Copyright © 2001 NLThomas
All Rights Reserved

When Darrell Jeanotte started his job as superintendent of Pierre Indian Learning Center in Pierre, S.Dak., 12 years ago, it was not uncommon for him to arrive in the morning only to discover that 30 kids had gone AWOL the night before. There have always been plenty of reasons to want to run away. And considering the long history of boarding schools-which began in the late 1880s as assimilation factories run by government agents and missionaries-going AWOL simply became part of the fabric in boarding-school life.

But for some students, running away was not enough. Suicide has been and continues to be a major problem in Indian communities and on Indian school campuses. Suicide rates among Native Americans have been consistently twice as high as that of the general U.S. population, and among Indian youth, the rate is 2.5 times as high. According to a 1997 Indian Health Service report, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among Native people between the ages of 15 and 24. In addition, vandalism, substance abuse, inappropriate sexual activity and fighting have plagued many of the Indian boarding schools still in existence today.

These kids have been crying out for help; now some of them are getting it. Boarding and day schools are changing, and some trends have emerged. A new trend in Indian education is the turn toward a "therapeutic model" and more specialized programming for children who need a lot of emotional and psychological support in the school setting.

Seven years ago, the Pierre Indian Learning Center (PILC) became the first off-reservation Indian boarding school to fully implement a "therapeutic model" for its 265 first- through eighth-graders. This model relies on a combination of individual and group counseling, structured activities, and the creation of a positive physical space to help children heal. Each child admitted to the school is given an individualized program of counseling and activities.

Another off-reservation boarding school, Riverside Indian School in Anadarko, Okla., has met success in creating specialized programs for students. Superintendent Don Sims has made changes without additional resources, but he says more money would mean more opportunities. "Specific counseling needs are always a concern," he says. "We need good therapists. We need those additional experts, and we need them full-time."

Riverside and PILC, as off-reservation boarding schools, have different sets of opportunities and challenges than the on-reservation boarding and day schools. On-reservation schools serve more homogeneous communities and can make curriculum changes that reflect the tribe's culture. The Navajo Nation has lead the way in establishing a culturally based curriculum in its schools by developing its own materials for teaching Navajo language, history and government. "We're very aggressive," says Dee McKerry of the tribe's Division of Diné Education. "We want to take reign of our education." McKerry hopes that someday the Navajo Nation will run all of the schools.

Roger Bordeaux, head of the Association for Community Tribal Schools, believes that if the BIA would free up administrative funds so that schools could become tribally or locally controlled, there would be only 10 or 20 BIA schools left. "Eventually tribal governments will manage the schools, one way or the other," he says. "The tribes are determining more about how their kids are being educated and taken care of." He says that tribes with increasing economic power are able to take schools over, and that the advent of charter programs, which allow public funds to be channeled into specialized schools, represents new opportunities for Indian communities.

Carmen Taylor, head of the National Indian School Board Association, says that there is a tremendous amount of work to be done-BIA reports show not even half of the students are proficient in math and language arts. Teachers need better training, and the schools need new technology.

"We have along way to go," Taylor admits. "There's been this age-old question about boarding schools, and I advocate for the tribes to take over. There's been a lot of conversation about making the schools more therapeutic because of the type of kids that get sent there. These schools have a place right now. But if we're going to serve those kids well, we have to look at the therapeutic model. It will involve more money and more specialists. Learning may have to come in second to taking care of students socially and emotionally. In the future we need to think outside of the box. We need to think bigger than we have in the past."

The above article appears in the Winter 2000 issue of Native Americas Journal. Call (800) 9-NATIVE, or visit, for information on obtaining this feature article or to subscribe.

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