California Indians and Public Education During

During the past two centuries, American Indians have endured enormous changes in their history and cultures. The United States government has attempted alternatively to assimilate and terminate their nations. Despite these efforts, they have managed to maintain a tenacious, often perilous hold on their way of life (Campbell vii). Unfortunately, the education system in the United States has often been the means of disseminating policies and attitudes detrimental to American Indians (Campbell vii). Throughout the United States, Indian students have experienced disproportionate levels of school failure in educational systems organized, administered, and controlled by members of the dominant Anglo group (Cummins 3).

The historic pattern of failure of Indian students in the American system of education is not unique to Indians. Cummins observes that such a pattern of failure is common to indigenous groups in most western countries who have been conquered, subjugated, segregated, and regarded as inherently inferior by the dominant group (Cummins 3). The dominant group usually explains the educational failure of minority groups as a natural and expected consequence of their inherent inferiority. Historically, the failure of the American Indian has been legitimated by pointing out the high rate of alcohol abuse in Indian communities, their perceived poor hygiene, and their lack of middle-class child-rearing practices (Cummins 3).