This essay is an
article review highlighting the key points from Indigenous Education and Ecology: Perspectives of an American Indian
Educator written by Pueblo Indian Dr. Gregory Cajete, supported by insights
from his 1994 book Look to the Mountain:
An Ecology of Indigenous Education. I further discuss the history,
implementation and challenges of Indigenous education today supported with the
work of Andrea Bear Nicholas from the book Aboriginal
Oral Traditions: Theory Practice Ethics, and conclude with my thoughts
about Indigenous education. To begin, I would like to highlight the questions
the author poses to the reader, stimulating critical thinking. I questioned the
education I have received over the last few years. Asking further what would I
describe as education? What do I think when someone says they are educated, and
in my mind, what would constitute a ‘good education’? This essay aims to answer
those questions.
Dr.
Gregory A. Cajete is a Tewa author and professor from Santa Clara Pueblo, New
Mexico. He has pioneered reconciling Indigenous perspectives in sciences with a
Western academic setting. His focus is teaching culturally based science, with
its emphasis on health and wellness.[1] An overview of the article by Dr. Cajete on North America education
and ecology provides the reader with a personal narrative from his own Pueblo
standpoint. His focus on orientation to place highlights is a center purpose of
Indigenous education as an experiential quest (to know that place that Indian
peoples talk about); emphasizing art, hunting and planting as a source of
mystic tribal expressions; Cajete explores the indigenous ecological education
of Pueblo life ways. The article discusses Indigenous traditions and equality
as a multi-disciplinary approach to reconcile traditions and ecology. The books
aim is to celebrate plurality raising conscious awareness, multiple perspective
nature and human earth relations, as articulated in the religions of the world.
In the Introduction Dr. Cajete gives his own personal
narrative as Pueblo Indian, educator, artist and environmentalist. The article
is a cultural context and subjective of Indigenous ecological relationship educating
the reader; to re-enliven cultural sensibilities and understanding of Indigenous
traditions. The goals are to rediscover and revitalize Indigenous self
knowledge, community self renewal, and environmental understanding and to
create teaching curricula in the context for integrating arts with culture,
with science, and with communal sensibility and ways that get to the heart Indigenous
perspective, - a deeper understanding of ancient relationships between
traditions.
In the next subtitle, The Central Purpose of
Indigenous Education, key points the author emphasizes are the basic framework
of Indigenous education is an intimate and complex set of inner and outer place
oriented environmental relationships. The Pueblo concept, “that place Indian
people talk about”, needs to be understood. That place is more than objects and
economic interest; Indigenous people talk about protecting the environment
through Indigenous traditions. There is a co-creation of natural environments
and human relationships. All creation is interrelated like a spider wed of co-existence.
Elders through their languages for knowledge and understanding connect human
relationships with the land that are an important source of indigenous ways of
learning and understanding.
In the next subtitle, An Indigenous Metaphor, the author stresses for a complete
education the following four interrelated relationships are necessary. First,
finding your face and appearance as authentic – your true self identity. Second
is to find the inner spirit as a soul and heart of a person; the term spirit
within is universal for all indigenous peoples. Third is the journey to help
individuals through education by finding their identity and spirit to be
authentic human beings. Fourthly, to become complete as a man or women as a way
of life, survival of life and develop a spirit and human life with ecology.
In Ensouled and Enchanted Land, the author states that
all Indigenous societies have a special relationship with the land that may be
called spiritual ecology. This relationship includes all ecology including
space, land, and environment and all living things. For Indigenous people, the
land is an extension of human thought and being. Pueblo elders say, It is this
place that holds our memories, and the bones of our people…this is the place
that made us. Indigenous language is based on the environment and the land, Indigenous
teaching is through experience with the land, I.E., - vision quest. The Pueblo
mythic symbolic figure is called ‘kokopelli’ which is a seed carrier of
nature’s fertility. Pueblo Indians believe they emerged from the earth’s naval
at the time of creation and became a journey through sacred landscape which is
described as `that place that Indian people talk about`.
There were several key points In Indigenous Windows
into the Natural Affiliation which I thought were important. The author
articulates that sacred orientation to place is a key concept of Indigenous
education. To Pueblo Indians, “to the right side of the sun rising,” is known
as the north direction. The south represents "to the left side of the sun
rising", east is “to the sun rising” and west "to the sun setting”. Indigenous
languages describe the colors plants animals, winds, kinds of thought and
features of the landscape. All indigenous people have distinct cardinal
directions to base their directional relationships; these cardinal directions
are universal for Indigenous people of the world.
