Native American assimilation through education and Zuni resistance

Zuni Education

One of the most significant examples of cultural whitewashing is that of the education system for Native American. Native American children, in every state of the United States were to become American citizens through a system of education that isolated them from culture and family and demanded that they learn white ways, including but not limited to language. "Compulsory education was a key element of the government's assimilation policy. 52 "When we speak of the education of the Indians," wrote Commissioner of Indian Affairs Thomas J. Morgan in 1889 "we mean that comprehensive system of training and instruction which will convert them into American citizens."

Roscoe 112) for nearly 100 years such a policy was in place, with regard to Native American education, the schools they attended were devoid of cultural representation, their languages were rarely if ever respected and often outlawed and the education they received, though important taught them how to live in the white world, not how to work and live within the confines of their own culture. In the early 1970s many Indian Nations began to demand cultural representation within the schools they attended, both public and reservation centered. During hearings that demanded the closure of one of the only institutes of higher learning for Indians in the nation, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, a prominent Zuni representative Virgil Wyaco had this to say about the fight to save the school, and its importance to the Indian Nation.

I told the committee that it was illegal to close SIPI since it had been opened under the Indian Education Act. I told them we had no objection to the Haskell Institute in principle. It is a very fine school; Haskell graduates have always been proud of having gone there, and many of them have become successful in the white world. but, I said, it wasn't easy for Pueblo Indian students to attend Haskell because our religion demands the participation of pueblo members many times throughout the year. I said that Lawrence, Kansas, where Haskell is located is too far from home for Pueblo young people with religious obligations. I said the Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute also had good programs, but that they were designed for a walk-in student body. They had no dormitories. Some Indians do go there part-time, holding down regular jobs in town, but they are older, for the most part, than SIPI's students, and selfsufficient financially. I said SIPI is a different kind of school, designed for young, full-time students but with enough flexibility that time could be taken for required home visits without penalty. I read a few lines from some of the letters of endorsement the pueblo governors had given me.

Wyaco 84)

Wyaco's own experience in education, could serve as an introduction to the established importance of institutions, such as the one he was fighting for, and additionally the institutions for primary, intermediate and secondary education for Indians. As a Native American seeking higher education he had to isolate himself, in the white world to achieve it. Once he had done so attempting to return to his Zuni roots, by actually obtaining employment in Zuni was difficult, as much of his cultural identity had been lost as a result of the separation required for education.

I had a lot to learn during my first terms as councilman. The older men taught me my job. There are ways of conducting a meeting as a Zuni that I had to learn. I may have had more formal education than the others, but I knew less about being a Zuni than any of them.

Wyaco 77)

This has been the universal experience for Zuni and other Nation members, as they have had to seek higher education in the white world, at the cost of their own cultural identity, in order to make attempts to return to their nations and make real change possible. The return is often very difficult, as a result of lack of livable employment on reservations and surrounding communities.

Again speaking of the Zuni Nation, the realization of the development of an insular Zuni school system due to the advocacy of individuals in the nation and some outside help finally occurred in the 1980s.

The Zunis now have their own school system, which was created during the 1980s. This public school system attempts to perpetuate a better understanding of the culture...While the Zuni language tends to be the primary language of communication, most Zunis are also fluent in English.

Mitchell, and Salsbury 188-189)

So, for the first time in nearly 100 years the primary culture of the Nation has been redressed as essential to the development of Native American identity, either inside or outside the community.

ZUNIS, classified as a microculture of the Western Pueblo tribes, have approximately 7,000 tribal members. During the 1980s the Zunis created their own tribal school system that incorporated a strong Zuni cultural component into their educational curriculum. Each year in August, the tribe conducts a fair that includes a parade with floats and dancing, along with a rodeo. At every event, Miss Zuni is selected; the winner is not necessarily the most beautiful young woman but the entrant who knows the most about the Zuni culture. Moreover, she must be fluent in the Zuni language. It is believed that, in this manner, the culture can be carried on.

Mitchell, and Salsbury 290)

The foundation of the education system depends on the demand to seek excellence in academics as well as in Zuni culture. Melding the two together is not always easy, especially considering that many incubation schools in the Zuni and other nations lacked available trained personnel of Native American origin to teach and administer within them.

