Pubdate: Sun, 24 Oct 2004 Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) Copyright: 2004 The Oregonian Contact: http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324 Author: Kara Briggs Cited: Bureau of Indian Affairs http://www.doi.gov/bureau-indian-affairs.html Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) BIA HEAD PROPOSES CHEMAWA MAKEOVER An Official Recommends a "Total Restructuring" of the Bureau's Indian Schools, Including the One in Salem Where a Girl Died Sunday The head of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is calling for an overhaul of Chemawa Indian School in Salem and other bureau schools by lengthening the school year, tying teachers' pay to performance, and mandating random drug testing of students and staff. The purpose of the proposals from David W. Anderson, the Interior Department's undersecretary for Indian affairs, is to make the schools safer and more effective in educating nearly 60,000 Native American students. The plans are also in response to the death of a 16-year-old girl in a cell on the Chemawa campus nearly one year ago. "We need a total restructuring of our entire school system," Anderson told The Oregonian. "When you have a majority of your students dealing with alcohol and substance abuse problems in their own lives and their families' lives, I don't think that simply having math, reading and discipline is enough." This is the first time Anderson has publicly addressed Cindy Gilbert Sohappy's death and the scope of problems in the BIA schools. According to BIA records The Oregonian reviewed in February, a video surveillance camera in Sohappy's cell captured her flailing on the floor Dec. 6, 2003. A school dormitory worker was supposed to monitor her, including stepping inside the cell with her every 15 minutes, according to BIA records. But the girl's blood-spattered, motionless body lay unnoticed for more than two hours, according to records. Her blood alcohol level was 0.37 percent, 4 1/2 times the legal limit for Oregon drivers. In recent weeks, momentum has been building for some kind of response to her death. On Friday, attorneys for Renee Sohappy, the girl's mother, notified the Interior Department and the BIA of the mother's intent to sue for wrongful death and violations of Cindy Gilbert Sohappy's civil rights. Last month, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony about the death. This month, the Justice Department is reviewing a new report from the Interior Department's inspector general about Chemawa policies and procedures that may have contributed to the death. One assistant U.S. attorney who read the report called it "horrifying." Amid that scrutiny, Anderson quietly convened a committee of BIA educators, including Chemawa's superintendent, Larry Byers, to develop his ideas. Anderson has made a point of visiting BIA schools, where he tells students about his own experiences. He grew up with parents he describes as "victims" of bureau education. He struggled with alcohol and kicked his addiction in treatment. After building Famous Dave's of America Inc., a successful chain of barbecue restaurants, Anderson, an Ojibwe, founded the nonprofit Lifeskills Center for Leadership in Minneapolis. It teaches Native American youths success principles and the benefits of an alcohol-free life. He'd like to import those lessons to bureau schools. The reforms he proposes range from firing poor educators and hiring better-trained staff to plastering posters bearing positive quotes on dormitory walls and starting students' days with motivational chants. He also would keep the students in school year-round, make cafeteria menus models of diabetes- and heart-healthy diets, and add classes about homeownership and saving money. He'd teach leadership, too, because in recent decades many leaders in Indian Country have been graduates of bureau boarding schools. "Since I have been on board with the educators," Anderson said, "I have said, 'Do you realize what you have in your hands? You are not only teaching kids, but you can change the course of Indian history by what you teach them.' " Few BIA directors have taken so much interest in the schools, which are generally run by the bureau's Office of Indian Education. Anderson's proposals, which are still in their infancy, are not without barriers. A presidential appointee, he could be out of a job if the administration changes after Nov. 2. Anderson also will need to reallocate money within the BIA's budget or get Congress to authorize money for the program. But even if Anderson has the time, money and opportunity to enact his education ideas, he faces a system of 185 schools and dormitories, many of which are failing by the standards of No Child Left Behind. Chemawa's records have stated for years that about 80 percent of students have substance abuse problems, and the annual dropout rates at Chemawa and the three other off-reservation boarding schools in the country are about 50 percent. Similar reforms have been tried in recent decades. At a 1994 Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing, Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, referred to a failed 1969 plan to deal with boarding schools that at that time were described as "dumping grounds" for students with substance abuse problems. At the same 1994 hearing, Gerald Gray Sr., former superintendent of Chemawa, asked for money to remake the four off-reservation boarding schools in what he called a "therapeutic model," an idea along the same general lines as Anderson's. It never got off the ground. "The bureau is caught in a situation of the off-reservation boarding schools enrolling students with very serious need for intensive therapy," said Rick St. Germaine, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who wrote a BIA-commissioned report for the hearing. "Congress has put very little focus on the therapeutic needs." But Anderson may have the clout as undersecretary to get the ball rolling, St. Germaine said. Anderson is reluctant to place all guilt on the government, when he knows from his own alcohol treatment that individuals have to take responsibility for themselves. Some days he wonders why he has taken on managing a bureaucracy like the BIA. "The easiest thing for me to say is that I'll go back to selling ribs," Anderson said. "But I think my message is getting heard. I come from a belief that children really need to be cared for." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake