After completing the tour (in 1965), it becomes much easier to empathize with a student who is homesick among the other 1,200 students, 160 buildings, 500 white face Herefords, and 8,900 acres when he is over one thousand miles from home. We next met the excellent guidance staff which helps the student cope with his problems.

* * *

We learned that our students live in cottages of from 170 to 190 students per cottage (at Chilocco).

* * *

From this meeting (in 1967) I returned strengthened in my convictions that children should be educated locally. We will continue to screen carefully all applications for boarding schools emphasizing the desirability of continuing their education in local schools unless there are prohibiting social

reasons.5

H. SECONDARY EDUCATION

The Branch of Education files cover the post-high school Indian enrollment and graduation records from the 1964-65 through 1968-69 school year. Of the forty-eight Indians enrolled in academic and vocational-technical courses, fourteen have completed their courses. Thirty of these students were enrolled in college courses which four completed while nineteen were enrolled in vocational-technical courses with ten completions.

Seventeen young people from the Fort Hall Reservation are presently enrolled in colleges and universities of whom nine are freshmen. Three students may graduate at the end of the 1968-69 school year. Four persons are receiving vocational and technical training under P.L. 959 at Idaho State University; three are enrolled as undergraduates in the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Fort Hal residents believe that vocational training should be more accessible. The Chairman of the Health and Welfare Committee has said:

They wouldn't accept our students at Haskell unless they had pretty good grades, B average. It seems a shame for a student to finish 12 years and not be able to do what he wants to do. We need a vocational school in the Northwest; Snake River is for non-Indians.

I. SUMMARY

Indian education at Fort Hall looks little different from Indian education elsewhere. High drop-out rates and barely passing grades for students who do stay in school dramatically highlight the failure of the public schools to serve the Indian children and youth with whose education, and future, they have been entrusted. Curriculum irrelevance, language barriers, and special difficulties faced by student from a different culture in the Anglo school are all present here and have

For a more complete treatment of the issues and problems surrounding Indian boarding school education, see the Navajo report.

35-479-69-vol. 2- -10

all been noted in other parts of this report as well. In addition, the analysis of Indian stereotypes found in State-used textbooks, discussed earlier, provides specific demonstration of the inability of the schools to handle satisfactorily the confrontation between and the education of students from different cultural backgrounds. One wonders whether a similar analysis of texts in other States would not reveal the same stereotypic orientation.

The greatest tragedy of Fort Hall, however, lies in the contrast between the Reservation's resource potential and the stark reality of poverty culture. Certainly, the addition of bi-cultural emphases in the curriculum, changes in the training and orientation of teachers, involving Indians in the schools as teacher-aides and as concerned parents and other changes needed in Indian education elsewhere are needed here too. But equally if not more needed are economic opportunities that students can see, can aspire to, and can learn for. The social disorganization, the agony and desperation that produce a suicide rate ten times the national average will not be alleviated by educational reform alone.

J. FINAL NOTE

Idaho State University has done an excellent job of providing assistance and working towards solutions of various problems on the Reservation. In addition the University provides services such as Upward Bound, which has done an excellent job of tutoring Indian children for college entrance.

The President of Idaho State University envisions an increased role for the university in developing the educational resources on the reservation. In the near future it is proposed that lodge schools be established within walking distance of homes. Indian parent participants would assist teaching assistants from the university. Moreover, these lodges could serve as community centers providing facilities for adult education.

The lodge system was in effect at Fort Hall during the Collier Administration and is remembered with great respect by the Indian people. Parents express high positive regard for this idea. Their support of the VISTA pre-school experiment demonstrates the feasibility of locating such an educational institution on the reservation. Of course, the success of this venture depends on the provision of reliable and suitable transportation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs should assure that an adequate supply of safe and reliable vehicles be provided and maintained for use by these schools.

D. Field Report-California

1. INTRODUCTION

This report will describe the Indian population of California, the nature and effectiveness of Indian education in California, special programs and problems, and recommendations for further study. Information is based on

1. Testimony obtained at a Subcommittee hearing in San Francisco, January 4, 1968.

2. Visits of Subcommittee members and staff to the Hoopa and Kashia reservations and to Sherman Institute in January and in October, 1968.

3. Literature about the Indian and Indian education in California.

4. Correspondence and interviews with representatives of federal, state, and local organizations.

2. DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

California today has one of the largest Indian populations of any state in the nation, but the Indian is a lost and neglected citizen. His social, economic and educational needs have long gone unmet and he stands the lowest of any ethnic group in terms of employment, income, health, sanitation and housing, and education. Diverse groups of Indians include some who maintain Indian traditions and live apart, some who live apart as separate ethnic groups but who have lost touch with past history and Indian culture, and some who live in urban areas and have varying degrees of tribal or ethnic identification. In all, they are an invisible and forgotten poor whose needs, desires, and rights have been neglected or denied by Federal, State and local governments.

Estimates of the number of Indians in the state are difficult to make. The recognized difficulty of population counts of any ethnic group is complicated by the high mobility of the Indians as a result of relocation of out-of-state reservation Indians to California urban areas. The California Commission on Indian Affairs estimate of the 1964 population is probably the most reliable for that year.

(161)

Current estimates suggest that the total Indian population may be as high as 12,000.

Seventy-six reservations and rancherias lie in 25 of California's 58 counties; for the most part, in remote, isolated areas (see map). Several consist of less than one acre; 30 have 50 acres or less; and only 13 have more than 10,000 acres. (There are also about 218 public domain allotments, made originally to individuals, but in most cases now held by their heirs). Several of the reservations or rancherias are not occupied; 27 have a population of 10 or less; only one has a population in excess of 1,000. In 1963, the median population of rancherias and reservations was 30; the average population, 67.

The distribution of the native Indian population varies widely within the state. Slightly more than twice as many rural Indians live north of San Francisco as live south of it. In the northern part of the state, they cluster within Indian communities in the Eureka area, Redding, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Clear Lake, and near the Klamath River. Settlement in the central and southern parts of the state is sparser but again tends to occur in a few clusters, the main centers of Indian population being the Palm Springs area and the area northeast of San Diego.