American Indians in Oregon





This webpage was originally published as part of the Oregon Technology in Education Council website which was last updated 2/27/2007 and has not been maintained since then. Most of the links in this document have not been checked or updated.

Information and Communication Technology in education is a major challenge to the American Indian population of Oregon and the other states in the US. The map given below shows the locations of the nine Confederated American Indian Tribes in Oregon. The map is from http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/or/ormap.html.



This Website page is designed to help people who are working to improve the education of American Indians. While the specific focus in on American Indians in Oregon, many of the references are national in scope.

Introduction

 * "Under treaties, statutes and executive orders, the federal government has the responsibility to provide Native Americans education and access to educational institutions," says Davis-White Eyes. "Since institutions of higher education are essential elements in fulfilling this responsibility, it is the wish of the University of Oregon to acknowledge and uphold both the concept of tribal sovereignty for those nations currently within the borders of the state of Oregon, and the aboriginal rights of those nations which formerly resided within the state and were forcibly removed or systematically dispossessed of ancestral lands.

In-state College Tuition Fees
A number of states have agreed to charge only instate tuition for American Indian students from outside their state, but whose tribal roots are within the state, The University of Oregon passed such an initiative in 1997 and sponsored such an initiative at the State Board of Higher Education. This was passed in 1998, and covers 44 tribes. According to David Hubin of the University of Oregon (10/23/02), the State Board of Higher Education is currently considering the addition of a 45th tribe that is in northern California.

There are many different aspects of the topic of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in American Indian education. One is access to telecommunications. Here is a brief quotes from Porterfield (8/1/1999).


 * WASHINGTON, D.C. - On the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona 83.9 percent of the people do not have a phone in their home. For them and residents of many other rural Indian reservations across the U.S., the prospect of surfing the Internet is remote.

Based on 1990 census figures, 53 percent of American Indian households do not have telephones, while only 5 percent of the total U.S. households are without a phone. At the same time that split-second global communication creates previously unimagined educational and economic opportunities for many Americans, a number of American Indians remain without access.

There is a reasonable amount of literature on American Indian learning styles, and several sources are cited in the references. A Google search using the terms Learning Style American Indian produced a large number of hits. The following is quoted from ERIC (1991):


 * At the same time, many reports suggest that typical classroom learning environments interfere with the way Native children learn. Philips' (1983) now classic study provides a general model for looking at how children from Native groups interact in the classroom. In classrooms attended by Indian children in Warm Springs, Oregon, Philips observed that Indian children hesitated to participate in large- and small-group recitations. On the other hand, they were more talkative than non-Indian children when they started interactions with the teacher or worked on student-led group projects.


 * Philips described a process of acquiring competence that reflected Warm Springs' norms: observation, careful listening, supervised participation, and individualized self-correction or testing. The norms of their culture helped explain why the children were reluctant to speak in front of their classmates. Similar disruption of cultural patterns in classrooms attended by Sioux and Cherokee children had been reported previously by Dumont (1972). The work of such researchers as these suggests that for many Native children, a public display that violates community or group norms may be an uncomfortable experience. Perhaps it is this respect for norms that is responsible for the stereotypic "silent Indian child."

There are a large number of American written and spoken languages. The following is quoted from American Indian Languages. Anthropology Outreach Office of Smithsonian Institution Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/outreach/ indian_l.htm.


 * In 1492 there were at least 350 different languages spoken by the Native Americans north of Mexico, including Eskimos and Aleuts, and perhaps some 1,500 languages spoken in Mexico and Central and South America. These are totals of separate languages--not dialects. The speakers of one such language could not understand any of the other languages without special learning. If one included the different dialects of each of these languages, the totals would be much greater. As a general rule, most Indian groups known to us as separate tribes spoke separate languages. Presently, about 200 languages survive in North America, perhaps 275 in South America, and many more in Central America and Mexico.


 * Many Indian languages are related (in the same manner as, for examples, English, German, French, Greek, and Russian are related), going back ultimately to a single ancestral language. Languages related in this way belong to a single language family (English is a member of the Indo-European family). There were about sixty such families north of Mexico and an even larger number in Latin America. Some linguists have tried to find remoter relationships among many of these families and have grouped them into more inclusive units sometimes called stocks. One influential classification grouped all of the languages of North America into six stocks, but recently specialists have questioned the validity of studying such larger units of relationship before the histories of the individual families are understood. The wide diversity that exists among many of the American Indian languages can be compared to that found among English, Hungarian, Arabic, Malay, Swahili, and Chinese in the Old World.


 * No American Indian language is derived from an historically known Old World language. The affinities of the native languages of the Americas are presumed to reach back across the Bering Strait but date back to a very remote period in the past. Not even the closest of such relationships can yet be demonstrated conclusively, so great have the changes been over the many thousands of years since the ancestors of the Old and New World peoples drifted apart.

