Tribes celebrate progress in education, state laws

By Venice Buhain | The Olympian • Published September 22, 2007

With a state emphasis on certifying teachers of native languages and including local tribal history in schools, the past few years have been positive for supporters of local tribes.

"It really is a testament that our culture is important to this state," Martina Whelshula said Friday at the Skokomish tribe Smokehouse at a celebration of legislative efforts that brought about those changes. She is the president of Spokane Tribal College and a member of the Colville tribe.

About 150 people attended the dinner and honoring ceremony, including tribal leaders and elders, state legislators, and education leaders.

The dinner also celebrated other legislative victories for tribes, such as the inclusion of tribal law on the Washington State Bar exam and a project to develop school lessons about the concepts of tribal sovereignty for elementary, middle and high school students.

"We hope that with more education and wider knowledge of sovereignty and tribal history, that will help build relationships and avoid the misunderstandings," said Denny Hurtado, Indian education director at the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Two years ago, the Legislature passed a law asking public school districts to consider including history of tribes within a 100-mile radius of school campuses. The state also now allows teachers to be certified in American Indian languages, which could clear the way for those languages to be accepted for credit in schools, such as French or Spanish.

Local tribes and educators say there still is much ground to cover.

Martharose Laffey, executive director of the Washington State School Directors' Association, said the organization plans to encourage local districts to adopt and develop the new curriculum.

"We hope to have regional meetings with the tribal leaders and school board members," Laffey said.

She said that the responsibility of districts are twofold to make sure American Indian students are achieving as much as their classmates, and to forge government-to-­government relationships with their local tribes.

Some tribes and districts are reaching some of those goals. This summer, the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis and the Center for Educational Improvement at The Evergreen State College completed writing a curriculum of the tribe's history that will fit into schools' elementary, middle and high school history and social studies classes.

A federal grant started the project three years ago before the passage of the history legislation but now other tribes have asked researchers and authors about the project, center director Magda Costantino said.

"History is present in the tribal community in an oral form, and different tribal members have different pieces of the tribal history," she said. She said turning that oral history into a curriculum involves tracking down primary sources, such as artifacts or documents, which can be lots of work.

"That's what we have been doing for the last three years," she said.

The project has been piloted by the Rochester and Oakville school districts, where many young tribal members are students, Costantino said.

More important than money and staff is for tribes and districts to create a good relationship, if they don't have one already, said Hurtado, a former chairman of the Skokomish tribe.

"It's got to be a true collaboration between the tribe and the district," he said.

Venice Buhain covers education for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5445 or vbuhain@theolympian.com.