That was the main question posed to participants at a hearing held Saturday by members of the Montana State Tribal Affairs Legislative Committee as part of a joint study they are completing with the Office of Public Instruction on the Indian dropout rate in Montana.
Final study results will be presented to the 2005 Legislature.
Sarah LaDue, a mother and grandmother from the Rocky Boy Reservation who also is a certified teacher, stressed the need for schools with large Indian populations to staff Indian teachers and administrators.
"If we are going to get dollars for Indian programs, those programs should be staffed with Indian people who understand Indian culture," she said. "I'm galled by not seeing any Indian staff members."
LaDue spoke from her own experience decades ago as a student in Great Falls. By ninth grade she was the only American Indian left in her class and frequently experienced an unfriendly, racist environment. With no Indian staff members to turn to who might have better understood her experience, she dropped out by the 10th grade because of the loneliness and lack of support.
Pat Williams, former Montana congressman, echoed the need for educational institutions with large Indian populations to hire more Native American staff.
"That's the secret to improving those graduation rates," he said.
Williams also noted the quiet successes Indians have made in education. In 1961, the year Williams graduated from college, 66 American Indians also earned their degrees.
"That was 66 Indian college graduates not in my class, but rather in the whole country," he said.
Four decades later, more than 14,000 American Indians received college degrees.
"American Indians have worked quietly and with determination to achieve a 70 percent increase in their enrollment in schools of higher education since the mid-1970s," he said.
Still, no one at the hearing denied that Indian students face significant challenges in today's public schools: many single-family households, high levels of alcohol and drug abuse, high poverty rates, and school systems that often fail to embrace and celebrate the culture of American Indian students.
"The core of the dropout problem has more to do with the system than anything else, and the way teachers are forced to teach," said Robey Clark, of the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory in Portland, Ore.
Clark, who has worked in education and related research for 30 years, said recipe lesson plans that are "stillborn" from the start fail to engage students. Instead, teachers should be using authentic lessons that have students participating in real-life, meaningful experiences, he said.
He encouraged the committee to consider new ideas such as having federally funded Indian education programs work as a unit across the state to develop statewide competitions worth high school credit. Noting the athletic ability of fancy dancers who performed earlier that day, he asked why those youths can't receive physical education credit for such activities or a letter in athletics.
"If you are going to teach Indian culture, for heaven's sake don't use a white man's lesson plan," he said.
While Clark supports recruitment of Indian teachers as others had suggested, he reiterated that even those teachers will fail to reach students if the system requires they emphasize "too much seat time and paper and pencil tests."
Several people also stressed the need for parents to become more involved in their child's education and demonstrate they value a good education.
Stan Juneau, a retired school administrator from Browning who currently does education consulting, pointed to a recent survey of successful high school seniors that showed the majority were involved in high school sports or other activities, had parents who were involved in their education and came from homes in which parents were employed full time.
The students offered their own reasons as to why many American Indian students drop out of junior high and high school - excessive use of alcohol and inflexible attendance policies that don't take into consideration a student's personal situation.
Juneau urged the committee to consider several steps that included a review of attendance policies and realignment to better reflect student needs; enhancement of extracurricular activities that would increase Indians' interest in school; school review of effective ways to encourage greater involvement of parents in their child's education; expansion of student services in the areas of alcohol and drug abuse, pregnancy and child care; and hiring preference to Indian educators in schools with large American Indian populations.
Robert Smoky Rides At the Door, a Blackfeet and vice chairman of the Browning School Board, noted successes his school district has had in improving its graduation rate by placing greater emphasis on reading instruction. From 9 to 10:45 a.m. daily, classrooms exclusively concentrate on reading.
The school system also offers 14 different student support programs beyond its core curriculum. The programs include such things as individual tutoring, summer school and Saturday class time. Also, the majority of the district's teaching staff is American Indian.
"It's important we continue to strive to move forward," he said. "We have to concentrate more on the positive things we are doing."
Lame Deer teacher and senior class adviser Tom McMakin called for greater efforts to support teachers on reservation schools, noting high staff turnover which adds to students feeling a lack of stability both at school and at home.
He also stressed a need for more funding to pay for school counselors who can help students with drug and alcohol abuse and other personal problems.
"It's amazing some even come to school," McMakin said.
Joyce Silverthorne, tribal education department head at the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation and former member of Montana's Board of Public Education, called for better collaboration and coordination between the state's K-12 school system and its higher education system. She noted there is not one American Indian serving on the Board of Regents.
"I think we all know the reasons why our youth are struggling to succeed in an education system that is foreign to them," said Ruth Quequesah, of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation.
These students should be allowed to embrace their cultural identity without having to ask permission, as they have had to the past five centuries, she said.
"When we can teach our child who they are and to have pride in it, that is when they will succeed," she said.
Reporter Jane Rider can be reached at 523-5298 or at jrider@missoulian.com.
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