Confederated American Indian Tribes of Oregon
There are nine Confederated American Indian tribes in Oregon. The following list provides addresses and phone numbers for the Confederated American Indian tribes in Oregon.

Burns Paiute Indian Colony
Burns Paiute General Council

Herbert H. Hawley, Chairperson

HC 71, 100 Pa Si Go St.

Burns, OR 97720

Tel# (503) 573-2088, Fax# 573-2323

Klamath Reservation
Klamath General Council

Marvin Garcia, Chairperson

P.O. Box 436

Chiloquin, OR 97624

Tel# (503) 783-2219, Fax# 783-2029

Confederated Tribes of Coos Lower Umpqua; Suislaw Indians
www.ctclusi.org

1245 Fulton Ave.

Coos Bay, OR 97420

(541) 888-9577

Siletz Reservation
Siletz Tribal Council

Delores Pigsley, Chairperson

P.O. Box 549

Siletz, OR 97380

Tel# (503) 444-2513, Fax# 444-2307

Coquille Indian Tribe Siletz Agency
Ed Metcalf, Chairperson

P.O. Box 1435

Coos Bay, OR 97420

Tel# (503) 276-4587, Fax# 269-2573

Umatilla Reservation
Umatilla Board of Trustees

Donald Sampson, Chairperson

P.O. Box 638

Pendleton, OR 97801

Tel# (503) 276-3165, Fax# 276-3095

Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Indians Community Council
Sue M. Shaffer, Chairperson

2400 Stewart Parkway #300

Roseburg, OR 97470

Tel# (503) 672-9405, Fax# 673-0432

Warm Springs Reservation
Warm Springs Agency

Raymond Calica Sr., Chairperson

P.O. Box C, 1233 Veteran St.

Warm Springs, OR 97761

Tel# (503) 553-1161, Fax# 553-1924

Grande Ronde Indian Community Confederated Tribes
Mark Mercier, Chairperson

9615 Grand Ronde Rd.

Grande Ronde, OR 97347

Tel# (503) 879-5215, Fax# 879-5964

Source of Information Given Above
This table is based on the website American Indian Tribes retrieved 10/19/02]from http://www.indians.org/Resource/FedTribes99/fedtribes99.html. This 2001 reference listing all of the The American Indian Tribal Directory is a service provided by the American Indian Heritage Foundation.

Languages (Oregon Data)
There are a large number of different spoken American Indian languages. The following Oregon data is representative of the level of detailed information available from Languages of USA (see reference given below).

ALSEA (spoken language extinct): There were fewer than 10 [speakers] in 1930 (1977 Voegelin and Voegelin). Oregon, on Alsea River and Bay. Alternate names: ALSï¿½Ã¢YA. Dialects: YAQUINA (YAKWINA, YAKON, YAKONA). Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Coast Oregon, Yakonan.

CHETCO (spoken language nearly extinct): 5 speakers or fewer (1962 Chafe) out of possible 100 population (1977 SIL). Southern coast, Oregon. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.

CHINOOK (spoken language nearly extinct): 12 speakers of Kiksht dialect (1996), out of a possible population of 300 (1977 SIL). Lower Columbia River, Oregon and Washington. Alternate names: LOWER CHINOOK. Dialects: KLATSOP (TLATSOP), CLACKAMA, KIKSHT. Classification: Penutian, Chinookan.

CHINOOK WAWA (spoken language nearly extinct): 17 speakers in USA (1990 census). Formerly used along the Pacific coast from Oregon to Alaska. All speakers are probably now scattered. Alternate names: CHINOOK JARGON, CHINOOK PIDGIN, TSINUK WAWA. Classification: Pidgin, Amerindian.

COOS (spoken language nearly extinct): 1 or 2 speakers (1962 Chafe) out of a possible 250 population (1977 SIL). Southern Oregon coast. Alternate names: HANIS. Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Coast Oregon, Coosan.

COQUILLE (spoken language extinct); Probably no speakers left (1977 SIL). Southwestern Oregon, formerly on upper Coquille River. Alternate names: UPPER COQUILLE, MISHIKHWUTMETUNEE. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.

GALICE (spoken language extinct): Southwestern Oregon. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.

KALAPUYA (spoken language nearly extinct): 1 or 2 speakers (1962 Chafe). Northwest Oregon. Alternate names: SANTIAM, LUKAMIUTE, WAPATU. Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Kalapuyan.

KLAMATH-MODOC (spoken language nearly extinct): 1 speaker of Klamath (1998 N.Y. Times, April 9, p. A20) out of 2,000 population (1977 SIL). Oregon, south central, around and to the east and north of Klamath and Agency lakes; Modoc directly to the south. Classification: Penutian, Plateau Penutian, Klamath-Modoc.

MOLALE (spoken language extinct): Washington and Oregon in the valley of the Deschutes River, later west into the Molala and Santiam River valleys, and to the headwaters of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers. Alternate names: MOLELE, MOLALA, MOLALLA. Classification: Penutian, Unclassified.

