After four centuries of precipitous population decline to a low of about 237,000 in 1900, American Indian and Alaska Native populations in the United States began to increase at the turn of the century. That increase now is accelerating. According to the United States Census, the Native population of the United States more than doubled between 1970 and 2000, from one million to almost two and half million. Half of this population lives in urban areas and less than a third on Reservations.
The 2,476,000 Native Americans represent some 500 different tribes, each with its own unique culture, and 200 surviving languages. But as population increases, American Indian languages and cultures are being lost, partly as a result of federal and state education policies over most of the last two centuries that called for the "Americanization" of Indian students.
A note on terminology is necessary here. I will follow terminology chosen by the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force. They preferred to use the term American Indian/Alaska Native for the initial reference to the indigenous people of North America and to thereafter use the short form Native. However, because of the historical use of terms such as Indian and Native American, I will use the terms somewhat interchangeably, especially the term American Indian or the short form Indian when it is clear that Alaska Natives are not being included for geographical reasons.
In the early 1970s Indian activism, part of the Civil Rights Movement, created an atmosphere that led to the passage of the 1972 Indian Education Act and the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Self-determination is the idea that Indian people, not the U.S. government, should decide what is best for Indian America. This concept survived the subsequent decline in federal funding, but Native Americans are still uncertain what self-determination will ultimately mean for Indian people and Indian education.
In the early 1990s there was a revival of interest in Indian education that matched the interest shown in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Evidence of this revival included the Native American Languages Act in 1990, the release of the final report of the U.S. Secretary of Education's Indian Nations at Risk Task Force in 1991, and the White House Conference on Indian Education in 1992. This revival of interest was part of a recurring historical cycle. However, in the last few decades, in contrast to past episodes of concern, Indian people, rather than non-Indian missionaries and government officials, are taking the lead in lobbying for new laws, serving on Task Forces, and attending Indian education conferences.
Poverty and other social problems have plagued American Indians. They want political and economic equality, and they want to regain their Native identities, including their languages and traditions that historically were suppressed in schools. By recovering the past through a strong sense of identity and by using culturally appropriate curriculum and instruction, some Indian and Alaska Native students are achieving educational success that heretofore proved elusive.
In the 1990s, about 40,000 Native students (10% of the total) attended some 170 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) funded schools, about 10,000 (3%) attended private schools, and over 300,000 (87%) attended public schools. In these schools, a disproportionate number of Native students achieve below national averages. For example, a 1991 Audit Report of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General showed students in BIA schools achieving on average far below non-Native students and "generally not receiving quality educations." On the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessment, 40% of white fourth graders scored at or above proficient, compared to only 17% of Native American students. In math, 34% of white fourth graders scored at or above proficient, while just 14% of Native Americans scored as high.
This article will examine the current issues in American Indian and Alaska Native education, the status of Indian education today, and the work that Native leaders and others are doing to improve Native education.
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