News of the Northwest tribes
Page 8 Spilyay Tymoo December 23, 2004
To catch students before they fall through
the cracks, Umatillas turn to charter schools
: MISSION (AP) - Behind a
locked door on the campus of
the newly opened Nixyaawii
Charter School on the Umatilla
Indian Reservation, about a
dozen teenagers have gathered
for their last class of the day.
There are no teachers in the
room, no adults allowed. The
charter school's students -slouched
low in their seats, base
ball caps pulled down, sweatshirt
hoods pulled up - are talking
- about how to behave in school,
relearning kindergarten-era les
sons long forgotten.
"We have to learn how to
govern ourselves," said the
group's de-facto leader, 20-year-old
Jess Stone. "You guys are
leading by example. You have
to lead yourself before you lead
others."
In Nixyaawii's first few diffi
cult months, this group of stu
dents has emerged as a linchpin,
helping to hold together a school
on which the hopes of a reser
vation are resting.
Similar charter schools are
cropping up throughout Indian
Country, in states like Califor
nia, Arizona and New Mexico.
Tribal officials have pinned their
hopes on the start-up schools as
their best chance to reach a gen
eration of Indian students
who've dropped out or drifted
through traditional public
schools.
Charter schools receive pub
lic funding - including, for
Nixyaawii, $350,000 in one-time
start-up money from the U.S.
Department of Education - but
are free from many of the rules
and restrictions that apply to
other public schools. ; .
The idea is to encourage ex
perimentation in education; such
schools operate under a "char
ter" or contract with local
school boards or state officials.
The Washington, D.C-based
Center for Education Reform,
which tracks charter schools,
counts at least 30 Indian char
ter schools in the country. Ari
zona has the most, with 12, fol
lowed by California with six;
Indian charters have also
opened in Minnesota and Michi
gan. Not all of the schools have
gotten great results; in Arizona,
for example, a tribal charter
school was recently shut down
after authorities there had
trouble with federal special edu
cation requirements and an au
dit, said Onnie Shekerjian, who
sits on the Arizona State Board
for charter schools.
But others have achieved
solid results in just a short time.
The San Diego-area Barona In
dian Charter School, for ex
ample, posted big gains in stu
dent performance on standard
ized test scores in the 2003-2004
school year, besting the state
average.
More Indian charter schools
are in the planning stages in
Oregon, Wyoming and in
Alaska, where a coalition of
Fairbanks-area non-profit
groups and local tribes are plan
ning a charter school that could
open as soon as 2006.
Besides standard curriculum,
the Alaska charter school would
offer "hunting, harvesting,
building canoes, berry-picking -all
different activities to rein
force native culture," said
Sharon McConnell Gillis, execu
tive director for' the Doyon
Forty-eight students
showed up for the first
day of class, refugees
from area high schools
where they had been
surrounded by a sea of
white faces.
Foundation, one of the groups
working on the Alaska proposal.
In Oregon, a lot's riding on
Nixyaawii being a success. The
idea for the school had been
floating among the Confeder
ated Tribes of the Umatilla Res
ervation for more than a decade
before the tribe finally made up
its mind this year to seek char
ter status, but after that, things
moved quickly.
Principal Annie Tester was
brought on board in July and
hired her three teachers in Au
gust, only a month before the
start of school, housed in a com
munity center. All three teach
ers are teaching some courses
outside their credential area.
Things moved so quickly that
there wasn't time to buy text
books or new computers or ar
range for hot school lunches to
be delivered or start up a hoped
for community mentorship pro
gram. There were skeptics and whis
pers that the school had started
so fast so it could field a bas
ketball team, a hot commodity
on a reservation that's crazy for
the sport.
Still, 48 students showed up
for the first day of class, refu
gees from area high schools
where they had been sur
rounded by a sea of white faces.
Yakania Nation taking over
fish hatchery from state
KLICKITAT, Wash. (AP) -In
what some are calling an un
precedented move, the state
plans to transfer its Klickitat fish
hatchery operations to the
Yakama Indian Nation in an
effort to restore fish runs to the
upper basin of the Klickitat
River.
It's been more than 50 years
since salmon and steelhead re
turned to spawn in the upper
basin of the Klickitat, which
flows some 100 miles from the
base of Mount Adams to the
Columbia. Before hydroelectric
dams were built on the Colum
bia, an estimated 15,000 fish
returned to the river each year.
Beginning in February, the
tribe will take over management
of the fish hatchery after 50
years of state management. The
state will continue to have a
hand in operations.
"This is groundbreaking for
us - this is way outside of what
we're used to doing," said Bill
Tweit, state Department of Fish
and Wildlife representative.
