Tribal Education: Knowledge and Traditions

Tribal communities have always been left with the major concern of preserving their native traditions and customs. For many generations, tribes have depended on the traditional educational system to shape their knowledge. Through these formal education systems, the family role in passing down tribal customs has deteriorated, specifically among the Blackfeet tribe. A nomadic group, they have taken over large areas in the northern plains, constantly migrating during different seasons to track and hunt buffalo herds. After the Blackfeet nation discovered horses, they became one of the most powerful tribes in the northern plains region.

But as a means of survival, the tribe had no choice but to convert themselves into an accepted people, unlike community-based, ancestors through proper education. The formal educational system has neglected to teach Blackfeet knowledge, language, and cultural elements as the views of the elder tribal members have not been taken into account. As a result, this traditional tribal knowledge is at risk of disappearing. The hope for the Blackfoot tribe’s future rests in restoring language usage by restructuring formal education, building new community-based programs, and involving parents and elders.

Blackfeet accepted this education more than anything else because without, it, they would suffer from starvation and hunger. In particular, the Jesuits have rejected Blackfeet traditions and tried to shape their children into civilized individuals. As the Blackfeet continued to lose more of their land, the Jesuit mission and schools became more persistent in instilling white values into their nation. The decline of landholdingsinstilling is in the extermination of buffalos, and the spread of disease and the have increased the nation’s dependency on education to learn how to circumnavigate these issues.

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Only 1400 Blackfeet survivors remained after a starvation winter. The Blackfeet finally gave in to ask for help in exchange for a new way of thinking and talking for survival. The Holy Family Mission also played a big role in eradicating the Blackfeet language. In 1887, Chief White Calf handed over some of his lands to establish the school, which instructed Blackfeet children with Catholic education along with vocational training. These teachings would then be passed down to tribal families, slowly taking over old traditions. The school became so strict that the Blackfeet language was restricted otherwise there would be harsh punishment. Abandoning everything Blackfeet and adapting to this new Christian culture forced a new way of living. The success of this education, however, is worthy of being questioned.

Blackfeet Indians are simply not as intelligent as white people, indirectly contributing to such an unsuccessful educational system. A schoolteacher, Douglas Gold, taught at the Blackfeet reservation for years and built up a well-known reputation with the tribe. In 1934, he completed his Master of Arts thesis, “The Intelligence and Achievement of Blackfeet Indians”, which drew harmful conclusions about the Blackfeet Indian community despite his friendship with them. Gold’s studies about their intelligence were based on the Estimates of Blackfeet Intelligence by White People, which consisted of 27 whites choosing intelligence scores ranging from genius to very dull for both the Full Blood and Mixed Blood Blackfeet. The Teachers Teaching Blackfeet Children also used forms to rate the children’s intelligence. Based on the teachers and business people, Gold concluded that both full blood and mixed blood are not as intelligent as white children and that mixed blood was more intelligent than full blood. Additionally, Gold used achievement tests in spelling, arithmetic, art, reading, penmanship, and writing to measure the intelligence of full-blood Blackfeet children. They all scored at lower levels. As a result, “no full-blood Indian in his knowledge had ever successfully competed with white people in the more complex social organization of the white-dominated town” (Gold, 1934, p. 69). Douglas Gold’s study made a huge impact on educational systems, particularly the Browning School System. This school district reshaped its mission to transform Blackfeet children into “more intelligent” white children rather than enhancing their tribal knowledge. The curriculum fails to show any sign of Blackfeet culture and history, ultimately devaluing the tribe and carving the foundation for a failed formal education system.

