as a consequence hopefully promote cultural continuity and development. Wildcat (1981) elaborated that school programs which are influenced by traditional Indian values respect cultural priority and are an extension of the education which parents give children from their first years. These early lessons emphasize attitudes of self-reliance, respect for personal freedom, generosity, respect for nature, and wisdom.

But such educational programs are not without some problems. Michelson (1971) found that Indian children in a summer educational program on a reservation on the south end of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, followed the hidden curriculum of the poverty home which tends to favor peer orientation and adult avoidance. The children were passively resistant or withdrawn in the face of a task that they construed as adult-imposed or beyond the possibility of immediate success. The children resisted authority, followed directions submissively, and observed activities passively. The children often lacked enthusiasm and, for the most part, displayed little interest.

In another experiment in local control, Blinkhom (1981) described a school in Peguis, Manitoba, that produced favorable results for the Indian people. From the time of school opening in the spring of 1977 to spring 1980, junior high student dropout rate declined from 40 percent the first year to five per cent. Senior high student dropout rate reduced from 60 percent to 20 per cent over the same period. In this school, all of the maintenance staff, cafeteria staff, bus drivers, school board members, and the superintendent were American Indians. By spring 1980, 50 percent of the teachers were Indian as well.

From the above reports, it might be expected that students who attend local controlled schools would receive somewhat different enculturation and education. This might logically be presumed to influence their attitudes toward work and job-getting, toward use of leisure time, and toward education. Their sense of personal control over their life situations might differ across Indian vs. white-controlled schools. The purpose of this study was to analyze these attitudinal differences between a group of American Indian students who attended a local controlled school and a similar number of Indian students who traveled hundreds of miles from their homes, lived in residence, and attended public school for primarily white children.

The Swampy Cree students in the white school consisted of 50 students in grades 10, 11, and 12, of whom 21 were female and 29 were male. They lived together in a separate residence and attended the local high school in the town of Teulon, Manitoba. The school had an enrollment of 400 white students and a teaching staff of 18 white teachers. The Swampy Cree students came from four northern Manitoba reservations and 92 per cent of them spoke Cree as their first language. Many of them had had job experiences in trapping, fishing, and hunting.

The Plains Cree and Saulteaux students lived on Peguis Reservation and attended a locally controlled school. The 60 students in this group consisted of 31 females and 29 males in grades 10, 11, and 12. The students lived at home with their families, and were bussed daily to the local school of 600 enrollment from kindergarten to 12 where more than one half of the staff of 40 teachers and 97 per cent of the students were American Indians. Ninety-two per cent of the students in this group spoke English only and many had had job experiences in ranching and farming. The median age of the students in both groups was 17 years, ranging from 15 to 20 years.

Data were gathered from all (grade ten to twelve) students in attendance on one day of testing at each setting. All of the Swampy Cree student sample in the white school participated, and nearly all of the Plains Cree and Saulteaux students in the locally controlled school participated. The principal author administered both data-gathering sessions.

The subjects were divided into two groups; Swampy Cree Students attending a white high school, and Plains Cree and Saulteaux students attending a locally controlled school on their reservation. The two groups were compared on their academic performances, their vocational experiences and goals, and their social preferences.

As can be seen in Table 1, there were some significant differences between the two groups of American Indian students. The students in the locally controlled school recorded a significantly higher G.P.A., named more things they disliked about their school (especially regimentation and lack of good study areas and library facilities), planned to attend school beyond their present grade a fewer number of years, and talked less with people in general about their future job plans. Students in the locally controlled school had lived more outside of the Province of Manitoba and they watched more TV than did the Swampy Cree students in the white school, (60 per cent of the students in the locally controlled school watched 14 hours or more of TV per week, whereas 90 percent of the students in the white school watched 6 hours of TV or less per week).

It was found that there were no significant differences between the two groups of students on many of the variables studied. The frequency of spelling errors (recorded in answering the questionnaire), preference of school subjects (science vs. non-science), and the number and types of things liked about school (teacher, counselor, friends, learning, sports, and extracurricular activities) were not significantly different between the two groups of students. The number of jobs held, the types of future jobs they wanted or expected to hold in the future, their self-directed search job code (Holland 1973), the number of years lived in large cities, the amount of reading of fictional books and magazines, and the locus of control scores were not significantly different between the two groups of students.

American Indian leaders and educators have struggled for local control of their schools because they believe that American Indian students would be better educated in their own locally run schools (Titley 1981). The results of this study support this belief in that students in a locally controlled school run by American Indians achieved higher academic grades than American Indian students attending a white school. Some critics might point to different academic standards as an explanation of different level of achievement between the two groups of students. However, spelling, which has been found by researchers to be positively related to academic achievement and mental ability (Schwendinger, 1976), was also assessed, and no difference in spelling was noted between the two groups of students. This lack of difference supported comparability of the two groups, and may suggest that the quality of instruction did not vary greatly between the two schools. Because the spelling levels of the two groups are the same, the GPA. would be expected to be similar also. That the American Indian students in a locally controlled school reported higher GPAs may be related to better student motivation. Further studies are indicated to compare the GPAs of locally controlled to non-locally controlled schools, but the findings of the present study appear to support the thesis that greater academic achievement occurred by American Indian students in the locally controlled school than in the non-locally controlled white school.

It was noted that students in the locally controlled school complained more about regimentation in the form of rules and regulations. Possibly, this reflected an inchoate expectation of more freedom in a school free of white authority and that Indian students on a reservation expect more freedom regardless of who is running the school.

Differences in perceived freedom were revealed between the two groups of students on the amount of television that they watched. Students living with their families on the Peguis Reservation watched much more television than did the Swampy Cree students attending the white school. The difference in television viewing, however, was to be expected in that the latter dwelled in a common residence where television viewing time was limited by the residence staff members. Restricting television time, however, did not seem to relate to improved academic achievement.

The Swampy Cree students attending the white school indicated that they planned to continue their education beyond high school for a longer period of time than students in the locally controlled school. It is possible that the difference is related to the Swampy Cree students having already left home to come 300 miles south to a white school and probably being more receptive to continuing a pattern of educational life away from home. This group discussed their educational plans with more adults, in and out of school, whereas the students in the locally controlled school discussed their educational and vocational plans with the female American Indian school counselor much more than did the Swampy Cree students with a white counselor in the white school.

It would appear the American Indian leaders are encouraging young Indian people to pursue higher education related to the professions, including the medical-related careers which require a high school background in mathematics and science-related subjects. In the present study, no differences were found between the two groups in preferences for science-related subjects. This may indicate that greater participation by American Indian students in mathematics and the sciences in high school, prerequisites to university study in the health sciences, may not be influenced by their attendance in white or locally controlled schools. The locus of control scores of the two groups of students were the same.

Locus of control is a measure of achievement motivation (Franklin, 1963) and personal adjustment (Hjelle, 1976). If the Swampy Cree students in the white school experienced racial discrimination and/or discomfort from academic competition with the white students, it was not reflected in their locus of control scores. In summary, there were many preferences and activities which were similar between the two groups of students. Perhaps, schools as institutions are more similar than not. However, one major difference found between the two groups of students in the present study was that the Plains Cree and Saulteaux students in a locally controlled school reported a higher G.P.A. than did Swampy Cree students attending a white school far away from their homes on reservations in northern Manitoba.

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Blinkhorn, Kenneth. Peguis adult high school program, an experiment in local control. Unpublished paper, Western Adult Education Conference, Red River Community College, Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1981.

Blowers, E.A. The economically disadvantaged and/or geographically isolated and/or Indian pupil: an identification problem? Canadian Journal of Native Education, 1981, 8, 13-18.

Brightman, Lehman. Mental genocide. Inequality in Education, 1971, 7, 15-19.

Dubbs, Patrick, J. Cultural definitions and educational programs. Unpublished paper, University of Alaska, 1980.

Franklin, R.D. Youth's expectancies about internal versus external control of reinforcement related to N variables. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 1962.

Hjelle, Larry A. Self-actualization and perceived locus of control: a comparison of relationships based on separate locus of control measures, The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 1976, 128, pp. 303-304.

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Just, J. A. American Indian Attitudes toward Education in Select Areas of South Dakota. Arlington, Va.: ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED046577, 1970.

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Onstad, Gwen. A talk with some Native Americans. The Personnel and Guidance Journal, 1971, vol. 50, 2, 103-108.

Patton, Walter, and Edington, Everett D. Factors to the persistence of Indian students at the college level. Indian Education, 1973, 12, 19-23.

Schwendinger, James, Rea. A study of modality inferences and their relationship to spelling achievement of sixth grade students. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Boston College, 1973.

Scott, Thomas B., and Anadon, Max. A comparison of the vocational interest profiles of Native American and Caucasian college-bound students. Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, 1980, 13, 35-42.

Titley, Brian. The struggle for local control. Journal of American Indian Education, 1981, 19, 18-24.

Wildcat, Theresa C. Notes on Native education. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 1981, 2, 11-13.

Graham Hurlburt is Coordinator of Learning Assistance for Native Students through the University of Manitoba Counseling Service. He received the Ph.D. from the University of North Dakota. Ray Henjum is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Manitoba. He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin. Lyle Eide is currently Director of Counseling at the University of Manitoba. He received his Ph.D. at the University of North Dakota.