"We're usually pretty possessive
of our hatcheries because we're
really proud of them."
Under the transfer agree
ment, the state retains timber
rights to the 200-acre hatchery
site, located east of Glenwood
in the closed section of the res
ervation, and the public will still
have access to the area for fish
ing and rafting.
Allowing the tribe to restore
Umatillas and state of
Washington sign agreement
SQUAXIN ISLAND, Wash.
(AP) - The Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Reserva
tion have signed an accord with
Washington state, paving the
way for cooperation between
the two parties.
The Umatillas signed the ac
cord last week following the
annual meeting between Wash
ington Gov. Gary Locke and the
tribes, the tribes announced in
a news release.
The accord was modeled af
ter similar agreements reached
by Washington state and feder
ally recognized tribes within the
state. The agreements formal
ize the commitment by tribes
and the state to work on a government-to-government
basis.
The Nez Perce Tribe of
Idaho also was a party to the
new accord, the Umatillas said.
The Umatillas retain and ex
ercise rights to resources in
Washington state under an 1855
treaty. The tribes own the more
than 8,400-acre Rainwater Wild
life Area south of Dayton..
fish runs in the upper basin will
not only improve fishing for
tribal members, but for com
mercial fishermen and sports
men in the lower basin as well,
Tweit said.
"If we can get fish in the riv
ers and streams up here, then
families can come up here and
camp and catch fish," said Virgil
Lewis, tribal council vice chair
man. The hatchery has been suc
cessful in stocking the river with
fish - more than 6 million are
dumped each year - but salmon
haven't been returning to the
upper watershed.
Work is under way to im
prove flows through two tunnels
that were carved out of the can
yon walls in the early 1960s.
Thank you, Redmond Lockers
& Custom Meats,
for the holiday turkey.
From Warm Springs
Children 's Protective Services.
Some come from high pov
erty families, and have relatives
who have battled with alcohol
ism and drugs, Tester said; oth
ers had been tuning school out
since junior high, one reason
officials are hoping to eventu
ally add seventh and eighth
grades to Nixyaawii.
The students came to a
school where the emphasis is on
Indian culture - students learn
traditional beadwork and bas
ketry in art classes, discuss na
tive fables in English and, in
stead of Spanish or German,
are getting instruction in the almost-lost
Indian languages spo
ken by their ancestors.
Teachers are trying to em
phasize learning through group
projects, rather than the more
traditional scenario of a teacher
lecturing up front, and students
taking notes.
And so far, there have been
some real victories.
For one thing, the school's so
small that students can't slouch
and hide, as they might have
been able to do at a traditional
public school, said Kristine
Patrick, the charter school's
English teacher.
Also, in October, Nixyaawii
was chosen to receive a small
schools grant from the Seattle
based Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation; the $137,000 will
pay for teacher training and cur
riculum development.
And though two key players
are ineligible because of grades,
the Nixyaawii boys basketball
team beat its first Class 1A Big
Sky Conference rival, Arlington,
on the road by a resounding, 63
44, score. The team comes to
South Wasco County Feb. 4.
Tribe asks state to halt
construction at old village site
PORT ANGELES, Wash. (AP) - The Lower Elwha
Klallam Tribe is asking the state Department of Transpor
tation to relocate a multimillion-dollar bridge repair staging
area from the waterfront site of a centuries-old Indian vil
lage. Hundreds of human remains have been found at the
site.
The 22.5-acre site is where the Elwha Klallam village of
Tse-whit-zen stood for at least 17 centuries. It was torn down
around 1920 to build a lumber mill.
Work on the bridge construction yard began in August
2003. Two weeks later, it was suspended when digging un
earthed partial skeletal remains of 12 Indian adults and one
infant, plus numerous artifacts.
Archeologists and tribal members have found the full
remains of at least 265 Klallam forebears, almost 800 iso
lated skeletal parts and more than 5,000 artifacts.
Both the tribe and state archaeologists say Tse-whit-zen is
the largest discovery of its type in the region.
At issue are any still-undiscovered remains. If the bridge
project proceeds, they would be entombed beneath a huge
concrete dock - big enough to hold four battleships the size
of the USS Missouri, according to state DOT diagrams., '
Tribe exempts nonprofit group
from hiring preference rule
BROWNING, Mont. (AP) - Tribal leaders have agreed to ex
empt a Great Falls nonprofit assistance group from a reservation
ordinance that gives hiring preferences to tribal workers.
The decision means workers with Opportunities Inc., will be
allowed to return to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in January
to apply weather stripping, insulation and other weatherization im
provements to 14 low-income homes.
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