In 1823, evangelical missionaries William and Amanda Ferry opened a boarding school for Metis children on Mackinac Island, Michigan Territory, hoping to convert and transform the Metis people through their children. Instead, they helped bring about a revival of Catholicism, and their students refused to abandon the fur trading lifestyle. Chapter 1…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 gave tribal governments new authority to structure and administer their own cash assistance, employment and training, child care, and child support enforcement programs. This "Issue Notes" describes some current characteristics of tribal Temporary…

Explores how formal schooling has enabled the Yombe of Zambia to enter the modern sector of Zambian society as skilled workers, teachers, and civil servants; describes the adjustment of peasant Yombe families to a capitalist productive mode and the new social order; and examines Yombe educational and occupational achievements. (Author/MJL)

The introduction to this edition of the journal discusses why and how an effective translator must carry over Native American oral traditions into poetic and musical printed words for modern audiences. It evaluates various translation efforts and summarizes each article in the edition. (SB)

The Parent as a Teacher Inventory can provide data for designing a parenting curriculum geared to a specific target group. Used to examine childrearing expectations held by Navajo and Hopi Indians, the Inventory reveals pervasive differences based on tribal affiliation, parent's sex, child's sex, and parent's educational experience. (SB)

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…

Discusses the expulsion of the Choctaw Indians from their lands in the U.S. southeast as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Provides a lesson plan using a primary source document along with accompanying discussion questions. Includes a three-page letter that is the deposition of a Choctaw Indian protesting removal. (CFR)

Describes the development of an electronic book that provides a forum on the history and culture of Native Americans in the Lakota Nation. Illustrates how such multimedia programs can help teachers with multicultural education. Discusses the importance of interactivity and random access in educational technology, collaboration, and the teacher…

The book is divided into four sections in a way that ensures seasonal recognition and environmental awareness. Each chapter within the sections begins with one or more oral histories from Native nations relevant to the concepts and ideas covered in that chapter. The student is introduced to the Native perspective through the concept of the circle,…

A joint Senate committee hearing received testimony on the unique circumstances and needs of American Indian Head Start programs. There are currently about 120 Indian Head Start programs providing services to 181 American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. The Associate Commissioner of the Head Start Bureau described the ongoing federal initiative…

This study of 19 northern Michigan Ojibwa families examined antecedents to holding traditional values, and the relationship between mothers' and fathers' level of holding traditional values and their elementary school children's academic and social functioning. Participating families had a child between ages 3 and 11 years; the focal child of the…

This report summarizes American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) population statistics from the 1990 Census. In 1990 there were about 2 million persons who identified themselves as American Indians in the United States, a 38 percent increase over the 1980 census. More than half of the Indian population lived in six states, with Oklahoma having the…

This directory provides addresses, phone numbers, and contact persons for state and federal agencies, tribal agencies, organizations, and schools concerned with American Indian education in New Mexico. Sections include the following: a map of New Mexico showing state board of education districts, both elected and appointed; state board of…

This theme issue describes Maryetta School, a rural pre-K-8 school in Stilwell, Oklahoma, with an enrollment of approximately 500 students, mostly American Indians of Cherokee descent. Although the area has a high poverty rate and virtually all the students are judged to be at risk, the school has an impressive array of programs and facilities and…

This paper analyzes and evaluates federal assistance to Indians on or near reservations and recommends public policies to promote self-determination through economic development. Most Indian tribes rely on federal funds for basic necessities and services. At current funding levels, reservation residents lead lives of deprivation or opt for…