Art is an expression all Indigenous people use to
reflect their ancient teaching to integrate humans with animals. Hunting,
fishing, gathering, and planting are important to express and honor their
collective sense of natural affiliation. This is a core understanding of all Indigenous
people. It is by observation that they learn to interact with nature at all
seasons. Indigenous people also honor the spirit of all animals because they
provide food for existence. Prayers and storytelling are a common way to show
respect for all animals and environment. Animal dances are common to all
indigenous people - the coyote is the animal that is used to create the
relationship between human and animal. The `web of life` is understood by Indigenous
people by their annual ceremonial cycles based on their belief systems, I.E., -
Sundance’s.
For the Anishinabe / Ojibway, the seven directions of the pipe represent the creator, the
land, the people, the directions to the
east represent languages, south is teaching(culture), west is history, and the
north is way of life (government). These directions represent the seven
principles of nationhood that every nation in the world needs to be sovereign.[2] Symbols
of animals and colors are also included.
In Pueblo Journey,
the author says that for Pueblo people, the corn represents a sacrament
of life in life itself. There is a Pueblo proverb “we are all kernels on the
same corn cob”. Water is fundamental to recognize and honor as it the
foundation for maintenance of life on earth, the Earth naval is where Pueblo
people came from and are guided by the evergreen Tree of Life. Earth is like a
mother that creates identity as people of a place. All Indigenous people,
including the Pueblo, have ceremonies for the cycles of seasons, to honor the
spiritual ecology of place.
In Community and a Place in
New Mexico, Dr. Cajete states that New Mexico is called, `Land of Enchantment`,
which reflects the natural affiliation of the people and the place. Education
is important for Indigenous youth to understand their relationship to the land.
The metaphor, 'look to the mountains' is to understand the earth journey of the
people. For Pueblo people they say this journey “is to look to the mountain”,
for the Anishinabe / Ojibway it is to `look to the horizon`, either concept
means to think of future generations, to have a holistic perspective.
Lastly, in Final Thoughts: the
Place of Indigenous Ecology in a Post Modern World, the author elaborates on a
problem for young people to understand the ancient teaching about the
traditions and ecology. Today people live in a dual existence because some want
to live like today's society which is materialistic, - reap the money and
profits from the land. At the same time try to protect the land and
environment. This is described as a schizophrenic state. This confusion and the
existential problems such as alcoholism, drug abuse, suicide, and all other
social problem are because youth have lost their connection to their spiritual
ecology. Split thought in traditions and ecology is like living in two worlds
and this creates the major challenge for Indigenous people to survive as Indigenous
people. American society has become more materially affluent which means that
environment is not treated with a sense of urgency. This is why it is necessary
that education on Indigenous traditions and ecology is necessary for human
survival on mother earth. Indigenous education is based on environment and its
relationship to human existence.[3]
To the Anishinabe /
Ojibway people, a vision quest is
necessary for young people to base their hopes and dreams, along with their
relationship to the land and humans.
Dr. Cajete’s really put into
words the issue of living in two worlds and contrasting that to a schizophrenic
state. It is the dilemma every Indigenous person faces today at some point in
their life - in other words, First Nations need to get through the anger to get
to the healing.[4] After reading this article
one should be able to understand that the struggle of Indian peoples are now
shared with non-Indigenous people, I.E., - climate change because of natural
resource exploitation. The articles in the book illustrate the Indigenous perspective
of traditions and ecology.
In his Dr.
Cajete’s1994 book Look to the Mountain: An
Ecology of Indigenous Education, Dr. Cajete articulates Indians throughout
the Americas incorporate many symbolic expressions reflecting the metaphysical,
ecological, and cultural constructs of tribal education. These include symbolic
expressions representing the 'Tree of Life' for example. These expressions
which occur in a variety of forms in many American Indian languages reflect
common understanding and shared foundations for traditional ways of learning.
Behind these mythic metaphors are the philosophical infrastructures and fields
of tribal knowledge that lie at the heart of American Indian epistemologies.
Dr. Gregory Cajete makes reference in his book to a journey as a metaphor that
will focus upon a circle or relationships that mirror the seven orientation
processes of preparing, asking, seeking, making, understanding, sharing, and
celebrating the special wisdom of American Indian tribal education. [5] This
further emphasizes the universal concepts that all Indigenous believe in their
creation stories and relationship to the land.
