Honoring Our Students

Edited by Jon Reyhner, Joseph Martin, Louise Lockard, and Willard Sakiestewa Gilbert
Northern Arizona University (2020)
166 pages

Review by Tim Begaye

Honoring Our Students is a Northern Arizona University publication that collects scholarly work on the language and cultural literacy development of Indigenous children and on the history of Indian education policy and tribal sovereignty.

In the first chapter, Melanie Brice presents a case study about four Indigenous students in western Canada and how they relied on and used their cultural knowledge and ways of knowing to help them develop literacy skills and excel in the classroom. In the second chapter, Jon Reyhner and Jon Lee review a federally funded, early childhood education program that uses the family and home socio-culture as the foundation for developing English reading, writing, and speaking skills. By utilizing parents as the first teachers of their children and as their first exposure to tribal socio-cultural systems, the authors show how the federal program has positively impacted child literacy development.

In the third chapter, Vincent Werito warns readers about the fate of Native languages and raises critical questions about language shift, particularly with the Navajo language. Relying on his teaching experience, he suggests one must act now if Native languages will be sustained, revitalized, restored, and valued in the future. He notes that young learners must be supported and their efforts valued if they are to continue to learn, speak, and perpetuate Native languages that are now in danger of being lost.

In the fourth chapter, Daniel Piper and Cynthia Benally investigate a “lost” Utah language policy initiative that would offer foreign languages and Navajo language in public schools. Through their research, they learned that while the foreign languages were eventually taught in schools, the Navajo language was not supported nor implemented because it was not deemed a “critical language.” They explore how Native languages can still be taught in schools by finding “loopholes” in state and federal policies and by using both de jure and de facto education practices.

In chapter five, Elizabeth Quintrileo explores the Pewenche language in southern Chile where it is still spoken by elders but where there is an emerging, monolingual Spanish-speaking generation. However, students at a local rural high school conveyed that speaking their Indigenous language is important to their cultural identity and for communicating with elders, reporting they would help teach it to others to practice and sustain the language.

In the sixth chapter, Melody McCoy reviews past U.S. Native education policies and their efficacy. She shows the unsuccessful federal role educating Native children despite large annual funding to tribal schools and collaboration with state school districts. She further shows past federal reports that highlight failures, how tribal nations exercise their sovereignty by contracting federal education programs, and the necessity of asserting a greater voice and choice in where and who educates Native children. In chapter seven, Terry Huffman uses several theoretical concepts to ask why some Native students succeed and others fail. He employs transculturation theory to show that many do meet and overcome challenges while building on the strengths of their culture and tribal identity.

In the eighth chapter, Thomas R. Hopkins recounts his role with the BIA in the 1970s where he led research projects and advised on federal policy and funding initiatives. He shows how federal funds were targeted on reservations and sometimes directed to states as compensation for educating Native children from reservations. He notes how shifting policy and responsibility in the 1970s led to increased enrollment of Indian children in state schools, a decrease in the number of federal schools, and an overall increase in the number of Indian children enrolled in all schools.

Chapter nine examines factors to successfully maintain and retain teachers from outside an isolated community in northern Saskatchewan. Acknowledging that rural Indigenous communities plagued with low exceptional student education-related factors contributed to challenges in teacher recruitment, the researchers asked administrators and teachers questions and learned that school support networks, proper socio-cultural orientation, and accurate marketing are factors in retaining teachers. Honoring Our Students offers recent research and first-hand accounts on improving learning environs for Indigenous children and provides a look at the fluctuating policies that shape Indian education.

Tim Begaye, EdD (Diné), is an education consultant and served as an administrator and faculty at Diné College and Navajo Technical University.