PAIUTE, NORTHERN: 1,631 speakers out of 6,000 population (1999 SIL). Northern Nevada and adjacent areas of Oregon, California, and Idaho. Spoken on about twenty reservations spread out over 1,000 miles. Alternate names: PAVIOTSO. Dialects: BANNOCK, NORTH NORTHERN PAIUTE (MCDERMITT), SOUTH NORTHERN PAIUTE (YERINGTON-SCHURZ). Classification: Uto-Aztecan, Northern Uto-Aztecan, Numic, Western.

SIUSLAW (spoken language extinct) Southern Oregon coast. Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Coast Oregon, Siuslawan.

TAKELMA (spoken language extinct): Middle course of the Rogue River, Oregon. Alternate names: TAKILMA, LOWLAND TAKELMA. Classification: Penutian, Oregon Penutian, Takelma.

TENINO: 200 speakers out of 1,000 population (1977 SIL). Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon. Alternate names: WARM SPRINGS. Classification: Penutian, Plateau Penutian, Sahaptin.

TILLAMOOK (spoken language extinct): Northwestern Oregon. Classification: Salishan, Tillamook.

TOLOWA (spoken language nearly extinct): 5 speakers or fewer (1977 SIL). Southwestern Oregon. Alternate names: SMITH RIVER. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.

TUTUTNI (spoken language nearly extinct): 10 speakers or fewer (1962 Chafe). Southwestern Oregon. Classification: Na-Dene, Nuclear Na-Dene, Athapaskan-Eyak, Athapaskan, Pacific Coast, Oregon, Tolowa-Galice.

UMATILLA: 50 possible speakers out of 120 population (1977 SIL). Umatilla Reservation, Oregon. Alternate names: COLUMBIA RIVER SAHAPTIN. Classification: Penutian, Plateau Penutian, Sahaptin.

WALLA WALLA: 100 speakers out of 700 population (1977 SIL). Umatilla Reservation, Oregon. Alternate names: NORTHEAST SAHAPTIN. Classification: Penutian, Plateau Penutian, Sahaptin.

WASCO-WISHRAM (spoken language nearly extinct): 69 speakers including 7 monolinguals (1990 census), out of a possible population of 750 (1977 SIL). North central Oregon, south central Washington. Alternate names: UPPER CHINOOK. Classification: Penutian, Chinookan. Nearly extinct.

References for Languages Section


 * American Indian Languages. Anthropology Outreach Office of Smithsonian Institution. Accessed 4/29/2013 from: http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/Indbibl/sterotyp.html.


 * Index of Native American Language Resources on the Internet. Accessed 11/4/02: [http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAlanguage.html.


 * Languages of USA [Online]. Accessed 11/4/02: [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=USA.


 * Native American Languages. Accessed 11/4/02: [http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stories/language.html.

Non-Confederated American Indian Tribes of Oregon
The following list of non-federally recognzed American Indian Tribes of Oregon is from http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/or/ormap.html.


 * 1) Celilio-Wyam Indian Community, intertribal with joint use property in federal trust
 * 2) Tolowa- Tututni Tribe, no info, there's a Tolowa Nation in CA petitioning
 * 3) Tchinouk Indians, petitioned 5/16/79; acknowledgement declined, 3/17/86
 * 4) N.W. Cherokee Wolf Band of S.E. Cherokee Confederacy, petitioned 3/9/78;acknowledgement declined, 11/25/85
 * 5) Chinook Indian tribe, petitoned 7/23/89, funding in preogress
 * 6) Chetco Tribe

Education and Native Americans
This section (a work in progress) addresses the topic of designing and implementing an education system that better fits the needs and wants of the Native American population.

Here is an example of such literature:

Wayne State University Division of research (5/14/2013). Wayne State researcher aims to make STEM education more accessible to Native American students. Retrieved 5/20/2013 from http://research.wayne.edu/news.php?id=11652. Quoting from the article:


 * Underrepresented minorities comprise approximately 30 percent of the U.S. population, but only 10 percent are college educated in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Native Americans (and Aboriginal Canadians) are the least represented minority group in higher education and are poorly represented in STEM fields at all levels.


 * A Wayne State University study recently funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) aims to change these statistics. According to Maria Pontes Ferreira, Ph.D., R.D. assistant professor of Nutrition and Food Science in WSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and principal investigator of the study, targeting underrepresented minorities will help increase trainee numbers in STEM programs and change the face of STEM.


 * While attracting and retaining Native Americans has remained elusive due to a perceived lack of cultural relevance and/or support for STEM, Ferreira believes there is a way to break down this barrier.


 * “Native youth are taught to respect elders, and many elders are ‘keepers of traditional knowledge’ which interfaces with science,” said Ferreira. “Linking elders to postsecondary STEM education for Natives will improve perceptions of STEM as culturally relevant and culturally supportive of Natives, and impact Native student interest, pursuit and endurance in STEM careers.”

