Data from the 1960 census provides a breakdown of the Arizona Indian population by counties, showing a total for the State's 14 counties of 83,387 persons comprising 6.4 percent of the State's total population. Figures for each county, including figures of the Spanishsurname population as well, are presented below. INDIAN AND SPANISH SURNAME POPULATION IN ARIZONA, BY COUNTIES, IN APRIL 1960 INDIAN AND SPANISH SURNAME POPULATION IN ARIZONA BY COUNTIES IN APRIL 1960 Source: U.S. Census of Population, 1960, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census tand annual report of the Arizona Commission on Indian Affairs, Phoenix, Ariz., 1967-68. 4 2 3 Their relative frequency in the State population does not, however, seem to relate positively to the Arizona Indians' employability. According to school officials, 50% of the parents of children on the Sells Papago reservation are unemployed; according to a 1964 report some 500 persons out of a total male-labor force of 750 from the San Carlos Apache Reservation were unemployed; and according to testimony before the Subcommittee the unemployment rate of White Mountain Apache Indians from the Fort Apache Indian Reservation is 50%. This same reservation also reports an infant mortality rate of 99.2 out of 1,000, as compared to the rate of 26 out of 1,000 for the nation as a whole; not only are half of the potential employees unemployed, their babies die, for whatever reasons, almost four times more frequently than infants in other parts of the country. 2 Dorothy Cummings. "Public Law 89-10 and Some of Its Applications to Schools on Arizona's Indian Reservations," Mimeographed. 3 "1964 Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs," reported in Edward A. Parmee, Formal Education and Culture Change: A Modern Apache Indian Community and Government Education Programs, (University of Arizona Press: Tucson, 1968). Ronald Lupe, Tribal Chairman, in Hearings in Flagstaff, Arizona, March, 1968. One study of the Papago Indians went beyond the question of “unemployment" and revealed an important finding. Distinguishing between Indians who are "unemployed" and those who are "idle" i.e. in social and psychological trouble, William H. Kelly of the University of Arizona's Department of Anthropology, Bureau of Ethnic Research, discussed the Papago study: In the same 1960 census report, 23 percent of all Indian males were tabulated as being outside the labor force and not in school or in an institution. These are the idle and the physically and mentally disabled. The 1964 Papago survey records 26 percent of adult males in this category of whom 14 percent were idle and 12 percent disabled or over-age. This is the highest percentage of idle men found in any ethnic group in this country.5 A study bearing on unemployment and economic development on still another of Arizona's reservations-Salt River-announces a similar conclusion. In this situation, five to ten percent of the potential work force were found to be engaged in regular full-time employment, while irregular part-time and seasonal employment accounted for 85 to 90 percent of all male employment. Seeking to explain the employment pattern, the investigators report the following: The women are less intimidated and inhibited in seeking off-reservation work than the men. This results in the role reversal between husbands and wives-women work and the men stay home and care for the children. The manner in which the men have been socialized with respect to both their personal identity as males and to the world of white man's work is perhaps the most central factor in their behavior. An oversimplified but probably generally correct description of the people is one of strong women and weak men. Male children have most readily available to them adult males, including many fathers, who serve as identificatory models of poor work habits and execessive use of alcohol. A commitment to regular full-time employment may symbolize capitulation to the demands of the women that they work, submissions to the "pushy" ways of the white, and a general relinquishment of what autonomy and freedom they have. Finally, it may be noted that employment requiring removal from the reservation carries a potential threat of losing claim to the land as a result of prolonged or continued absence. All these factors coupled with a myth that the Indian is incapable of competing in the off-reservation work world no doubt contribute heavily toward the production of male personalities which are indeed ill-equipped for survival in an industrial society." William H. Kelly, Director of E. R., Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson. Harry W. Martin, Robert Leon, M.D., and John Gladfelter, "The Salt River Reservation: A Proposal for the Development of its Human Services Branch," A Consultation Report to the Community Services Branch, B.I.A., May 1, 1967. A third study dealing with male employment focuses, again, on the Papago, and comes to the interesting and somewhat surprising conclusion that those men who have had the most exposure to Anglo culture and values, largely through the schools, are the least likely to remain in an off-reservation job. One wonders if the Papago men described by Waddell below were rewarded during their school careers for being "good" students: The most unstable and undependable farm laborers from the farmers' points of view were those who could use English well, those who have had extended exposure to schools and vocational programs, and those who comprehended the meaning of certain Anglo values. These seem to be among those most prone to job-jumping and voluntary unemployment. Most of it can be attributed to age and an unreadiness to feel obligated to settle down, but much of the behavior can be explained in terms of dissonance or the inability to articulate the understanding they have of Anglo cultural values with a significant motivation to implement these values." Studies of employment stability and unemployment statistics are one index of the success of an educational program. Reviewing those available for Arizona, one cannot help but conclude that the system is failing. While many individuals are inadequately educated and trained to function in the job market, those who have had such opportunities are "the most unstable and undependable." Waddell's study of Papago suggests that extended exposure to educational programs as they are presently constituted may produce, as much as anything else, conflict and uncertainty. Achievement data, to be presented later, give further evidence of the failure of the system to educate adequately. 2. STATISTICS CONCERNING ARIZONA INDIAN EDUCATION Indian education in Arizona encompasses approximately 33,000 students enrolled in public, BIA, and mission schools approximately as follows: Public-13,000; BIA-17,000; Mission-3,000. Although sources differ in their estimates of the total number and the proportion of the Indian student body in Bureau and public schools, the trend, as shown by the statistics, is definitely toward the public schools. According to State records: During the period of 1957 to 1966, the enrollment in BIA schools went from 9,964 to 14,259, while during the same period that in the public schools went from 5,225 to 11,986. This represents a percentage gain for the public schools from 34.4% to 46.8% of the state's total Indian enrollment. Bureau schools are located on seven reservations and in Phoenix, the latter being the site of the Phoenix Indian School, one of the Bureau's Jack Waddell, "Adaptation of Papago Workers to Off-Reservation Occupations," Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Arizona, 1966. Quoted in Kelly 1967 speech, Op. Cit. Mamie Sizemore "Closing the Gap in Indian Education," Arizona State Department of Public Instruction, Division of Indian Education, 1967. See Navajo Report for discussion of the BIA policy of transference of educational responsibility to the public schools. off-reservation boarding schools.10 Some twenty-one schools, three of which are boarding schools and one of which has boarding pupils, are operated in the Bureau's Phoenix Area. Under the jurisdiction of its Navajo Area, the Bureau operates another thirty-four schools, all but eight of which are primarily boarding institutions, in the State." In Arizona's public educational system, 12,063 students were reported for the school year 1967-68 in Johnson-O'Malley schools and State officials report that in the eleven counties in Arizona having JohnsonO'Malley schools, 30 schools enroll 100 or more Indian students; 18 schools, 10 or more, and 8 schools, fewer than 10 Indian pupils.12 Some Indian students are enrolled in the public schools under the Peripheral Dormitory program. This program, instituted by the Bureau in 1955, enables some Indian youngsters whose homes are far from public schools to attend these schools during the day while living at nearby dormitories maintained by the BIA.13 During the school year 1967-68, 1,148 students attended the Flagstaff, Winslow, Holbrook, and Snowflake schools under this program. A survey done by the Arizona Commission of Indian Affairs in 1968 provides additional statistical information about Indian education in Arizona, from the tribal point of view. Surveying sixteen reservations, it was found that ten of the sixteen had a Tribal Education Committee; that 13 of the 16 felt that the Economic Opportunity Act had been helpful to the educational program; that 7 of the 16 felt they had specific problems concerning the public schools and that 6 of the 16 felt they had specific problems concerning Bureau schools. Other information gathered brought to a total of 681 the number of students reported by the tribes to be in colleges, and 836 in vocational schools. Thus, out of the state's total Indian populationsome 80,000 probably more-the grand total of students enrolled in educational programs beyond the high school level is 1,529 or 1.9 percent. Several witnesses presenting testimony to the Subcommittee brought figures on the numbers of Tribal members attending or having been graduated from colleges. The White Mountain Apaches reported 6 graduates out of a tribal population of 5,300; the Papago, fewer than 10 graduates during its entire tribal history; the Salt River PimaMaricopa have had no college graduates in over 30 years; and the Hopi, with 13 college graduates to date of a 6,000 member population, have 110 currently enrolled. 3. ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE The extremely low enrollment of Arizona Indian students in col leges and universities offers one indication of the general inferiority of their achievement. Many more are available. Officials of the State Department, for example, estimate that of every 1,000 Indian children 10 See Navajo Report for a discussion of the Phoenix Indian School. BIA, Division of Education. Fiscal Year 1967, Statistics Concerning Indian Education, pp. 19-20, 17-18. 12 Responses from State Department of Public Instruction to Questionnaires mailed by National Study of American Indian Education, Pennsylvania State University, Herbert Aurbach. 13 See Navajo Report for a discussion of the Peripheral or Bordertown Dormitory Program. 14 Annual Report of the Arizona Commission on Indian Affairs, Op. Cit. |