Acknowledgments Research Mentor: Candace Tucker

1. Why Aren’t More Blackfeet High School Students Making the Commitment to Transition to 4-year Colleges and Universities Where They Can Attain Higher Education?” Charlene BurnsUniversity of Montana, Project IBS-CORE Undergraduate Research Fellow Abstract Blackfeet parents play a critical role in helping their children to make the transition to higher learning colleges and universities. Colleges and universities must understand how to recruit and retain American Indian students; they must build an environment of trust with the parents and the students so that everyone is working toward the same goal in viewing higher education as a valuable and positive life experience and opportunity. American Indian mothers are gaining trust and beginning to guide their children in that direction. Hopefully we will give the fathers the support to gain the same trust so they too can lead their children towards higher educational attainment. Discussion and Conclusions The one non-Indian female participant in the study had both parents as role models, where the father had two years of college and the mother had 4 years of college. Both her parents participated in helping her to prepare for college. This was the one father who participated in their child’s education. The participant did not live on the reservation, although she was only a few miles away. She had plans to go on to a 4-year college and was the only student out of 10 who knew what she wanted to major in. There seemed to be a plan in place for her college education. She was employed part time, as well. The participant with no plans of attending college did not have any role models in his family who had ever attended college. This participant’s mother had graduated from high school and the father’s background was unknown. With that in mind, this demographic study confirms how important the role parents play, especially the mothers, in motivating their children to gain higher education. The mothers fulfilled this role with 6 of the mothers helping their children to fill out financial aid papers. Of the 10 students, 6 mothers had graduated from high school and 1 received her General Education Diploma. Four of the participants’ mothers went on to obtain higher education degrees. One father helped his child with the financial aid process. The study reveals American Indian mothers are seeing the value of higher education, whereas more research needs to be done to help fathers reach the same point. This demographic study only surveyed 10 students, so in order to confirm the findings, we would survey at least 50 more Blackfeet students to see if the results vary. I would also develop a demographic questionnaire for the parents in order to see what plans and preparations they felt would be necessary to help their children achieve a higher education. In 1901, Commissioner William Jones stated that the nations Indian policy was a miserable failure (Adams, 1995). Theodore Roosevelt replaced Commissioner Jones with Francis Ellington Leupp who in 1905 wrote in his first annual report about the Carlisle approach to education: “It is a great mistake to start the little ones in the path of civilization by snapping all the ties of affection between them and their parents, and teaching them to despise the aged and non progressive members of their families” (Adams, 1995). Now, one hundred years later, we have the responsibility to make education a positive and safe experience for the entire American Indian family and community. The identity and world view of the Blackfeet people can survive and co-exist with educational attainment. The establishment of Tribal Colleges in 1968 with that goal has been a significant factor in raising educational attainment which has been especially utilized by American Indian women. Native American academic scholarships have helped to raising those figures as well (American Indian College Fund Report, 1996). Picture of Chief Mountain Courtesy of Kara Reid Introduction American Indians are consistently and dramatically underrepresented among the pool of those who graduate with a 4-year degree. For over an entire century, the education of American Indians has been a topic of concern and controversy, yet the fact remains that although the education attainment levels of American Indians is significantly improving, it still is the lowest in the country (U. S. Census Bureau, 2000). A recent report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (1996) prepared for the American Indian College Fund to help them in their commitment to improving American Indian educational attainment concluded two factors that were helping tribal colleges succeed in raising their educational attainment levels. These two factors were 1) students were reporting a positive experience about their education when they were able to see its relevance, as well how it would benefit their own communities and 2) they felt safe to express themselves from their own scholarly perspective (McSwain & Cunningham, 2006). Phenomenologist Ken Neils, an early mentor in my life and founder of Human Potentials of Bigfork, Mt., advised me “to know John Doe, it would be wise to see John Doe through John Doe’s eyes.” This qualitative study was derived from a demographic questionnaire where American Indian students answered questions related to their educational background, as well as their parent’s education. Therefore, the compiled data was used to generate a theory based on this group of Blackfeet high school seniors’ perspective. Results The participants in the study were five females and five males ranging in ages from seventeen to nineteen years. All of the participants expected to graduate on May 29, 2005. Of the ten participants, eight were affiliated with the Blackfeet Tribe, one was affiliated with the Standing Rock reservation and one was non Indian. Six of the participants were enrolled and four were not enrolled. Three of the participants had fathers who were enrolled as Blackfeet and one had a father that was enrolled on the Crow Reservation. Six of the participants had fathers that were not enrolled members of any tribe. None of the participants had any children. Three were employed and seven were unemployed. Six of the participants had relatives attending a four-year college or university for a total of 12 relatives attending. Of those six, one had a grandmother attending college, two had sisters attending and one had a grandmother attending college. The remaining relatives attending were cousins. Two of the participants had mothers with a four-year degree, one mother had earned an Associates Degree and one had graduated from technical school. Six of the participants had mothers graduate from high-school along with one whose mother obtained a GED. Three other participants did not answer this question. Two participants had fathers with two years of college. Four of the participants reported their fathers had graduated from high school and four more did not answer that question. One of the participants said his father had completed 11 years of education.     