"Real Genius: 'We Could Become Best Educated People in America'"

By Richard B. Williams

Rick Williams: "We must dream beyond all of our expectations."

I did not formally study history until I was a graduate student at the University of Wyoming. However, as a child raised by my grandmother and great-grandmother, I grew up listening to first-hand accounts of the history I would later read in books.

My great-grandmother was born in 1869 and was a little girl at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. She also survived the Cheyenne ourbreak at Fort Robinson in 1879. In history books about Indians, I read abour our people being "hostile," "savages," and "brutelike" but when I looked around at my own people, I saw them as loving, caring, and generous.

A word you would never see regarding Indians was "genius." We had many geniuses who were never recognized for their intellectual ability. This racist attitude has significantly impacted the education of Indian people. There are many Indian geniuses here today who have never received recognition for our natural Indian intellect.

Let me tell you a story about Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee writing system in 1809. While enlisted in the Cherokee Regiment, fighting in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, he became convinced of the necessity of literacy for his people. He and other Cherokees were unable to write letters home, read military orders, or record events as they occurred.

After the war, he created a writing system. Using a phonetic system, where each sound made in speech was represented by' a symbol, he created the "Talking Leaves," 85 letters that make up the Cherokee syllabary. (Later he added another symbol, making the total 86). His daughter Ayoka easily learned this method of communication.

He demonstrated his syllabary to his cousin, George Lowrey, by asking him a question. Sequoyah wrote the answer down on a piece of paper, then had Ayoka, who had been outside, read the answer to Lowrey.

Lowrey encouraged Sequoyah to demonstrate the syllabary in public. Later in a Cherokee Court in Chattooga, he read an argument from a sheet of paper about a boundary line. Word spread quickly.of Sequoyah's invention. In 1821, the Cherokee Nation adopted Sequoyah's alphabet as its own. Within months, thousands of Cherokee became literate - a perfect example of the natural Indian intellect.

In the 1840s, even after removal, the Choctaw and the Cherokee operated successful schools, educating students in both Native languages and in English. Not only was the Cherokee population 90% literate in its own language, but their English literacy rate was also higher than the non-Native populations in Texas or Arkansas. There were over 200 schools or academies, and numerous graduates went on to Eastern colleges. All of this was accomplished with complete tribal autonomy.

Then the federal government took over the schools, and Native education rapidly declined. In 1969, a U.S. Senate hearing on Indian education revealed that the median number of school years completed by the adult Cherokee was only 5.5, drop-out rates at public schools were 75%, and the level of Cherokee education was well below the Oklahoma average.

In 1928, the Meriam Report challenged America to address the educational needs of Indian people: "[Indian Education] will cost more money than the present program. The real choice before the government is between doing a mediocre job and thereby piling up for the future serious problems in poverty, disease, and crime or spending more for an acceptable social and educational program... Cheapness in education is expensive."

The 1969 Kennedy Report on Indian education reported, "[the federal government's] failure to provide an effective education for the American Indian has condemned him to a life of poverty and despair. The educational status of American Indians is nothing less than a national tragedy and a national disgrace."

We have made progress since 1969, but there is still a tremendous amount of work to be accomplished. Despite the shortcomings in Indian education today, I believe that we could possibly be on the threshold of changing the past history of mis-education of American Indians. If the right conditions manifest themselves, we could become the best-educated people in all of America.

I believe that this is possible for the following reasons:

• First, we have small numbers of people to work with; there are only 600,000 school-age American Indian students in the United States which is a manageable number.

• Second, we are, by nature, a highly intelligent people.

• Third, we are often led by dynamic women who maintain their roles of family educators. Seventy percent of tribal college students are women dedicated to changing the history of their people. What has to happen to make this a reality? NO MORE EXCUSES!

• Families, under all circumstances, must commit to education as a solution. No more undervaluing the importance of education.

• Drugs and alcohol addictions must be eradicated.

• Schools must be places of refuge where students, if not secure at home, can come and be comforted, fed, clothed, and even housed if need be. There must not be a disconnect from home, school, and community.

• Schools in their new roles must be Community Education Centers, similar to what tribal colleges are. It does take a whole village to raise a child.

• Schools must require every person in the school to walk at least one mile daily and offer healthy food, fruits, and vegetables to the children every day.

• Tribal governments and tribal higher education departments must make education the number one priority and make a commitment to educational excellence.

• Indian educators across the nation must make learning fun, exciting, and challenging.

• Failing students is not an option.

I used to believe that our students were failures; I now understand it is the system that is failing, and this must change. I congratulate each of you who helps make a difference for our Indian children.

Your work is "heart work." We must dream beyond all of our expectations. We must envision a world of educational excellence. We must no longer view ourselves as victims of a national tragedy. We must be comfortable in thriving, not just surviving. And when we do, we will succeed, prosper, and become the best-educated people in America.

Richard B. Williams has been the president and chiefexecutive officer ofthe American Indian College Fund since 1997