General References
Aboriginal Studies. Accessed 10/18/02: [http://ccism.pc.athabascau.ca/html/ccism/deresrce/issues.htm#aboriginal http://ccism.pc.athabascau.ca/html/ccism/. An extensive collection of links, last updated in 1999.

Alaska Native Knowledge Network. Accessed 10/23/02: http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/. Quoting from the Website:


 * The Alaska Native Knowledge Network is designed to serve as a resource for compiling and exchanging information related to Alaska Native knowledge systems and ways of knowing. It has been established to assist Native people, government agencies, educators and the general public in gaining access to the knowledge base that Alaska Natives have acquired through cumulative experience over millennia.

The Alaska Federation of Natives and the University of Alaska, with support from the National Science Foundation, have formed the Alaska Native/Rural Education Consortium to provide support for the integration of Alaska Native knowledge and ways of knowing into the educational systems of Alaska.

American Indian Language Development Institute and Southwest Memory Project. Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ModStrat/pt3a.html. Quoting from the Website:


 * The American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) was founded in 1978 by Hualapai tribal educators, Native American parents, and experts in linguistics to help several Southwest tribes develop a written language and curriculum materials that reflect attention to Native American students' heritage, needs, and learning styles. According to the current project co-director, "It started simply to meet the needs of the community and to develop Native-language materials. The 1970s were a period of growth of Native American languages throughout our country. There needed to be materials written specifically for Native Americans." Housed at different campuses during its first 12 years, this four-week summer program has been held since 1989 at the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, where the university is hoping to institutionalize it. AILDI enrolls about 100 students each summer.


 * Leadership of AILDI continues to include Native Americans, both as professional educators and as language and cultural specialists, and national Native and non-Native experts on indigenous languages and cultures. Currently, the institute is directed by two professors from the University of Arizona--one a professional linguist who is a member of the Tohono O'Odham tribe and the other a non-Native specialist in Native education programs. One of the founders, a woman from the Hualapai tribe, lectures at the institute every summer and manages a rural district and a Title VII-supported Native language curriculum development project during the school year. Originally designed for Native American educators, today AILDI accepts both Native and non-Native educators--administrators, aides, and teachers--who work with Native American students.

American Indians Virtual Library. Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/. Quoting from the Website:


 * This site is constructed primarily to provide information resources to the Native American community and only secondarily to the general community. The information is organized, insofar as possible, to make it useful to the Native American community and the education community. The information presented here is the product of much cooperative work. It would be impossible to maintain this list without the email from the hundreds of people who send me updates to their URLs and report new sites. This email is crucial to the operation of this index. The list of "don'ts" given below is simply to make the sorting through of my email a less difficult task. Please do not stop sending me this crucial information.

''Assessment for American Indian and Alaska Native Learners. ERIC Digest.'' See http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed385424.html

Certification in Oregon to Teach A Tribal Language. Accessed 10/24/02: [http://www.leg.state.or.us/orlaws/sess0600.dir/0653ses.html.


 * Chapter 653 Oregon Laws 2001 makes provisions: for a person to be certified to teach an American Indian language . These provisions focus strictly on the language, and have no other education requirements. The certification is good only for teaching the American Indian Language. Here is a piece of the provisions: 4) Each American Indian tribe may develop a written and oral test that must be successfully completed by an applicant for an American Indian languages teaching license in order to determine whether the applicant is qualified to teach the tribe's native language. When developing the test, the tribe shall determine:


 * (a) Which dialects will be used on the test;


 * (b) Whether the tribe will standardize the tribe's writing system; and


 * (c) How the teaching methods will be evaluated in the classroom.

Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, Roseburg, Oregon. Accessed 10/18/02: http://www.cowcreek.com/. Quoting from the Website:


 * Summary;' The story of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians is the story of a peaceful people who were faced with an invasion by a society that was overwhelmingly hostile, greedy and destructive of the Indian way of life.


 * The Land: The Cow Creek Umpqua lived in the Pacific Coast Range in Southwestern Oregon.


 * The People: Several closely related Indian tribes occupied southwestern Oregon.

ERIC (1991). American Indian/Alaskan Native Learning Styles: Research and Practice. ERIC Digest. Accessed 10/24/02: http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed335175.html.


 * Contains a summary of the learning styles topic as well as a number of references.The following is quoted from the introduction to the article:


 * Educators of American Indian and Alaskan Native students are concerned for a growing number of students who do not find school a meaningful place. These students are becoming "school weary." Studies of learning style among Native students provide some clues about this phenomenon, and this Digest presents a brief review of that literature. It includes a definition, specific examples, cautions about over generalizing learning style research, and suggestions for classroom practice.


 * The information is presented with a view respectful of more than 500 tribal groups. These groups represent an estimated 200 languages, each with its own unique government and social system. Too often, the significance of this variety is overlooked. Many observers fail to recognize that American Indian and Alaskan Native children are individuals who differ dramatically from one another, even within their own communities.

