American Indian Graduate Magazine Fall 2011

The

American Indian

Graduate Fall 2011

Inside this Issue: • Messages from the President and the Director • A Series of Tributes to Dr. Helen M. Sheirbeck • Gates Millennium Scholars • Student Leadership • Creek Indian Lawyer Represents Governments in Washington, D.C. • 2010-2011 Rainer Fellowship Recipients Announced • Tribal Energy Program at Sandia • An Oneida Woman’s Journey

The American Indian Graduate is now available online at www.aigcs.org

An easy way for federal employees to donate — 11514 American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC)

A Tribute to Dr. Helen M. Scheirbeck 1935 - 2010

Table of Contents

The American Indian Graduate Volume 10, Number 2 A Publication of the American Indian Graduate Center 4520 Montgomery Blvd., NE Suite 1B Albuquerque, NM 87109 Phone: (505) 881-4584 Fax: (505) 884-0427

Volume 10, Number 2 • Fall 2011

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Message from the President Message from the Director

Special Events Honoring Those Who Stand Out in the Crowd!

by Susan Duran

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A Series of Articles (Pages 10-19) Personal Tributes to Dr. Helen M. Scheirbeck

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Finding My Voice Cultivating Leadership through Identity

by Sarah M. Nelson

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Student Services Opportunities for Native American Students at Catoosa High School

by Michelle Metcalf

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David Mahooty, President Zuni

Student Leaders Gates Millennium Scholars Start Student Organization

by Todd Crow, Contributing Writer for The Northeastern

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Back to the Beginning My Ph.D. Journey

by David Sanders, PhD, Oglala Lakota

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Learning to Lead Student Leadership

by Ashley J. Ryerse

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Rose Graham Navajo

by Deidra Suwanee Dees, Ed.D.

Spotlight on an AIGC Fellow An Emerging Leader

by Adan Ortega

Melanie P. Fritzsche, Secretary-Treasurer Pueblo of Laguna

Michael E. Bird Kewa/Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo

Making Progress Creek Indian Lawyer Represents Tribal Governments in Washington, D.C.

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Grayson B. Noley, Vice President Choctaw

Dee Ann DeRoin, M.D. Ioway Tribe of Kansas

Publisher Sam Deloria Director Susan Duran Stephine Poston Editors Jim Weidlein Production Editor Carolyn S. Tate Design and Layout AIGC Board of Directors

Website: www.aigcs.org

Danna R. Jackson Confederated Tribes of Salish & Kootenai Gov. Bill Anoatubby Chickasaw Cover: Dr. Helen M. Scheirbeck

Continued on page 4

The American Indian Graduate

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Table of Contents

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48

The Rainer Fellowship 2010-2011 Rainer Fellowship Recipients Announced

Developing Strategies Keep it Simple

by Marveline Vallo Gabbard

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Lessons Learned Presenting at a National Conference

by Gabriel M. Bell

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Making the Impossible Possible Simon Chief (Navajo), Northern Arizona University

by Shannon Effler

by Velda Begay

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Moving Forward Being Different

by Lee Longhorn

Evergreen State College Evergreen’s MPA in Tribal Governance Soon to Celebrate 10th Anniversary

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Giving Back AIGC Honored by Philanthropic Award from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians

by Susan Duran

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Choosing the Right School The Case for Highly-Selective Colleges

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by Steven Abbott

Gates Millennium Scholars Helpful Application Tips

by Steven Abbott

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Alumni Connection The Alumni Connection

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Sandia National Laboratories Tribal Energy Program at Sandia

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Empowers Native American students while powering tribal lands

by Stephanie Hobby

A New Generation of Leaders ONASHE Oklahoma Native American Students in Higher Education

by Christopher Roman Nose (Oklahoma City University), Mekko Tyner (College of the Muscogee Nation) and Robin Williams (Oklahoma State University)

Choctaw Nation Scholarship 58 The Advisement Program

The Ivy League & Friends Event

by Susan Duran

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Professional Growth Be a STAR

Practice the COIN Principle

by Nancy A. Berryhill

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Surprises and Opportunities Following a Dream

by Velda Begay

Forging Connections Between Choctaw Nation Students and Highly Selective Colleges

by Jo McDaniel

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From Passion to Profession An Oneida Woman’s Journey

Achieving a Graduate Education in Pursuit of Developing Native Youth and Indian Education Programs

by Melissa Powless

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Advertising: To advertise in The American Indian Graduate, please contact Leander Bekaye, or send an e-mail to: leander@aigcs.org Article Submissions: Submit all articles to Susan Duran, Consulting Editor, for consideration. E-mail: susan@aigcs.org Reprints and Permissions: Reprints of published articles and/or artwork are prohibited without permission of the American Indian Graduate Center.

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American Indian Graduate Center, 4520 Montgomery Blvd., Suite 1B, Albuquerque, NM 87109, (505) 881-4584 phone, (505) 884-0427 fax Visit us On-Line! www.aigcs.org 2011 AIGC, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published submissions and advertisements do not necessarily reflect the view of AIGC, Inc.

Message from the President

I Gave at the Office

by David Mahooty

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s President of the American Indian Graduate Center Board of Directors, I am excited about the opportunities this organization provides for students and professionals. Since 1969, AIGC has provided nearly $50,000,000 in scholarships toward our mission of building, promoting and honoring self-sustaining American Indian and Alaska Native communities. This investment in your community has led to legislation and policy in all areas of economic development, through the great thinking and hard work of the individuals AIGC has supported over the years. Now, I challenge you to reinvest in AIGC to create your colleagues or possibly even your replacement, as you may be planning to retire. Your investment in AIGC can be part of your organization’s succession plan.

For over four decades, AIGC has had the distinct privilege of managing the Bureau of Indian Affairs Special Higher Education Program scholarship dollars (and other monies) to serve thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native graduate and professional students across the nation. These individuals are working in every state, in a variety of positions at all levels, or may be retired at this time. As you look around your office, community, tribe, government, clinic or hospital, school, public and private industry and judicial systems, or read newspapers and magazines, most likely you will find one of the exceptional individuals AIGC has funded to get them where they are today – a change agent for Indian Country. Perhaps you are one of the individuals we supported. I am.

In this edition of The American Indian Graduate, you will learn about one of Indian Country’s educational leaders and true friend to AIGC, Dr. Helen Scheirbeck. Helen’s tireless and lifelong dedication to American Indian and Alaska Native education will be realized for generations to come. Helen was a supporter of many organizations through her personal giving, volunteerism and professional work. It is our pleasure to honor her work in this edition.

As AIGC staff reached out to students and professionals to contribute to this edition, they sought individuals who exemplified the spirit of giving that Helen displayed

David Mahooty

with her life. I hope you enjoy these stories from our students, parents, professionals and financial supporters alike.

The Board of Directors continues to seek large contributions to expand our support of American Indian students at all levels of academic pursuit; however, we realize we have been remiss in asking you, the very people we have supported over the decades, to support the next groups of scholars who will continue the work Helen started. Many of you have corporate giving departments that allow for directed giving. I encourage you to explore these options, as Marvin Luna, Kevin Teehee and so many of our Society of American Indian Government Employees (SAIGE) partners have done. “I gave at the office”, can be painless and provide opportunities for your future colleagues to continue the spirit of giving that Helen would so greatly appreciate. Of course, we are always happy to accept monetary gifts, volunteers at events or even your expert advice as the organization grows.

In closing, I, too, give at the office; not only through financial support to AIGC, but volunteering a portion of my time to several organizations. I hope to greet many of you at the Santa Fe Indian Market (August 18-21), the National Indian Education Association Convention in Albuquerque (October 26-30) or any of the Albuquerque local events, where I plan to join AIGC staff. When you are in town, don’t hesitate to stop by the AIGC offices to see how your donation is working for Indian education.

Happy Reading. ✦

The American Indian Graduate

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Message from the Director

My Friend, Helen

by Sam Deloria

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his issue of The American Indian Graduate is dedicated to Helen Maynor Scheirbeck. In other articles, herein, we talk about her distinguished career and people who knew her well, at various times throughout her life, give us their memories and impressions. I won’t cover ground covered by others, I hope, but would like to explain my view of why we should care about the loss of this one person in particular.

Over the years, I have made clear my belief that there is way too much honoring in the Indian business and way, way too much honoring phonies, self-promoters and friends of the people and organizations with honors to bestow. All this honoring makes it difficult for young people to know whom to emulate, and why, and tends to drown out those plaudits that are deserved.

(And yes, Helen was, and is, a friend of mine and I get to decide whom this magazine honors. Friend or not, it is inconceivable to me that we would not celebrate her life with us; it should have been celebrated more around the country). She wasn’t a self-promoter; she sure as heck wasn’t a phony.

She was one of those people you knew forever and don’t remember the first time it was that you actually met her. I knew her as “Scheirbeck”; the people I know, who knew her, all called her “Scheirbeck”; sometimes Helen. At NMAI, Norbert Hill said all of Indian Country knew her as ‘Auntie Helen’. I would not have dared call her Auntie Helen and didn’t know anyone who did.

It must have been a plumb different sphere of her life when they called her that.

She reminded me of a 4th grade teacher, for whom C’s in “Deportment” were not good enough, even when you had A’s and B’s in the academic subjects, or maybe especially when you had A’s and B’s. By being encouraging (rather than critical), she made you feel you should do better and be a better person.

Sam Deloria

What else to emulate? Well, for starters, I never knew Helen to want a job unless she thought she could bring something useful to it and accomplish something important for society in general, for Indian people in particular and for Indian students even more in particular. And, when she took a job, that’s the way she did it, with her full attention, not with one eye on her next job.

Maybe her most important accomplishment was that she opened our eyes so that we began to realize that, regardless of how the government wanted to portray us (to emphasize how our numbers were shrinking), people who saw themselves as Indians were all over the country in all different conditions and situations, not just on federally-recognized reservations in the West. To my knowledge, she was the first to make us look at the reality of who we are and how we live, and not simply to parrot the clichés that we ourselves wanted to hear, or embody the stereotypes that people in power want us to be. This is enormously important: I think, through her work for the Eastern tribes, she helped free many of us from a stereotyped identity and to begin to accept that the idea of “Indian” encompassed a much more diverse group of people than even we had realized.

I have never seen anyone who could, like her, gain access to the circles of power without giving up anything important in return.

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She had a remarkable ability to focus and to know what she wanted to accomplish, to really listen to other points of view, without becoming distracted, and to stick to her guns without being quarrelsome or defensive and without putting anyone else down. It is not easy to be open to other people’s ideas and, at the same time, be completely dedicated to one’s own. Helen’s concentration on her long-range goals was enormously threatening to some and she was the object of nasty abuse from lesser people, yet I never heard her refer to the personal attacks she had to endure.

I have never seen anyone who could, like her, gain access to the circles of power without giving up anything important in return. When she died, many important and powerful people stopped and reflected on what she had done, for them and for the Indian people – and what she had led them to do for Indian students. Some people tried to capitalize on her death to promote themselves; other people made themselves scarce so that they would not suffer the comparison with her.

As I look at the list of Helen’s traits that I think young people should emulate, it is not surprising that I have picked out traits that I think are important; others may see her differently. I realize in writing this that she made me a better person, not because I tried consciously to be like her, but because I sensed a set of expectations by which I was being measured and I was afraid to fall short – although of course I did and still do. But she set a standard in many ways that I have tried, imperfectly, to achieve.

These days, women and the “elders” are given a lot of attention as sources of wisdom. I think back on some of the old Indians I knew when I was growing up, and the Indian women who have provided leadership in my lifetime. I was afraid of not measuring up to those people. Helen was one of them. Not many left. (I’m married to another one). ✦

Proudly Supporting AIGC During the 2011 Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow in Albuquerque, Sam Deloria recognized PNM for providing scholarship funding for students pursuing degrees in advanced fields. We are proud to do so and we look forward to continuing that commitment. Congratulations to the American Indian Graduate Center for more than 40 years of success.

PNM Tribal Relations Administrator Cathy Newby with Sam Deloria, AIGC Executive Director.

The American Indian Graduate

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Special Events

Honoring Those Who Stand Out in the Crowd!

by Susan Duran

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his year, an estimated 100,000 Native Americans celebrated their heritage and traditions at the Gathering of Nations Pow Wow at the University of New Mexico ‘Pit”. That same weekend, many of them, along with students, supporters and friends joined the American Indian Graduate Center in a celebration just across the street, at the Albuquerque Isotopes baseball park.

On April 30, 2011, the American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) held its third annual reception to celebrate education and to honor individuals and organizations that have proven to be advocates for higher education. As in previous years, AIGC selected one alumnus, one alumna, one tribe and one organization for recognition at this year’s reception. The 2011 honorees were Marvin P. Luna, Stacy L. Leeds, PNM and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, for their Scholarship Advisement Program.

• AIGC alumnus, Marvin P. Luna (Navajo), earned his MBA from Arizona State University and currently works for IBM’s Microelectronics Division in Mesa, Arizona.

Marvin is married, with 3 beautiful daughters, and has continually supported AIGC through employee payroll deductions for many years.

Choctaw Nation SAP staff (left to right) Shauna Williams, Donor and Scholarship Development; Twauna Williams, College Prep Counselor; Stephanie Hodge Gardner, College Prep Coordinator and Jo McDaniel, Director

among tribal judges and a former justice on the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court, the only woman and youngest person ever to serve in that capacity. Stacy is a highly regarded speaker and routinely presents at national conferences on a variety of legal issues affecting American Indian people, tribal governments, property law and natural resources. Stacy is always one of the first to respond to any AIGC request or call to action.

• As the state of New Mexico’s largest investor-owned utility, PNM embraces the opportunity • Stacy L. Leeds, an AIGC alumna, is Dean at the University of Arkan- AIGC alumnus, Marvin L. Luna (foreground) to be actively involved in the communities it serves. PNM and the sas Law School; the first American PNM Resources Foundation assist communities in Indian woman to serve as dean at a law school in the New Mexico each year, contributing nearly $2 million United States. Prior to assuming her new position, on to nonprofit community organizations. Over the past July 1, 2011, Stacy was Interim Associate Dean for several years, PNM has become a committed partner Academic Affairs, Professor of Law and Director of with the American Indian Graduate Center, by donatthe Tribal Law & Government Center at the Univering generously toward AIGC scholarships and helpsity of Kansas. She is a nationally-recognized leader

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Director, Sam Deloria with PNM representative, Cathy Newby

ing sponsor AIGC events. Cathy Newby, of the PNM Governmental Affairs Department, attended the reception and accepted on behalf of the organization.

• The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma’s Scholarship Advisement Program (SAP) was created, in late 2006, to help overcome consistently high Native American college dropout rates. Program services include college selection counseling, admission test preparation, helping students find scholarships, grants, internships and fellowships, summer program advisement, and peer advisement and mentoring.

SAP is always ready to support AIGC staff as we pass through Durant, OK. In addition to program Director, Jo McDaniel, SAP staff members Shauna Williams, Stephanie Gardner and Twauna Williams were on hand to represent the Choctaw Nation.

In addition to the presentations (each honoree received a Certificate of Appreciation and a Pendleton blanket), AIGC served a traditional ‘ball park fare’ of hot dogs, chips and ice cream, hosted a silent auction and held drawings for several great door prizes.

The reception was also a wonderful opportunity for renewing old friendships and making new ones, plus a chance for AIGC staff members to play ‘catch-up’ with some of our graduate and undergraduate students. One family had four generations in attendance — a first for one of our events.

AIGC alumna, Stacy L. Leeds, with AIGC Director, Sam Deloria

Generous donors provided a variety of silent auction items, everything from an autographed NFL football to fine art; there was something for everyone.

Our heartfelt thanks to the wonderful sponsors of our event: Sacred Wind, PNM and the Albuquerque Isotopes!

We would also like to thank our generous silent auction donors: Jim Pearson, Nocona Burgess, Cliff Fragua, Coca~Cola, SWAIA, Strictly Southwestern, Tammy Beavais Designs, Nike, Sandia Golf Club, Notah Begay, Albuquerque Donations.com, Albuquerque Isotopes, Stephine Poston and several AIGC staff members.

Thanks to everyone who took time out of their weekend to join us. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at next year’s event, which will be bigger and better than ever! ✦

The American Indian Graduate

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A Look Back

“Remembering Helen” Growing Up with Helen Delanor Maynor Scheirbeck

by Ruth Dial Woods, Ed.D. Ph.D. Lumbee Activist and Educator

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drug store owned and operated by Kirby Kilpatrick; a grocery store operated by Raymond Hendrix; a town hall with an office for Judge Folger; a Scottish Bank managed by Earl Hall, a hardware store operated by Marvin Dorman and the Pates Supply Complex owned and operated by the McNairs and supervised

by Russell Livermore, Sr., all white, painted the picture of the town of Pembroke, North Carolina, where Helen Delanor Maynor and I grew up. We were “town kids”, but our fathers owned land and farms and both farmers and tenant farmers had to “trade” at Pates Supply Company to purchase farming supplies, sell their cotton at the gin and, if they could pay their bill, they could get new clothes and household items between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

These eastern landlords, businessmen and store operators were of the same generation as those white opportunists who moved from the east into western Indian territory. They gave credit to Indian people and controlled them through “settling up” at the end of each crop year, leaving tenant farmers “still owing” a balance no matter how hard the Indian people worked.

Helen Delanor Maynor and I had the advantage of growing up in the town of Pembroke. Her father, Lacy Maynor, was the local Indian barber and owned his own shop and, in an adjoining building, his cousin operated the “beauty” shop, where both Helen and I often went to perm our straight hair using those old-style electric curlers. As children, we attended an all-Indian school, where we were taught by some white teachers who were associated with the white college faculty at the normal school, missionaries and Indian teachers with “B” certificates, who had graduated from the Croat, an Indian Normal School, and returned after the l940s to earn “A” certificates. The white teachers at the Indian Normal School, their cousins and family friends had attended state colleges and universities in North Carolina and other areas, but Indians in North Carolina were prohibited from studying anywhere except the Indian Normal School,

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later renamed Pembroke State College for Indians and, presently, a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system, the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, with Indians in the minority.

Helen and I lived within walking distance of each other. Her homeplace still stands and I remember as a young girl the many times her mother, “Miss Sally”, told me where I could go in the house and where I could not. Helen was two years older than I, but our families were good friends so we were allowed to play together.

Her father became the first Indian judge in Pembroke and my Dad was a member of the Pembroke Town Fire Department. As “town Indians”, Helen and I had more opportunities than most of the other young boys and girls our age. We had an Indian elementary school, an Indian High School and the Pembroke State College, all within a stone’s throw of our homes. We could go to the college library and check out books (a privilege) and the librarian, Miss Kanable, always told us how we needed to be very careful with the books.

Although Helen was two years older, I “caught up” with her in third grade because I had attended the Plymouth Brethren Church School and “skipped” the second grade. In school we played “keeping house” by outlining our block houses and then dividing the rooms with pine

straw under the trees on the school grounds. There was no designated playground and certainly no playground equipment, so we played house, while the boys either played with rocks instead of marbles or a teacher had a baseball and bat.

There were no lunchrooms so we carried our lunch to school. Lunch was often a ham biscuit or a biscuit filled with jelly, in season a piece of fruit – apple or orange – if we had some. Before we finished elementary school, we did have a “lunchroom”, but we only ate lunch that we brought from home and the government provided us with a half-pint of milk or orange juice.

Helen and I were friends with some other “town” kids: Elizabeth Ann Locklear, who married and lives in Detroit, Michigan; Janine Locklear, who married and became a teacher in Columbia, South Carolina and came back home to retire; Vera Doris Locklear, whose father was a local Baptist minister and a career teacher, who is still a church choir leader and organizer and director of a local cantata group, and Cora Sue Revels (Helen’s cousin), who also became a career teacher and had an older sister, Kathleen Revels, now deceased, who became the first Lumbee Indian registered nurse and later an officer in the United States Navy. We were girls but, long before women’s rights, we were encouraged by our parents to “do something with our lives” and, while opportunities were limited, we did exactly that.

