Race Matters

(Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from a talk given last fall by Dr. Joe McDonald at the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges on a panel entitled, “Does Race Matter?” McDonald points out the dissonance between Indian students and higher education institutions and how to address it.)

Dr. Joe McDonald: "The Indians are different...they even joke differently." Photo by Lee Marmon

Thank you very much for the opportunity to talk to you today about American Indian students attending land grant colleges and universities. American Indians have been invited to attend mainstream colleges for the past 220 years.

In June 1774, the commissioners from Maryland and Virginia negotiated a treaty with the Indians of the Six Nations at Lancaster, PA. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. The next day they declined the offer as follows:

“We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in these colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men while with you would be very expensive to you. We are convinced that you mean to do us good by your proposal, and we thank you heartily, but you who are wise must know that different nations have different conceptions of things, and you, therefore, should not take it amiss if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours.

“We have had some experience in it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all of your sciences, but when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods…. neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counselors, they were totally good for nothing.

“We are, however, none the less obligated by your kind offer. To show our grateful sense of it, if you gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of your sons, we will take care of their education, instruct them in all we know and make men of them.”

This was taken from an essay in a book written by T.C. McLuhan in 1971 entitled Touch the Earth: A Self-portrait of Indian Existence.

American Indians have very slowly been pursuing higher education in the United States. Much of it is for this reason. They don’t feel that it is relative to their needs and often upon completing it, they don’t fit in well when returning back to their reservation communities.

I had the honor of serving on a doctoral committee for a student from Delaware State University. She is a dental hygienist and was doing some work at my college. She surveyed dental students, dental hygiene students, and dental assistant students in universities in the Great Plains area. Those interviewed said that the education environment at the universities they were attending was filled with prejudice toward students and required the loss of cultural identity. Students said that they had to give up who they were in order to succeed. When they give this up, they are often social misfits when they return to the “REZ.” Communication problems, feelings of non-acceptance, and prejudice by traditional Caucasian students and faculty were related in 80% of the candidate interviews.

American Indians attending postsecondary education increased greatly after World War II when returning service men and women had the GI Bill. There was a dramatic increase in the ‘60’s and early ‘70s with the programs resulting from the War on Poverty. Money became available for Indian students to attend college. Large numbers of American Indian students left their reservation homes and went away to college. It was soon very evident that many were not having much success.

This is one of the reasons that tribal colleges were created. We have been able to bridge some of these problems. We have good evidence that students transfer well from Salish Kootenai College and other tribal colleges. They actually complete more on schedule and have a better overall GPA when they go to a tribal college first.

In planning this presentation I spoke to some of my counterparts that direct Native American Studies (NAS) programs at land grant baccalaureate universities. This is what they said.  The biggest problem American Indian Students have is financial. They have basic financial aid but have little funds for contingency expenses. There is a need for a safety net. Most Indian students are unable to call home; many of their homes do not have telephones. Many of their homes do not have dads there. There is a myth among non-Indian counterparts that Indians get the money they need.

The campus culture of large universities, the nature of the classroom, is a truly foreign landscape to Indians coming from a rural Indian reservation. The community is a culture shock. It is all white. The Indians are different. They often look different. They talk differently. They even joke differently. Life on a large college campus is often very lonely. There needs to be peer mentoring and social support. They need some contact with other American Indian students.

American Indian undergraduate students are often older than the average students. There is a need to look at how their families are accepted into the community. Their housing is important. How well their children are treated in the school system is important. The community attitude toward American Indians is important.

Indian students need to be surrounded by other Indians if they are to live away from the reservation and be successful at land grant universities. There is often a scattering of American Indian students throughout large university campuses, and the Indian students feel pretty isolated and alone. They need a place to collect together. Some universities have NAS departments. Some have counselors assigned. They need this, but they also need a meeting place.

At the University of Montana they have a former home on campus that serves as the NAS office and is a meeting place. At Montana State University they have dedicated a large room for a meeting place for Indian students. It has murals on the walls, computers, meeting tables, and lounge chairs.

At Oregon State University, there is a small Quonset hut located in the middle of the campus that probably was once a maintenance shed. It is now the meeting place for the American Indian students. It has computers, lounge furniture, a receptionist’s desk, meeting space, and is centrally located on campus. The Indian students love it.

The number of tribal colleges and universities continues to grow, as well as the numbers of Indian students being served. There are presently 33 tribal colleges with at least 8 in the embryo stage. These colleges are good places to recruit Indian students. Plan an articulation agreement with the tribal colleges in your area. Get some scholarship money to help students in hard times and to attract outstanding ones.

It is important for you to work on your university town in accepting American Indian students and their families. In my community, I have to stand up and support Indian students who come to my college from other Indian reservations. They need to be made to feel at home.

Dr. Joe McDonald has been president of Salish Kootenai College since he helped found it in 1978. A member of the Salish and Kootenai Confederated Tribes, he has served several terms on the tribal council. He earned his doctorate in education at the University of Montana and was instrumental in founding the Tribal College Journal in 1989. In that year, the national Indian Education Association named him Indian Educator of the Year.