Native Language Key to Academic Success (fwd)

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Native Language Key to Academic Success

By Susan Logue
Cloquet, Minnesota
27 May 2005
http://www.voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2005-05-27-voa55.cfm

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[photo inset - A sign outside Red Lake High School warns against
prohibition of weapons in school on Red Lake Indian Reservation]

The school year is nearly over at Red Lake High School in the midwestern
state of Minnesota. Seniors graduate May 28. But the community is still
healing from the fatal shooting there in March. Many students finished
the year at home, choosing not to return to class after Jeffrey Weise,
a 17-year-old member of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe, killed 10 people,
including himself.

News reports described Weise as a troubled young man, but also noted
that many American Indian teens in Minnesota face serious problems,
ranging from suicide to alcohol and drug abuse. But the problems have
more to do with growing up poor than growing up Indian.

On Minnesota's Leech Lake Indian Reservation, where 17-year-old Chris
Stouffer lives, the unemployment rate is 31%. While tribal casinos
provide paychecks for some members, Chris says they are also places
where many Indians just gamble their money away. "A lot of people, it's
just ruining (their lives), because they spend all their money in
casinos."

There are other problems on the reservation as well, including
alcoholism and too many broken families. Chris's friend, Royal White,
says his family is among them. "My father is an alcoholic on the
reservation, and I don't know where he is. Royal adds that his mother
is struggling to support Royal and his younger brother since she was
injured at work.

Both Royal and Chris say they believe that despite the problems on the
Leech Lake Reservation, life there is very much like life in other
American communities. Yvonne Novak, manager of Indian education for
Minnesota's Department of Education agrees. "Is it hard to be an
Indian? At times, (yes), but it's also glorious," she says. "I think
what's harder is poverty and economic issues. I think THAT is what
makes it hard to go to school, NOT that you're an Indian."

American Indian educators say students find powerful incentives to stay
in school when they can connect with their Indian heritage. "I have an
11th grader right now that is failing everything but language and
culture," says Merlin Williams a teacher in Elk River, Minnesota, about
50 kilometers north of Minneapolis. When he told the student he had to
improve his other grades in order to stay in the Ojibwe language class,
the teacher says he got results.

Merlin Williams is in charge of Minnesota's Heritage Quiz Bowl, an
annual competition where American Indian students get to demonstrate
what they have learned about their language.

Students put in a lot of extra work to prepare for the big event. "Kids
work for four months," says Yvonne Novack. "Their reading list is
intensive, (as is) the studying, and oftentimes it's after school. And
lots of times these are students who may not be the best students in
school. But this engages them. It acknowledges who they are, where they
are from and the importance of their history."

[photo inset - Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School]

This year 27 teams, nearly 150 students in all, competed in the Heritage
Quiz Bowl. Melly Johnson, Royal White, and Chris Stouffer from
Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig High School on Leech Lake Reservation took home
second prize.

They all plan to continue studying their language and culture after they
graduate and they have other plans as well. Melly wants to be
veterinarian. Royal plans to study engineering. And Chris says he'll
probably go into computer science.

[photo inset - Dan Jones, professor of Ojibwe language and culture, Fond
du Lac Tribal and Community College]

There is no way to prove that studying their heritage has given these 3
students the self-confidence to reach for those goals. But Dan Jones,
who teaches Ojibwe language and culture at Fond du Lac Tribal and
Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota, says elders believe when
people don't know who they are or what they are, they are more prone to
be self-destructive.

Mr. Jones says he believes that's what happened to Jeffrey Weise. "If
that person (Jeffrey Weise) knew their language, their culture and
their history," Mr. Jones says, "he wouldn't have acted out the way he
did. Because within our history, language and culture is a built-in,
positive self-image, positive views on the world. It's built in that we
are respectful to one another. We are respectful to the land, and have
respect for life. And obviously that person did not have respect for
life."

Right now there is a shortage of teachers in Minnesota to provide
classes in Ojibwe language and culture. To help meet the need, Fond du
Lac Tribal and Community College will soon begin offering a four-year
degree in elementary education. While the program will not be limited
to American Indian students, graduates will be required to have a minor
in the Ojibwe language.