Friend or foe? Education and the American Indian

Abstract

Education is and always has been an important component of American Indian life. Contrary to popular understanding, American Indians have always had a system of education which imparted understanding and cultural genetics to the rising generation. With European contact, this viable system of education was discredited; consequently, American Indians were viewed as "uncivilized" and in need of a Euro-American education. As the egregious five hundredth anniversary of European discovery of the new World approaches, educational policy makers still view the indigenous Americans as void of a culture worth perpetuating and therefore in need of a prescribed education. While Native Americans today are not adverse to Western education, they view it in a perfunctory manner because it is still designed to acculturate rather than educate. This constitutes miseducation and therefore is a foe against whom many American Indians battle for survival, both as a people and as individuals.