Leon P. Minear

A RESIDENTIAL family training program that combats the severe social and psychological problems, which bar American Indians from success in school and work and prevent them from adjusting to American society, has been developed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The need for such help is dramatically illustrated by the following statistics:

• Unemployment among American Indians on Indian lands is nearly 40 percent, more than 10 times the national average.
• Of Indians who do work, one-third are underemployed in temporary or seasonal jobs.
• Nearly 60 percent of American Indians on reservations have less than an eighth grade education. This compares with a national average of 12.6 years of schooling for the white population and 12.2 for nonwhites in the United States.

Although this article barely touches the surface of what can and should be done to remedy the tragedy these statistics reflect, it does highlight some approaches which are proving successful in overcoming the American Indian’s difficult occupational education problems. It also suggests ways to incorporate these approaches into the two present Indian educational systems.

The BIA, major federal agency providing educational and other services to American Indians, offers many types of job training programs. These include institutional training in approved public and private schools, on-the-job training under contract with industry, and apprenticeship programs. Guidance and counseling services are also available. Some post-secondary institutions which offer vocational education are also supported by the BIA.

But it is usually only the exceptional or fortunate Indians who, through one means or another, acquire the academic and language skills and the social attitudes necessary to qualify for these programs in the first place. Few programs, for example, meet the special needs of school dropouts who are unable to qualify for existing job training programs and are even less able to complete them satisfactorily or to secure and keep jobs.

The residential family training program helps those Indians who, because of low achievement, education or motivation levels, or because of personal or family problems, are unable to take advantage of regular occupational programs and services or to adjust to urban life.

Two training centers now offer Indians this special training. They train all the members of a family to compete successfully in the world of work and to adjust to the pressures of modern society.

A look at their programs follows, with consideration on how some of their concepts can be incorporated into educational systems serving the total American Indian population.

Housing, medical care and counseling are provided. Field trips and recreational opportunities help expose all family members of modern urban society.

Trainees receive instruction to develop the basic reading, writing, arithmetic and communications skills needed for their selected vocation. Although teaching is geared to individual academic abilities, major emphasis is placed on skills training for specific vocations. The courses offered at Roswell—for both men and women—include auto mechanics, small engine repair, welding, electronics, drafting and training for business and clerical occupations. On-the-job training programs are developed whenever possible to supplement the courses.

When the student is ready for employment, the full resources of the BMA Employment Assistance Branch, the State Employment Security Commission and the Thiokol Placement Service (the private contractor) are brought into action. Counseling and guidance services are available for at least one year to help the graduate adjust to his new life. Thus, the program is completely geared towards helping the Indian succeed in a specific vocational training course leading to employment.

The total cost of the Roswell program is about $5,000 per trainee. This is not high if one considers the tremendous savings entailed by ending the dependency of these Indian families on the federal government. The excellent job placement record of the 20 recent Roswell graduates attests to the effectiveness of this program.

This program—authorized under the Manpower Development and Training Act and administered cooperatively by the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare and of Labor, the BIA and other State and local agencies—also employs the residential family training concept as an effective means of achieving positive attitudes towards work and harmonious human relations, together with occupational education. Although providing many of the same programs and services as the Roswell program, it focuses more on pre-vocational education than on skills training and job placement.

Under this project 100 unemployed Indians and their families, drawn from seven nearby reservations, attend a 30-week training program which provides basic family life, and pre-vocational education necessary for them to become eligible for vocational training programs. A team of educators and a tribal authority select candidates from the reservations. Those who are selected receive medical examinations and necessary treatment. Then they are brought to the University of Montana for training with their families. Extensive guidance and counseling services are given to help maintain attendance and to develop realistic job plans.

An adult may be trained as a licensed practical nurse, forestry engineering aide, welder, farm equipment mechanic, cook, electrical appliance repairman, or for other skilled vocations. However, emphasis is placed on preparation for further training. Family life classes for women include such subjects as money and home management, appearance, child care, sewing, and meal planning.

The Division of Manpower Development and Training, in the U. S. Office of Education, estimates that the cost per adult of the total Missoula program is around $3,000. Informal evaluations of the program indicate that it is, indeed, quite successful both in preparing Indians for further job training or in finding them immediate employment. Thus, the cost is very low when one considers the very important long range benefits of the program—to help trainees become skilled, motivated, self-supporting and taxpaying American citizens.

These two programs are designed to meet the needs of a hardcore minority of Indian people. The majority of Indians probably do not require such intensive or comprehensive programs to prepare them for the world of work. However, they would benefit greatly if some of these concepts were incorporated more fully into existing primary, secondary and post-secondary educational systems.

If the BIA schools, for example, were improved, the high dropout rate among American Indians might be reduced considerably. If more emphasis were placed on the teaching of reading and English and on developing communication and arithmetic skills, all Indians would be better prepared to benefit from vocational education programs at the secondary level.

Vocational education and industrial arts programs should be made available to Indians at BIA schools, preferably in the ninth or tenth grade, to stimulate interest in completing school. Finally, introduction into the BIA school curriculum of pre-vocational orientation, guidance and counseling—at all levels and in adequate amounts—would help ease the transition an Indian must make from school to work and, if he desires to leave the reservation, from the Indian lands to urban life.

At the same time, the U. S. Office of Education should help those state and local school districts which have significant numbers of Indian families improve the quality of education, particularly vocational education, of Indian children in the public schools.

In the past, the states have regarded Indian education as a federal responsibility and have not spent state grant funds for vocational education programs or related educational needs in those public schools which have predominantly Indian enrollments. The Vocational Education Amendments of 1968 (which supersede the Vocational Education Act of 1963) specify that:

State Boards of Vocational Education should be urged to develop programs for Indians or which include Indians and incorporate these in their state plans. Some new programs which could be made available to Indians through these amendments (after Congress has appropriated the funds) include: research and exemplary programs, cooperative education and work study programs, consumer economics and homemaking education programs, curriculum development, residential schools, and teacher training. All would help provide for the "special needs" of American Indians in the field of occupational education.

In a special message to the Congress on the problems of the American Indian, given on March 6, 1968, former President Lyndon B. Johnson said:

The challenge is to make these educational and job training programs responsive to the needs of American Indians and to give these Americans the same educational and job opportunities that are given to all other Americans.