Native American students are focus of new My Brother's Keeper grants |
On Board Online • July 2, 2018
By Cathy Woodruff
Senior Writer
Since New York launched its state-funded My Brother's Keeper initiative in 2016, more than $30 million in grant funding has been awarded to support work with African-American and Latino students, primarily in the state's urban school districts.
Now, the State Education Department has awarded its first My Brother's Keeper grants recognizing the needs of another group of students - Native Americans. Nearly $750,000 will fund grants for 11 school districts serving students from tribal nations. Many of the districts are in rural areas.
Native Americans were among the "young men and boys of color" then-President Barack Obama said needed mentoring and positive role models when he announced the national My Brother's Keeper initiative in 2014.
The largest of the new grants, $196,144, will go to Salmon River, the only district in the state where a majority of students - close to 65 percent - are Native American. Some 80 percent of the district's students are "economically disadvantaged," according to state data.
"The My Brother's Keeper grant is really going to help us academically, and I think it's ultimately going to help all our kids," Salmon River Superintendent Stanley Harper told On Board. The money will be used to complement efforts already funded by a larger, five-year Empire Grant and by federal grants for programs serving Native American students, he said.
Salmon River plans to use a portion of its grant to strengthen support for St. Regis Mohawk students as they reach "transition points" in their education. Harper said those points - initial enrollment and moves into elementary, middle and high school levels - can be the times when cultural and academic adjustments are most challenging.
The grant also will bolster existing summer and "sunset" evening programs that aim to help students catch up and stay engaged, Harper said. Math intervention and other academic supports will be expanded, and the grant will boost ongoing Salmon River initiatives to improve attendance and build relationships with Mohawk families.
In the neighboring Massena Central School District, where St. Regis Mohawk students make up about 9 percent of enrollment, a $47,632 My Brother's Keeper grant will help expand curriculum and coordinate special programs highlighting Native American culture and language.
Massena is enlisting older high school and college students as "Brother Bear" mentors for younger Mohawk students in the elementary, middle and high schools. Students also will participate in monthly "Sweetgrass Sessions," discussing books with Native American themes and chatting about concerns the younger boys may have about school. A cultural coordinator will help organize educational and cultural activities that celebrate the Mohawk - or Haudenosaunee - culture.
Salmon River and Massena both serve students from the Akwesasne Reservation, which spans the Canadian border. Tribal territory overlaps with national, state, provincial, tribal, county and village governments.
"Jurisdictionally, we're fun up here," jokes Stephanie Cook, education director for the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, which partners with Salmon River and Massena in administering several grants, including My Brother's Keeper.
Some students cross the U.S./Canadian border on their way to school. Payne Benedict, a 2018 Salmon River graduate headed for Carleton University in Ottawa in the fall, traveled through U.S. Customs every morning to reach school and through Canadian Customs on his way home to Akwesasne's Cornwall Island.
"For me, it's every day. It's nothing dramatic or anything," he told On Board. But, depending on traffic and the on-duty officer's inclination to ask questions, the stops could add considerable time to his commute, he acknowledged.
While the geography and complex governmental relationships pose challenges, local educators say, Mohawk students can face even greater ones stemming from cultural and linguistic divides their families have faced for generations.
Impacts of trauma, such as poor attendance and trepidation about school, have been passed down from parents and grandparents who were forced to enroll in "Indian boarding schools," punished for speaking the Mohawk language or mocked for their cultural traditions.
"A lot of our elders were ripped from their homes and sent to boarding schools," Cook explained. "There's a history with that. It becomes generational. There was a saying: 'Kill the Indian, save the man.' A lot of our families are still dealing with that experience."
Salmon River employs two full-time ambassadors, Home-School Coordinator Tim Cook (no direct relation to Stephanie) and Mohawk Ombudsman Kim Russell, to strengthen and navigate bridges between the school district and the Mohawk community. Both are St. Regis Mohawks who grew up at Akwesasne.
Both say they heard from their parents about misguided efforts to quash their Mohawk language and traditions while they were in school, and that has made today's efforts to re-introduce students to their Native American heritage even more important.
"There are deep-seated issues that are hard to mend," Russell said. "A lot has changed, but everyone is still working on it."
New Mohawk students enrolling at Salmon River or Massena can need help catching up with English language skills and developing good school attendance habits, educators say. Some have spent their early years in a local "immersion" school, where students are encouraged to read and write only in the Mohawk language.
"They are not necessarily ELL (English language learner) students," said Angela Robert, Salmon River's assistant superintendent. "While they speak English, they have not learned to read and write it. And in Canada, school attendance is not required. They are coming in not-necessarily-valuing being in school, and they are behind the eight ball with the curriculum they have received."
At the same time, the local curriculum now offers unique opportunities for all students, including non-natives, to learn about Native American culture. These days, Salmon River students can take Mohawk language classes, just as they also can study French or Spanish.
This month, the Massena school board took another step to show greater respect for Mohawk culture. The board approved a final step to replace the district's former Red Raiders mascot, a profile of a Plains Indian in full feathered headdress. The new mascot logo features a Spartan wearing red.
According to Superintendent Patrick Brady, research in local news archives showed the Red Raiders moniker was coined many years ago as a reference to the color of the school athletes' uniforms. At some point, the Indian head logo was added, adding a racial connotation to the name.
With guidance from students and community input, Brady said it was decided to keep the Red Raiders name but remove any explicit or implied reference to Native Americans.
"It's a matter of respect," said Brady.