Conducted four focus groups to explore the college student experience of ethnic minorities (African American, Asian-Pacific American, Chicano/Latino, and Native American) in a predominantly White institution of higher education. Findings in terms of student voices and perspectives were grouped into six main categories: general campus climate,…

A Portland (Oregon) middle school teacher teaches an ethnobotany class using plants identified in Lewis and Clark's journals. After months of learning about native plants, Native American culture, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the class culminates in a 3-day canoe trip down the Columbia River. A Lewis and Clark Rediscovery grant provides…

A pilot program at Northwest Indian College (Washington) teaches tribal resource management from the Native perspective. The program is built on principles of articulation of both tribal and Western knowledge, support and non-abandonment of students, and developmental education. Student assessment eliminates punitive measures and focuses on…

Teaching about Indigenous culture from an Indigenous perspective in a Western educational institution involves unresolvable contradictions. A Metis faculty member describes how she has changed traditional academic practices by normalizing relationships with her students, taking students out of the classroom and bringing the outside in, encouraging…

The Santa Fe Indian School (New Mexico) developed the community-based education model with input from parents, teachers, Elders, and tribal council members in five pueblos. Students in grades 10-12 study community problems related to the environment and develop science, technology, and communications skills. Experiential learning makes this…

Describes the design of the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology in British Columbia, including the educational context and design goals. Includes information on architects, consultants, and cost, as well as floor plans and photographs. Discusses how the design for this First Nations school blends aboriginal constructs and…

Despite signs that minority graduate enrollment is rising, Black doctorate awards are down substantially, and other minority numbers, although rising, are still small. Women doctorates have increased. Precise foreign student citizenship numbers are unavailable, but recipients from some countries, such as China, and representation in some…

Describes a two-year Technology for Teaching Project linking high school students on Montana's Crow Indian Reservation with other students in the United States and abroad through AT&T Learning Network's Learning Circles. Topics include project organization, materials exchanged with other schools, issues covered in online student discussions,…

Asserts that environmental history is an important component of the history of the American west. Discusses the historiography of the American west in relationship to environmental issues. Concludes that environmental history opened the door for scholars to study the way human beings interact with the physical world around them. (CFR)

As teacher, musician, and performing artist, John Stokes has traveled widely in his efforts to promote awareness of the natural world and the integrity of indigenous peoples. In this interview, Stokes discusses life experiences that led him to establish the Tracking Project, a program that has taught traditional tracking and survival skills to…

A University of New Mexico pharmacy clerkship in Indian Health Service rural ambulatory clinics is described and its results compared with an urban hospital clerkship. Unique benefits to participants included improved skills in patient counseling and chart screening, more hands-on experience, extensive individual physician consultations, and…

Surveys of 100 First Nations graduates of the University of British Columbia and the Native Education Centre (Vancouver) (which offers programs from basic literacy to first-year college courses) examined the relationship between postsecondary education and employment, factors that encourage academic success and graduation, and barriers and support…

The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is working towards obtaining accreditation for a two-year Associate of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering. SIPI is a tuition-free vocational-technical training institution, designated in 1993 as a community college. Since 1991 the institute has enforced a…

Reports the results of a survey of recent and ongoing aging-related data sources supported by U.S. federal agencies. The purpose of the study was to determine the suitability of the data sets for research on minority elders. Formal tests of the adequacy of data set sample sizes to support analysis on various minority groups were performed; most…

Many American Indian students are alienated from schooling by the obvious disparities and conflicts between language usage in the oral tradition of their communities and that required in written academic discourse. A community-based language model used with Lakota college students empowers students by teaching critical writing that fuses…