Grande Ronde. Confederated Tribe of Grand Ronde, Accessed 10/19/02: [http://www.grandronde.org/ The Tribe's vision is to be a tribal community known as a caring people, dedicated to the principles of honesty and integrity, building community, individual responsibility and self-sufficiency through personal empowerment, and responsible stewardship of human and natural resources; a community willing to act with courage in preserving tribal cultures and traditions for all future generations.

Confederated Tribe of Grand Ronde, http://www.grandronde.org/ The Tribe's vision is to be a tribal community known as a caring people, dedicated to the principles of honesty and integrity, building community, individual responsibility and self-sufficiency through personal empowerment, and responsible stewardship of human and natural resources; a community willing to act with courage in preserving tribal cultures and traditions for all future generations.

Quoting from the Website http://www.grandronde.org/:


 * Welcome to the Cultural Resources Program of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The Grand Ronde Reservation, located on a section of the Yamhill Calapooia's home country 18 miles east of Lincoln City, is currently home to The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community. This confederation represents the Umpqua, Calapooia, Shasta, Rogue River, Mollallas and Chinookan Clackamas. It supports an enrollment of over 4,700 tribal members who are all direct descendants of these Native American Tribes and their associated bands.


 * The Tribe's vision is to be a tribal community known as a caring people, dedicated to the principles of honesty and integrity, building community, individual responsibility and self-sufficiency through personal empowerment, and responsible stewardship of human and natural resources; a community willing to act with courage in preserving tribal cultures and traditions for all future generations.

Current American Indian Technology and Telecommunications Projects (1994-Present). Accessed 10/18/02: [http://www.benton.org/Library/Native/information-currenttech.pdf.


 * This Website contains a 10-page PDF document (20 pages of journal text) that discusses a number of projects. This is from the 1999 report mentioned in Porterfield.

Firth, Simon (December 2001). Building a Visionary Village. (A project funded by Helwett-Packard.)Accessed 1/18/03: [http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/feature_stories/2001/visvillage01.html. Quoting from the Website:


 * Welcome to HP's new Tribal Digital Village - a community that is very real and completely virtual - located in the back country of San Diego County, California. It is real in the sense that it unites the members of 18 American Indian tribes who are all connected through bonds of language, kinship and history. And it is virtual in the sense that these tribes live on 17 separate and relatively small reservations dispersed over a huge area northeast of San Diego.


 * Selected in February as one of HP's Digital Villages, the tribes, represented by the Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association (SCTCA), received a $5 million grant to assist them in bringing technology to the reservations. The village represents a major extension of HP's ongoing e-Inclusion initiative, offering the company the chance to both demonstrate and expand upon its vision of how e-Inclusion can address the digital divide


 * [Another story about this project is available at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/soc/dhpdigital.htm.]

Hewlett-Packard Project. Wednesday, 3 March, 2004. Accessed 3/5/04: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3489932.stm. Quoting from this BBC newscast:


 * Wireless technology is helping native Americans in California go online and learn computing skills, reports Elizabeth Biddlecombe from San Francisco.


 * The Tribal Digital Village (TDV) is based in Southern California's San Diego County. This mountainous and remote land is home to 18 native American reservations - each one a sovereign nation - with an aggregate population of 15,000.

Home Pages for Individual American Indians. WWW Virtual Library - American Indians. Accessed 11/4/02: http://www.hanksville.org/NAresources/indices/NAhomes.html.


 * Includes a few sites developed by K-12 students and a wider collection of other sites developed by other American Indians.

Indian Education Research (IndianEduResearch.Net). Accessed 10/23/02: http://www.indianeduresearch.net/


 * This is a very extensive Website developed by ERIC. This site is maintained through funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education, National Library of Education under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027 and by the Office of Indian Education through special project funding.

Instate Tuition. University of Oregon plan recognizes right of Native American students from displaced Oregon tribes to pay instate fees. Accessed 10/23/02: [http://comm.uoregon.edu/newsreleases/latest/apr98/O040298.html.


 * This 1997 initiative by the University of Oregon led to the Oregon State Board of Higher Eduction approving the same initiative for all of the Oregon State System of Higher Education.

Learning Styles (August 1989). Special Edition of Journal of American Indian Education. Accessed 10/24/02: http://jaie.asu.edu/sp/. The full text of this issue of the journal is available online. The following is quoted from the website:


 * The Styles Of Learning Are Different, But The Teaching Is Just The Same: Suggestions For Teachers Of American Indian Youth. Karen Swisher and Donna Deyhle [pp. 1-14] Examines learning style and interactional style differences of American Indian and Alaskan Native students. Provides specific classroom examples and research findings concerning culturally influenced learning styles, the visual approach to learning, field dependence, public vs. private demonstration of learning, and cooperation versus competition in the classroom.