Of the ten participants, eight said they had plans to attend a four-year college. Eight of the participants had help in filling out their paperwork for financial assistance, while two did not.  Five of those were assisted by their mothers. One father helped to fill out financial assistance and three had counselors in the high school assisting them. The reasons they gave for their desire to attend a four-year college or university ranged from “to learn more, to learn about art, to get a better education, and to be able to choose from a wider selection of majors.” The one participant who said he had no plans to attend a four-year college or university didn’t have any members of his family attending college. His mother had graduated from high school and did not attend college. He didn’t give us any information concerning his father. The other participant marked that he would attend college after he completed his time in the military. Nine of the focus group resided on the reservation while one resided just a few yards away from the reservation boundary. Five of the participants had lived on the reservation for their entire life; one had resided on the reservation for four years, one for five years and one for six years. The one participant who would not be attending college simply said “for a while.”  Methods and Procedures Participants The participants were a group of approximately 10 Blackfeet high school students from the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana. The age of the high school seniors ranged from 17 to19 years. The students were considered to be socially and psychologically at risk as they are American Indians and underrepresented in post-secondary academia. Procedure The archival data utilized for this study was obtained with permission from the primary investigator, Candace Tucker. The participants were recruited for the focus group by flyers sent to high school counselors. The flyers instructed those who were interested to contact the school counselors. The counselor gave those students a cover letter with a list of the questions that would be asked during the focus groups. They were also given an Assent or an Assent/Consent Form for students younger than 18 and a Consent Form for those 18 years old and older to sign. These required the signatures of the student and their parent or legal guardian. The forms were returned to the school counselor who arranged a convenient time for the group of 10 students to meet for the focus group. The group met at a specified time and place where they were offered refreshments and snacks. The group began with an introduction by Candace Tucker who asked the participants to complete a demographic questionnaire. The list of questions was again given to each participant. The participants were encouraged to keep their own identity anonymous, as well as the identities of other people within the group. They were also informed that they may choose to leave the group at any time without consequence. The moderator asked one question at a time. When all the questions had been asked, the students were thanked and given the opportunity to provide additional comments or suggestions. An honorarium equivalent to $10.00 was given to each participant upon their departure. As the participants left, they were given a copy of the forms and reminded that if they had questions or concerns they could contact the primary investigator or her advisor. The participants records were stored in a locked filing cabinet where they could not be released without consent except as required by law. Literature Cited Adams, David Wallace. (1995). Education for Extinction. University Press of Kansas. Ahler, J. G. & Garcia, R. L. (1992). Indian education: Assumptions, ideologies, strategies. In Jon Reyhner (Ed.), Teaching American Indian students. University of Oklahoma: Norman Publishing. American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and Institute for Higher Education Policy (1996) Championing Success: A Report on the Progress of Tribal College and University Alumni. Retrieved on July 7 2006 from http://www.aiehec.org. Bergstrom, A., Cleary, L.M., & Peacock, T.D. (2003). The seventh generation: Native students speak about finding the good path. Charleston: WV: Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Charmaz, K. (2003). Grounded theory. In Jonathan A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. London: SAGE Publications. Cummins, J. (1992). The empowerment of Indian students. In Jon Reyhner (Ed.),Teaching American Indian Students. University of Oklahoma: Norman Publishing. Meier, Deborah. (2002). In Schools We Trust. Beacon Press. Pavel, D.M., Skinner, R.R., Farris, E., Cahalan, M., Tippeconnic, J., and Stein, W. (1998). American Indians and Alaska Natives in Postsecondary Education. Retrieved July 28, 2006 from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/quarterly/vol_1/1_1/5-esq11-a.asp. (NCES 9-291). Running Wolf, P. (1999). An analysis of Blackfeet world views, values , and kinship structures. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tierney, William G. (1992) Official Encouragement, Institutional Discouragement: Minorities in Academe-The American Indian Experience. Ablex Publishing Corp. U.S. Census Bureau. (2003). Census 2000 American Indian and Alaska Native Summary File. Retrieved July 14, 2006, from http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet QTTable. html. Wright, Doris J. (1987) Responding to the Needs of Today’s Minority Students. In New Direction for Student Services. Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers There will be space here for a picture below the text Another Figure Acknowledgments Research Mentor: Candace Tucker Funding: Project IBS-CORE Undergraduate Research Fellowship, provided by a grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to the University of Montana. Thanks: To the Bridges Program for the opportunity to learn how to conduct scientific research. Thanks to Penny Kukuk, Samantha Grant and Heather Cahoon for helping to make the transition to the University such a positive experience. Thank you, Candace for being a good mentor and a patient teacher. Charlene’s grandfather, Sampson Bird, top left) and Candace’s great- grandfather, Brian Connelly, (bottom left) at the Carlisle Indian Boarding School in 1908. 98 years later, their descendents, Candace Tucker and Charlene Burns are currently obtaining a higher education at the University of Montana.