October 19, 2005

Last modified October 19, 2005 - 12:41 am

By JODI RAVE
Missoulian

MISSOULA - Education advocates will present their views on what needs to happen to fulfill Montana's constitutional mandate to teach others about American Indians during a daylong seminar Friday.

The mandate has been enforced recently by a spate of legal rulings from state courts calling on educators to embrace the Indian Education for All Act.

"One of the challenges in implementing Indian Education for All is in training new teachers and in the professional development of the 10,000 teachers in the field," said Paul Rowland, dean of the University of Montana's School of Education. "What is it going to take to make sure we're preparing teachers who can adequately implement the act?"

Rowland is among a dozen speakers who will attend the Tribal Leaders Institute and the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West seminar this week in the House chambers at the state Capitol. Participants will discuss how to bring American Indian education into Montana classrooms, including the need to close the achievement gap between Indian and non-Indian students.

"There seems to be a renewed interest in our Legislature and the general public in fulfilling the mandate," said Bob Brown, a senior fellow at UM's Center for the Rocky Mountain West.

Even though Montanans voted for a constitutional mandate on American Indian education more than three decades ago, lawmakers and educators continue to flounder on how to carry out that mandate. The Tribal Leaders Institute seminar will create a forum for voices in the trenches.

"This institute provides Montana's Native population one of its few opportunities to directly influence the interim legislative committee, both in Indian Education for All and to eliminate the achievement gap between Indian students and others," said Pat Williams, also a senior fellow at the Center for the Rocky Mountain West. "It is Indian voices we need to listen to."

Earl Barlow, a scheduled seminar speaker, was the American Indian education supervisor in the state's Office of Public Instruction in 1970 when constitutional delegates were chosen to set the course for the Montana Constitution.

Barlow, a Blackfeet citizen who lives in Spokane, Wash., helped provide an American Indian perspective leading lawmakers to embrace changes that would improve the quality of education for Indian students and those trying to learn more about Indian history.

"This article in the constitution is your grand plan, it's your blueprint for government ... the constitution tells you what your vision is. Now you have to implement that," Barlow told lawmakers when he later lobbied them to pass the state's Indian Studies Law for teachers in 1973.

The Legislature passed the law but dramatically altered it three years later. "The Legislature took the teeth right out of it," he said.

It's the kind of legislation that's needed today, Barlow said. "But we have to do a better job of informing teachers. There needs to be a broader-based approach to sensitizing teachers to the unique needs of Indian students because teachers are the solution. They are not the problem."

Seminar presenter Maylinn Smith, director of the Indian Law Clinic at the University of Montana, will provide an overview of the federal trust responsibility in providing an education to American Indian children.

Educators need to have appropriate, accessible information, she said. Ultimately, accurate education will do much to strengthen tribal economies and will help eliminate racial tensions, Smith said. "By educating people, you'll find people more inclined to work in Indian country."

If you go The second seminar in the series "Montana Constitution: Progressive Spirit of the Rocky Mountain West" will be held Friday in Helena. "Indian Education" will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the state Capitol's House Chambers. The seminar is free for those who attend sessions. Otherwise, $10 will be charged for lunch or continuing education credits. A complete schedule is available online at www.crmw.org/assets/misc/AgendaForTribalLeadersInstitute.htm. For more information or to register for the seminar, call (406) 243-7700 or e-mail ThompsonJ@mso.umt.edu.