National Native Children's Trauma Center

Anja Rudiger. 2020. “Pathways to Education Sovereignty: Taking a Stand for Native Children.” Leadership Institute (Santa Fe Indian School), Santa Fe, NM, and New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, Albuquerque, NM. December.

Using the example of New Mexico, this policy paper details the devastation that modern, western educational systems have wrought for Native nations: they sever connections to language, culture, and community; limit the visibility and influence of Native people as role models and decision makers, and provide educational experiences that have little relevance to tribal citizens’ lives. The systemic failure of such systems to meet the needs of Native children, and the deeply inequitable education outcomes that result, have been well documented. A fundamental cause of the problem is institutional racism, which in turn points toward tribal self-determination as a solution. The report continues by proposing shared tribal-state responsibility for public education serving Native youth. The values Native communities seek to gift to all future generations lie at the heart of this model.

Rural Health Information Hub. 2022. “Fostering Futures in Menominee Nation.”

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 2015. “Menominee Nation, WI: 2015 Culture of Health Prize Winner.” RJWF Culture of Health Prize Winners. October 18.

Trauma caused by historic events has greatly affected the way of life for Menominee Indians living on the Menominee Reservation. The results are seen today in a variety of economic, socioeconomic, behavioral health, and physical health issues experienced by Menominee youth. In response, leaders of the Menominee Tribal Clinic and the (public) Menominee Indian School District collaborated to launch a broad effort aimed at reversing the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Both of these articles describe the resulting effort, “Fostering Futures,” which brings together a variety of tribal government, county government, tribal college, and public school departments and agencies to train and assist staff to administer trauma-informed care and build resilience among children. Local schools are a focal point for intervention. The school health center staff are trauma-trained, school schedules and physical spaces are designed to support positive behavioral health, and the “Grandfather Teachings” values of wisdom, respect, honesty, and truth are woven into everyday lessons. Since the implementation of Fostering Futures, behavioral health visits at the Menominee Tribal Clinic have increased, school suspension rates have decreased, and over the period 2008-2021, graduation rates improved from 60% to 85%. The RWJF article provides a journalistic overview of the Menominee project, and the Case Study on the Rural Health Information Hub provides additional detail, including outcome data through the year 2021.

Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. 1999. “Rosebud Tribal Education Department and Education Code, Tribal Education Department, Rosebud Sioux Tribe.” Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations Program, Harvard University. Cambridge, MA.

By supplementing state and federal law, the Tribal Education Department and Code have enabled the Rosebud Sioux Tribe to play a greater role in the education of its youth. The Tribe is now involved with critical components of formal education—curriculum, staffing and funding—that for decades had been managed by non-Indian governments, and it is able to bring unique resources to bear on the problems of school attendance and academic performance. Because the Education Code gives the Rosebud Tribal Education Department the power and resources to affect school policy, the Tribe has been able to achieve results where narrower efforts have failed.

Lindsay A. Morcom. 2017. “Self-esteem and Cultural Identity in Aboriginal Language Immersion Kindergarteners.” Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 16(6): 365-380. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2017.1366271

In gauging the success of Aboriginal language immersion education, the focus often is placed on measuring language acquisition and academic achievement. Although useful, these metrics only tell part of the story. To achieve overall success, in school and in life, it is also vital for Native students to develop high personal self-esteem (which results in a positive concept of oneself as a learner), and high collective self-esteem (which results in a positive attitude toward one’s heritage, community, and school). This article summarizes research on the effects of Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe) immersion education on kindergarteners’ personal and collective self-esteem. Further, it compares the findings for Anishanaabek children in an immersion setting to Inuit learners in immersion and mainstream language schools; these results offer insight into the self-esteem of children as part of a measure of a program’s overall success, as well as into the ways that different educational contexts give rise to positive experiences for Aboriginal children and support their resiliency.

Fred Fisher. 2018. “Developing Future Tribal Leaders: The Role of Civics Education.” Center for Indian Country Development, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Minneapolis, MN. January 31.

Civics education is learning that equips and empowers citizens to participate in their communities. Narrowly, it means learning about the processes of government. More broadly, it refers to the skills and knowledge that citizens need to participate in public life. In other words, in civics classes and through experiences with civics education, students learn to contribute appropriately to public processes and discussions of real issues that matter to their communities. In Native America, good tribal governance requires civics curricula. Effective self-government is not possible without the development of young tribal citizens as future leaders who understand their tribe’s legal history and governing institutions, are informed about the assets and needs of their communities, understand the core cultural values that motivate tribal civic life, and actively participate in community governance. Through a sense of themselves as active and proactive tribal citizens, young tribal members can better understand not only who they are but that they can make a difference.