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." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake