Volume 31 Number 1
October 1991

Rockey Robbins

As coordinator of American Indian Research and Development’s (AIRD) "Explorations in Creativity VI" (EIC) summer residential enrichment program, I interacted with 125 gifted and talented American Indian secondary students for 21 days on the Oklahoma City University campus. Having closely observed and listened to them, and having, to some extent, entered into their feelings, I am prompted to share what I learned. I will describe my observations of these students as they sought to reach their potential through the hopeful, yet risky, path of gifted and talented Indian education.

If gifted and talented Indian students are to fully develop their potentials, they must gain a more adequate understanding of what they really like and are capable of achieving. They also need a clearer understanding of their tribal heritage, and how they can function as Indians in the greater American society. As it stands, gifted and talented Indian students use more of their genius and power in resisting peers’ and guardians’ fears and pressures to conform, than exploring their upper limits of self. These students must learn to function in a system that has created a society where conformity is the norm. As Indian students dilineate the problems they encounter, it is crucial that American education listen to them and then set about to help alleviate those problems. The following comments by EIC students elucidate some of the difficulties and suggest how they may be solved.

A group discussion during a Problem Solving class brought forth responses that gave insight into gifted and talented Indian students’ relations with their peers. I asked them to offer some reasons for their successes in making high marks in school. Though they had been a very outspoken group up to that moment, they suddenly became reticent about giving themselves due credit. Some said that their tribal schools were "easy." One said she made an "A" in algebra only because the teacher liked her. Another said that she probably had been put in her gifted and talented class only because "they needed an Indian," and that she was "not really all that smart." One of the male students, when asked how he did so well in his classes, said that he did not care about good grades; that he was more interested in sports. When asked about whether their Indian friends ever talked about excelling in classes, all ten students in the discussion group responded negatively.

There is something very admirable about the apparent humility of the students. The majority of the American Indians I have been around are very reluctant to exalt themselves above others in their community. I even observed that in our discussions about how to solve problems, the students were very careful about the ways they offered advice or suggestions making sure they were not being coercive or dominating. Often, students’ suggestions contained qualifiers when contradicting other students’ ideas. This respect for the integrity and autonomy for others is a valuable ingredient for harmonious human relations. But, a disproportionate concern for harmony can sometimes stifle the drive for achievement.

American Indian students are very good at teasing or gossiping about the haughty and the exceptional in order to bring them down to everyone else’s level. High-achievers will often downplay or even mask their talents and accomplishments. Unfortunately, it is only one step from denigrating one’s personal gifts to the next step of choosing not to express one’s full potential. In an effort to feel a part of a community of students who see making good grades in school as being undesirable, a student may conceal his achievements or even redirect his energies into activities which may be destructive.

This student, who appeared to be very calm, happy and intelligent, was feeling a lot of anxiety about the pressure put on him as he pursued his individual goals. Being ostracized "bothered" him, but he nevertheless courageously chose his own path. When under severe assault, he protected his personal uniqueness by seeing the value of his own personal goals and possibly accepting the reinforcement he received from his parents and teachers. Still, he will probably have to draw largely from his own inner resources as he strives for self-affirmation in an environment hostile to intellectual pursuits. This brave struggle seems to be a common one for many gifted and talented American Indian and Alaska Native students.

Another problem that students described was with guardians who were ignorant enough to suppose that they knew what an "Indian" ought to be. This problem came up again and again in my classes. Students did not like having their "Indianness" strictly defined by parents, and this was expressed across the whole spectrum of our EIC students. For example, students ranged from one-fortyeigth to full-blood quantum, the average being a little over one-half. They came from reservations, urban areas, and rural areas, and represented forty-eight tribes. Some regularly practiced tribal rituals and fluently spoke their tribal language; many went to pow wows periodically; others had almost no knowledge of their tribal heritage. But the one thing that united most of them was the concern they had pertaining to their Indian identity.

Sometimes they believed, by "pushing" certain ideas too much, parents hindered them more than they helped. Several EIC students’ efforts to affirm themselves were being stalled by unhealthy pulls from ghosts of the past. For example, one night I discovered a student on the phone long after he was supposed to have been in bed. The anguish in his voice kept me from telling him to discontinue his conversation and to get into bed. He kept repeating, "I’m not going white. I’m not going white." Hesitantly, I approached him when he had finished his conversation. He did not want to talk a lot, but said that his mother and uncle were having fears that the EIC program would result in his forgetting of their teachings and maybe even his eventual leaving of the reservation. He also argued with his mom about the computer class he was in, assuring her that it was not a skill he would use in some city someday. He told them that he had danced at the EIC pow wow that night and had missed singing his tribe’s songs and that he would always be Indian.

There is good reason for the reluctance of Indians to feel comfortable about sending their children off to schools away from home. It was not too far in the distant past when Indian students were coerced in the most forceful and conspicuous manner to replace tribal language and culture with the language and customs of the white man. The present content of the curriculum and the insensitivity still shown toward Indian students leaves much to be desired and should be resisted.

Nonetheless, individual Indian students have a right to seek their own destinies, to make their own choices, and develop their own concepts of being Indian. While songs, dances, and stories are integral elements in Indian cultures, it is in our people’s struggles for autonomy, both individual and tribal, that it takes on substance. When "Indian Culture" becomes reflex, dress, and broken down institutions, there is no real vibrancy.

Conversely, even more concern was expressed by EIC students in regards to parents’ and educators’ lack of support for them in their search for their Indian identities. There were complaints about parents and grandparents saying that learning "Indian ways" are not "useful" now that Indians live in a "White man’s world" and that schools teach almost nothing about Indians. Several students' comments exemplify these points. One student told me:

She was dressed in designer clothes, her hair was permed, and she was in the student council in her predominately Anglo school. In the absence of her Indian culture, Anglo culture appeared to have filled most of the gap. Nonetheless, now participating in an all Indian program, she felt an emptiness. She typified many Indian students, especially those from rural and urban areas who are separated from the larger body of their tribes. Though she staunchly argued that she was just as "Indian" as any EIC student because of her Indian blood line, she expressed fears of being completely sucked down into Anglo culture, of losing her Indian identity, and of getting completely lost from her Indian people.

Several other students told stories that depict American education’s devaluation of Indian culture. One student said that, when in the fourth grade, she moved from an all Indian school to a predominately Anglo school. The first day of class, during History period, she listened to young Anglo students discuss the cruelty of Indians toward settlers. She remembered how one student told of Indian torture methods. At that moment, she felt too out of place to say anything, but anger swelled up inside. Later, the teacher asked if any students spoke any language besides English. When she raised her hand, her teacher asked what "foreign language" she spoke. She replied, "Nahola honkso." "What language is that?" the teacher asked. "It’s Choctaw, and it means, "White people fart."

An extremely proud and intelligent student, she had utilized one of the only alternatives she had to revolt against the destructive simplifications and ignorance in which she had been subjected. Instead of suppressing her anger and turning it in against herself or becoming indifferent, she voiced her hostility in a dramatic and discourteous way. This lack of politeness and defiance in the face of the penury of American education is a normal response for an Indian. Every person’s awakening about themselves in relation to their culture and society brings about a dignity from which can spring a response that can help to awaken other sensibilities.

Maybe even a more enlightening response to the devaluation of Indian culture was related by another Oklahoma Indian student. She remembered being asked by her teacher to dress up "like an Indian" to help celebrate Oklahoma’s "Land Run Day." She loved her teacher and wanted to have fun with her Anglo friends, but she knew what the event meant for Indians. Her anguish caused her to lose sleep. Finally, she asked her teacher if she could read a poem about the Land Run to the student body on the morning of the celebration. The teacher was thrilled that she was so interested and promptly gave consent.

The morning of the celebrations arrived. She recalled,

In spite of some parents’ abjuration of their Indian culture and schools’ devaluation of Indian culture, EIC students, like this one, repeatedly affirmed that there is nothing to be ashamed of in their past, but rather dignity and wisdom that can serve to justify the hope for a great future. They had not succumbed to the fear put into their heads that without Anglos, Indians would live in a barbaric world filled with superstitions and savagery. To restore value to the past is a way of rediscovering hope beyond the misery and confusion of today. It is also a means of rehabilitating Indian people in regard to themselves and in regard to others. When given its rightful due, Indian history and knowledge about traditions will provide a basis for Indian students to choose to reject, accommodate, or assimilate ideas offered them. Ultimately, it will help maintain their Indianness as they relate to others.

To reiterate the point previously made, while it is true that we as Indian people can be very proud of the wonderful cultures created by our tribes over the centuries, true Indian cultures are in the making and always have been. The concept of Indian culture as something unchanging is a mystification. Indian cultures develop as new generations encounter new environments. Traditions are maintained but acquire ever-changing new significance. The problems are to recognize the place we are in, to develop the kind of social relations we want and need, and to decide our own concept of Indianness.

If we are to advance, we must engage in creative living. The fact is that today far too many people including Indians are underfed, illiterate, and look down to Mother Earth with alcoholic eyes. There is no use in wasting time rationalizing that poverty and hunger with "dignity" is preferable to becoming enslaved by Anglo culture. In fact, to waste one’s life inebriated or by attaching one’s self to traditions which are no longer dynamic is to fight the legacy of history and to oppose Indian people. Indians, and indeed all people, have had to adjust to changing environmental, social, political, and spiritual environments. As I have argued from the beginning, this does not mean allowing ourselves to be swallowed up in Anglo culture. Quite the contrary, it is up to us to resist threats to our distinctive identities and our distinctive relationships with other groups, including the federal government whose ultimate goal still appears to be assimilation.

Having listened to EIC students’ struggles, I asked some of them to identify some problems they saw in American education and to offer solutions. Fourteen gifted and talented Indian students discussed the issues that they saw as most urgent. I asked questions and took notes. Their remarks deserve a hearing from Indian educators. The following is what they outlined.

Prejudice is a continuing problem. It exists overtly in:

More subtle prejudice consists of

To help remedy prejudice, the students proposed that:

Secondly, they believed that the high dropout rate must be addressed comprehensively. They saw many reasons for the problem such as:

The proposed solutions to the problem of high drop-out rates among American Indian students are:

Thirdly, there are too few Indians in postsecondary education. They believed the problem results from lack of effective recruitment, financial deficiencies, and lack of Indian support groups in college. Solutions proposed for the problem of too few Indian students in postsecondary education are:

Students also believed Indian student career concerns need to be addressed They argued that high unemployment and low paying jobs among Indians are a result of

EIC students proposed that:

EIC students have submitted their ideas concerning American education to be considered at the White House Conference on Indian Education before the United States Congress. It remains to be seen whether the delegates who will ultimately be selected will be given an attentive ear. Sadly, history has shown that when Indians have argued that they are significantly different from Anglos and that new approaches need to be used to meet these unique needs, the Bureaucracy has been threatened and prefers to close its eyes to the profound differences which would require complex dunking and hard work to address. The "Ugly American" educational system has continued to hide the truth that Anglo cultures could be more just in their dealings with Indians and that they could, in fact, learn more about their own cultures if they would take Indian cultures more seriously. It remains to be seen what will occur at the White House Conference on Indian Education.

No matter what happens, many of this year’s EIC students, as evidenced in their analysis and their proposals, have gained a power to combat disorientation and the self-paralysis of will that accompanies it. Many gifted and talented American Indian and Alaska Native students who are emerging reflect the depths of their profound and dynamic tribal cultures. They have learned that the casual acceptance of the old images which some argue to be really Indian is to retreat into sterility. Instead, they seek a new basis of orientation to make clear decisions which will help all of us to organize ourselves toward goals which will invigorate and add a zest to life.

From what I have observed, I believe the push must be in the direction of integration of consciousness. First, it is crucial to maintain, and in many instances, retrieve tribal ways of thinking about the underlying mystical assumptions about human beings’ relations to nature. The connectedness to the land and animals that Indians have always stressed, would not only ensure the survival of the planet if universally accepted, it would also offer a foundation for sanity which people on the whole have lost. Such an important premise in tribal belief systems give big meaning to all the smaller meanings of everyday life. How beneficial it would have been if the whole world could have listened and felt what EIC students experienced when a Lakota woman came to tell them Indian stories in a hardly audible whisper of how the animals are our brothers and sisters. Then, in her quiet moccasins she lead the students out under the stars where she discussed Lakota cosmology and then spontaneously broke out into Northern Plains songs. The mystical view of the structure of the universe gives a larger meaning to life. Indians must maintain their traditional world views or be severed from the great symbolic experiences. It is imperative to periodically wind ourselves around the drum's heartbeat, plant our feet firmly on Mother Earth and remember how everything is connected, is one.

Secondly, gifted and talented Indian students should be encouraged to balance their individuation with family and tribal participation. We have no right to confine our children, but we should support their propensities in areas which may move them away from us geographically. Gifted and talented Indian students can take their ways of organizing life outside their tribal communities to other environments which may offer the challenges they seek. Besides, gifted people strongly resist being rubrisized anyway. Yes, they are gifted Indians, but they have unique identities which tend to be open minded, vital, and intelligent and therefore not easily corralled into confining spaces.

Lastly, there is the urgency for political involvement. Many EIC students have already united to make their voices heard and some will be delegates looking into the eyes of U.S. Senators at the White House Conference on Indian Education. Aggressive action must be taken against overt and covert prejudice. We should no longer tolerate being treated as second class citizens. An incident during EIC speaks to this point more than any abstract generalities that I can use.

We were sharing a dorm with Anglo Law students who were on the floors above us. One day, I was informed that a Law student had cursed an EIC student for playing on the elevator. I reported the incident and the Law student was "taken care of" by the administration, while I restricted the EIC students from the elevators for a couple of days. Still, I told the EIC students not to idly accept verbal abuse, but to immediately report it to me.

Toward the end of our program, when all of our students were being directed by counselors to a night assembly, and I was standing next to the elevator door on the first floor, a thirteen year old Lakota girl came out of the elevator and said,

I told her to stay put while I checked the Law student’s story. I got on the elevator and a couple of EIC students got on with me. As we ascended I asked what they were doing, and they said that they wanted to hear the "Lawyers’ story" to make sure they told the truth. I told them they had to go back down. I left them on the elevator and calmly walked into the lounge where the Law students were sitting and asked them about the incident. A woman said, "We cannot study with these dirty little kids playing on the elevator." I heard the shuffling of feet behind me. Two "dirty little kids" were behind me. I told them to get back down stairs, but they just stood there, heads down, and did not say anything. The woman said, "I hope they get stuck on the elevator and never get off." I felt myself being pulled into the Law students’ realm of irrationality before we could even get a chance to discuss the incident. I turned to the boys and yelled, "Get back downstairs, now." They stepped onto the elevator, but walked back in when I turned back toward the Law students.

In a shaky voice, I said, "Your remarks are prejudiced and irrational, and we won’t be abused. We are as good as you are. I won’t allow you to speak to the EIC students like you’re talking to me." I was speaking as loudly as they were, and I felt embarrassed about it. As I turned away one man asked if I was going to say that they were prejudiced and I said, "Yes." I later wrote a report about the incident and gave it to the administration.

Not a word was spoken between me and the EIC students as we descended in the elevator. I was too nervous to talk, but I was glad they stayed. Later, I told them that I was glad they disobeyed me and that I hoped they would eventually use that obstinate Indian will-power to storm county courthouse halls and Senate halls to bring about changes for Indian people.

The little girl (who had been screamed at) and I also retold our stories to each other. We laughed at how we had felt and behaved. We even teased each other but not in an escapist way. We found ourselves laughing at our past cowardess. The Law students were taller than we were, and we had both felt a little intimidated. But upon hearing each other’s stories, the irrationality and prejudices of our oppressors had exposed their weaknesses. We are as strong as they are. We are equal to them, and now we will stand before them obstinately and wait until we are treated justly.