 * Native Indian Learning Styles: A Review For Researchers And Teachers. Arthur J. More [pp. 15-28] The article discusses four areas of research that provide evidence for important differences in Learning Style between Indian and non-Indian students: (1) internal cognitive processes or learner characteristics, (2) external or environmental conditions, (3) teaching and communication styles, (4) traditional learning styles. According to the author, differences in Learning Style "occur frequently but are not found with sufficient consistency to suggest a uniquely Indian learning style. However, they occur often enough to warrant careful attention." The article suggests seven areas of learning style strengths and weaknesses among Native people and outlines four implications for teachers and three other specific implications. The author concludes that the "most effective application of learning style theory lies in the greater understanding and ability to adapt to individual differences, and in identifying and building on the strengths of Indian students."


 * Coyote's Eyes: Native Cognition Styles. Terry Tafoya [pp. 29-42] The author attempts to explain the story involving Coyote's eyes. From the story he extracts the development of certain cognitive schemes and establishes methods for Piaget's assimilation and accommodation. The author includes a discussion of the circle as associated with Indian tribal philosophy and believes that legends and stories form the basis for traditional teaching paradigms which are not recognized as the same style of teaching one discovers in "school."


 * American Indian Academic Success: The Role Of Indigenous Learning Strategies. Cathaleene J. Macias [pp. 43-52] Eleven American Indian women enrolled in a MSW program participated in an interview study designed to identify effective learning strategies. Most of the women reported relying on writing and verbalization as study strategies and preferred essay tests to multiple-choice or true-false tests. This preference for essay tests was linked in the interviews to a strong ability to synthesize knowledge, a cognitive skill identified by researchers as characteristic of Indian people. The women also described themselves as good listeners and as being reluctant to pass judgment before careful, subjective reflection, behaviors which are also characteristic of Indians. These women's introspective reports and high academic performance are evidence that there are distinctive Indian cognitive strengths that facilitate graduate school success.


 * Learning Styles: A Study Of Alaska Native And Non-Native Students. Joan K. Wauters; Janet Merrill Bruce [pp. 53-62] Research on learning styles, particularly those of minority students, is still very new and technically unrefined. This study examines the results of one learning style instrument, the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS), used to evaluate 200 Alaskan high school seniors. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to analyze differences between Native and non-Native subjects. Rural and urban subjects were also compared. Significant differences were found in learning styles between Native and non-Native subjects on the Persistence, Peer, Authority, Auditory, and Visual subscales. The two groups, however, were both strikingly dissimilar to the PEPS norm group. Pedagogical implications for Alaskan students are included which suggest the use of diverse teaching modalities and frequent student-teacher interactions.


 * Learning Preferences Of Capable American Indians Of Two Tribes. Barbara J. Walker; John Dodd [pp. 63-71] A preference scale based on four types of learning preferences was employed to determine which preference would be indicated most frequently by a selected group of Native American adolescents. The pattern symbols preference was selected by the majority. When the group was divided by sex, it showed the females were more evenly divided in their learning preference than the males. Suggestions are made for teaching activities which would be compatible with the preferences indicated by the majority of males. The key factors indicated were a preference for small group activities that allow for personal interpretation of the subject in a cooperative rather than competitive learning environment.


 * Brain Hemispheric Functions And The Native American. Allen Chuck Ross [pp. 72-76] (Reprinted from Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 2-5, May 1982, JAIE.) Focuses on the discussion of the linear, or left brain orientation, of the American educational system's ideals and identifies the inappropriateness of using the orientation with the American Indian student. According to the author, it has been determined that traditional American Indians are more dominant in right hemisphere thinking which may also be a reason for the psychic phenomenon and miracle healing performed by spiritual people.


 * The Right-Brained Indian: Fact Or Fiction? Roland D. Chrisjohn and Michael Peters [pp. 77-83] (Reprinted from Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 1-7, January 1986, JAIE.) An article which describes the hopes for "right-brain" curriculum development as "ill founded." The authors outline some general reasons for their "uneasiness" about the "right-brain" curriculum for Indians; the authors point out that the sort of evidence that has been used to argue in favor of the "right-brained Indian" does not in any way support the conclusion that Indians differ in brain organization from non-Indians. The article covers Neuropsychology and Performance on Intelligence Tests. The authors conclude that the evidence supporting a "right-brained Indian" is too weak to justify any emphasis on "right-brain" curricula in Indian Education.


 * A Cognitive Pattern Of The Yakima Indian Students. Rhett Diessner; Jacqueline L. Walker [pp. 84-88] According to the authors, patterns of Bannatyne's recategorized Weschsler Intelligence Scales (WISC-R and WAIS) scores for 75 Yakima Indian students, enrolled in a private, tribally controlled and operated Junior and Senior High School in the Columbia River Basin, were investigated. In congruence with similar studies, a statistically significant pattern was found: Spatial Ability, Sequential Ability and Verbal Conceptual Ability. The authors believe evidence is presented indicating that the discovered cognitive pattern may be typical across American Indian populations. The authors believe the evidence presented increase the possible validity of a particular American Indian cognitive style.