The
message in this book is that all First Nations believe in one creator and there
are indeed people that have a special relationship of the land to for their
survival and existence. Indians throughout the Americas incorporate many
symbolic expressions reflecting the metaphysical, ecological, and cultural
constructs of tribal education, I.E., - The Tree of Life. These expressions
which occur in a variety of forms in many American Indian languages reflect
common understanding and shared foundations for traditional ways of learning.
Behind these mythic metaphors are the philosophical infrastructures and fields
of tribal knowledge that that lie at the heart of American Indian
epistemologies.
Besides the lack of connection to spirit and
land in Indigenous education that Dr. Cajete discusses, one has to take into account
history and implementation of education regarding today`s Indigenous youth, Andrea
Bear Nicholas points out several problems, among them is that our elders have
been excluded from the education of First Nations children, resulting in
another way that our traditions have been silenced. Common thinking of
generations before dating back to earliest recorded Maliseet oral traditions,
published by J. Barratt in 1851, stated that in recording oral traditions, he intended
to exhibit the Indian as he is, it may serve, also, to show the darkness of the
human mind that has never been illuminated by the word of god. As a result, history
has been distorted, oral traditions have been discredited, racism taught in
university classrooms and engrained in the minds of people, influencing
negative public opinion. On top of discrediting oral traditions, others have
pretended to know how Indigenous peoples think and feel, passing off their
concoctions as ours so successfully, that their stories are now believed to be
‘our’ stories by generations of our people.
One
invented tradition is the so-called `medicine wheel` which is now promoted as
the basis of Maliseet traditions. In fact, it was invented as recently as 1972
by a man representing himself as Cheyenne, Hyemeyohsts Storm, but who was immediately exposed as a fraud. The
medicine wheel is not a Maliseet tradition, nor, a Cheyenne tradition. Within
two decades, however, it evolved into the form it is known today, thanks to the
embellishment of several others, including the discredited `plastic medicine
man` known as Sun Bear, who exploited the idea for personal gain. The irony is
now that this now very non-native invention is seen as the essence of native
traditions, not only by the immigrant society but also by First Nation peoples,
even many who style themselves as ‘traditionalists’. Today the medicine wheel
is taught in school, with a variety of material totally based on the medicine
wheel. This philosophy has displaced oral traditions and aboriginal languages. This
poses the difficult question, thrown back onto First Nations by J. Edward
Chamberlin, If This is Your Land, Where
are your Stories? (2004), this author is not alone in his thinking.
Even
promising policies developed and promoted by First Nations themselves have been
quickly appropriated and exploited by government and various educational
institutions, as in the case of the 1972 policy known as Indian Control of
Indian Education (ICIE). First Nation teachers were to instruct First Nation children;
the problem was that both governments and universities found a way to use this
policy to meet their own agenda. Universities expand their teacher education
program taking in cohorts of Aboriginal students to be trained as teachers,
while governments working closely with corporations would continue to benefit
since the new teachers would be subtly trained to reproduce Euro-Canadian
ideas. In other words, the teachers were trained effectively only to teach in
the medium of a dominant colonial language using alien methods and ‘standard’
textbooks, without any suggestion that they could or should teach in the medium
of their own language, or that their children might have the collective right
to learn in that medium. As a result, Aboriginal languages were rarely given a
place at all in the curriculum, and when done so, only as window dressing to
the curriculum. One Saskatchewan native educator pointed out that after the
implementation of ICIE, First Nations in Saskatchewan have experienced some of
the most rapid declines of all time in native language fluency.
The
writing of history is a political act designed to control the past for the
purpose of controlling the present and maintaining the social order. In the
same way that common law gives property rights to squatters, Canadian laws
continue to legalize the appropriation of our oral traditions by virtue of
copyright laws which grant sole ownership in our stories to scribes,
collectors, and appropriators to the total exclusion of the individuals or the
First Nations in which they were taken, I.E., - The movie, Avatar. Further,
copyright laws declare that 50 years after the death of a writer or collector,
the ownership of such stories passes not to the Indigenous people who told
them, but into public domain.[6]
In my opinion, problems exist in addition to the above
mentioned because of a change in the nature of communities, disruption of the
family nurturing process and loss of identity. Speaking for myself, I am very fortunate to have a supportive
birth family and family of choice to assist me through my post secondary
education process. While I still carry resentment and feel a sense of
disconnection, education has been a decolonizing process for me. I also take
the responsibility upon myself (more so now than I am older and have family) to
put in the best effort I can academically and to overcome social hurdles. Since
the 1960's there has been a slow change in the nature of communities due in
part the introduction of welfare to First Nations people.