Helen went away to live with her Aunt in Pennsylvania because her father knew that she would never be able to become a lawyer if she graduated from an Indian high school in North Carolina. We were both ”Daddy’s girls” but, while Judge Lacy had a vision for Helen, my Dad chose to keep a strong hand on me and, even when I finished high school at age 15, he didn’t want me to go away to college. My mother intervened and I went to private school because Indians were still not accepted into state universities in 1952.

It wasn’t until I became Director of the Indian Education Project in l972, at the Robeson County Board of Education, that Helen and I “reconnected.” This reconnection led to our constant working together for the next 30 years. Together with Janie Maynor Locklear, we developed a network of American Indian colleagues across the country and with HELEN’S HELP AND GUIDANCE, we led our Lumbee people into unchartered issues and worked to ensure that our people were informed. Our representatives in the U.S. House and Senate knew that we were aware and ready to establish our rightful place in America! In addition, North Carolina and local Robeson County officials knew that the Indians were no longer “controllable!”

Many were the times I received a telephone call from Helen giving me a moment’s notice to get a month’s work or a task completed within 24 hours. She led the charge and Janie and I pulled the forces to the front! Helen was never about Helen – long before the song, “Go and Get an Education” was written, Judge Lacy Maynor sent Helen away to get an education and prepare her to “HELP HER PEOPLE.” Helen and I shared that bond with our fathers and both sensed the strong desire of our fathers to prepare ourselves for a better life. It was expected, we were of age and we knew what we were supposed to do.

Helen was tireless – she never concentrated on one thing at the time. She developed her multi-tasking skills and modeled them for both friends and foes. In my 40 years of working with Helen, not to mention our long friendship, I never heard her engage in gossip – she never set about criticizing someone’s character and, on those occasions when she was attacked, she would eloquently say: “Well, my dear, you know we can disagree and still have the problem” or “Well, my dear, you have your opinion and I have mine, so I guess we’ll just disagree and work on the solution each in our own way.” Helen had very little tolerance for gossip, backbiting and demeaning behavior. She always said, “There is too much that needs to be done to engage in unproductive endeavors.”

Helen was a national Indian and her blood was Lumbee, but she was a visionary for all Indian people.

Indian people were first and foremost in her heart and she never wavered in her quest to ensure that we were always included in any activity, program, initiative or legislation. She was always ready to ask: “What about America’s first people?” and then turn to us and say, “What have you done for your people today?”

Although Helen adored and collected authentic Indian artifacts, pottery, jewelry, arts and crafts and Although Helen understood and enjoyed the role of our traditions, beliefs and practices and Although Helen faced adversity and suspicion in trying to encourage us all to focus on nation building and Although Helen never realized how she touched the lives of the people she loved the most – American Indians Helen knew that all of us needed to dedicate ourselves to building a stronger nation for the generations yet to come, so that they, too, can stand before the Grandfathers and the Grandmothers and look forward to hearing them say: “Well done, Grandchildren, you have made us proud!” As Helen now joins with them in looking down from the clouds amid the mountaintops, I know that she is with us all in spirit and still holds us in her heart, just as she did throughout her life and her work for all American Indian people. ✦

The American Indian Graduate

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Leaving a Legacy

Reflections of Helen by a fellow Lum (David Wilkins)

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very Native nation throughout history has been enabled to fulfill their unique destinies, in part, because of the presence of vibrant leadership.

The Lumbee people of North Carolina, one of the largest indigenous communities in the U.S., have been no exception.

I spent the first half of my youth living on various military reservations. When my father finally retired and we settled into Robeson County, the central home for a majority of the Lumbee people, I was quickly brought up to speed by my peers and my elders, about who the leading figures were among the Lumbee. As in many tribal communities, certain family names tend to take up greater space–both literally and figuratively–than others and Helen’s family, the Maynors, was one such family.

As a college student at Pembroke State University, I had heard of the important work her father had done and had been briefly introduced to Helen’s name by some friends. I knew that she was one of the few Lumbees who had earned a Ph.D. and I also knew that she took the subject of education very seriously.

I did not actually meet Helen until after I’d graduated from college and was working in Raleigh, as an apprentice at the Department of Archives and History.

I was conducting genealogical research on two tribal communities, the Coharie and the Lumbee, and had been given wide access to the bounty of county and state records housed at the department. I fell in love with archival research and longed to pursue other research projects that might be of benefit to Native nations.

My first meeting with Helen was in the Spring of 1979. The federal department of education, I learned, was going to conduct a fact-finding hearing in Raleigh, on a study it was then doing that was supposed to lead to a more suitable “definition” of “who was an Indian,” for purposes of federal legislation dealing with Indian education matters. For reasons I don’t recall, I was given an opportunity to testify. Helen, already one of the leading Lumbee and national Indian figures on Indian education matters, was one of the leading figures who also testified.

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We had a brief meeting at the end of the day and she asked me what my plans were.

I told her I wanted to continue my education in the area of Indian treaties, law and history, and she informed me that Vine Deloria had recently implemented just such a program at the University of Arizona, under the auspices of the political science department.

Her description enthralled me and she was kind enough to say that she would contact Vine and let him know of my interest. Within a week, Vine called me at my workplace, described the program and, within a year, I was in Tucson studying federal Indian policy.

After I graduated in 1982, with my Master’s degree, Helen offered me a job working with her, in Alexandria, Virginia, at the organization she had started, United Indians of America (UIA). I was able to use the research skills I had acquired in Raleigh and the knowledge I had gained studying under Vine and the other members of the department, to conduct detailed historical research in the Virginia archives. Helen was working closely with several of the non-recognized Native communities within the state that were in pursuit of state recognition. My job was to mine the historical materials and verify the lengthy historical relationship between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the various Native nations of the state. I relished that work and, within a year or so, the combined efforts of the tribal nations and their many allies, along with Helen’s diligence and political strategy, paid off and the state formally recognized several of the tribal communities.

Simultaneously, Helen also engaged me to conduct historical research, in conjunction with Ruth Dial Woods’ Title IV project in Robeson County, NC, that aimed to examine the county records in North Carolina

and cultural autonomy. If one tracks her public life, they can see how productive she was in each of these interrelated fields. Upon her retirement from the National Museum of the American Indian, she had plans to write several books. I was so looking forward to those works, as they would have been powerful takes on critical issues confronting not only the Lumbee, but other aboriginal peoples as well.

The indigenous leaders, like Helen, who emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s, were focused on serving the people and their lands and addressing the profound issues that continue to bedevil our nations. They understood that forging amicable relationships, with individuals and communities of various racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds were a key to improving the lot of indigenous nations and making the U.S. a more truly democratic polity.

Helen’s legacy will continue to beam brightly for me and I shall always strive to remember and act with the same kind of intellectual humility, good humor and dogged persistence that she always displayed. ✦

and South Carolina in an effort to ascertain and try and bring greater clarity to the origins of the Lumbee people.

That research was also most fulfilling.

By the spring of 1984, funding for Helen’s organization, UIA, was nearly exhausted and she let me know that she couldn’t keep me on the payroll. That worked out as well, as my wife (a Dine citizen) was homesick so we relocated to Arizona, where I landed my first teaching job at Navajo Community College (NCC) (now Dine College). I would later learn that Helen’s national leadership skills had been very influential in Congress’ enactment of the Tribally Controlled Community College Act, of which NCC was the first such institution.

I’ve basically lived in the West since then, with the exception of a four year stint at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill (1986-1990), where I earned my Ph.D. in political science.

Helen and I maintained contact throughout the years on various issues, particularly our people’s quest for federal recognition. I would call her for advice on various topics, usually centered around jobs, and she would sometimes phone me to pick my brain on a particular topic. We both hoped to organize a gathering, at some point, that would have brought together many Lumbee educators in an effort to chart out a course of action for our nation.

Helen’s brilliant career, as I see it, was dominated by four major themes: education, civil rights, children

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Remembering Helen

I Miss Helen

by Mary Klein Maples

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hat is in one individual life? We will each answer with our own conviction. Yet, this I know: Helen Maynor Scheirbeck was one of the greats of this world – a rare jewel. I miss Helen.

My first memory of Helen goes back to 1990, when she was considering whether or not to apply for the job of Branch Chief for the American Indian Program branch of Head Start in Washington, D.C. My most recent memory was of the last time I spoke with her, in October, 2009. She had a stroke in 2009 and did not regain her ability to speak. She made frequent use of the two words: “Yay” and “Nay”. Her daughter handed her the telephone and we had another sprightly conversation.

Helen was a very wise woman – plain-spoken, with few illusions about people or the events that people brought about. There are no words in any language to describe Helen’s deep and profound love for Indian people. This love never wavered. When friends would tell her she was working too hard, that she needed to rest more, that she needed a vacation, a break, her reply was always, “My father told me to always work for Indian people.”

Therein lies the essence, meaning and reality of her life.

Born on The Lumbee Nation of South Carolina, Helen developed a deep cultural understanding, as a young child, that would act as a bridge between professionals of many different backgrounds. She once told me that she began work at age 19 in The Office of Education in Washington, D.C. She was called “The Indian Desk”; Helen and 500 plus Indian tribes trying to make sense of “governmentese” language. One of her greatest and important contributions was her ability to negotiate between and among many different groups of people. She was unrelenting in pursuing established goals, calling people at midnight or on Sundays to discuss progress. She had a sense of urgency to find solutions to problems. Put simply, Helen revitalized the American Indian Program branch. She did this with great finesse and lots of consultations in all parts of the U.S. She urged programs to make more effective use of their training funds, to plan for adding Early Head Start projects and to collaborate with community agencies. She

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The American Indian Graduate

conceived and implemented tribal consultations far and wide. Helen helped develop new materials for training policy councils, for reporting health and safety concerns and for home-based programs.

A lasting effect is being realized from Helen’s work to have tribal colleges at the local level, so that Head Start teachers might receive the training they need. There are now 13 tribal colleges near Head Start centers. She also initiated distance learning models, using home computers, with one tribal college taking the lead. Many more teachers could be certified. All types of people enjoyed working with Helen; she was enthusiastic and always kept her “eyes on the prize.” When Helen would speak at meetings and conferences, she would always say, “Remember, we are building our next generation of leaders through these Head Start children.” This appealed to people and helped motivate staff. Her manner at these events was like the rest of her life – completely unpretentious.

Helen loved to learn. When one of our education consultants and I spoke to her about our concerns with lack of useful child assessments in our program she replied, “Well, I don’t know much about that. Could you show me a few assessments you like?” I sent her a batch; she read them and asked, “Could we visit a place where

you think they are doing an effective job?”We met at an outstanding program, did some observations, had conferences and Helen was absolutely thrilled. She became a lifelong believer in developmental assessment.

When Helen traveled across the country for work, her cell phone was usually active about 20 hours a day.

She was helping people find jobs, write resumes, prepare college materials, solve problems or perhaps be referred to one of her hundreds of friends for further help. Everyone who worked with her was in awe of the busy schedule she kept.

When Helen left Head Start to assume a job in public education for The National Museum of the American Indian, she let us know she would still be working for Indian children. This museum fulfills a lifelong desire of Helen’s. She once told me that, when she first came to Washington, she would visit all the wonderful museums on the Mall and wonder why there was not an Indian Museum there. She began inviting people to her home on Saturday mornings for breakfast. The topic

was a museum for Indian people. Eventually, a Board was formed and, for a time, Helen was Secretary of the Board; she continued to be involved throughout the next 20 years or more. She had always wanted a discoverytype room for children there. Imagine how ecstatic Helen would be to know that the center called imagiNation Activity Center will open September, 2011.

Helen’s modesty was always intact. I did not learn until after her death, in December 2010, that Helen had worked on the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968; the Indian Education Act of 1975 or the Community College Act of 1978.

I miss Helen. Things will not be the same without her, nor can they be, for we know that change is the law of life. Knowing Helen and realizing that she considered me a friend is a heavenly blessing in my life and always will be. Helen usually signed her letters and notes with this prayer – “May The Great Spirit give you good health, happiness and a full life.” ✦

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The American Indian Graduate

15

A Tribute to Helen Scheirbeck

A Remarkable Journey

by Jane Moretz Edmisten

W

hen I was asked to write a short piece about my dear friend, Dr. Helen Maynor Scheirbeck, I realized I could not do it justice in the space of a one-month deadline – a month that required me to grade scores of law school papers, prepare for summer school, teach till 9:00 p.m., or later, four out of five weeknights and run my busy law practice during a month that took me out of town three times. My first reaction was to start doing research on Helen’s early days on Capitol Hill, which I soon had to abandon. I finally concluded that I must resolve to treat this little tribute as, indeed, little; it is only a small token of what needs to be said about Helen.

I remember the day I met Helen. It was late in 1963, when I was taken to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, by my then new (now ex) husband, to meet his new colleagues. Helen was sitting at a desk near the only window of a room that served as a shared office for at least two other colleagues. She was very pretty, with short dark hair and a brilliant smile – that smile she kept to the end of her life. Little did I know that Helen, even then, had her hands in numerous legislative pies. She worked on issues ranging from Indian rights to wiretapping policies across the country, poverty issues, education issues and the list goes on and on.

Her hallmark was her devotion to Indian rights, but her scope went far beyond. While Helen’s deepest commitment was to her people, she believed in human rights for all people and adhered to the personal ethic of human respect and compassion toward everyone she ever met.

Although I was struck by Helen from the beginning and knew that she played an important role at the Subcommittee, it was much later that I came to realize what a remarkable journey her life was.

Helen was born into the Lumbee Tribe of Native American Indians and she, with her family, lived in Robeson County, North Carolina, a place defined by poverty and struggle. When Helen was a child, there were four school systems in that county – one for white

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The American Indian Graduate

students, one for blacks, one for Lumbees and one for children of mixed background, called the “Smileys.” Yes, there were four school systems, each dreadfully inadequate. Helen’s father, Judge Lacy Maynor, a renowned and respected leader in the area, recognized that he had to send his bright young daughter to live with relatives in Pennsylvania, where she could obtain a more or less adequate education. That separation from her parents was difficult for everyone, but it did not separate Helen from her parents; it only expanded her definition of family to include her cousins in Pennsylvania.

From Pennsylvania public schools, Helen went on to Berea College in Kentucky. A fit candidate for the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Helen, at the time, would not have been allowed to matriculate there.

So, Berea it was and Berea afforded her a fine education at virtually no cost to her or her family.

When Helen finished her schooling at Berea, which must have been around 1956, she did not stop learning. She attended graduate school at Columbia University and, ultimately, finished her PhD at Virginia Tech,

commuting from her home in Fairfax County as a single working mother. This dedication, determination and commitment to self-improvement made it possible for Helen to accomplish all she did in her lifetime.

At the time when Helen was working on the Subcommittee under the late Senator Sam J. Ervin, Jr., of North Carolina she had, as one of her major assignments, investigations into the rights of Native Americans, a cause to which Senator Ervin had long been committed. During the course of her time with Senator Ervin, I discovered that Helen accompanied the Committee to conduct hearings in the field, on reservations around the country and that she was the only female staffer allowed to travel to attend these field hearings. Senator Ervin often praised Helen and in an April 14, 1961 speech at Pembroke College in Pembroke, NC (the predecessor to the now University of North Carolina at Pembroke, where we have established a scholarship in Helen’s memory), Senator Ervin said; “Miss Helen Maynor, who, as many of you know, is a Native of Pembroke … is a young lady of whom any community would be proud. She is alert and intelligent and, in the tradition of her father, Judge Lacy W. Maynor, is making a fine contribution to the overall work of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights and specifically on the subcommittee study of the constitutional rights of the American Indians.”

In addition, Helen single-handedly completed a research survey of the wiretapping laws in all fifty states, which was then published as a major committee document. She also worked on what was the predecessor draft of the Bill of Rights for the American Indian, attached as a separate Title to the Civil Rights Act of 1968 but, by the time that legislation was enacted, she had left the Subcommittee to take on other tasks that would eventually lead her to the niche she loved most, namely education and, in particular, education for Native Americans.

Helen’s career, after her departure from the Subcommittee, was illustrious and included serving as the National Director for Head Start, serving reservations and American Indian and Alaskan Natives all around the country; Chair of the Indian Education Task Force,

at the request of President Jimmy Carter and Director of the U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare Office of Indian Education. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Museum of the American Indian and later headed that Museum’s public programs. As Richard Kurin, the Under Secretary for History, Art and Culture at the Smithsonian Institute, noted at the Memorial Service held in Helen’s honor on March 21st, 2011, the Museum is “Helen’s Museum” and “we would not have it without her.”

All these accomplishments and many more defined the Helen so well known to her friends around the country. But there was one accomplishment that was tremendously important to Helen, at what turned out to be the end of her life, and I want to share my story about one of my fondest memories of Helen.

Sometime in late 2008 or 2009, Helen called me, very excited and animated, and said, “Jane, I got this letter from the University in Chapel Hill. I think you had something to do with this.” I asked, “Helen, what letter are you talking about?” “Well,” she said, “it is a letter telling me I am going to get an honorary PhD from the University in the May 2009 Commencement.” She was so excited

Sometime in late 2008 or 2009, Helen called me, very excited and animated, and said, “Jane, I got this letter from the University in Chapel Hill. I think you had something to do with this.” I asked, “Helen, what letter are you talking about?”

“Well,” she said, “it is a letter telling me I am going to get an honorary PhD from the University in the May 2009 Commencement.”

The American Indian Graduate

17

A Tribute to Helen Scheirbeck she could hardly speak, for receiving an honorary degree from the oldest state university in the country is quite an achievement for anyone, but it took on special significance to Helen, who could not attend the University when she was college age. Later, in the spring of 2009, Helen asked me if I was going to attend and I assured her I was. My arrangements, in fact, had already been made. Then, as the date approached, Helen announced that she wanted me to go as her guest to the dinner, honoring degree recipients, that was held at the Chancellor’s residence. I protested, telling her she should take someone in her family, but she insisted that she wanted me to go.

Prior to the dinner, I went to her room in the Carolina Inn and helped her dress for the occasion, because she had taken a fall and had her right hand in a sling, making it difficult for her to prepare for the dinner. We managed to get her in the dress she had chosen, into some choice pieces of her wonderful collection of Native American jewelry and went down to be driven to dinner. A dreadful summer thunderstorm commenced minutes into our American Indian Graduate Center (AIGC) drive and, by the time we arrived, a lot of Chapel Hill wasAd without power and tree branches were scattered all over

the roads. We approached the driveway to the Chancellor’s residence just behind the car carrying the graduation speaker and Helen’s fellow-recipient of an honorary degree, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We were all drenched just getting from our cars to the front door a few feet away and, after dripping a bit in the foyer, I took Helen into the living room and over to the area where drinks were being dispensed.

As we were getting something to drink, I noticed that the Archbishop was sitting across the room alone and his traveling companion was standing next to me. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and Helen, explaining that Helen was to receive an honorary degree with Archbishop Tutu, and then observed that “while we are no match for the South Africans in terms of being objects of discrimination, Helen has her own story.” I then explained the four-school-system arrangement in her childhood, her trip to Pennsylvania to get a public school education through high school and her journey to Berea College.

At that point, the gentleman interrupted me to say, “Oh, Published in Fall 2011I said, the Archbishop’s daughter Naomi went to Berea!”

“Really, how wonderful.”

t i ng Celebraears 21 Y

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The American Indian Graduate

He and Helen chatted for a moment and I saw the opportunity to take Helen over to the Archbishop, who was sitting next to an empty chair. I walked her over, introduced them and said, “Archbishop, you and Dr. Scheirbeck have something special in common – aside from the fact you are both getting honorary degrees tomorrow.” With that trademark twinkle in his eye, the Archbishop said, “What might that be?” I said, “Berea College. You need to talk to each other about that.”