The Zuni language is highly valued in the tribe and is the favored language of communication. However, most Zunis are also fluent in the English language. In the 1930s, Ruth Bunxel published the first Zuni grammar book, along with a number of Zuni texts. Linguistically, the Zuni language is thought to be unique, since it has not been related to any of the other language groups. The word order of the Zuni language is subject-verb-object.

Juneau, and Broaddus 193)

The demands of the system indicate that there are still significant shortcomings in the development of quality multi-cultural schools on site for Native American children all over the nation. In many ways the Zuni system is one that should be used as an example of the creation of such as system, as tribal voice is allotted those in the district, though there are outside restrictions that challenge such a voice, for the most part the Zuni system is remarkable and well developed.

The Zuni Public Schools were a part of the Gallup-McKinley County Public School system until 1980 when the pueblo formed its own school system in an effort to allow the residents to have community control over the education of children in the pueblo. In becoming a separate school district, Zuni Public Schools became the only pueblo tribe controlled school district in the state of New Mexico. There is at least one other public school system in the state that is controlled by the tribe and Native American students are a presence in many public school systems throughout the state. (ZPSD "Bilingual program" website)

The Zuni Peublo offers a foundational space for the development of a school system that answers the needs of the student body, which is 99% Zuni Indian in composition, as the culture has been highly isolated by remote location, and has therefore been capable of retaining a strong tradition of language and culture.

Because of their remote location, the Zuni people have maintained a strong traditional religious, linguistic and cultural heritage. The Zuni language, unique among the seven Native American languages spoken in New Mexico, is predominant in the homes and Tribal government, religious, social and cultural interactions. Extended families are large...Almost ninety-eight percent (98%) of the students enrolled in the public schools speak Zuni when they enter school and are encouraged to speak Zuni in classrooms...annual kindergarten enrollment continues to grow. The vast majority of Zuni families have lived in the village for generations. A small number of people leave Zuni as young adults to further their education, serve in the Armed Forces or work in areas which have more economic opportunities. But most appear to be drawn back to Zuni, their ancestral home. Students who enter either public or parochial schools in kindergarten usually complete their education in Zuni. (ZPSD "Bilingual program" website)

This continuity, offers the student a unique opportunity for the exploration of cultural and well as education needs and therefore constitutes a potential model system. Though other regional Nations have more difficulty, especially those who were subject to tribal consolidations that were incongruent to culture or who are less isolated in location and have therefore had a great deal more outside influence on culture to contend with in a multicultural setting.

Zuni people value education and have made schools a part of the Pueblo since 1877. The mission and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools never lacked for students but they prohibited the use of the Zuni language in "their" schools. Eventually, a public school was provided by the State of New Mexico under the auspices of the Gallup-McKinley County School District. Because of the love the Zunis have for their children, after years of planning, the Pueblo of Zuni was granted the right to establish its own pubic school district in 1980, the first school district created in New Mexico since the 1930's. (ZPSD "Bilingual program" website)

The high level of education as a consistent value in the culture, surviving through years of culturally incongruent education is one that also marks the Zuni people as exemplary in utilization of them as an example to other nations and the broader community. This can be seen in a very personal example, in the case of Virgil Wyaco, as even in the early 70s he was encouraged by his family to seek education, even when that education did not seemingly offer him any sort of potential for future employment in his Nation, with his people.

Wyaco 22) Wyaco's answer like so many other Native American's in his generation was to seek education elsewhere, including enlistment in the army during WWII and a furtherance of his education in white society.

The return of such people, to their Zuni roots is what will make it possible for multicultural education to succeed in the Zuni nation. Offers of higher education, are still limited to the Zuni, and are almost devoid in the insular community, but teaching requirements dependant upon state regulations will likely continue to be the norm. For this reason it is essential that the strength of the Zuni multicultural education be retained and strengthened even further to support early emphasis on Zuni culture and self value and to help those who must seek higher education away from home to be able to return to teach future generations of Zuni children to seek excellence and help their community to grow. Fostering a sense of culture, in those who seek an eventual return to traditional life is important for the development of further generations of Zuni peoples.