History of Indian Education
In 1975, the Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act which aimed at returning the school education under direct Indian control, however, it was opposed by Indian youth and regarded as confirmation of colonial status of Native Indians (Jaimes, 387). Here, what is worth paying attention, is that Indians founded the American Indian Movement, that among other, attempted to establish autonomous, so-called “survival schools”, based on reservations territories. Thus, Indians have been gradually integrating and assimilating into American nation, and even learned to fight for their rights in peaceful way.
Over the further decades, the Indian schools steadily evolved turning into modern educational institutions, where children of Native Indian background can receive the knowledge not worse than in any other US school. In their appearance and teaching methods Indian schools were becoming equal to non-Indian. Even in the 80s and 90s there was still much injustice towards Indians, now in social sphere. For instance, sexual abuse is reported to take place in Hopi day school from late 70s to the end of 80s, where a teacher sexually abused more than 150 Indian boys. The Indian children who experienced abuse could not complain due to drawbacks in state and federal law, which made such violence possible and led to psychological and social disruptions of victims that still echo in Indian communities. However, those drawbacks were being fixed, and the situation nowadays is much better compared to that 50 or 100 years ago.Fortunately, in a century since 1990s the situation with native Indians education has changed dramatically. Modern schools for Indians do not require any marching, uniform or craft classes.
They are like all other secondary and high schools in the US. A good example is Sherman Indian High School, where nothing except the names and surprisingly big and beautiful campus, hints that it is a school for Indian children. Some of modern Indian schools develop innovative projects to meet the educational needs of their children, like Cherokee High School, that is working on integration of the three campuses into one location, creating a common educational and cultural space, where the elder students would be able to help their younger colleagues (Spiral of Fire). However, there are still matters to be solved. For example, in the early 90-s the Indian children attending non-Indian school were very likely to face discrimination both from their schoolmates and those children’s parents, as encountered by Leanne Howe in the documentary “Spiral of Fire”, when as a child she was not let into the car that was supposed to give her a ride (Spiral of Fire). The parent of her classmate let other white girl in, but closed the door in front of her and drove away. She recollects it was then that she understood the difference in attitude to whites and Indians at the very basic level. This problem still exists in mixed communities, where …