Helen sat down next to him and, for ten minutes or more, she had a one-on-one conversation with the Archbishop, her face glowing with excitement and pleasure – like a child on the night before Christmas. They spoke with animation and obvious pleasure, and the Archbishop was clearly pleased to have found a kindred soul in his midst there in Chapel Hill.

Afterwards, Helen and I sat at a dinner table with the then-Provost of UNC, Dr. Bernadette Gray-Little, her husband and Hodding Carter, III, the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs during the Carter Administration and now the University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the UNC-Chapel Hill.

The then-President of UNC, Erskine Bowles, Archbishop Tutu and the Chancellor were nearby. Helen had a glorious time and, after we left, near midnight, Helen, the celebrated honored guest, turned into Helen the family keeper. She asked me to drive her out to the fringes of town to check on her sister, Frankie, and her Pennsylvanian cousin, Louise, to be sure they were comfortable in the hotel she had arranged for them. We went in, visited for a while and finally returned to the Carolina Inn. I accompanied Helen to her room to help her out of her fancy dress and left her for the night. The next morning I went over and helped her dress for the graduation ceremony and, notwithstanding her injured arm, she would have it no other way than to don her treasured Lumbee dress, which she proudly wore underneath her academic robe as she received her degree.

I did not see Helen after the ceremony, for she returned to her home in Pembroke with her family for several weeks. I spoke to her on the phone only a few days before she left to go to Maryland, for what was intended to be a brief visit, and found myself worried about her health, for she had been ill with bronchitis and was on antibiotics for a nasty cough. I urged her to go to Chapel Hill and see the doctors at the medical school or to come visit me and see someone here. I feared she was too far from really good medical treatment when she was at the Eastern Shore.

She persisted in her plan and resolved to talk after she got to Maryland. Alas, that was not to be, for, within days of her arrival, she had the stroke that ultimately took her life. On several occasions, I visited her after that dreadful event, both in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where I had arranged for her to be treated and, afterwards, back in Berlin, MD, after traveling there with her special friend, Frankie Gibson, who gave so generously of herself during the difficult months between the stroke and Helen’s death in December.

Every time I saw Helen, that expressive face would light up with recognition and understanding, even though her brilliant brain was imprisoned in a stricken body.

Every time I reminded her of her chat with Archbishop Tutu, she would smile broadly, obviously remembering a momentous occasion in her life.

Helen Maynor Scheirbeck Endowed Scholarship For all of you who knew and admired Helen, I would like to say that we have established the Helen Maynor Scheirbeck Endowed Scholarship at University of North Carolina – Pembroke, designed to keep her memory alive by providing education to those who, like Helen in her youth, need financial support. Donations can be made by sending tax deductable contributions to: UNCP Office of Advancement Attention: Alisia Oxendine P.O. Box 1510 Pembroke, NC 28372 Checks should be payable to UNCP Foundation, Inc. Please insert “for the Helen Maynor Scheirbeck Endowed Scholarship” in the memo line of your check and make sure to request a receipt reflecting the donation to the “Helen Maynor Scheirbeck Endowed Scholarship.”

Forgive me, Helen, that this small tribute is so brief.

I pledge to try to see that your legacy is more fully documented and that your sterling example will continue to lead us all to a better world. ✦ (Jane Moretz Edmisten is a lawyer and law school professor, in Washington DC, with strong North Carolina roots.)

The American Indian Graduate

19

Finding My Voice

Cultivating Leadership through Identity

by Sarah M. Nelson

L

ast year, when I was preparing to attend graduate school at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, I imagined the most difficult things I would encounter included impromptu quizzes, group projects from hell and professors that had no remorse. I never anticipated that the most difficult obstacle I would have to contend with would be me.

Prior to becoming a Buder Scholar at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, I had limited my voice as a Native woman. Being blonde, pale and covered in freckles, thanks to my Finnish, Swedish and Irish ancestry, I had no problem fitting in as an all-American white girl. No one would ever question whether I was Native or not and I chose to limit this information to only my closest friends and colleagues.

In my family, the celebration of our Anishinabbe lineage has been limited. Instead, in most of our actions and most of the words we speak, we seem to quite easily forget about the seven generations before us and find other reasons to celebrate.

When offered the opportunity to be a Buder Scholar, through the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, I knew I could never change my family and their beliefs, but I knew it was time to change myself. I would take this opportunity to step up and advocate for other Natives who were afraid to speak their words because they were not proud of their background.

I knew that this task would be difficult but, with my training in both the Master’s in Social Work and Master’s in Public Health programs, I would be ready to take it on. I am currently one year into the program and gaining more passion every day, for the things that I do. I have taken leadership positions, as the Washington University Pow Wow Co-chair and as the Secretary for the American Indian Student Association. These positions allow me to expand my own personal leadership skills,

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The American Indian Graduate

Sarah M. Nelson

while enhancing the lives of other Native students. I have maintained a 4.0 GPA, while working two jobs and conducting research. Had I not learned how to defend my thoughts and actions as a Native woman, I am not sure I would have accomplished so much.

As my future unfolds, I am sure I will run into more conflicts with my identity. My hope is to someday become a leader in American Indian health communication and education models. I know there will be many times when my research practices and methodology will be questioned, simply because I don’t have the skin pigment or hair color someone expects when they hear I am of Chippewa decent. As my confidence and comfort level about my heritage and my skills increase, the ease and trust of the communities and individuals I work with will grow, cultivating the strong relationships we need for Indian Country to flourish. ✦ (Sarah Nelson currently attends Washington University in St. Louis and is a 2013 MSW/MPH Candidate, at the Brown School of Social Work.

The Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies provides academic advancement opportunities to future American Indian leaders interested in making social work and public health advancements throughout Indian Country. For more information, visit http://buder.wustl.edu.)

Student Services

Opportunities for Native American Students at Catoosa High School

by Michelle Metcalf

Michelle Metcalf (far left) with three scholarship workshop participants. Michelle helped these three Cherokee high school seniors obtain thousands of dollars in scholarships.

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”

T

hese great words are from Theodore Roosevelt that I try and impart to our Native American students.

As a college and career counselor, it is important for me to help students find their career vision and provide them with academic resources. At Catoosa High School, about 60 students attended a “College/Career Opportunity Workshop” that I organized for our Native American students in the spring.

I wanted our students to know the valuable resources and opportunities that are at their disposal. Speakers who presented information were representatives from Cherokee employment and training specialists, higher education scholarships, business external relations and summer youth programs. Their presentations gave Native American students information about how to

apply for FAFSA, where they can obtain summer jobs, technical training available, tutoring and many other important services.

Additionally, our presentation included how volunteerism can be a tremendous asset to them. Giving back to their community can not only be altruistically rewarding, but also can be helpful in filling out scholarship applications.

It is important for students to build a strong educational foundation and to let it expand with dedication and careful decision-making. Native American students, who understand their post-secondary opportunities and options, are prime to find a successful career path. My goal is to assist in helping students build their passageway. ✦

The American Indian Graduate

21

Student Leaders

Gates Millennium Scholars Start Student Organization

by Todd Crow Contributing Writer for The Northeastern

A

new student organization has made Northeastern State University (NSU) its home this year and its members are striving to make the most of their time on campus. Before the fall semester, each Gates Millennium Scholar was, for the most part, on his or her own, while attending NSU. Now they have an official organization to call their own and a way to stay in contact with each other.

According to the web site, the Gates Millennium Scholarship (GMS) has been awarded to 1,000 high school students every year, since 1999. The program is funded through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with goals of promoting academic excellence and providing opportunities for outstanding minority students with significant financial need, allowing them to reach their highest potential. The application process for a Gates Millennium Scholar hopeful is grueling and, every year, more students try their hand at receiving the prestigious award.

“There were over 14,000 applicants nationwide, in 2007, when I applied and there were over 22,000 this year, so it is growing each year,” said Dakota Thompson, Stilwell senior.

The scholarship pays for all tuition, fees, books, living expenses and even provides extra, for the one-time purchase of a laptop computer during their award period. However, if students already receive other scholarships, those amounts are subtracted from the GMS award amount.

Currently, NSU is home to more than 30 Gates Millennium Scholars, making it one of the largest groups of

Dakota Thompson

scholars on one campus, in the entire southwest region and the nation as a whole. Thompson was elected to be the GMS organization’s president by her fellow NSU scholars, just before Spring Break, and has been working hard to make this new organization stronger.

“We are still working out the kinks of being a brand new organization,” said Thompson.

So far, members of the GMS organization have participated in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day community service projects for NSU and NSU’s massive community service project, ‘The Big Event’.

“GMS is all about giving back to the community and we plan on incorporating more community service activities and campus involvement with NSU in the near future,” said Thompson.

In addition to being President of the GMS organization, Thompson is NSU’s campus-based leader, a national title given to her by the Gates Foundation and the first in NSU history.

The scholarship pays for all tuition, fees, books, living expenses and even provides extra, for the one-time purchase of a laptop computer during their award period.

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The American Indian Graduate

Campus leaders are chosen only for the schools that have the largest number of Gates Scholars. In this position, Thompson will attend a conference in San Diego, where she will gain knowledge of local and national events for NSU’s scholars.

“The GMS student organization has so much support from Dean Laura Boren, Vice President Kinders and, of course, Provost Tadlock and President Betz,” said Dr. Allyson Watson, NSU GMS Co-advisor. “The mission the newly elected officers face now is to create bylaws and increase the awareness around campus.”

Thompson and other scholars help high school applicants in the communities surrounding NSU each year while, at the same time, promoting the university in hopes of gaining more scholars. However, their reach is not limited to high school students. The hometown atmosphere at NSU appeals to scholars from other colleges and universities that are seeking a change, said Thompson.

“The goal of the GMS organization on NSU’s campus is simple, to engage other scholars in educational, social and cultural activities to uplift one another,” said

Watson. “The greater support these students can give one another, the more successful they will become.”

NUS’s scholars also attempt to address the misconception that because someone has been awarded the GMS scholarship they have to go to a larger and more expensive school to get the most out of the scholarship,.

NSU’s reputation and recent successes have helped convince Gates Scholars from other universities and colleges to transfer and make this their home.

“The GMS organization seeks to fulfill the NSU Mission, Vision and Values,” said Watson. “Gates Scholars are known for their leadership potential and we want to foster that potential while they are at NSU. NSU Gates Scholars Gather Here and Go Far.” ✦ For further information regarding the Gates Millennium Scholarship, go to their web site www.gmsp.org.

For more information regarding NSU’s Gates Millennium Scholars organization, contact Thompson, via email, at mille027@nsuok.edu or Watson at Leggett@nsuok.edu.

NOMINATE AN OUTSTANDING STUDENT FOR THE

GATES MILLENNIUM SCHOLARS PROGRAM

Scholarships for our Future Leaders Eligibility Criteria Students are eligible to be considered for a GMS scholarship if they:

Are African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian Pacific Islander American or Hispanic American;

Are a citizen, national or legal permanent resident of the United States;

Have attained a cumulative GPA of 3.3 on an unweighted 4.0 scale or have earned a GED;

Will enroll for the first time at a U.S. located, accredited college or university (with the exception of students concurrently pursuing a high school diploma) in the fall of 2012 as a full‐time, degree‐seeking, first‐ year student. First time college enrollees can also be a GED recipients;

Have demonstrated leadership abilities through participation in community service, extra‐curricular, or other activities, and Meet the Federal Pell Grant eligibility criteria;

Have completed and submitted all three require forms: the student’s application (Nominee Personal Information Form), an evaluation of the student’s academic record (Nominator Form) and an evaluation of the student’s community service and leadership activities (Recommender Form) by the deadline.

Simon Chief Northern Arizona University

"As a Gates Millennium Scholar, I have been afforded many opportunities to grow personally and professionally.

GMS has made the impossible possible.”

To schedule a GMS presentation at your school or in your community for 2011, visit www.gmsp.org

or contact

The American Indian Graduate Center Scholars 4520 Montgomery Blvd. NE, Suite 1B Albuquerque, NM 87109 (866) 884‐7007 • www.aigcs.org

• GMS Partner for American Indians & Alaska Natives •

UNCF–the United Negro College Fund–is the administrator of the Gates Millennium Scholars Program (GMS).

The American Indian Graduate

23

Back to the Beginning

My Ph.D. Journey

by David Sanders, PhD, Oglala Lakota

I

n May of 2011, I received my Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction in Mathematics Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder School of Education. My experience as a graduate student was not typical. I started the program in 2005, when I was 35 years old. At the time, I had four children, with another to follow in 2008, and continued to work full-time as the Director of the University of Colorado Upward Bound Program. So, in addition to maintaining a fulltime job, my graduate student experience included the responsibility of being a father, while sustaining a high degree academic rigor. Juggling all three of these responsibilities, all of which were equally deserving of all my attention individually, was no easy task but, somehow, I got through it.

Looking back, I should actually say that it was my family and I who got through it, together. As my biggest support system, I could not have completed my degree had it not been for my wife, Nettie, and my children. Many nights, after class, I can recall “dumping” my frustrations and reactions to class content and the challenges of being a student on my wife, who, in turn, patiently listened and allowed me to vent. I was sometimes frustrated with the subjects we covered in class and often could not find connections to course material related to the issue I considered most important - Indian Education. My children also assisted me in this process; they allowed me the opportunity to “get away” from class work on a daily basis — which, in retrospect, was probably a very healthy thing to do.

Like any educational endeavor, the effort in furthering one’s education is, invariably, a road to discovering what others have done and continue to do; in many respects, it is also a road to self-discovery. Very early on, because of my teaching experience on the Navajo Reservation (I had taught high school mathematics at Chinle High School, in Chinle, AZ), I had gained some insight into the education of Indian children and had also seen the shortcomings in the system. Why was it that so few of our students saw the importance of getting an education and why was it that we, as a staff, community and

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The American Indian Graduate

administration, were seemingly unable to meet the needs of our students? Inherently, like so many others, I felt something was wrong and I was, David Sanders, PhD and perhaps still am, naive enough to think I could do something to make a difference in the education of Indian students.

One has to find a driving motivation to trudge through the Ph.D. process. I came into the program at CU-Boulder with eighteen other students. At this time, only six of those individuals have graduated. In examining the graduation rate of my cohort, it became clear that, if one is to succeed and put themselves through the challenges of a PhD program, they should have something more than surface reasons for attending. My reasons stemmed from my teaching experience at Chinle High School and the compelling need to try to improve the quality of education for our Indian students.

As time passed in the program, I began to formulate my philosophy and wonder about my role in the scheme of things. I became aware of the very limited amount of attention given to Indian education in schools of education in general and in the research specifically. Because I am a “math guy,” having graduated from CU-Boulder, in 1996, with a degree in mathematics, I searched for mathematical studies done with Indian people/within Indian communities, looking for ideas in Indian education that may have shaped or impacted the teaching and learning of mathematics in Indian schools. Too often, I was left having to craft and formalize what I began to call “The intersection of mathematics education and Indian education.” Having to build something from the ground up, philosophically speaking, is no easy task. I was/am hesitant to do so, but found that if I wanted to have some kind of meaningful impact, within the context of Indian education, this was the road that was laid out before me. This intersection, though I wished I could rely on more informed Natives in education than myself, had to

become solidified in my mind if I was going to pursue it in the long run. So, part of this journey in becoming a Ph.D., a Doctor, if you will, was to find my footing in an academic world that did not/could not give much attention to Indian mathematics education.

Luckily, in my search to define this area for myself, I found some noteworthy research coming from Alaska, with Jerry Lipka and the Yup’ik Eskimo people. They have done, and continue to do, some groundbreaking work with mathematics and Yup’ik culture. As a mathematics educator, their work allowed me to situate the learning and teaching of mathematics from my own people’s perspective — an Oglala Lakota perspective, especially in the current prolonged age of self-determination.

As a graduate student, I began to wonder about my own education — the education I received as a child; first at Loneman Day School in Oglala, SD and later at Red Cloud Indian School. I came to realize that I was part of the first generation of Indian students to be educated in the realm of Indian educational self-determination, which really was a push for local control of the educational system. The Oglala community has a rich history in Indian activism. In the mid-1970s, Loneman Day School became the first school on the Pine Ridge Reservation to gain local control of its educational process.

I had just entered Kindergarten when this happened.

The pieces were falling in place for me. The intersection of mathematics education and Indian education had to include the principle guiding philosophy of Indian education over the last forty years - the notion of Indian selfdetermination.

During my course of studies I began asking many questions: 1) How has Indian educational self-determination policy impacted the teaching and learning of mathematics locally in Indian schools?

2) If we are talking about self-determination in Indian education, we speak of Indian cultures and languages. How then, were these used as contexts and vehicles for transmitting mathematical concepts? Were they used at all?

Since none of the local history of the push for local control of Loneman Day School was documented in the literature (to my knowledge), 3) What were reasons Indian people chose to take control of the education of their students?

Ultimately, these questions became guiding research questions for my dissertation. They, in turn, told me much about my own culture, the Lakota language, the people in my community and the reasons why our rela-

tives and elders chose to do what they did. They did it for us, their children.

It is not an easy task to complete a Ph.D. You must be ready to have your world shaken, so it is necessary to have a good solid reason for pursuing your PhD. This reason, of course, will vary from person to person, but those interested in taking on this task to further their education should know that it is important to learn the methods of research you will encounter (for it is really a fluency in research methodology that drives the world) and to connect the content presented to you back to your community/culture.

My Ph.D. journey, though at times an arduous series of tasks, allowed me the opportunity to reconnect with my own community in Oglala, SD, the place of my youth. Having gone through this intense educational process, I have a newfound respect for the many things our ancestors and elders did for us. I did not envision entering into graduate school in Mathematics Education that my studies would lead me in the direction of thinking about Lakota culture and language as a means to teach mathematical concepts. I also did not think that mathematics could be a way of teaching fluency in the Lakota language. But, then again, there were many things I could not have envisioned nor asked upon entering graduate school.

Ultimately, my PhD journey was discovering another way to go home. After the completion of your graduate studies, you realize that you will have only come back to the beginning and coming back means asking yourself: what are you going to do with the knowledge you gained and who will benefit from your efforts? It is my hope, that in the long term, I can use the tools and the processes taught me to continue to help Indian communities in the push for control of their own lives and for self-sufficiency in the younger generations. My graduate studies showed me that wisdom comes in many forms and the biggest lesson learned along the way was that it really is not the “I” that counts in the end, but how the “I” impacts those who will follow in the years to come.

So, thank you to all the AIGC staff, the organization and its mission, for impacting me by providing help and support. I have come to know and really have known all my life that, if it was worth the pursuit, it will be so because others will benefit from it. I hope in the future I will be able to give to AIGC so that they, in turn, can continue to assist Native graduate students.

Thank you again, for assisting me in making this journey to achieving my PhD. ✦

The American Indian Graduate

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Learning to Lead

Student Leadership

by Ashley J. Ryerse

S

ome of the most important people you’ll meet, during your entire lifetime, will be in college. This is why becoming a part of a student association is one of the many keys to a successful college experience.

In a student group, you can find a comfort zone, with people of similar interests, supporting a specific cause or interest. For Native students, it is an important way of making friendships and creating solid cultural support networks.

In my experience, being a student leader is selfrewarding for a multitude of reasons. During my undergraduate years, I was honored to serve as Co-chair of Michigan State University’s North American Indigenous Student Organization (NAISO), from 2008-2010. Providing leadership to a group of my Native peers and representing at a major university was a humbling experience. It was crucial to understand NAISO’s foundation, history and mission as the impetus behind group planning throughout the academic year. When I began my first leadership experience in NAISO, I saw the group as a support network for Native and non-Native people to learn and grow from each other. Our mission inspired the organization in its representation of Native students at Michigan State University (MSU) and developing leaders and representatives within MSU. While undergraduate student organization life is integral in developing leadership skills, I also see it as an important stepping-stone to a door that opens when you reach graduate school.