The view of “being able to name the world” around us supports the notion of including tribal knowledge in formal education settings. Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, and a philosopher argue that “Human existence cannot be silent, nor can it be nourished by false words, but only by true words, with which men and women transform the world. To exist, humanly, is to name the world, to change it”. This concept applies to the education of the Blackfeet people. Moreover, the Blackfeet came up with comprehensive views about the creation of the world based on the descriptions in Percy Bull Child’s book The Sun Came Down. The child explained in full detail the reason behind all the creations in this world based on Blackfeet legends, myths, and tales. For instance, the great intensity of the Sun sparked faith among the Blackfeet people. Because they did not have the power to face it, they held religious ceremonies and rituals to pray to the Sun. A true understanding of the world not only consists of these ceremonies and rituals but also the Blackfeet language. Language alone is responsible for people passing on insightful knowledge about the world and giving thanks for all the world’s creations through prayers. Language is crucial for Blackfeet to use formal and informal learning in education. Thus, without including tribal knowledge in formal education, the Blackfeet lose their humane right to define the world around them, losing both their culture and identity.

Language is the cornerstone to acquiring knowledge about Blackfeet culture in educational institutions. It stands as the vehicle for transmitting tribal ways, used for sacred rituals, entertainment, or even medicine. Based on studies by the Center for Applied Linguistics, languages must be able to express anything people want to communicate. This trait of self-sufficiency is very rare among the Blackfeet tribe, with the general idea being that the more they use their language, the higher chance it has of surviving through the formal education system. Fishman states that “A language long associated with the culture is best able to express most easily, most exactly, most richly, with more appropriate overtones, the concerns, artifacts, values, and interests of that culture. (Fishman, 1996, p. 80) Along with Blackfeet language survival, expansion of its vocabulary is also crucial for the culture to accommodate evolution. Without usage and flexibility of their language to take on more meaning of English words, the Blackfeet culture remains lost and frozen. The decline of Blackfeetthe language “takes away its greetings, its curses, its praises, its laws, its literature, its songs, its riddles, its proverbs, its cures, its wisdom, its prayers’ (Fishman, 1996, p. 81). Consequentially, the English language prevails in the formal education setting, and parents know that the Blackfeet language prevents their children from learning full English.

To make matters worse, many hardships were imposed on children to learn the Blackfoot language. The schools were very strict in enforcing the removal of the Blackfoot language within the educational system. Any student caught speaking the language would have to face severe punishments. The older members of the tribe tried to remain strong-headed as their faith in formal education started to weaken. The elders spoke of great pain and separation felt by the parents, who yearned to be with their children through such a system. As a result, education of Blackfeet culture and language is a highly valued concept, despite the irrelevance of the formal curriculum.

With the regret of parents not seeing the Blackfeet language taught at schools, there arises the concern of who is going to teach the language. Based on elder perspectives from interviews, they reported that language reinstated into the schools would make them happy and that it must be taught no matter what circumstances. Some elders want the children to be taught the language from the first day of birth, while others prefer parents to speak to the children all the time in their native language. These elders stressed the need for everyone to value the language so that it’s used more often. For example, in the interviews, they recommended that the books and language texts should be written and used by the Blackfeet people. More so, elders think that the Blackfeet language must be taught at community-based programs such as Head Start, where the teachers are of Blackfeet origin and fluent in their language. This helps to restore the religious and spiritual nature that exists in Blackfeet culture.

Formal education systems can restore tribal knowledge only if the Blackfeet language is prioritized for its high value. The Blackfeet language cannot properly be described with English concepts and ideas. The English language is not properly suited for describing Blackfeet values due to false implications. For instance, asking questions can come off as rude in a native tongue. On the other hand, the Blackfeet native language is capable of describing thoughts and concepts efficiently. Due to the value and respect that the native language brings to the tribe, legislative acts dealing with this concern have been imposed. The Native American Language Act of 1990 declares “that Native Americans have a right to use their languages and that it is U.S. government policy to preserve, protect and promote the development of Native American languages” (Cantoni, 1996, p. 44). Another legislative act that values the restoration of native languages is the Bilingual Education Act, part of Title VII of the Improving American Schools Act of 1994. This act recognizes “the special situation of endangered Native American languages and gives wide latitude to schools and tribal organizations in planning and carrying out bilingual education programs funded under the Act” (p. 44).