Native Americans in Marine and Space Sciences. Accessed 10/19/02: http://www.oce.orst.edu/native/. Quoting from the Website:


 * The Native Americans in Marine and Space Sciences Program (NAMSS) housed in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University, provides internship opportunities for undergraduate Native American, Native Hawaiian and Alaskan Native students interested in gaining internship experience in math, science, engineering and other technical fields.


 * The NAMSS Program is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation &amp; NASA Oregon Space Grant. The program gives undergraduate Native students the opportunity to directly participate in research on and off campus.

National Congress of American Indians. Accessed 10/18/02: http://www.ncai.org/ Quoting from the Website:


 * Indian Nations are sovereign governments, recognized in the U.S. Constitution and hundreds of treaties with the U.S. President. Today, tribal governments provide a broad range of governmental services on tribal lands throughout the U.S., including law enforcement, environmental protection, emergency response, education, health care, and basic infrastructure.


 * The National Congress of American Indians was founded in 1944 and is the oldest and largest tribal government organization in the United States. NCAI serves as a forum for consensus-based policy development among its membership of over 250 tribal governments from every region of the country.


 * NCAI's mission is to inform the public and the federal government on tribal self-government, treaty rights, and a broad range of federal policy issues affecting tribal governments.

National Indian Education Association (NIEA). Accessed 10/23/02: http://www.niea.org/. Quoting from the Website:


 * The mission of the National Indian Education Association is to support traditional Native cultures and values, to enable Native learners to become contributing members of their communities, to promote Native control of educational institutions, and to improve educational opportunities and resources for American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians throughout the United States.

Native Americans in the Northwest. Accessed 10/19/02: http://www.orst.edu/dept/press/native.htm.


 * This is the Website of the Oregon State University Press. The Oregon State University Press publishes about 15 books per year. Over the past few years, the press has published more than a dozen books on Native Americans in the Northwest.

Nichols, Judy (May. 26, 2004). Hopi High sets pace. The Arizona Republic. Accessed 5/30/04:[http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0526hopihigh.html. Quoting from the Website:


 * KEAMS CANYON - Hope springs eternal at Hopi High School.

Every spring, that is, when this school in isolated Keams Canyon graduates another large group of seniors, bucking the trend for Native American graduation rates. Nearly 87 percent of students graduate within five years of starting Hopi High, well above the 63 percent statewide average for Native Americans.

Office of Technology Assessment Report (1995). Accessed 10/18/02 from: http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/~ota/disk1/1995/9542/954203.PDF. This 15 page document is Chapter 1 of a much longer report commissioned by the US Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Quoting from the document:


 * As the Internet, electronic mail, compact discs, and digital telephones sweep through much of the United States, Native American activists are asking themselves whether and how the new technology can empower Native communities. Or will the new technology of telecommunications and computers serve only as a modern-day version of the telegraph and railroad that ran right through Indian lands with little benefit to the tribes? Will the technology serve to bring together or further disconnect Alaskan and Hawaiian Natives from their continental and island homelands?


 * At the time of the American Revolution, what is now the United States was home to hundreds of indigenous peoples with a variety of forms of self-government, organized at the tribal, village, or island level. Today's Native American--American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians--are the descendants of these indigenous peoples. Over the last 200 years, indigenous peoples have struggled to maintain their cultures, sovereignty, and self-determination in the face of population pressures and ever-expanding national and state governments.


 * The established framework of federal Indian law recognizes tribal sovereignty, a federal trust responsibility for those tribal lands and resources ceded to or taken by the United States, and a commitment to tribal self-determination over programs and services vital to tribal well-being. Federal law and policy apply this framework to the 550 federally recognized Indian tribes--including about 220 Alaska Native tribal or village governments (Indian Aleut, or Eskimo). Federal policy of Native Hawaiians is more ambiguous, although the United States has apologized for its role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The strong parallels between the history and experience of Native Hawaiians with those of American Indians and Alaska Natives provides a basis for including Native Hawaiians within this framework.

Patel, V. (5/27/2014). Why So Few American Indians Earn Ph.D.'s, and What Colleges Can Do About It. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 6/30/2014 from http://chronicle.com/article/Why-So-Few-American-Indians/146715/.Quoting from the article:


 * Those ties are a major reason that American Indians earn a troublingly low number of doctorates, say educators and advocates. Other factors are thought to include the extreme poverty typical of many tribal communities, a lack of faculty role models, and a financially challenged tribal-college system.


 * American Indians earned just 102 doctorates in 2012­­­—even fewer than the 149 they earned 20 years before, according to the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates. American Indians and Alaska Natives represented 1.2 percent of the U.S. population in 2012 but earned just 0.3 percent of the doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. They were the only minority group that did not earn more doctorates—or increase their share of all doctorates earned—over the past two decades.

Porterfield, K. Marie (8/1/1999) Digital divide narrowing according to technology report. Indian Country Today. Accessed 10/11/02: http://www.kporterfield.com/samples/benton.html. This reference is a newspaper article based on a 1999 extensive report available in PDF at http://www.benton.org/Library/Native/. Quoting from the newspaper article:


 * WASHINGTON, D.C. - On the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona 83.9 percent of the people do not have a phone in their home. For them and residents of many other rural Indian reservations across the U.S., the prospect of surfing the Internet is remote.


 * Based on 1990 census figures, 53 percent of American Indian households do not have telephones, while only 5 percent of the total U.S. households are without a phone. At the same time that split-second global communication creates previously unimagined educational and economic opportunities for many Americans, a number of American Indians remain without access.

Sterns, Ron and Sterns, Pam. Native American Influences Along the Oregon Trail. Accessed 10/11/02 from: http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:JToxhM_w4ZIC:trails.kcmsd.k12.mo.us/Pdfs/LessonPlans/Oregon%20City/Stearns.pdf.
 * This is a detailed Social Studies lesson plan for students in grades 3-6. The authors are from John McLoughlin Elementary and Mt. Pleasant Elementary, Oregon City, Oregon.

Swisher, Karen (Spring 1994) American Indian Learning Styles Survey: An Assessment of Teachers Knowledge. The Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, v. 13 pp. 59-77, Accessed 10/24/02 from: http://www.ncela.gwu.edu/miscpubs/jeilms/vol13/americ13.htm. Quoting the last two paragraphs of this survey research:


 * The implications of the survey results indicate that teachers should have a balanced presentation of theory and practice in preservice and inservice education. They do need to understand the theoretical frameworks upon which good practice is based. Action without theory is like a trip without a map; you might get there by intuition, but you might not make it, or you might get lost and wander aimlessly until you finally reach your destination or give up and go back home. A common understanding and definition of learning styles is needed when a school or community members have decided that learning styles of their children present a priority focus for guiding teaching and learning. The definitions given by respondents in this survey demonstrate the disparity in understanding that apparently exists in schools attended by American Indian students across the country.


 * This study was exploratory; it is a beginning point for discovering what teachers know about learning styles. It is a topic which is given considerable attention in the milieu of topics related to the education of American Indian youth. The topic is regarded with optimism as an important key for understanding the behavior of American Indian young people in education settings. Frameworks or paradigms such as the one set forth by Ramirez and Castaneda (1974) provide a window through which to view the topic of learning styles. We must look from the general, i.e., American Indian, to the specific, for we know that while there are similarities, there are important differences between and among tribal cultures. It has been said that "Native cultures differ so fundamentally from European cultures that they will hold certain things in common--concept of time, spatial relationships, a unified awareness of what we call the spirituality and physical realms" (Lopez, 1978, p.109). Furthermore, while there seems to be some universality in cultural values such as generosity and cooperation among American Indians, there is diversity within groups which must not be forgotten when we are tempted toward generalizations.

University of North Dakota: American Indian Programs and Initiatives. Accessed 11/5/02: http://www.und.edu/naprograms/. This university has made a major commitment to meeting the needs of Native American students. Quoting from the Website:


 * Already one of the top choices for American Indian Students, UND is further expanding its programs and services. You will find UND to be a great place to get started on your path through life. Located on the North Dakota-Minnesota border, Grand Forks is a lively and welcoming community. Find out more about what UND has to offer you! More than 150 undergraduates and graduate fields of study, including an outstanding Department of Indian Studies.


 * More than 400 currently enrolled American Indian students and nearly 2,500 American Indian almuni.
 * A Native American Programs Office to assist students and provide a central gathering place for study and recreation.
 * More than 30 special programs focus on the needs of American Indian students and citizens.
 * Affordability - modest costs, cultural diversity tuition waivers, and reasonably priced campus housing.

Comment and a Reference from a Reader
Quoting from parts of an email from a reader:


 * I'm e-mailing to thank you for having such a useful page! I'm a social studies tutor and one of my students and I came across you American Indians page, while researching for Native American related resources to help her study and learn from for a unit test at school. Researching together is also a way for her to practice her researching skills. Your web site's page has wonderful related information and resources and will be a great tool for my student to learn and study from.


 * I also want to recommend an article that we found with information and resources about the history of potlatch and Native American currency (https://www.mint.com/the-history-of-potlatch-and-native-american-currency/). My student thinks that the article would be a great additional related resource on your council web site's American Indians page and asked me to send it to you. I thought this could be a great opportunity to teach her, and some of the other students I tutor, about the importance of sharing information.


 * If you decided that the suggestion is suitable enough to include then I would love to show my student the updated page. It would probably make her day to see her suggestion on the page. Please let me know what you think.


 * Regards,


 * Bella Green