Currently, I am attending graduate school at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. I am also President of the American Indian Student Association (AISA). Graduate school is a uniquely focused learning environment and student organizations, within this educational structure, assist in facilitating issues particular to the school’s focus. Each event and discussion presented by AISA has its foundation in professional development, while serving a distinct benefit to the field. In my perspective, this further illustrates the significant role that leadership plays and the potential each leader has to infuse the organi-

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The American Indian Graduate

Ashley Ryerse

zation’s members with energy and drive towards the group’s collective goals. Furthermore, as graduate students’ lives are abundantly demanding and active, each scheduled meeting’s efficacy is crucial. It is through this group framework that group evolves seamlessly.

Additionally, whether it is a carefully planned collaboration on a specific issue or, more broadly, creating an environment where cultural competency issues can be discussed freely, networking in graduate school is quite different from that of undergraduate work. As a graduate student, you are held to a higher standard of professionalism. This is reflected in the organizational structure of the student association. While there are the essential leadership positions of the group, it is important to understand leaders, at this level, work as facilitators to keep goals and goal attainment in the forefront of the group’s consciousness and recognize that each member deserves an opportunity to contribute equally.

In essence, the hierarchical nature of many traditional group frameworks is dismissed, in favor of a collaborative, egalitarian structure. Members of graduate level organizations often bring with them their own leadership experiences and skills, which give them the capacity to be effective leaders in their own right. While this dynamic can lay the foundation for conflict, it can also bring fresh and diverse perspectives. A valuable leader will employ active listening skills on all viewpoints, mediating when needed, and helping the group discover new and different paths. This is essential to networking and continuing to develop professionally, not only with-

Graduate Student Association Leadership • Mission driven issues are clearly defined by your field of study • Utilize facilitation skills, as graduate students come with their own leadership skills and experiences and are equally qualified leaders • Professional development is the core of planning • Have a strong passion, conviction, strength and confidence for the group’s endeavors

dence, while upholding a strong conviction, enhances the passion others feel for the organization. These are the Ashley and her fellow 2011 Washington University Powwow characteristics that are valued in a leader, a person who Co-chairs creates the space for new ideas and enthusiasm for the organization.

In my opinion, I was not born to lead and I am neiin our own group’s mission, but in the wider context of ther extroverted nor outspoken. However, I have risen our field of study, as well. to this challenge because I believed and was inspired by Reflecting on the different aspects of being a leadNAISO’s mission. In turn, I became dedicated to the er, I embrace the continuous learning and evolvement group’s principles and realized that I had that happens as students make the strength and confidence to lead a a transition into higher educagroup of my Native colleagues at a protional institutions. Undergrad fessional level. I acknowledge the sense of was a time of growth, developwillingness to lead, as an undergraduate, ing as an emerging leader and as an integral learning landmark to assess learning to navigate through my skill set, in relation to the needs of the organizational system structures. organization. It also gave me a sense of Graduate school leadership solidipersonal reflection in relationships with fied my confidence as I reached people and myself. In graduate school, I out to faculty, created partnercontinue to hone these skills to develop ships with other student assomy professional career, to support the prociations and facilitated efficiently fessionalism of my colleagues and, ultibetween nascent professionals. mately, further the empowerment of my My strength and assurance is Ashley and her nephew, Liam, on her People. ✦ resolutely grounded in the experi- graduation day May 2011 ence of leading at the undergradu(Ashley Ryerse is a member of the Potawatomi Nation. She is ate level. Without this foundational experience, I may currently working towards her Masters Degree in Social Work not have had the courage to lead in this type of setting. at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies Personally, I was taught to live in a way that improves at Washington University in St. Louis. She received her B.A. the quality of life of those around me. This is what leadin Social Work and American Indian Studies, from Michigan ership means to me. The opportunity to build confiState University.)

In my opinion, I was not born to lead and I am neither extroverted nor outspoken. However, I have risen to this challenge because I believed and was inspired by NAISO’s mission.

The American Indian Graduate

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Making Progress

Creek Indian Lawyer Represents Tribal Governments in Washington, D.C. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza: printed by permission

by Deidra Suwanee Dees, Ed.D.

“W

e are excited and encouraged to have an administration that is following through on its commitment to work closely with Indian country,” Venus McGhee Prince said to an audience of legal professionals in Washington, D.C. on March 3rd, 2011. The audience had convened for the Solicitor’s Office Indian Law Practitioner’s Conference to address issues intersecting tribal governments and the United States government.The date was historic in that the Department of the Interior was established by Congress one hundred and sixty-two years ago on March 3, 1849.

McGhee Prince, a Harvard graduate who serves as the Attorney General for the Poarch Creek Indians, was invited to speak at the conference by Hilary Tompkins (Navajo), Office of the Solicitor in Washington, D.C. Tompkins said she was pleased to host the conference and described it as “an important opportunity for open and informative discussions between federal and tribal attorneys.” Tompkins is the head of the Solicitor’s Office at the United States Department of the Interior and the first Native American woman to serve in this role.

What does the Solicitor’s Office do and what role does it play in tribal affairs? Attorney Bill Perry of Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Endreson & Perry Law Firm in Washington, D.C. attended the conference. He said the Solicitor is the Lawyer who serves as the Chief General Counsel for the Department of the Interior. She counsels and gives legal representation to the Secretary of the Interior.

The Solicitor provides legal advice on a wide range of issues to the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For example, the Solicitor gives counsel on land in trust decisions, leasing of trust lands and other issues critical to tribes. In relation to McGhee Prince’s tribe, the Solicitor’s Office could help “the Poarch Creek Indians by trying to restore trust land assets,” Perry said.

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The American Indian Graduate

Secretary Ken Salazar of the U.S. Department of the Interior and President Obama

Solicitor Tompkins invited McGhee Prince to join her in speaking on a panel with Patrice Kunesh, the newly appointed Deputy Solicitor for Indian Affairs, and Kurt Blue Dog, a private practitioner who works with tribes, about President Obama’s accomplishments and how he might prioritize his agenda in dealing with tribes in the future. In her presentation, McGhee Prince pointed out that under past Presidents, there was the “lack of knowledge and understanding of the internal policies and procedures, as well as the standards being used by the Department [of the Interior] in its decisions.” She praised Obama for setting forth “a goal of transparency” that could help tribal governments have a better understanding and working relationship with his administration. McGhee Prince encouraged the Solicitor’s Office to make concrete steps toward the “goal of transparency” in its communication with tribal governments and to broaden its legal analysis in reviewing trust land applications for tribes.

“McGhee Prince’s insightful observations from her unique perspective working in Indian Country helped frame a productive discussion,” Tompkins said.

nated to represent your tribe,” speak boldly of Chief McGhee’s prominence in representing the Creeks before the President of the United States. Now, we have a new generation representing us in Washington, D.C., embodied in an array of tribal leaders such as Venus McGhee Prince. Her invitation to Poarch Creek Attorney General present “is a reflection of Venus McGhee Prince addresses her stature in the legal the Obama Administration’s dealings with tribal governments. community,” Perry said.

“We were lucky to have someone of her caliber and experience join us in this event,” Tompkins asserted.

Tompkins said she is looking forward to hosting the Solicitor’s conference every year so that the attorneys involved can build “stronger partnerships with the Indian law community.” ✦

Gia Rodriguez

In addition to McGhee Prince, Secretary Ken Salazar of the United States Department of the Interior, representing the Obama administration, was invited by Solicitor Tompkins to speak earlier that day at the conference. Salazar, a former Senator from Colorado, elaborated on his efforts, thus far, to improve the Department of the Interior’s relationship with tribes across the country and commended Solicitor Tompkins and her Office for its accomplishments. Such accomplishments include the establishment of the new Deputy Solicitor of Indian Affairs position within her Office, the settlement of the Cobell litigation and the continued progress on certain land decisions.

Solicitor Hilary Tompkins and Secretary Ken Salazar of the U.S. Department of the Interior

Bill Perry said Salazar’s presentation demonstrated that he was well informed on the common interests of tribes and that he is moving forward in support of tribal nations.

Tompkins’ invitation to have Salazar and McGhee Prince speak at the same conference shows the manner in which tribal connections reverberate in high offices of this land. Poarch Creek Indians former Chief, Calvin McGhee (1903-1970), developed connections in high offices as well. The letter to Chief McGhee from Dr. Sol Tax, in the Poarch Creek Indians Office of Archives and Records Management, testifies to this fact. (Dr. Tax was the Coordinator of the American Indian Chicago Conference, which Chief McGhee attended in 1961): “I have just had news that the White House Presentation of the ‘Declaration of Indian Purpose’ has been definitely scheduled for Wednesday, August 15, 1962, 12 o’clock noon at the White House. …You are the one who was thus designated… to represent your tribe…”

The words, “You are the one who was thus desig-

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The American Indian Graduate

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Spotlight on an AIGC Fellow

An Emerging Leader

by Adan Ortega

I

n March of 2011, while judging the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair, I was asked to write about being the proud parent of an AIGC Scholarship recipient. Alicia’s mother, Rebecca Ortega, and I are honored, proud and happy that our daughter, Alicia, is an American Indian Graduate Center Fellow. She received her fellowship in Fall 2010, as she was admitted into graduate school. We cannot describe the gratitude that we feel for programs such as the American Indian Graduate Center that help alleviate the financial burden that comes along with sending your children to college. Throughout Alicia’s life, she has always enjoyed learning and teaching others. She has demonstrated many leadership qualities, since she was very young, that made it crystal clear she was destined for great things in her life, with college, of course, being one of them.

In May of 2010, our daughter received her Bachelor of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in Organizational Management and Entrepreneurial Studies, from the University of New Mexico, Anderson School of Management.

Immediately, she began working on her Masters of Business Administration degree the following semester in Fall 2010. She is a candidate for two concentrations in Marketing and Management of Technology and is planning on graduating in May of 2012. We feel so very blessed to have Alicia as our daughter.

Alicia has taught us many things Alicia since the day she was born. Her arrival was a very scary time for us because, at one point, we thought we were going to lose her. She showed us that God is in control and that He puts special people in place to help us and show us that the power of prayer truly exists. Alicia is from the Pueblos of Pojoaque and Santa Clara. She is an enrolled tribal member of Pojoaque Pueblo and grew up on the Santa Clara Pueblo Reservation. As a child, she

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The American Indian Graduate

Alicia with her parents and brothers

attended the Santa Clara Day School. During that time, she was extremely interested in science projects and art.

Alicia’s science fair interest and journey began in the fifth grade, when she won the Santa Clara Day School science fair and advanced to the Northern Pueblo Agency science fair. She later went on to compete in the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Science Fair, where her projects placed every time. Then, after being encouraged by her mentor, Dr. Bobbie Coleman, she began to compete in the “mainstream” science fairs, such as the New Mexico Northern Regional Science Fair and New Mexico State Science Fairs. She placed 1st place at both! As Alicia started competing at the high school level, she was selected as a “Grand Award Winner”, during the AISES Science Fair, and went on to compete in the worldrenowned Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The first year she won, she competed in the Intel ISEF in Louisville, Kentucky. The second year, she competed at the Intel ISEF in Cleveland, Ohio. We were very honored and excited to tag along with Alicia and attend the Intel ISEF twice. There were so many students from all over the world, representing over 39 countries, with incredible science projects and so much security. It was an awesome experience and the second year we went, Alicia won a special award!

Along with science, Alicia also developed a passion for art. At the young age of 8, she was inspired by her brother, Adam Deer Mountain Ortega, to become an artist. She quickly became a self-taught artist using ink and color pencils to create drawings. For several years, she participated in the Eight Northern Arts and Crafts Fair and as a youth artist at the Santa Fe Indian Market.

Her work received many awards and she was recently selected to participate in the 2011 Santa Fe Indian Market as an adult artist. While in high school, along with being an artist, Alicia was very involved with extracurricular school activities. She played soccer, was a member of the dance team and cheered on the cheerleading team all through high school. She also belonged to various clubs, such as MESA and Key Clubs.

After graduating high school in 2005, Alicia immediately began attending the University of New Mexico. It was a very bittersweet time for us, filled with a lot of emotions and feelings of happiness, sadness, joy and excitement. We really missed her at home, especially her younger brother, Mario. At the same time, we were happy that she chose to pursue higher education.

Nonetheless, in the midst of all the college excitement, Alicia remained committed to her cultural values and still always made a big effort to come home to participate in the cultural activities and dances. We feel this is extremely important. We have tried to instill a sense of balance for our children about what is important and we feel education and culture are both equally important.

With that said, in 2006, Alicia accepted a summer AISES Internship at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, working with the Biomedical Engineering Division. In 2007, she accepted another summer Internship at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, in the Environmental Science Division. Through these internships, Alicia has gained a lot of valuable experience and knowledge. Throughout the school year, she has worked very closely and held various positions with numerous student organizations at UNM. Some of the organizations in which Alicia has been involved include the UNM AISES Chapter, Delta Sigma Pi Professional Business Fraternity, American Indian Business Leaders and the American Indian Business Association, where she serves as President. Alicia also does a lot of volunteer work with several organizations including; Project Share, The Storehouse, The Watermelon Ranch and several others. Recently, Alicia represented the Anderson School of Management and the American Indian Business Association, as she attended and presented at the 2010 International Fostering Indigenous Business and Entrepreneurship in the Ameri-

Dancing

cas (FIBEA) Conference, in Manaus, Brazil. She also attends and volunteers at numerous American Indian business conferences throughout the state and country.

This summer, Alicia is currently working as a student intern at Keres Consulting Inc., which is a Native American-owned general consulting firm. Alicia has always expressed her love for her culture, her people and the traditions. It is important to her to represent, support, promote and encourage Native people, particularly Native youth. She has always said she is committed to helping the Native community and as many others as possible in any way that she can. She has shown her passion and commitment though her art, the organizations in which she participates, volunteer work and the way she lives her life. She continues to be a role model to her friends, her tribe, our family and the community. She is a true survivor and a Native leader and we are very thankful for the opportunities she has been given. Alicia has been an inspiration in our lives. Alicia and our two sons are our beautiful blessings from God. Thank you, AIGC, for supporting and encouraging Alicia and all Native people to pursue their education, embrace their culture and fulfill their dreams! âœŚ

The American Indian Graduate

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The Rainer Fellowship

2010-2011 Rainer Fellowship Recipients Announced

by Marveline Vallo Gabbard

A

IGC is proud to announce that Kyle Yazzie (Navajo) and Heaven Woods (Seminole) have been selected as Rainer Fellowship recipients for the 2010-11 academic year. The Rainer Fellowship was established in memory of John Rainer, of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, Co-founder and first Director of the American Indian Graduate Center. When he was sent to boarding school at age thirteen, John spoke only his Native language. Yet, at a time when it was rare to find Indians with any degrees, he persevered, ultimately earning a master’s degree in education from USC in 1951.

Holding positions such as Director of the National Congress of American Indians, Chairman of the All Indian Pueblo Council and Director of the New Mexico Commission of Indian Affairs demonstrates his dedication to improving the quality of life and creating opportunities for Native Americans. His advocacy for education

included participating in a Senate Budget Committee field hearing on science and math education and testifying before the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior Affairs.

Recipients of the Rainer Fellowship are charged with following John Rainer’s path, by using their education and career as tools for giving back to their communities— a logical assignment for this year’s recipients, given their history of volunteerism. They are already following John Rainer’s advice, “Get the best possible training you can.”

Since the Rainer Fellowship is designed to reward the qualities and commitment characteristic of a future Indian leader, a portion of the award is to support participation in a voluntary activity that affords an opportunity to develop leadership skills. Kyle and Heaven are required to submit a paper outlining their experiences of the leadership event they selected. Here are the articles:

Kyle Yazzie is attending Arizona State University, pursing a doctorate degree in Materials Science and Engineering, and will graduate in May of 2012.

success, they developed traits that helped them to succeed in competitive environments in industry and academia.

However, the competitive environments had also fostered growth of negative qualities, such as insensitivity and selfishness, along with positive qualities such as strength and persever- Kyle Yazzie ance. Once the deficient leaders reached the pinnacles of their careers, I imagine they retained both positive and negative traits because they did not realize they accumu-

I am a Navajo student currently pursuing my Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Arizona State University; I received my B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I was honored to receive the Rainer Scholarship. It caused me to reflect on leaders, who I have encountered, and how I am fulfilling my leadership role. I have been fortunate to have many excellent leadership figures in my life. However, I did not really know what a good leader was until I became acquainted with deficient leaders.

When I encountered deficient leaders, they had achieved success and were well respected. Along their paths to

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The American Indian Graduate

lated both. Therefore, to be an excellent leader requires constant introspection and meditation to cull negative traits and foster honorable ones such as sensitivity, wisdom, truthfulness, fairness and loyalty.

This past year, I strengthened my leadership skills by participating in ‘Preparing Future Faculty’ and ‘Forward to Professorship’ programs. These programs engage participants in seminars, projects, workshops and group discussions. The goal was to introduce participants to the lifestyle and requirements associated with academic career paths. The information was invaluable. Entering my undergraduate and graduate education, I always felt that I lacked essential knowledge about what was expected of me and how I fit in the academic environment.

Now, I understand more about the academic terrain.

This strategic knowledge would help minority students understand how their academic endeavors relate to their own cultural value systems.

I take every opportunity possible to discuss my research with others. At the More Graduate Education at Mountain States Alliance conference, I presented my research to minority peer students. At the annual meeting of The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, I had the opportunity to present my research to experienced professionals. It is a humbling experience explaining to someone unfamiliar with your field why a technique or new result, that you have spent the last year struggling with, is important. However, it is through these conversations I have developed interpersonal skills vital to my career and I have shared my knowledge with fellow students. Presentations can also test your patience, when an astute professional knows more about your research topic than you do and proceeds to poke holes in your project by questioning your results. Sometimes this is done just for sport. During those interrogations I remain calm and take mental notes on everything the professional is questioning, so that I can revise my results and present a stronger project in the future.

Finally, the most rewarding leadership experience that I had this year was participating in a round table discussion, on American Indian cultural identity in academics, during Culture Week at ASU. The discussion was organized by the Alpha Pi Omega Sorority, Iota Chapter, at ASU. My younger sister asked me to join the discussion. I was hesitant because I thought, “I’m only a graduate student and I probably did not know enough to give useful advice”. My sister said they needed a crosssection of the academic environment; they already had professors signed up and only needed a few graduate students to add to the panel. The discussion went better than I expected and I got to share my views on American

Indian heritage and how integral it is to academic success for American Indian students. After the discussion group ended, my sister told me how much she looked up to me for my accomplishments. That meant more to me than anything and reminded me of the most important purpose of leadership - it is not for the benefit of the individual, but for the benefit of those around us and future generations.

Heaven Woods will graduate from Portland State University, with a Master’s degree in Education Counseling, in June of 2012.

I consider it a great honor to have been awarded the American Indian Graduate Center’s Rainer Scholarship for the 2010-2011 academic year. Scholarships provide individuals with an opportunity to learn, grow and develop personally and professionally. The Rainer scholarship helped me focus on my leadership skills. As I reflected on leadership, I discovered numerous ways to enhance my own abili- Heaven Woods ties. The main leadership topics I focused on were: communication skills, especially in the areas of presentation; interpersonal skills; selfconfidence and leading people where they want to go.

Communication Skills. As a graduate student, I have many opportunities to do presentations. Until recently, I did not consider presentations “opportunities”.

