STANDING TOGETHER

The majority of American Indian students attend public schools in the United States. However, education mandated for American Indian students since the 1800s has been primarily education for assimilation, with the goal of eliminating American Indian cultures and languages. Indeed, extreme measures were taken to ensure Native students would “act white” as a result of their involvement with Western education. Today’s educational mandates continue a hegemonic “one-size-fits-all” approach to education. This is in spite of evidence that these approaches have rarely worked for Native students and have been extremely detrimental to Native communities.