This change in particular
has fostered a mentality that since I am
politicized as Aboriginal, I have some leverage to manipulate my
responsibilities. While there are thousands of young people graduating every
year from high school and university, there are too many who push the envelope
the opposite direction to just get by, rather than to see how far they can go.
Responsibility needs to be taken more seriously. This contributes to the state
of affairs First Nations are facing today, leadership is weak and divided.
Our communities have become
zones of lateral violence because there is a deeply embedded anger and
frustration, people elect leaders who are not the most educated and could do
the best job for the community, but rather who they think they can influence.
Children see the fighting and relational process demonstrated by adults and
learn from this example, going on to have poor relational skills.[7]
This is due largely in part to a loss of connection to the land an language.
Further communities are divided between Christian and traditional beliefs and
practices. Youth have lost their identity because they look at things from a
materialistic perspective being influenced by the dominant European-American
pop culture and that influences their values and aspirations, I.E., - rap music
over rattles, drums, and traditional songs.
There is no magic remedy or
policy to heal a community. It takes a long process of healthy individuals to
create strong families and build stronger communities. In the chapter I did my article
review on, there are communities in the Andes Mountains that incorporate
traditional knowledge into a large part of the school curriculum. This is an
example that should be followed here in
Canada along with stronger language programs using software and
technology that is already available. There are elders in my own community that
say to understand where you are going you need to understand where you came from.
That is from our history through our languages. As my father's grandmother used
to say, "know your language to remember the original teachings, at the
same time understand the English language. Bring these two together for a more
balanced educational approach".[8]
One must find a way to reconcile the original language teachings with modern
concept of education. Indigenous teachings about respect and caring of all
people of the world, the goal should be working together co-operatively with
all people following the true values of their religions and traditional beliefs
rather than distorting interpretations of them.
In conclusion, the class text book Indigenous Traditions and
Ecology and the articles within have provided a balanced understanding of Indigenous
traditions and history, and why they are so important to understand ecology
(land).Therefore, this book can bridge the gap for non-aboriginal people to understand
the above mentioned connection in a balanced framework. The question posed at
introduction, 'what constitutes a good education?' - must include an understanding of Indigenous traditions;
that it is through their languages and elders that traditions are connected to
ecology.
Bibliography
1. Bone,
Harry. Former Chief of Keeseekoowenin First Nation.
2. Cajete,
Gregory. Look to the Mountain: an ecology of indigenous education. Durango,
Colorado: Kivaki Press, 1994.
3. Eigenbrod,
Renate, and Renée Hulan. Aboriginal oral traditions: theory, practice,
ethics. Halifax, [N.S.: Fernwood Pub., 2008.
4. Grim,
John. "Indigenous Education and Ecology: perspectives of an American
Indian Educator." In Indigenous traditions and ecology: the interbeing
of cosmology and community. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard Press for
the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2001.
5. Lavallee,
Jaye. Experiential psychotherapist and life
skill trainer.
6. Rice,
Brian. Instructor, Global perspectives on aboriginal societies, spiritualities
and the environment. University of Winnipeg.
7. Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia." Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Cajete
[1] "Gregory
Cajete - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Cajete
(accessed June 19, 2012).
[2] Bone,
Harry. Interview by author. Personal communication. Winnipeg, 2012.
[3] Grim,
John. "Indigenous Education and Ecology: perspectives of an American
Indian Educator." In Indigenous traditions and ecology: the interbeing
of cosmology and community. Cambridge, MA: Distributed by Harvard Press for
the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School, 2001.
619-638.
[4] Rice,
Brian. "Week 4." Class lecture, Global Perspectives on Aboriginal
Societies, Spiritualities and the Environment from University of Winnipeg,
Winnipeg, May 22, 2012.
[5] Cajete,
Gregory. Look to the Mountain: an ecology of indigenous education.
Durango, Colorado: Kivaki Press, 1994.
[6] Eigenbrod,
Renate, and Renée Hulan. "The assault on aboriginal oral traditions: past
and present", in Aboriginal oral traditions: theory, practice, ethics.
Halifax, [N.S.: Fernwood Pub., 2008. 1-9.
[7]
Lavallee, Jaye. Interview by author. Personal
communication. 2012.
[8] Bone,
Harry. Interview by author. Personal interview. Winnipeg, June 17, 2012.
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