In fact, just last year, I dreaded public speaking. Because I have been focusing on improving my leadership skills, I recognized that a good leader is usually at ease communicating in front of various groups. This year, when I was assigned multiple presentations, I thought, ‘what a great place to practice leadership skills - in a safe environment’. I embraced my many presentation assignments, by creating colorful and interesting PowerPoint presentations and standing in front of the class to do my presentation. I realized that, often, the reason that giving presentations has been hard for me in the past was that I was underprepared. I practiced my speech out loud, just as if I was presenting and, by the time I stood up to talk, I knew that even if my PowerPoint malfunctioned, which happens far too often in older classrooms, I could still go through the speech as I had practiced it. Prior to this academic year, I did not possess this ability; I would

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The Rainer Fellowship have simply read a script like most of my classmates. I have discovered that I truly enjoy creating and delivering presentations.

Another area in which my communication skills have improved is in interpersonal skills, particularly listening to others. I am in my second year of a threeyear program in counseling and began to see clients at Portland State community counseling clinic last September. Personally, I feel I have grown in developing patience – listening to what people have in their heart and mind and then letting them hear themselves. This skill helps others discover the wisdom in their own voice and encourages them to follow their healthy and creative inclinations. By establishing a deep personal trusting connection with a client, asking the right questions and occasionally challenging a client’s beliefs, I help each individual discover their inner resources and accept that the human experience is not about being what others want, but rather becoming one’s true self.

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physical therapy on horseback. Thanks in part to my scholarship; I have been blessed with the opportunity to volunteer for something I love and to work on my leadership skills. A leader is not intimidated when presenting ideas and suggestions and is not afraid to act when the situation and timing require it. While volunteering with a speech therapist, the therapist mentioned wanting to purchase an assistive device that would help individuals, who have little or no verbal ability, to communicate by tapping a board that provides spoken responses. The therapist was having trouble finding the money for this device. One of the volunteers, with whom I work, generously offered to pay for the machine, but the therapist was new to the nonprofit organization and did not feel comfortable accepting the donation. I realized that I could help facilitate this transaction. I asked how much money the device cost and helped the therapist graciously accept the donation. The therapist later admitted that he was uncomfortable accepting donations and appreciated my input. Now our clients have access to this device and enjoy the ability to communicate more easily. As my confidence has increased and I have more and more courage to offer my help, many beautiful things, like the donation, have transpired and given me even more selfconfidence Leading people where they want to go. While attending school, I have been part of several group projects. At first, thinking I saw the ‘right’ way to proceed, perhaps I was a little bit bossy. During previous group projects, I remember feeling like I had to do all the work if I wanted the project to be successfully completed. I tend to be someone who likes to get things done ahead of schedule, so it is easy to be frustrated when no one else in the group has participated in any of the work. This time, I created an outline and asked group members to choose parts on which to work. Miraculously, the project was completed by the deadline, was thorough and well presented. I have learned that, sometimes, simply being pushy or demanding is not really a good leadership technique. Instead, being open and making encouraging, creative suggestions often helps people achieve what is even better, with a lot less struggle, than what I originally thought was ‘right.”

The leadership skills I have developed at school, in the Community Clinic and at Forward Stride, will assist me in my future as a counselor and vocational rehabilitation specialist. The immediate and long-term benefits of practicing leadership skills are accruing daily. I hope to develop into the type of leader who will make my heritage proud. Awarding me the Rainer Scholarship has helped enable me to develop my leadership abilities. ✦

Lessons Learned

Presenting at a National Conference

by Shannon Effler

P

resenting at a national conference is not something I expected to accomplish during my graduate education. Now, as a recent graduate, I realize that which was never expected, has been one of the most professionally beneficial experiences during my education at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Although some students may have similar overwhelming thoughts of presenting at a national conference as out of reach, the reality is conference organizations seek presentation proposals by graduate students from various backgrounds.

Organizations want to provide the platform for students to further develop professionally. I hope sharing my experience of presenting at a national conference will encourage and empower graduate students to accomplish the unexpected during their education.

The opportunity to present, along with two of my mentors from the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, at the National Indian Child Welfare Association’s (NICWA) 2011 annual conference in Anchorage, Alaska, was the culmination of many hours of dedication, initiative, communication, research and, most importantly, time. Early in my education, I connected with doctoral students leading social work research in Indian Country. I was lucky to be connected to leaders but, if mentors are not directly introduced to you, seek them out. Professors, academic advisors and university staff in your field of interest have a lot to offer as a mentor. During your graduate education, take advantage of the wealth of knowledge and resources found in the individuals at your university.

As a beginning graduate student, I took the initiative to organize meetings with my mentors to discuss future opportunities. I communicated to them that presenting at a national conference was one of many professional goals of mine. With this in mind, I spent the next year and a half researching conferences in line with my social work interests. Additionally, after several conversations with my mentors, I was offered a practicum position as a Research Assistant for them. During my practicum

Shannon Effler

planning, we were able to collaborate on how to connect my Research Assistant expectations and my professional goal of presenting at a national conference. We identified a national conference during the practicum timeframe.

My mentors informed me of their interest in submitting a presentation proposal to the National Indian Child Welfare Association. Our proposal was accepted. After a year and a half of research and dialogue, I was extremely close to reaching my goal.

During the presentation development process, I learned invaluable components of an engaging and effective presentation from my mentors. For example, center the presentation on the audience and their expectations of your presentation. Take inventory of who is going to be in the room before developing the presentation. If you don’t know, call the staff in charge of the conference and ask; they will be more than willing to help you. My team was presented with the challenge of focusing the research of my mentors, which is on assets and outmigration in Indian Country, on the conference’s focus of child welfare. After some careful thought, we focused the theme

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Lessons Learned of our presentation on healthy American Indian families and communities. As you know, healthy families and communities have everything to do with assets, outmigration and child welfare.

It’s imperative to understand your presentation is about the audience, not about you. My mentors advocated including a facilitated discussion at the end of our presentation. This provided the opportunity for the presentation attendees, which included child welfare practitioners, tribal government staff and academics to have a voice. We asked our attendees, “What type of development programs should tribal communities invest in that build on cultural values and wisdom, strengthen families and build stronger communities?” We recorded their responses on flip charts to provide a visual record of their ideas. Documentation of presentation attendees’ voices is essential in guiding effective and appropriate research in Indian Country. We will use their feedback to guide our exploration in assets and outmigration research for children and families already in the child welfare system or at risk of entering the system.

Evaluation of your presentation is key to growing as a professional. NICWA staff included an opportunity for presentation attendees to formally evaluate each

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presentation, through a form that was left with the presenters. I gained significant insight from reviewing our presentation evaluations.

These evaluations gave us feedback on our presentation style and the effectiveness of our delivery. If you are seeking to further grow your personal presentation skill set, make sure to include evaluations with careful review.

I recommend making the most of your experience at the conference. Don’t let the networking opportunities at the conference pass you by. For some of us, networking is Shannon Effler difficult. Speak to your university support system, career services, Native center and academic advisors, about strategizing a networking plan that compliments your personality. Not all of us are the straight-forward, in-your-face networkers. Thankfully, you don’t have to be able to network well. This year’s NICWA conference organized a graduate student roundtable. This was a great opportunity for me to connect with other students in the field of social work. Through my connections with these students, I am connected with their individual networks, which span across the globe.

Bring current resumes and business cards and hand them out to anyone you think has an interesting job or works in an organization about which you may want to learn more. Don’t hesitate to hand out your resume.

This shows you have initiative and are proud of the work you have accomplished. Finally, take care of yourself at the conference. Get enough sleep and eat well in order to fully participate. This is an opportunity you have worked hard for, take advantage of everything it has to offer. Not only will you enhance your presentation development and public speaking skill sets at a national conference, you meet the most innovative students and professionals in your field and, through them, gain access to a global network. ✦

Moving Forward

Being Different

by Lee Longhorn

I

cannot lie and tell you that I am not different. I am.

Examine my life, compare it to others, and you’ll see that I’m truly different. Even within my own family, I’m the oddball out. That’s saying a lot, when you consider my brothers. To begin, let me tell you a little about myself.

You should know that I probably have more tribal affiliations than anyone should have. If we were to talk face-to-face, I would have to take a slow, deep breath and begin, “I am Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Sac & Fox, Seneca-Cayuga, Wyandotte, Onondaga, Absentee Shawnee and Eastern Delaware.” I could also throw in Yuchi, but let’s not add anymore. I’m the youngest of four boys and, out of the four, I’m the only one that has yet to make a trip to the detention center (knock on wood) – as a guest, not a visitor. Lastly, I’m also the only one who has earned a bachelor’s degree.

While I can’t specifically state that being different was what got me through to this point, being different attracted the attention of others, to support, encourage and nourish my thirst for education and achievement.

I truly could not have made it the last four years of college (I took five years to graduate) without the support of everyone who entered my life.

It’s truly remarkable that I had never met some of these people before, but each gave me their one hundred percent support when I told them I was in college. Every day, in my post-undergraduate life, I thank each individual for supporting me in my goal of being a college graduate. Each of these outstanding individuals, sharing their time, energy and positive encouragement helped me succeed.

There was no idea too small, too big or too farfetched that someone didn’t support. Actually, I did have

Lee Longhorn

one idea that one of my mentors absolutely refused to support — taking up flaming baton twirling. While that idea is in the back of the filing cabinet, she still continues to support my regularly occurring ‘unusual’ shenanigans and ideas. I should also add that this mentor is someone I truly look up to. If you don’t have a mentor, I implore you to find one. My mentors came from diverse backgrounds, ages, locations and occupations. My mentors’ roles are to support me and, in return, I respect them to the fullest. If I could give every one of my mentors a gift, it would be the happiness and honor that I carry with me every day since completing college.

Don’t be independent or interdependent. Become interdependent My first and last spring semesters at Oklahoma University (OU) were mirror images of one another. I took the bare minimum hours, had a night class that

My mentors’ roles are to support me and, in return, I respect them to the fullest.

If I could give every one of my mentors a gift, it would be the happiness and honor that I carry with me every day since completing college.

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Moving Forward I dreaded and attended a class that helped mature me.

That class was called ‘Strategies for Success’. It was designed to help students with a low grade point average become acclimated to the workings and educational rigor of college. I crashed and burned during my first semester and had to be placed in that class. I should clarify that this class is a requirement for students who earn a low GPA. I took the class and learned a word that forever changed me - interdependent. The definition of ‘interdependent’ is being able to accomplish what you need to, or want to, by yourself, being assisted to help reach only what you cannot accomplish alone. I started to really try and incorporate this word into my life.

When I knew that I could not do something by myself, I asked for help. I never became reliant on one individual, but soon learned whom I could rely on for support and help. From there, I steadily progressed into a stronger individual. I was never afraid to ask for help and there was someone always there.

During my last semester at OU, I had the great pleasure of serving as a teaching assistant for the ‘Strategies for Success’ class. I remembered that first spring semester, when I was in one of the same seats that these students were in now. Now, here I was, on the stage running the PowerPoint presentation. I had a great group of students and was able to help them understand the role of being interdependent in college. I did what I could to help them, apart from screaming at them that they are at OU for a reason. What I learned from them is that my goal and dream is to forever support and work with students to achieve their goals. Hopefully, the one thing that these students will leave with is the knowledge, power and ability to be interdependent.

“Everything will be OK” To conclude my reflection on being a college student, I would have to say that no matter what, everything will be OK in the end. The stress of papers, social drama, family conflict, cultural identity crisis and being poor are all part of your college experience. Honestly, if I could, I would do all of it again. Those experiences helped shape me into the person I am today.

In 2007, the state of Oklahoma was celebrating its centennial and I was a member of the OU marching band.

That year, the band was going to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade to represent Oklahoma. The day of the centennial there was to be a protest at the State Capitol, by members of the American Indian tribes in the state.

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Ironically, everyone was supportive of me going to New York for the parade. It was truly the trip of a lifetime and, despite the feelings of others toward the state’s controversial history regarding the American Indians, people wanted me to be a part of the OU band’s history. “Everything will be OK.” My parents were supportive and so were a lot of the people in my community. I was being different and they supported me. Everything was OK. I completed the requirements of both the Professional Writing and Native American Studies programs, allowing me to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in Native American Studies and Journalism. After I walked across the stage, my dad and mom didn’t snicker or make remarks, like one of my family members used to do.

They just smiled and hugged me for completing my education. It was OK that I studied something they didn’t know anything about. My mother has a computer science degree and my father has an associate’s degree. In the real-world, he’s a plumber and she does something with computers. I remember telling my parents that I was changing my major several times. At different times, I told my dad that I was going to major in business administration, anthropology, nursing, public relations, sociology, criminology and music. One day my father simply looked at me and said, “Just get your degree. I don’t care what it’s in.” I took his advice and everything was OK. Now that I’ve finished this part of my journey, I don’t know what will set me apart next. I’m now part of a very small group that statistics indicate are on the increase. I’m an American Indian male with a college degree — a graduate of the University of Oklahoma.

With what I learned in my undergraduate career, I guess it will be OK for me to take up flaming baton twirling now. Should I list that under skills or extra curricular activities?

I know where I’ve been and where I’m going. The thing that truly empowers me to keep moving forward is waiting to see what other amazing people will come into my life. ✦

“Keep breathing and the future will unfold.”

— Dr. Tom Boyd

Giving Back

AIGC Honored by Philanthropic Award from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians

by Susan Duran

O

n March 29, 2011, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians held its third annual ‘Forging Hope’ luncheon, at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino, California, to honor non-profits and community organizations. The luncheon brought together non-profit groups from the greater philanthropic community for an awards ceremony, at which the Tribe’s Yawa’ Award was bestowed upon four charities that have made positive and meaningful impacts in the region and across the nation. Yawa’ is a word and concept, in the Tribe’s native Serrano language, that calls for one to act on their beliefs.

The Forging Hope luncheon honors non-profits that have partnered with San Manuel to make a positive difference in the lives of others. The event is an opportunity for non-profits to receive well deserved recognition for their efforts, during this time of great demand and need for their services.

The four recipient charities selected, which embody the concept of Yawa’, were each presented with the Yawa’ Award for excellence in the program areas of health, education, economic development and special projects.

This year’s honorees included: the Loma Linda Ronald McDonald House of Loma Linda, California (Health); the National Indian Justice Center of Santa Rosa, California (Economic Development); the American Indian Graduate Center of Albuquerque, New Mexico (Education) and Santa Claus, Inc. of San Bernardino, California. (Special Projects.)

AIGC’s Director, Sam Deloria, and Melvin Monette, AIGC’s Director of Graduate Fellowships and Special Programs, were present at the luncheon to accept the award, which included a check for $25,000.

Our thanks go to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians for this prestigious honor and the recognition of our mission. ✦ (The San Manuel Band of Serrano Mission Indians is a federally-recognized American Indian tribe located near the city of Highland, California. Established in 1891, the San Manuel reservation seeks to provide a better quality of life for its citizens by building infrastructure, maintaining civil services and promoting social, economic and cultural development. The tribe recognizes that educational attainment and achievement are critical to providing the skills and knowledge that all tribal members will need to ensure their survival. As its economy has grown, the tribe has drawn upon its history, knowledge, expertise and cultural values to direct philanthropic giving, totaling in the millions of dollars, to Native American causes nationwide, particularly in the areas of education, health and economic development.)

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Choosing the Right School

The Case for Highly-Selective Colleges

by Steven Abbott

W

hy, one may ask, when the nation’s highlyselective colleges and universities turn away applicants by the thousands — some of them accepting fewer than ten percent of those who apply — would one need to make a case for them? Simply put, they are too often overlooked as options for Native students.

Highly-selective colleges and universities are those institutions that accept fewer than fifty percent of the students who apply. Among their ranks are many household names, but also those less familiar; Ivy League and “Ivy-Plus” institutions, as well as many small liberal arts schools, research-one state institutions, etc.

For generations, even centuries, many of these schools were perceived to be far out of range financially and/or possessing social and academic climates that were unwelcoming or, in some cases, even hostile to Native students and other underrepresented minority students.

Despite some of these institutions having had Native education as a part or the entirety of their early mission, they were simply not considered to be places for Native students.

Beginning as early the late 1960s, this began to change. Continuing victories in the civil rights arena, institutional rededication to broader educational access and the hard work of many educational pioneers saw higher education playing a larger part in Indian Country and the doors of many of the nation’s highly-selective institutions opening wider.

Today, many of the schools in this category offer some outstanding, and often-overlooked, opportunities and environments for Native students. Highly-selective colleges and universities are as diverse as any other category of institution so, obviously, there is no one-size-fits-all and some schools are better suited to serving Native students than others. However, in looking at the broad swath of highly-selective institutions, several key factors rise to the surface and are certainly worthy of consideration:

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Steven Abbott

1. Financial Aid: Despite the often prohibitive-looking price tags that highly-selective institutions tend to boast, they also generally have the most money to give. Most highly-selective institutions focus on “need-based” financial aid (i.e., financial assistance based on students’ families’ level of financial need, rather than “merit-based” aid tied to grades, athletics, etc.). New low and middle-income financial aid initiatives at many selective schools have, ironically, made them some of the most cost-efficient options for students who are admitted. Many highly-selective schools now cover full cost-of-attendance (not just tuition, but travel, fees, books, room and board), for students coming from household incomes of $60,000 or less.

Others offer no-loan financial aid packages to families at or below certain income levels while some have eliminated loans from their financial aid packages altogether. Some institutions offer need-based financial aid packages to families with household incomes well into the six-figure range. Don’t be fooled by the sticker shock — many students are attending Ivy League institutions for less money than the community college down the street.

2. Advising and Student-Support: There is a popular conception out there that schools, where admission is difficult and competitive, must also breed a true deep-end philosophy where sink or swim are the only options. Horror stories abound about students hiding materials, sabotaging one another’s work and doing

anything to get ahead. Undergraduates are thought to be tossed unceremoniously on the back-burner of academia, while the ‘real’ faculty members focus on graduate students. Ultimately, the weak will be forced out and the strong will survive. While there may be a few schools or programs where such behavior can be found, the reality at most highly-selective institutions is more likely to be the exact opposite. At many highly-selective colleges and universities, undergraduates are on equal footing with, or the sole focus of, faculty attention and few if any classes are taught by graduate student assistants. Students have access to excellent advising – both personal and academic — that is individualized according to their specific needs.

With a focus on four-year degree attainment, students are also receiving academic advising and support that is tailored towards their successful and timely graduation. Students will also likely have multiple lines of intervention, if and when problems arise. The students themselves cultivate climates of collaboration and mutual support. Some of the nation’s most ‘competitive’ colleges and universities also post the highest graduation rates as well; Native students are graduating at rates higher than ninety percent at some of the nation’s top colleges.

Highly-selective colleges and universities are not for everyone. First of all, they are, as the name would imply, highly-selective and difficult places in which to gain admission. Secondly, for every opportunity and advantage, each institution will have its share of drawbacks and pitfalls as well. At the end of the day, it comes down to finding a school that is a good fit for who you are, what you want to do and where you want to go. But, for those who are looking for a particular level of challenge and opportunity, highly-selective colleges and universities are definitely worth the look! ✦ (Steven Abbott is currently the GMS Coordinator of Outreach and Student Services at the American Indian Graduate Center.

Prior to AIGC, for the past five and a half years, Mr. Abbott held the position of Associate Director for Recruitment and Student Affairs for The Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP). Mr. Abbott earned his B.A. in Native American Studies, from Bates College, and is completing his M.A. from Dartmouth College. In addition to his educational qualifications, he is a member of the Governing Council for the National Institute for Native Leadership in Higher Education (NINLHE), serves on the Board of the Gedakina Foundation and has past experience with the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program as an Ambassador and Reader.)

3. Access to Resources: While education is arguably more ‘what you put into it’ than anything else, the availability of and access to resources can not be ignored. The majority of the nation’s highly-selective colleges and universities can boast outstanding resources. Whether it be in the form of guaranteed four-year housing, study-abroad programs, the availability of internships and career advising, faculty who are at the pinnacles of their respective fields or expansive extracurricular opportunities, these schools often give students entre into the best of what an educational institution can offer.

Graduate Study in Tribal Governance A Unique Master of Public Administration Degree The Tribal Concentration reflects the diverSiTy of issues addressed

by Tribal Governments: sovereignty, self-determination, educaTion and economic development, among others.

4. Level of Challenge and Instruction:

The proGram is designed for working adults: core and concentration courses each meet for two full weekends during the quarter.

Little is more frustrating to talented, motivated students than courses or instructors that are not challenging or peers who are not engaged. At the highly-selective colleges and universities, students typically find themselves challenged, in the classroom and out, and surrounded by accomplished and motivated peers.

A Top 100 Public Affairs Graduate School – U.S. News & World Report “Best Graduate Schools” 2012

5. Native Programs: By no means all, but certainly some of the schools in this category offer programs specifically tailored to Native students’ needs and opportunities. Some of the programs are longer-standing and more well-known than others but, when looking at colleges, it is always worth asking about.

:

The Evergreen State College - MPA Tribal Governance Olympia WA 98505 l 360.867.6202 www.evergreen.edu/mpa/tribal

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Gates Millennium Scholars

Helpful Application Tips

by Steven Abbott

A

s representatives for the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program, we travel extensively throughout Indian Country offering presentations, information sessions and labs to prospective scholars. Among the most frequent questions we get from students, families and counselors is: “What makes a successful GMS application?” The answer is, simply, that there is no simple answer — Scholars’ applications are as unique and diverse as the lives and stories that inspire them.

We can, however, offer a few brief suggestions to applicants, as well as their nominators and recommenders that can help you put your best foot forward in the process.

For the nominees (applicants): • Start on your application early — do not wait until the last minute.

• Similarly, do not wait until the last day to submit your application — too much can go wrong and no late submissions are accepted.

• The more time and energy you invest in your application, the more likely it will pay off.

• Remember that things like honors and awards, leadership experience and community involvement do not come just through school; talk about the things you do at home, in the community, for your tribe and for your family.

• Make sure you answer each question thoroughly — remembering that some questions have multiple parts; • Take the time to go beyond just answering the questions — instead, tell us your story.

• The point of the entire application — especially the long-answer questions — is to get to know who you are. So, take advantage of the opportunity to tell us whatever you can about yourself, your life, your community, etc.

• There is no right or wrong length to your answers; it is about quality, not quantity.

• The space allotted is a maximum amount of space — you do not need to use it all.

• Remember that your answers are formal writing, as opposed to the way you might write an e-mail or text.

Punctuation, spelling, grammar and capitalization are all important.

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• Proofread your application — be sure it reflects your best quality work.

• Writing out your answers in a computer program like ‘Word’ allows you to use spell-check and can make it easier to share your answers with others for feedback before you submit them.

• Let your own voice come out in your writing. “Formal” writing does not have to mean ‘stiff’ writing. If you are a funny person, do not be afraid to be funny in your responses. Likewise, if you are a philosophical person, do not be afraid to be philosophical, etc.

• Avoid using acronyms or initials, unless you write it out the first time. For example, if you start with, “I am a member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)....” you can then use “AISES” throughout the rest of your answer. Do not assume that your readers will know what AISES stands for, if you do not tell them.

• Approach your Nominator and Recommender early — give them time to provide a good reference for you.

• Choose a Nominator and Recommender who know you well and can say something special about you.

• Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

• Aim high for your college applications — remember, GMS will cover 100% of unmet need at any accredited college or university in the U.S..

• Be sure to stay conscious of the January deadline — remember, late applications are not accepted under any circumstances!

For the Nominator and Recommender: • Please be sure that the student (the “Nominee”) has expressed whether he or she would like you to act as the Nominator or the Recommender. To clarify: • The Nominator must be someone at the nominee’s school — a teacher, a counselor, a principal, etc. — who can speak specifically to the student’s curriculum and academic performance; • The Recommender can be someone in any number of roles — a teacher, a counselor, a coach, a spiritual leader, an employer, a tribal leader, etc. — that will speak to the nominee’s community involvement and leadership.

• Registering under the wrong role can create problems for the nominee.

• Please be sure you know under which community your nominee is applying. GMS is open to four communities:

American Indian/Alaska Native

Asian/Pacific Islander American

African American

Hispanic/Latino • Students from multi-racial backgrounds need to choose one community, under which to apply.

• Please be sure the nominee has given you sufficient information in order to proceed. Ask for a resume, an outline of activities or even a brief face-to-face meeting to review their goals, accomplishments and characteristics.

• Please be honest with your nominee. Let them know in advance if you feel that you: ~ Do not know them well enough to provide them with an insightful nomination or recommendation; ~ Can not — for whatever reason — provide them with a fair but positive nomination or recommendation or ~ Have not been given sufficient time to provide a thoughtful nomination or recommendation.

• Please take advantage of the spaces labeled, “Please explain.” Every year, one of the primary difficulties encountered by our readers stems from not having enough (or any) specific information from nominators and recommenders. The more information you provide, the more likely it is to help your nominee become a finalist for this scholarship. Your prose can tell us considerably more than just filling in a bubble.

Leaving these spaces blank may not directly hurt your nominee, but does nothing to help them.

• Please be as specific as possible. General statements such as, “Jennifer is a remarkable young woman,” are seldom valuable unless you can tell us how or why.

Specific stories, characteristics and observations are extraordinarily helpful.

• Please bear the deadline of January 11, 2012 in mind!

All materials, including your nomination or recommendation must be in by that date or the nominee will not be considered.

Many of these tips and suggestions may be valuable for your college and other scholarship applications as well! ✦

Always in Albuquerque Always in October

C

elebrating this year’s

OCTOBER 1-9 • 2011

www.balloonfiesta.com 4401 Alameda Boulevard, NE Albuquerque, NM 87113 Toll Free: (888) 422-7277 Phone: (505) 821-1000

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Alumni Connection

The Alumni Connection

by Susan Duran Class of 2004 Galen B. Springer (Otoe-Missouria) M.S., University of Kansas “AIGC helped with the completion of my Master’s Degree from the University of Kansas. I have been in the coaching field for the past 25 years, with 12 years at Haskell Indian Nations University, as a volunteer assistant coach, in both the men and women’s basketball programs. AIGC also helped me with several jobs after graduation. One 4-year stint at KU, as a Safety and Security Supervisor, helped me meet some of KU’s outstanding coaches, faculty and staff. At present, as a Case Manager with the Tonkawa Tribe of Oklahoma, I am working with Native American adolescents, ages 12 to 18, to overcome substance abuse. I am still coaching as a pastime. Thank you AIGC!”

Class of 2008 Melodie L. Cleveland (Ho-Chunk Nation) B.S., University of Nebraska - Lincoln “I am currently in a graduate program, studying Community Development, with a Native American track, focusing on developing non-local markets at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.”

Class of 2011 Delitha Livingston (White Mountain Apache) MSW, Arizona State University “I am graduating this May, with a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University. I’d like to thank you for your generous contribution of a scholarship over the previous two years. The AIGC Fellowship has aided me greatly in financially meeting the cost of attending graduate school. Thank you again for helping me earn my MSW.”

Class of 2011 Kawika Stant (Navajo), MS, Eastern New Mexico University (This entry has been edited for space) “I wanted to thank the AIGC staff for helping me the past two years. The graduate fellowship was a tremendous help to me and my family as I have pursued my lifelong dream of becoming a division one basketball coach. Now

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that I will be receiving my Master’s degree, I can continue to press forward with my goal. I am tremendously excited about what the future has in store for me and my family. Without your help, none of this would have been possible. I truly believe that your organization is doing a great thing, not only for me, but every Native American who is pursuing their dream and understands that an education is the only way it can be possible. I plan on donating to the organization, once I have gained a firm footing with a job. Once again, thank you so very much. I look forward to helping your organization in the future.”

Class of 2011 David W. Sanders (Oglala Sioux) Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder “I wanted to pass the news on to you that I received my Ph.D. in Mathematics Education, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a week ago. (My dissertation looked at the connection of Mathematics Education and Lakota culture, in the context of Indian Educational Self-Determination.)

In addition to this news, I also wanted to thank you all at AIGC for your continued support throughout the years. My Ph.D. took six years to complete. I had your financial support for four of those years. It would have been very difficult to complete it within this time frame if it wasn’t for your help. In addition to the rigors inherent in any Ph.D. program, I also have a family to raise, so the financial aspect of your support was magnified ten-fold.

Again, thank you all at AIGC for all that you have done to help me complete my studies. I hope that in the future, when I finally get settled down, that I can repay your efforts. You have helped me immensely and many Native American graduate students across the country.” ✦

Note: To insure that we have all your current information, please take a minute to visit our web site (aigcs.org) or send an email to (susan@aigcs.org) to update your information (be sure to include your previous address so we know we have the right individual).

We’re very proud of all our alumni, so… while you’re updating your information, please let us know what’s been going on with you. Also, if you would like to submit an article, for our magazine, about your educational experience(s) and/or how education has changed your life, we would welcome your story.

Professional Growth

Be a STAR

Practice the COIN Principle

by Nancy A. Berryhill

You are in charge of your own career. Developing yourself and those around you are key factors in your journey for professional and personal growth.

The COIN approach, shown below, can help you in your journey.

Communication

Have Integrity

Communication is more than expressing yourself verbally. It’s also how you carry yourself, your tone and your body language. Here are a few thoughts to improve your communication skills: • Listen More and Talk Less – Listen to understand, not to respond • Provide and Receive Feedback – Feedback is a twoway street • You are Always on Stage – Recognize verbal an nonverbal communication cues • Walk The Talk – Be consistent in your communications and lead by example

You are always on stage. Be a person of your word.Be trustworthy. Here are a few thoughts on integrity: • Do the Right Thing • Set the Example – Your behaviors do not go unnoticed • Be Accountable • Be Consistent

Be Operational Be familiar with the mission of the agency and your impact on it. Be the best you can be, by making things happen. Here are a few thoughts on how you can be operational: • Seek Opportunities – Don’t wait for others to come to you; take charge of your owndestiny • Be Flexible – Be a change agent – Be willing to experience new ideas or processes • Find Your Potential – Seek out ways to enhance your strengths • Learn from Your Mistakes

Don’t Be Negative Set yourself up for success, by trading a negative attitude for one that is positive. You’ll look and feel better. Here are a few thoughts on how to be positive: • Create Energy – Have fun and set the tone, by creating ways to make work exciting • Encourage Others – The best leaders celebrate the success of others • Choose Your Attitude – Only you can change it • Practice the Positive Following the COIN principle can spark your personal and professional growth. You will become more effective in the areas of communication, interpersonal skills and workplace harmony.

(Nancy A. Berryhill is the Chicago Regional Commissioner for the Social Security Administration)

Set yourself up for success, by trading a negative attitude for one that is positive. You’ll look and feel better.

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Surprises and Opportunities

Following a Dream

by Velda Begay

R

achel Rathanya Brown (Navajo) is a Gate’s Millennium Scholar, who graduated from Thoreau High School in Thoreau, New Mexico. The daughter of Verjean Haley and Randy Brown, Rachel is currently a senior at the University of New Mexico, majoring in Psychology, with a minor in Navajo Language. Upon graduation, she will pursue a Master’s Degree in Public Health and a career in medicine.

Rachel has a strong desire to give back to the Navajo community and would someday like to return to the Navajo Nation as an M.D. Rachel’s college experience has been full of many surprises and achievements. During her freshmen year in college, she pledged Alpha Pi Omega Sorority, Inc., a Native American Greek sorority whose mission is to serve as support for college women in today’s society. “Pledging Alpha Pi Omega is one of my most cherished moments; I never thought I would pledge a sorority. I was taking a walk around on campus one evening and saw chalking on the sidewalk; there was a meeting going on in ten minutes. I wanted to get more involved on campus, so I attended the meeting and unknowingly started the application process.

Although I hadn’t intended to apply, I was determined to finish what I had unknowingly started, not completing a task is a habit I wasn’t about to start. Although I was skeptical of being a member of a sorority, it turned out to be one of the best choices I have ever made. As a ‘Pi’ woman, I have had many positive experiences. Going Greek definitely brought new opportunities and friendships. I love my sisters and Greek family. They are my home away from home.”

Rachael Brown

In the past, Rachel has served as her sorority’s President, Circle Scholar, Busy Bee (community service) and currently serves as the Delta Chapter’s Vice President, Treasurer, Dean of Honeycombs (recruitment) and the Multicultural Greek Council’s Recruitment Chair.

She was nominated Greek woman of the year and has received numerous community service awards. During her presidency and term as Circle Scholar, the sorority was named a four-star chapter and awarded the Multicultural Greek Council’s Most Improved GPA award.

Rachel has not only left her mark in the Greek community at UNM, but in the American Indian community as well. In the spring of 2009, Rachel competed and

“Being a part of the Gate’s Millennium Scholar family is exhilarating. There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful for the scholarship and all the opportunities it has given me involving new friendships, networking, traveling and advancing my education. …”

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earned the Miss Indian University of New Mexico title.

She served as the University of New Mexico’s American Indian Ambassador; her platform was the preservation and practice of Native languages and cultures. Rachel advocated to younger audiences of all ethnicities about the importance of language, cultural identity, scholarships and higher education.

“The Miss Indian UNM was a title I had never dreamed of having”, Rachel said. ”I was shocked when I heard my name called because I didn’t think I was going to win. I practiced so hard – telling the creation story of the stars was not an easy task, but it was fun! The title had an effect on everyone around me, people listened more intently and the magnitude of the voice it gave me was amazing! I took it upon myself to advocate for the preservation of language, cultural identity and education because, as a young Navajo woman in today’s society, the world can seem very intimidating. However, as I’ve learned, everyone has a culture that they want to share with the world. Culture is what makes the world so diverse and colorful and is not as intimidating as I once felt it was.”

Rachel has also worked as a Residential Advisor in the Upward Bound Math and Science Program at the University of Texas at Arlington.

“The Upward Bound Math and Science Program at UT Arlington changed my life. I have friends from the program that I still talk to today. They live in different parts of the country and it’s amazing how much history we share. The program not only enabled me to grow socially, but academically as well. I wanted to give back to the program so I decided to work for the program as a Residential Advisor. The experience was amazing! I not only made new friends but was also able to make a positive change in the lives of younger students as a basketball coach, tutor, mentor and residential advisor. I worked closely with the students and advocated the Gate’s Millennium Scholarship on several occasions. I grew close with one of the students on my floor, we would talk for hours. After the program ended, we stayed in touch and would talk about the Gate’s Millennium Scholarship. I answered many of her questions regarding the scholarship, my experience applying, etc.

When she turned in her application, she was very nervous, but I knew deep in my heart that she would get the scholarship. A couple of months later I was one of the first people she called and told me that she was awarded the scholarship.”

Rachel’s has also been awarded the Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges award, since her freshmen year in college. She’s been

on the Dean’s List on numerous occasions and is also involved in the pre-medical organization, has served as a team captain for Relay for Life Colleges against Cancer Society and has participated in numerous community service projects, through UNM and the greater Albuquerque area.

Rachel is also a student of the inaugural class of campus-based Leaders and Mentors for the Gate’s Millennium Scholarship program. She served was a mentor at the 2011 Gate’s Millennium Leadership Conference in Los Angeles, California and attended a campus-based leadership conference in San Diego, California.

“Being a part of the Gate’s Millennium Scholar family is exhilarating. There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful for the scholarship and all the opportunities it has given me involving new friendships, networking, traveling and advancing my education. While some children dreamed about becoming actresses and pro-athletes, I dreamed of the day I would be a college student. Today, I am a college student, with even bigger dreams of becoming a doctor of medicine. The Gate’s Millennium Scholarship didn’t just bring opportunity; it brought my dreams and world to life.” ✦

Announcing the new online M Aster of J urisprudence in i ndiAn l Aw “Now tribal lawyers aNd judges, as well as tribal leaders aNd admiNistrators, will be able to expaNd aNd improve their kNowledge of iNdiaN law without haviNg to leave

iNdiaN CouNtry.” professor g. william rice

co-direcTor of The naTive american law cenTer

To learn more, join us for free inforMAtionAl webinArs aT hTTp://signup.indianlawmj.com or

visiT us aT hTTp://indianlawmj.org/info

918-631-3991 505-268-0500

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Developing Strategies

Keep it Simple

by Gabriel M. Bell

T

hanks for taking the time to read this article. I have always been open to sharing some words about the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) program and I wanted to share a bit about my thoughts on success as a Gates Scholar. Since I am a staff member for the American Indian Graduate Center Scholars (AIGCS) program at AIGC, new scholars often ask how they can better prepare for success as Gates Scholars and as student in higher education. It’s a pleasure to impart helpful advice, including my own experiences, as part of my conversation with scholars. Having been a Gates Scholar allows me to share a very personal perspective.

First, allow me to paint a quick picture of my life before my scholarly days. My story is very similar to many of my fellow scholars and alumni. I have a twin brother, Michael, so you will hear me refer to “we” a lot. Michael is very much a part of my story. We spent a lot of our childhood growing up in the small town of McLoud, Oklahoma. Coming from a military family, prior to making McLoud our home, we had the privilege of traveling to many parts of the country. As Natives, Michael and I fit in well in McLoud, considering it had a significant Native presence and is the home of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. Just an “FYI”, we are members of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes (for those who were wondering).

Most people in McLoud grew up there, raised families and stayed close to the area. Like many other families, ours experienced a divorce and all the fun that goes with living in split households. Finances were certainly not available in abundance, much less available to cover the cost of a college education (for two). Many of our peers were going through the same experience, among other socio-economic hardships. Either you have heard this story before or you had the chance to experience it yourself. The bottom line is that, whether you were Native or a Native Gates scholar, chances are we were all in the same boat - welcome to the family.

One thing I noticed during this time was that there were a concerning number of Native students dropping out of high school - some even in junior high. That thought never crossed my mind, as dropping out was not

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Gabriel Bell

an option in my family. In the face of all the adversity that was present, we always had been expected to do our best. By the time we had completed our first few years of high school, we were well on our way to graduating, with exceptional marks. The unfortunate reality was that “doing our best” academically did not translate to creating the finances necessary to fund higher education.

One day, Val Gokey, our high school counselor, came forward and described a scholarship for young Native leaders called the Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

He was optimistic that we would do well as candidates for the scholarship, based on our performance and involvement in the community. Michael and I were both fortunate to be selected as Gates Scholars late that year.

My success in high school was the precursor to my continued success as a Gates Scholar. In many ways, the skills and strategies I used in high school developed and benefited me in college.

It wasn’t too long ago that I took my first steps on the campus at Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU), as a student and a Gates Millennium Scholar. Following tradition, all freshmen took to the steps of Raley Chapel to conclude a symbolic walk around campus during welcome week. Those first days at the liberal arts institution brought a sense of resolve within me. I did not know what to expect or how to go about my initial semester at OBU, but I was determined to do my best.

Months prior, I was unsure about even attending college, let alone a ranking university in the region. For young people like me, who received little guidance related to higher education, it was hard to figure out how to make my admittance to college a reality. But, there I was, the following semester after high school graduation, attend-

ing class at a university – something I never thought would be a possibility. I was not sure of many things but, the one thing I was certain about, as I walked the campus at the small private university, was - failure was not an option. To succeed was to graduate with a degree and, at the end of my four years at OBU, I completed my goal with relative ease.

For me, achieving that was about keeping things simple. In my conversations with scholars, I sometimes hear their apprehension in preparing for the new challenges in higher education. They are often concerned with whether or not they have what it takes. My answer is easily, yes! Everyone may have a different approach. I wanted to share a few simple things I found that allowed me to be successful as a Gates Scholar.

Keeping academics the priority is paramount. It may sound obvious but, to any new college student, the amount of new distractions is staggering. From social clubs to social life, athletics to sporting events, among other extra-curricular activities are items that can quickly fill a scholars plate in short order. I can remember, during my first few semesters, there was a lot of dodging these unnecessary involvements. I felt confident in keeping most of my time devoted to academics. In the end, it paid off with great results. Some scholars say that time management is one major issue they face. It may be as easy as dropping a few weekly events or resigning from a fraternity or sorority position. You have to ask yourself, “does this really contribute to my academic success?” Now, don’t get me wrong, being involved in a couple extracurricular activities doesn’t spell failure. I participated in a couple intramural leagues, as well as in student government. The point is – don’t let academics get pushed down the priority list with the “other things”.

Sometimes I find it amazing the number of activities a student can add to their weekly and daily schedules. Prioritize academics first and filter the others in behind. If you’re unsure, then go strictly with academics for a period of time, until you reach a certain comfort level. Then consider adding other activities, one at a time, to see how it works out. Academics are your number one priority.

While in college, I was able to stay connected to my Native community. I was unused to the demographic that I discovered at OBU; it was certainly not the same demographic I experienced in high school. As a Native at OBU, I felt more isolated than ever. I rarely entered a class with another Native, unless it was my brother and those classes were few and far between. The feeling of isolation is another barrier to success that I hear about from scholars. Staying connected with your community can bridge this gap. Whether it’s finding, or creat-

ing, a Native group at your institution or finding a local community Native group, keeping in touch with other Natives may be the deciding factor in achieving success.

Choosing OBU meant that I could continue providing community service in the McLoud area, by helping at the Kickapoo Friends Center. Throughout the week, I could experience my Native community, while providing a service to my hometown. It was much-needed time, when I could regenerate and gain the encouragement to return to the rigors of OBU academics and the difficulties of an environment that felt hostile to the few Native students enrolled there. Staying connected to a Native community contributed to my success at OBU. Whether or not a family is ‘broken’, Scholars should always maintain open lines of communication with family members. I often hear scholars express how important their family is to them. If this tie is lost while at college, it may well increase difficulties in handling the obstacles of navigating the higher education experience. While I was able to pay regular visits home, mainly because it was so close in proximity, I was able to garner the support from my family. Even a weekly or daily phone call to parents or guardians, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins or other family members can go a long way, when a scholar is separated by a great distance. Scholars who were once in daily physical contact with their families, then separated for the length of a school term, can be in a precarious position if they do not maintain communication with family. Understandably, in rare instances, family may also be a hindrance to a scholar’s academic pursuit as well. I have heard that, in some cases, separation is needed for a scholar to free themselves of family obligations that impede success. Some family issues may tend to be too overwhelming for a scholar to handle.

Keeping in touch with or visiting family is an individual decision for each student. In my case, I found that paying the occasional visit and making regular calls back home added to my academic success.

I count myself fortunate to have received GMS support throughout my years in college and to have succeeded in obtaining my degree. Every scholar will employ different strategies to reach their goal. But, if a strategy is developed and used, then success is only a matter of time. For every obstacle or adversity in life, there is a method to overcome it. Gates Scholars have already overcome a variety of difficulties in their lives. The same is true for other Native students pursuing higher education. Although there may be uncertainties along the way, with the proper tools and determination, there are a variety of options for success – failure is not an option. ✦

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Making the Impossible Possible

Simon Chief (Navajo), Northern Arizona University

by Velda Begay

F

or Simon Chief, the Gates Millennium Scholars Program has presented many opportunities and he has left none of them unrealized.

Simon grew up in White Grass, Arizona, a small community comprised of no more than 200 people. This northern Arizona community is located approximately 2 miles northwest of Peabody Western Coal Company’s Kayenta Mine, adjacent to the Navajo-Hopi reservations.

While growing up on the Navajo reservation, Simon experienced many different obstacles and difficulties.

Simon was the one of the youngest of seven children.

He stated, “being the second youngest in the family is a challenge. My brothers and sisters had ‘set the bar’ for me. They were all involved in athletics and performed well academically. What I disliked the most about attending school in the Kayenta Unified School District was that, when educators heard the last name ‘Chief’, they would know who my siblings were and would hold me to the same expectations.”

High expectations from his educators were not the only difficulties that Simon faced while attending grades K-12. While living on the Navajo reservation, he had other responsibilities that often limited his ability to focus solely on his education. “The roughest part about going to school on the Navajo reservation was that the commute to and from school lasted over two hours. Once home, there were chores that needed to be done, ranging from household duties to tending to the livestock. When all the chores were completed, there were only a few hours left for homework and studying. The biggest barrier that I encountered was having to do research and type papers without having the resources to complete the tasks, so I had to do additional work before or after school to complete the assignment(s) or ask the neighbors if I could use their computer, encyclopedias or books.”

Simon began the application for the Gates Millennium Scholarship in 2004, when he first heard about it

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Simon Chief

during an Outreach visit, by an AIGCS staff member, to Monument Valley High School in Kayenta, Arizona .

After hearing about the benefits and endless possibilities that the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program could provide, Simon filled out the scholarship application with the support of his English teacher, Diana Fuller.

Simon states, “If it wasn’t for Ms. Fuller’s support and encouragement, I don’t think I would be where I am today. I thank her for recognizing the potential in me and not giving up.” Simon was awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship in 2005.

With the aid of the Gates Millennium Scholarship, Simon was able to attend Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, Arizona. Pursuing a post-secondary institution was always a dream for Simon. His parents did not have the opportunity to finish high school or study at a post-secondary institution. When Simon left the Navajo reservation, he believed he was ready to face the world on his own. During the first year of college, he faced his hardest challenge. On the reservation, Simon

attended a high school where the majority of the students were Navajo. For the first time in his life, Simon truly felt that he was one of a small minority when he arrived at NAU for his undergraduate studies. Simon assessed his situation and arrived at the conclusion that he had two options: give up and disappoint everyone that believed in him or adjust to the situation and continue with his studies. As a Native American student, Simon learned that, in order to survive in this new environment, he had to have the will and determination to continue with his studies. He discovered that the same values of hard work and dedication, found within his Native American community, were valued and beneficial within a university setting.

After spending several years at NAU, Simon earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, a Certificate in Restaurant Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in Management. While at NAU, Simon participated in the Gates Millennium Scholars’ Ambassador and Mentoring programs.

“After graduating from NAU, I had no clue of what I was going to do. Following a rough internship experience at the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, I realized that the ‘business world’ wasn’t for me. I based my decision on two incidents that occurred during my senior year at NAU. The first occurred in the fall of 2009, when I attended the Gates Millennium Leadership Conference, for the first time, in Los Angeles, California. It was a Saturday night and a Scholar approached me and asked if I was the individual that conducted a Gates Millennium Scholarship presentation in the summer of 2008 at NAU. I told him that I had, in fact, conducted that presentation. The young man shook my hand and said, ‘Ahéhee’ (Thank you in Navajo). He stated that, if it hadn’t been for my presentation, he would have not learned about the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program and would not have had the opportunity to go to college.

The second incident occurred during the spring of 2010, while I was having dinner with my sister and brother-in-law. At this point, I was debating on whether or not I would attend graduate school. We finished the meal at the Chinese restaurant and were sitting at the table when our waitress brought our check, along with several fortune cookies. We sat at the table and began to share our fortunes with each other. When it was my time to share, I opened the fortune cookie and pulled out the small slip of paper. It read, ‘Don’t be a fool, stay in school.’ At that moment, I knew that going to graduate school was the right choice for me.”

Upon receipt of his undergraduate degrees in 2010, Simon knew that his educational pursuit had just begun and returned to NAU to pursue a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership, with a Foundation emphasis.

Determined to take full advantage of all the opportunities and challenges that the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program (GMSP) offers, Simon has embraced many roles – Scholar, Mentor, Ambassador, CampusBased Leader and Advisor. Simon has assisted with outreach, mentored fellow Scholars across campus, served as a speaker at the GMS Leadership Conference, in the fall of 2010, and founded and serves as Advisor for the Northern Arizona University Gates Millennium Scholars (NAU GMS) organization. “I enjoy every aspect of being a Gates Millennium Scholar,” Simon said. “As a part of GMS, the program has allowed me to grow as a leader. Being a Gates Millennium Scholar has allowed me many opportunities to grow both personally and professionally and has made the impossible possible.”

When asked about his plans for his next step, Simon replied, “After I graduate, I plan to apply to a doctoral program or work on a second Masters Degree in counseling. I’d like to return to the Navajo reservation and work with high school students who are seeking an opportunity to go to college. If I am unable to return to the Navajo reservation, I would like to work with Native American students and make an impact on an individual level. Since the younger generations are our future, I feel that it is important to help them become successful individuals, so they can return home and help build a stronger community.”

Simon states that, “the opportunity to attend college is a blessing. Without the support of my parents, Sally and Billy Chief; my paternal grandmother, Lillie Chief; family; educators and friends, I wouldn’t be where I am today. My parents have always taught me ‘t’áá hó‘ájít’éego t’éiyá’ (it is up to you if you want to succeed). What this means to me is that I am responsible for my own actions; the decision that I make now will affect the outcome of my future. This quote often reminds me of the saying, ‘you are in control of your own destiny.’ Whatever one chooses to do in life, it is important to have a strong support system that will be encouraging, motivating, understanding and inspiring.

Continue to challenge yourself and keep your upbringing in mind. Hold the teachings and the values of your parents, grandparents and family close. The foundation of your culture, language and tradition has shaped you as an individual and will guide you through your life experiences.” ✦

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Evergreen State College

Evergreen’s Mpa in Tribal Governance Soon to Celebrate 10th Anniversary Tribal Governance as a Graduate Program The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington, launched the first permanent Master of Public Administration degree, with an emphasis in Tribal Governance, in 2002. Inspired by Joe DeLaCruz and guided by a group of tribal leaders, including Billy Frank, Jr., Ron Allen, John McCoy and others, they asked newly-minted Evergreen professors, Alan Parker, JD and Linda Moon Stumpff, PhD 1999, to begin developing curriculum for the program. Tribal leadership wanted a graduate program that would build a core of reservation-based tribal citizens, who gained the knowledge and skills for administering tribal laws and policies, to create innovative institutions, processes and programs to advance sovereignty, or to “push the envelope”, as the idea was expressed by Joe DeLaCruz. Establishing this new emphasis area required approval for a major change in curriculum by the Higher Education Commission of Washington State.

Parker became Director of the Northwest Indian Applied Research Center and Stumpff took the position of Director of the Public Administration Program for three years, in order to move the program ahead. Sam Deloria joined the team as a consulting faculty member and participated in the development of all of the tribal governance concentration courses. The work of building the curriculum moved quickly, using surveys and gaining input from tribal leaders, talking to prospective students and sharing ideas with a national audience at the American Society of Public Administration.

Initial funding was a major barrier, but was soon removed through gracious donations from the Tulalip, Muckleshoot, and other tribes in Washington State.

Funding was covered, for the next two years, by a federal education grant, with strong support from Senator Patty Murray. Finally, the series of tribal governance courses were included in the regular budget of the College by the Legislature, with continuing support from Representative John McCoy. Building the curriculum moved quickly, using surveys and continuing meetings with tribal political and administrative leaders and prospective students to gain

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their input. The first student cohort reflected the diversity that became the hallmark of the program. Students came from tribes all over the nation, with many holding jobs in tribal government, while state and federal governments sent employees with responsibilities in tribal affairs. Washington State has a well-developed system of relationships, between every department and tribes, that was outlined by the Centennial Accord of 1989, so the program also educates state managers who work with tribes. Recent student cohorts have included the same diversity and now include international students from indigenous nations and a wide variety of ages and experiences in tribal affairs. Course work covers a variety of topics: sovereignty, intergovernmental relations, tribal organization and structure, tribal economies and tribal policy.

A National Forum for Tribal Governance Students in the tribal cohort have the opportunity to study in Evergreen’s interdisciplinary environment, with its strong emphasis on collaboration, community-based research and connecting theory to practice.

Students go through the two-year degree program together, working in teams to study contemporary tribal policy issues and administrative challenges.

Many develop research projects that benefit their own communities or leverage intergovernmental relationships. The courses are aimed by the objective set by Joe DeLaCruz, who held the positions of President of the Quinault Nation and President of the National Congress of American Indians, to create a forum for the practice of self-governance. In his words, “no right is more sacred, to a nation and to a people, than the right to determine their social, economic, political and cultural future without external interference. The fullest expression of this occurs when a nation freely governs itself. We call the exercise of that right self-determination. The practice of this right is self-governance.”

Classes are held Friday through Sunday, every third or fourth weekend, enabling regional students to continue to live and work in their communities while earning a

graduate degree. Online and team projects keep students connected between classes. Class meetings on campus focus on seminars, problem-solving activities and active participation. Tribal leaders are frequent speakers, along with experts in a variety of fields from economics to international relations. Six years of case study research, funded by National Science Foundation, Gates, Lumina and other grants, produced over 80 tribal case studies that are available to students.

Opportunities for Native Graduate Students Students express enthusiasm for their learning and soon apply it to practice. Marie Natrall (Class of 2012) states that, shortly after completing classes, she attended the 12th Indian Nations Crime Conference and “felt that the program is not only relevant, but helps provide an understanding of what is going on in current events… and was glad I had the background to understand Mr. Echohawk’s speech.”

Sarina Corpuz (Class of 2012) spoke to community connection: “By reinforcing the values of the community, I have gained a good comprehension of how

tribal governments work with the state institutions. The analysis of inter-tribal organizations, in the collaborative project on nonprofit organizations, proved to me the impact of my actions at a local level.”

Tribal governance alumni spread out into a variety of jobs, most moving up the ladder in tribal governments, federal, state and local government positions in tribal affairs or nonprofit organizations. Inter-tribal discussion and comparative analysis provide unique opportunities for dialogue. Tuition is competitive and, in fact, lower than most other state graduate institutions and the full range of state and federal financial aid opportunities are available. Some out-of-state tribes with land claims in Washington are exempt from out-of-state tuition. Recruitment is ongoing for classes beginning in fall 2012. ✦ Contact Erin Genia (geniae@evergreen.edu) for more information about applying for admission, Alan Parker (parkeral@evergreen.edu) or Linda Stumpff (stumpffl@ evergreen.edu) for more information. You can also access additional information and sample syllabi from previous years through the Evergreen State College website.

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Sandia National Laboratories

Tribal Energy Program at Sandia Empowers Native American students while powering tribal lands

by Stephanie Hobby

M

levels of support for tribes turning to renewable energy sources: financial assistance through competitive grants, education and training and technical assistance from Sandia Labs and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Sandia’s interns provide education and training, as well as technical assistance.

The program opens doors for tribes seeking Sandia’s help with renewable energy projects, while connecting Native American students interested in tribal energy issues with Native leaders, tribes and tribal utilities across the country.

“I’ve been able to see and hear for myself, tribal efforts to develop renewable energy projects ranging from strategic planning on the energy front to implementation, including rural electrification to utility power generation and distribution,” said Gepetta Billie, a year-round intern and three-time summer program participant. “It’s empowering and encouraging to see tribes act proactively to improve the quality of life for the entire community. There is still a lot that needs to be done, so the work that gets done through and with the assistance of the Tribal Energy Program is incredibly invaluable.”

Sandra Begay-Campbell, a Sandia researcher and member of the Navajo Nation, started the internship in 2002 and works with tribes all over the country. “I wanted to help build capacity within tribal governments. The goal is to get to the point where you have tribal members who have technical skills to implement these programs,” Begay-Campbell said. “The DOE Tribal Energy Program funds the interns; the students do the work and intensive research. At the end of the summer, we provide the DOE with their research papers.

The students are able to see what is available to them and they grow as advocates for Sandra Begay-Campbell displays a small solar panel in front of Window Rock, renewable energy.”

Arizona, near the Navajo Nation headquarters. ost Americans take electric power for granted but, for people living on tribal lands, getting to the grid can be a challenge.

On the Navajo Nation, a 26,000-square-mile expanse in northwest New Mexico, northeast Arizona and southeast Utah, an estimated 18,000 households live without power and, often, it’s not by choice. A lack of infrastructure, transmission capabilities and policies impede the availability of electricity to outlying tribal areas. Cost is another challenge: one mile of power line costs $35,000 and the burden largely falls on the household requesting it.

A program at Sandia Labs addresses those challenges and connects tribal governments in remote regions with viable electricity solutions. At the same time, Sandia is training a new generation of Native American renewable energy advocates.

Interns are key to the decade-old Department of Energy Tribal Energy Program, which provides three

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Sandra Begay-Campbell speaks with Norman Thompson and Dave Litso of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

This year, Begay-Campbell selected four interns Tammie Allen is a member of the Jicarilla Apache Nation in northwestern New Mexico and is enrolled in the Community and Regional Planning master’s program in the School of Architecture at the University of New Mexico. She expects to receive her degree this summer. Allen graduated, with honors in humanities, from the College of Santa Fe. She hopes to work in renewable energy and community planning after graduation. Allen is also recognized for her traditional ceramic pottery work, which is displayed in galleries nationwide.

Gepetta Billie is a member of the Navajo Nation, grew up in Red Rock, near Gallup, New Mexico, and recently earned her master’s from UNM’s Community and Regional Planning program. She earned her undergraduate degree, in environmental planning and design, from UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning, and also attended the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute, where she earned an A.A.S. in civil engineering technology. This is Billie’s third summer working with Begay-Campbell and she has been a year-round Sandia intern. She hopes to continue work in tribal energy development.

Chelsea Chee is a member of the Navajo Nation from Cedar Springs, Arizona, about 35 miles north of Winslow. She is working on her master’s in UNM’s Community and Regional Planning program. She worked for two years for a nonprofit youth organization that focused on the effect of climate change and global warming on indigenous people. With the experience Chee gains this summer, she hopes to take additional courses and eventually find work in the field of renewable energy.

Devin Dick is a member of the Navajo Nation and is enrolled in the Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, New Mexico, about 50 miles northeast of Gallup.

He became interested in renewable energy while attending dances with his family on the neighboring Hopi reservation, where he saw solar panels and wind turbines and grew curious about how they worked. He plans to graduate in the spring of 2012, with a degree in energy systems, and hopes to work for a utility or as an installer.

Dick is also using his knowledge of alternative energy to make suggestions for powering a veterans’ center that his parents helped establish.

The summer internship starts in mid-May and ends in mid-August and interns can expect to spend nearly half of the 12 weeks traveling to various tribal lands to meet with tribal utilities, customers and tribal leaders to explore options for renewable energy generation.

“Sandra is really encouraging us to network and learn as much as we can about the projects,” Allen said. “We’ve been studying funding and grant applications, as well as the technology to really provide the best information to tribes and utilities.”

Using renewable energy sources is increasingly popular among tribes seeking affordable and sustainable ways to meet the demands of growing populations on tribal lands. And, sometimes, it is the only way to provide electricity. One way to get around cost-prohibitive line extensions is to provide people in outlying areas with “drag and drop, plug and play” solar/wind hybrid units. Typically, these consist of 1080-watt photovoltaic panels and 400watt small wind turbines, which rent for $75 a month.

They generate a limited amount of power, so users still have to conserve electricity. Sandia provided technical assistance through a partnership with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.

Begay-Campbell makes a point to include interns in all aspects of her work and she hires college students, mostly from engineering concentrations. Recent interns are graduate community and regional planning students.

“Community planners are a very good match for the program,” said Begay-Campbell. “They have the training to understand the needs of the community and how to facilitate dialogue. They also take feedback and determine how to set goals and projects, build from what they’ve heard and know how to organize that into energy needs.

That’s a skill that’s interesting and makes a good match.”

The current interns are planning to follow in the footsteps of their predecessors and continue in a similar line of work. “I’ll probably try to work for a utility, but am interested in working in the field on the technical side, installContinued on page 57

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A New Generation of Leaders

ONASHE

Oklahoma Native American Students in Higher Education

by Christopher Roman Nose (Oklahoma City University), Mekko Tyner (College of the Muscogee Nation) and Robin Williams (Oklahoma State University)

I

t has been almost 4 ½ years since the idea of starting a statewide conference for Native American students began. The idea began with three Native American student affairs professionals, who saw a need to unify Native students in Oklahoma. They believed the first step would be creating a unique conference that would help engender community through social and cultural activities, building relationships with other Native American students. It would provide opportunities to learn from others about leadership, career, graduate schools and seeing Native American role models who have established themselves professionally and made a positive impact on the community. The idea developed through the input of universities and colleges statewide, from diverse institutions such as research, public, regional, private, tribal and community colleges, with support from UNITY, Inc. Including the voices of Native American students was important through the development process; they attended planning meetings and helped promote the conference. The first ONASHE (Oklahoma Native American Students in Higher Education) conference was held at SWOSU (Southwestern Oklahoma State University) and co-hosted by CATC (Cheyenne Arapaho Tribal College) in February 2008. The first conference had over 80 students in attendance from all over the State of Oklahoma, with over 20 Native American student affairs professionals and tribal higher education organizations. The uniqueness of this Native American student leadership development conference is that it incorporates workshops and professional development opportunities for student affairs and tribal higher education programs.

ONASHE provides cultural and social activities for the students to learn from each other’s tribal culture. At the ONASHE 2011 conference, hosted by Northeastern State University, students played the traditional South-

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“ONASHE was very exciting! I saw a lot of old friends and made lots of new ones.

Stickball is always my favorite activity, but there were very good speakers, including Ryan Redcorn and Dr. James King (my favorite). Overall, ONASHE was a good experience and I had a great time.”

—Daniel Roberts, Muscogee Nation, Sophomore at the College of Muscogee Nation

east game of stickball. Stickball is played men vs. women and is a growing sport on the college campus. At prior ONASHE conferences, a Southwest Oklahoma hand game has been played by participants. In addition, at the last ONASHE student meeting the students played Indian Dice. At the ONASHE 2010 conference hosted

by Oklahoma State University, Sterling Harjo showed his Film “Barking Water”. Harjo was accompanied by the lead actors of the film, Casey Camp-Horinek and Richard Ray Whitman, and hosted a question and answer forum for the students. The past ONASHE conferences had many impactful speakers who have years of experience in education and leadership from tribal leaders, including Archie Mason and Chad Smith and state leaders, including Lisa Billy and Kelly Haney. Students have also heard from upcoming leaders, including Ryan Red Corn and Cortney Yarholar. During each annual ONASHE conference, the students select recipients for awards in the following categories: Outstanding Up and Coming Leader, Outstanding Leader, Outstanding Graduate Student, Outstanding Student Organization, Outstanding Role Model (faculty/staff) and the Bradley H. Wahnee Memorial Award (most improved student) to recognize students and organizations contributing to their respective college/ university and local communities.

The success and impact of ONASHE has grown over the years, from annual conferences hosted by various Oklahoma universities and colleges, to the development of bi-monthly ONASHE student meetings, where college students all over Oklahoma can network, support each other and fellowship with one another and a bi-monthly newsletter written and produced by students at Oklahoma universities and colleges. This year, ONASHE will elect a state board of student representatives to not only further develop the conference but also be a voice of Oklahoma Indigenous students in higher education. The mission and goal of ONASHE, of supporting Native American students and empowering them through leadership development opportunities, continues to evolve. We look forward to the future of ONASHE and how it can build relationships across the State of Oklahoma and continue to see future tribal, state and community leaders emerge. ✦

ONASHE 2011 participants

“I have been involved with ONASHE, since it started back in 2008. This great conference has given myself and others the opportunity to participate in meaningful workshops and to listen to some amazing speakers. And having the chance to network with other Native students from all over the state is, in my opinion, the best thing about this conference. Learning what others are doing on their campuses and sharing ideas with one another has proven to be very useful for me and for our university. I’m glad to see that ONASHE is growing in size and that students are taking the initiative to make it better each year.”

—Dalton Kelley, Choctaw Nation, Senior at Oklahoma State University-Stillwater

Tribal Energy Program at Sandia Continued from page 55

ing turbines and solar panels,” Dick said. “This program is a big stepping stone for me and I’m very excited about the opportunities I’m going to have here.”

Returning to tribal lands is also a priority for many students. “Ultimately, I’m Navajo, so I’d like to work within the boundaries of my tribe and be based there – that’s my ideal work situation,” Chee said. “If the tribe wants it, we want to tie in traditional ways of life like rug weaving, horse training and agricultural work with technical assistance, business plans and websites. I’d like to help with building and bringing technology to traditional ways of life to improve it a little more in terms of economic development.” ✦

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If you would prefer to receive an email copy of our publication, please let us know at

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The Choctaw Nation Scholarship Advisement Program

The Ivy League & Friends Event

Forging Connections Between Choctaw Nation Students and Highly Selective Colleges

by Jo McDaniel

T

he Choctaw Nation Scholarship Advisement Program (SAP), established in 2006, exists to help Choctaw tribal members get in to the colleges of their choice, with smart, comprehensive preparation and, later get out successfully with a degree and strong prospects for the future. Shortly after the organization’s formation, staff realized that students (and, sometimes, parents, too) needed encouragement to think big about their educational options. Scholarship Advisement staff wanted to help their constituents forge connections with some of the most elite colleges in the nation.

To that end, the SAP developed a relationship with Harvard University, which has since quickly blossomed into the annual recruitment event–Ivy League & Friends. What started as a simple information session, with one school, has become one of the country’s largest annual college recruitment fairs for Native Americans.

In 2008, the Scholarship Advisement Program invited Harvard representatives to meet with SAP Choctaw scholars in Durant, OK; the informal session drew over 100 participants from all over Oklahoma and surround-

Over 500 guests from 14 states attended the 2010 Ivy League & Friends event.

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ing states! Immediately, SAP staff recognized the powerful potential of the session.

In 2009, they organized a more formal event—dubbing it “Ivy League & Friends”—and invited Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and five other elite schools to participate. Over 300 participants from 10 states attended.

In 2010, the event grew into a full-day affair, complete with breakout sessions tailored for both students and their parents. Topics included planning and financial advice, college prep advice and presentations from university representatives. Over 500 guests from 14 states attended, responding enthusiastically to both the sessions and the opportunity to meet with delegates from 20 undergraduate and 17 graduate programs located throughout the U.S. The 2011 event, scheduled for November 4th and 5th at the Choctaw Nation Resort in Durant, OK, will be a two-day affair, with guest speakers, special sessions and an even bigger recruiting presence for the nation’s most selective undergraduate and graduate programs, with more than 40 universities expected to attend.

The event will be open to all members of the Choctaw Nation.

SAP’s philosophy—that you can never start too early when it comes to planning for college—matters for all college-minded Native Americans. Each year, the SAP especially encourages the families of high school fresh-

The SAP team at the 2010 event–comprised of SAP staff and college Peer Advisors

men and sophomores to attend Ivy League & Friends.

Of course, the advice provided on admissions, financial planning and scholarships is valid for students at any point in their secondary education. But, the SAP has found that the earlier students learn their options and start setting goals, the better prepared they (and their parents) will be when the time comes to send out those applications, make a few tough decisions and do some serious planning.

Why attend a college recruitment fair? Speaking directly with admissions officers from a variety of different universities can provide: • an inside track on whether a school is a good fit for the student’s goals and gifts, • a clear picture of what the different schools look for in an application and • a sense of what funding opportunities might be available and how to take advantage of them.

Frank Semple, who brought his daughter, Erin, from Denver, CO, called the 2010 event “a great way to target

Sessions presented by college representatives provide essential information to students and parents.

Choctaw Princess with Ivy League & Friends attendees.

half a dozen of the schools we were interested in” and “the best way to learn more about a school short of visiting the campus.”

Recruitment fairs hosted by Native American organizations also provide a second advantage: college representatives at the SAP’s events come prepared to speak with Choctaw students. This means that they are better able to tailor their advice and comments to members of the Choctaw community, something students will often miss in their guidance counselor’s office and on a standard campus tour.

For example, Choctaw Nation members, Christie and Cassie Morley, were able to use information they received from the 2009 Ivy League & Friends event to engage in pursuit of Dartmouth College, which, ultimately, secured them both full financial aid. Terri Morley, the girls’ mom, notes that their private Catholic high school “did really well with college prep...although they didn’t know what to do with minority students and they didn’t know what to do with low-income students.”

Without attending this event, the Morleys might not have dreamed that the girls could be accepted into—let alone afford—an Ivy League school.

What the Scholarship Advisement Program has done, other organizations can also do, which could create opportunities for their constituents to: • talk one-on-one with recruiters from top undergraduate and graduate programs, • find practical advice on everything from SAT preparation to financial readiness and • become familiar with additional programs from the host organization that may also be helpful.

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The Choctaw Nation Scholarship Advisement Program

A Dartmouth representative hands out materials with a smile to an interested Choctaw scholar and parent.

AIGC attends the event to share information about their programs.

A representative from Stanford points out helpful information in provided materials.

It’s within reach for small organizations to achieve the same success by implementing events like Ivy League & Friends, because the same colleges and universities that have responded so enthusiastically to an invitation from the Choctaw Nation are just as eager to develop relationships with other tribal nations and organizations.

Jean Lee, Associate Director of Yale’s undergraduate admissions department, affirms their commitment: “We want to be here and seek students, but also [be here to]

support the effort that the Choctaw Nation is making– this amazing effort to reach out to their tribal members, to promote education. Any time that kind of thing happens, we want to be involved and do the best we can to help out.”

Every journey may begin with one step but, when your planned destination is a college degree, good advice and careful preparation can get you a lot farther down the road.

The SAP’s mission is to walk with their students every step of the way. They have discovered that tribal members are hungry for the information and support provided through Ivy League & Friends, as well as through other SAP programs. The Scholarship Advisement Program has also found numerous higher education institutions and organizations that are willing (and even eager) to partner with them in helping students make informed choices about their college educations. The rapid growth of Ivy League & Friends suggests that the program is an idea whose time has come, not just for the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, but for any group aiming to help Native American students fully realizes their educational goals. ✦ For more information about the event or the SAP, please visit choctawnation-sap.com, contact (800) 522-6170 x2523 or e-mail ScholarshipAdvisement@ChoctawNation.com.

Every journey may begin with one step but, when your planned destination is a college degree, good advice and careful preparation can get you a lot farther down the road.

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From Passion to Profession

An Oneida Woman’s Journey

Achieving a Graduate Education in Pursuit of Developing Native Youth and Indian Education Programs

by Melissa Powless Chacon

W

hile I am the first of my family to attend colcan help develop quality Native youth programs through lege and graduate, these accomplishments grant management, proposal writing, program evaluation have not been easy. Like most Native people and leadership coaching services. It has also allowed me in Indian Country, my experience with education and to concentrate on a long-time passion for creating wellprofessional work has meant “walkness and development opportunities ing in two worlds.” Sometimes I have for Native youth, while indirectly had to conform and, at other times, I achieving dreams from my own childhave resisted conformity. Often times, hood and adolescence.

I have had no choice but to “wear

As a child and young adult, I many hats”, including; professional, remember always wanting a famstudent, mother, daughter, wife and ily of my own, but I also wanted betself, while undertaking other responsiter opportunities for myself compared bilities. If this sounds like a lot of balwith what my parents and grandparancing, responsibility and hard work, ents experienced in their lives. Somewell, it was...and it still is. Yet, what where, I learned that going to college I have learned is that education and was a positive goal for achieving my my career choices have allowed me to dreams. As a teenager, I dreamed of bring back knowledge to Indian comhaving a safe place to nurture my cremunities, as an experienced American ative talents as a Native youth. At age Indian professional, and create better fourteen, I envisioned that I would Melissa Powless Chacon opportunities for Native youth, withsomeday establish a high school for out giving up who I am. The rewards are incomparable American Indian performing and visual artists and prowhen I think my own children may, one day, find inspivide other Native youth opportunities that I did not have ration in my accomplishments and achieve something in my youth. In my early twenties, I began working directthat is important to them and their children. I am also ly with Native youth in non-profit, grant-funded programs always rewarded by the fact that I am able to share the in the Bay Area Indian Community in Oakland, Califorknowledge I have acquired with other Native people who nia. I went on to help administer and implement several are committed to working with youth and developing community-based youth development programs in various opportunities for current and future generations. tribal communities in California.

Achieving a graduate education and a career with While working in Native community programs over non-profits, tribal youth programs and Indian education the years, I consider myself blessed to have been able to centers, I have fostered a passion for working with Native complete my general education at a community college youth and managing youth programs Indian communi(in Oakland, California) and then earn my bachelor’s ties. As an experienced American Indian professional, I degree in Public Administration and a Master’s degree now conduct Organization Development consulting and in Organizational Development, from the University administrative support to tribes and Native American of San Francisco. Both programs allowed me to apply non-profits that have needs related to youth and educaknowledge gained from my education and career directly tion programs. For me, higher education has been a sucwith Tribal Enterprises, a U.S. government agency with cessful way to achieve professional goals with which I Continued on page 63 The American Indian Graduate

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Making a Difference

A Different Choice

by Franklin Dollar

O

nce, while on a student panel, I was asked why I studied laser physics when there are so many important and pressing issues in Indian Country. The answer, I thought, was obvious; there were few lasers in America when Europeans arrived and perhaps, if we in Indian Country had invested a little more, earlier on in the study of high power lasers, things may have turned out a little differently. Of course, with the rapid ascension of tribal power on the national scale, there is, without a doubt, a dire need for people skilled in land rights and natural resources, Indian law and healthcare policies and practice, to name just a few. With events such as the recent Supreme Court ruling against the Jicarilla Apache Nation and the Jack Abramoff scandal, tribes are in greater need than ever before for people who have a vested interest in the prosperity of its people and who better than its own members?

However, American Indians with the qualifications and knowledge needed to handle such endeavors are few and far between in Indian Country. Indeed, the 22nd Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education (American Council on Education) reported that the percentage for American Indians enrollment and graduation lag behind white and other ethnic groups across the board, with some percentages even declining. In the 2004-05 academic year, only 758 American Indian students received a professional or doctoral degree. Part of the reason for such low numbers is the overwhelming lack of Native faculty in a system where, according to the 2007 Nelson Diversity Reports, white males enjoy a much larger representation in every STEM (Science, Math, Engineering and Math) department, with the exception of sociology. The report seems even bleaker when you consider that, within the top 50 STEM programs, there is only one department that doesn’t acknowledge a 7-year hiring lapse in Native faculty.

Which brings me back to the question of why, if there is such a critical need for American Indians to help their community, am I working on laser physics, of all things? I can tell you, it certainly wasn’t my original plan. I am from the Dry Creek Band of Pomo Indians, a small Northern Californian tribe that has recently con-

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Franklin Dollar

structed a casino and is now dealing with the reality of a rapidly developing government and populace, with all of the benefits and problems that come with it. However, prior to entering into the gaming industry, the Rancheria was a much humbler place, with many of the issues that are prevalent in Indian Country. During high school, I was encouraged to pursue a higher education and steered toward a university, a setting about which I, admittedly, knew little or nothing. Being admitted to a school that was close to home, I began my academic career.

The transition to a university that is almost 30 times the size of the closest town to our Rancheria was difficult but, thankfully, the community made it extremely welcoming. I soon saw the importance of having a strong support network including students, staff and faculty.

However, in my engineering discipline the support network wasn’t the same. While a strong multicultural engineering program provided a sense of community, there was a type of ‘disconnect’ between the College of Engineering and that program. Faculty members were often dismissive and didn’t understand different styles of learning. I heard phrases like, “these classes seem too hard for you” and “do you want to graduate on time?” Being one of a very few underrepresented students in STEM, let alone an American Indian student, it was difficult to motivate myself and find academic and morale support to continue. With a combination of luck and perseverance, I found myself applying to graduate programs and fellowships, with the intent of obtaining a doctoral degree in physics.

It took a long time for me to come to the realization that I wasn’t any worse off than anyone else; that the way I had progressed through college wasn’t any worse than anyone else’s journey. With a Master’s degree in Electrical

Engineering and a National Science Foundation Fellowship, I found that, in fact, I was in an even better position that I could have imagined. I had the good fortune of having several strong supportive figures and programs that kept me going through the difficult parts and I understood the importance of those few people and the impact that they made.

I know that not everyone has the same college experience; moreover, not everyone has the same opportunity to have this chance. In the long term, there will be more than just a need for Native lawyers, historians, doctors and businessmen; there will be a need for overall Native excellence. A display of what we, as a people, are capable of doing not only provides credibility to the greater public, but provides hope and inspiration to the following generations, allowing them to believe in goals they can accomplish, despite the naysayers. If I were to become a faculty

member in physics at a research institution, one may not immediately be able to see the benefits that I may bring to my tribe, let alone Indian Country. But, as a faculty member, I will be skilled in problem solving, analytical thinking, the infrastructure of the higher education system and how to interact with the government; all of which are important to a tribal government. In addition, I can act as a university liaison to recruit and support other individuals, in a manner similar to what I had experienced when I was younger. At a fundamental level, at the very least, I adjust the statistics so that the population of the faculty more closely matches the population of the general public, if only by a slight bit.

The impacts that we are capable of making are beyond the limitations of the immediate need. By doing what we enjoy and bringing those passions back to our people, we can do more and mean more. ✦

An Oneida Woman’s Journey Continued from page 61

American Indian employees and in a Native non-profit organization. I have also been afforded the opportunity to attend the Society for American Indian Government Employees (SAIGE) conference in Anchorage, Alaska, through a scholarship award, where I presented my graduate research findings.

I am now pursuing a doctorate degree in Education Leadership from the University of California San Diego. My intention is to provide culturally appropriate research that will improve education for American Indian youth. We know the world is constantly evolving, at sometimes alarming rates, and education for our people needs to continue to reflect the communities and tribal cultures to which we belong. At the same time, our educational opportunities must still evolve with the social, environmental, technological and political eras, which require proven strategies and successful outcomes for our children. Without evidence of successful programs to compare and build from, opportunities to develop communities, ourselves and our children remain limited or out-of-date. Through my research I am attempting to provide a clear understanding of what culturally responsive schooling programs look like in different tribal communities and contexts.

In my research at UCSD, I intend to capture the positive educational experiences of Native youth in various contexts through storytelling. The reason this is a unique approach is because much of the research in education

has been conducted through observation with students and interviews with leadership, teachers and other adults.

The actual words and voices of students are rarely found in educational research and we know that the voices of American Indian students are not heard enough, or at all, on several topics. By capturing Native youth experiences and perspectives on topics – perhaps around instruction, curriculum, school, community needs or personal interests, I hope to discover solutions to be used in tribal School programs, or mainstream school districts where Native students attend. The research that I will be conducting at the graduate doctorate level is an opportunity that I hope will result in positive educational changes for Native youth and their communities.

The most significant resource to my higher education goals has been the support of financial scholarships which were awarded by my tribe’s Higher Education Department (the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin). Without this opportunity to further my education, I would not have attained the knowledge I am using today to help tribal communities and their programs and Native non-profit organizations. Through my graduate education, I am enabled to achieve and pursue a dream and make some of my greatest passions into a successful profession. ✦ (If you would like to contact Melissa regarding her professional and/or doctorate research work with tribal nations or urban Indian communities, please feel free to email: powlessm@ gmaill.com).

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