“Thinking Inside the Circle (Tipi)”

1. “Thinking Inside the Circle (Tipi)” Florence McGeshick Garcia, Ed.D WashteHinapawe “Good Woman Comes Out”

2. Research is Ceremony • “Stories go in circles. They don’t go in straight lines. It helps if you listen in circles because there are stories inside and between stories, and finding your way through them is as easy and as hard as finding your way home. Part of finding is getting lost, and when you are lost, you start to open up and listen”. (Tafoya, 1995, p. 12)

3. TRiO Student Support Services • Federally funded grant to increase the retention and graduation rate of eligible students, i.e. first generation, low-income, disabled; serves 300 students at MSU. • Provide tutoring, advising, workshops, math instruction, academic counseling, cultural enrichment, career and graduate school exploration.

4. Chief Seattle "Take only memories. Leave nothing but footprints."

5. Zitkala Sa • "A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, at least, I am a Pagan."

6. Objectives • Describe basic Native American values • Discuss Indigenous Intelligences and Indigenous Research • Develop cross cultural competency and describe cultural humility • Thinking “inside the circle”

7. Context and Need • Current status of Native Americans • MCA and Montana Constitution • Transforming perceptions • Why should we change? • What happens if we don’t? • What can we accomplish?

8. Basics • 562+ federally recognized tribes • Sovereign nations • Pre 1492

9. MCA 20-1-501 Every Montanan, whether Indian or non- Indian, be encouraged to learn about the distinct & unique heritage of American Indians in a culturally responsive manner every educational agency and all educational personnel will work cooperatively with Montana tribes or those tribes that are in close proximity, when providing instruction or when implementing an educational goal or adopting a rule related to the education of each Montana citizen, to include information specific to the cultural heritage and contemporary contributions of American Indians, with particular emphasis on Montana Indian tribal groups and governments. .

10. continued • It is also the intent of this part, predicated on the belief that all school personnel should have an understanding and awareness of Indian tribes to help them relate effectively with Indian students and parents, that educational personnel provide means by which school personnel will gain an understanding of, and appreciation for, the American Indian people.

11. Over time more American Indian/Alaska Native students have gone on to college and their attainment expectations have increased. • Demographic Overview • In 2006, there were 4.5 `` million American Indians/Alaska Natives in the United States, representing 1.5 percent of the total U.S. population. • `` In 2006, almost half (49 percent) of all American Indians/Alaska Natives alone,1 including those of Hispanic ethnicity, resided in western • states. • `` In 2003, there were more than 560 federally recognized American Indian/Alaska Native tribes, with the largest tribes being Cherokee • and Navajo. • `` Since 1990, the median age of American Indians/Alaska Natives, including those of Hispanic ethnicity, increased by 5 years, from 26 • to 31. In 2006, the median age for the general • population was 36 years.

12. Continued In 2006, 27 percent of Native individuals lived in poverty compared to 13 percent of the general population. At 36 percent, the American Indian/Alaska Native poverty rate was higher among families on reservations than among families in other American Indian/Alaska Native areas in 1999.

13. Perceptions • Invisible • All Indians are alike/everyone is equal • Forget the past/pull yourself up by your… • Stereotypes • White privilege

14. Grandmothers

15. Susan and Thomas Duck

16. Hotonhowashte, AnpetuTokeca, John Other Day

17. Examples of Resiliency • Dissertation • Hawaii • Interviews and Work • My daughter

18. Indigenous Intelligence • Resilience: We’re still here, adaptation • Languages: I speak English, Spanish, Latin, Dakota • Math: I can figure blood quantum/gamble • Arts and crafts: I can bead, sew, cook • History: I know where I came from • Nature: We are people of the earth • Intuition: I have a great sense of intuition

19. Indigenous Intelligence • Cultural Geography: I know tribes from all over the Americas • Relationships: I am connected through family and community • Humor: Muscles and Deprivation • Spirituality: We are a spiritual people; there is no hell • Music and Dance: examples • Critical thinking: Buffalo

20. Indigenous Intelligence • Political Science: tribal, state, federal • Creative thinking: Medicine Wheel • Cultural competence: varying degrees

21. Parfleche

22. Factors affecting learning • Racism and Oppression • Intergenerational trauma • Poverty • Values/cultural practices • Environment • Learning styles • Testing

23. Health issues • Diabetes • Substance abuse • Otitis media • Accidents • Heart problems

24. Healing the Soul • Oppression • Systems • Turning things around • “Blue Winds Dancing”

25. Cultural integration • Language • Ways of thinking, paradigm shift, turning it around 180 degrees (Camille’s activity) • Values

27. Lifelong learning • Tribe, community • Age doesn’t matter (much) • Examples

28. Transformational learning • Means we are growing • Discomfort can result in something better • May be good or positive • Getting to the next level (buffalo)

29. Inside the Circle • Tipi, hogan • Medicine Wheel • Medicine lodge • Family, clan, tribe, nation • Infinite

30. Indian Humor

31. Definitions of success • The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian • Racialicious • Choices • My daughter

32. RacialiciousScott Bear Don’t Walk • “An Indian elder once told me that nomadic tribes had figured out a way to live so that they only had to spend about twenty hours a week “making a living.” The rest of the time was spent really living: socializing, telling stories, singing songs through long winter nights. In Western culture, we haven’t figured out how to spend less than forty hours at a desk. In this world, in Oxford’s world, relationships aren’t as important as getting ahead.”

33. How to relate better • Be genuine • Learn something about their history, their culture, their language, where they come from • If you don’t know, ask with respect • Don’t make assumptions • invite them to be involved in activities • Ask them to do a presentation • Invite them to a non-Native event • Get to know one of them as a person • Be patient

34. What is an Indian? They say he is a person who doesn’t work, but gets a monthly check from the government. Others say he’s lazy; still others say he is a man that got a raw deal from the government. Therefore, he deserves what he can get from the government. Also others say he is a drunkard who will never amount to anything. So therefore the government should terminate him. Let him make his own way in the white man’s society. Myself, I do not see an Indian in the same light as any of these people. I see the Indian as a group of people, all different in their ways, but held together by a common bond called culture. I see the Indian as a group who fought courageously against overwhelming odds, and after giving in and signing peace treaties, lived to see each peace treaty broken one by one. I see the Indian as an individual who, when the country was in danger, went to the front voluntarily and gave their last full measure of devotion in every major conflict including the Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korean Conflict and Vietnam.

35. Continued I see the Indian as a group of people who are proud, and rightfully so, because they possess the secrets of life the white man has never discovered. I see the Indian as a group of people because, even with their broken English, they will tell you how important it is to gain an education in this modern world. I see the Indian who crossed a cultural barrier into the dominant society, to become the best in their chosen profession whether it be law, medicine, politics, trader, athlete, or fighting for freedom. When I think of the Indian in this light, I think of the question: What is an Indian? My chest suddenly expands and I say: I am Indian!

36. Cultural presence: family, spirituality , resilience.

37. The future is going to be fine – we are in good hands

38. Transformational Learning • We are not transformed simply because we know something-- we are not truly transformed until we act on that knowledge.

39. MitakuyeOyasin Teach your children what we have taught our children—that the earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.

40. MitakuyeOyasin My relatives, we are all related…