Native communities have a “complicated” relationship with education, according to University of Southern California English Professor Dr. David Treuer.
Under Capt. Richard H. Pratt’s mindset of “kill the Indian in him to save the man,” generations of Native children were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to assimilation boarding schools.
“These schools ruptured all sorts of relationships with place, with family, with tribe, with tradition,” said Treuer.
Originally growing up on Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota, his educational experiences were highlighted during the third day of Achieving the Dream’s virtual conference on Thursday.
Throughout K-12 and higher education, Treuer was never exposed to a Native teacher or mentor. While earning his undergraduate degree at Princeton University, he was often confronted with the idea that Native communities were “significant to America’s past not America’s future.”
“If we existed at all, which was oftentimes disputed, we existed in the past,” said Treuer. “If we were alive, we were alive as only perpetual sufferers living on dusty reservations, living lives of pain. No where did I come across the idea that we were part of the story of this country.”
However, now the growth of tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) has created a positive impact on Native communities.
