Community Self-Determination

John J. Laukaitis

Description

After World War II, American Indians began relocating to urban areas in large numbers, in search of employment. Partly influenced by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, this migration from rural reservations to metropolitan centers presented both challenges and opportunities. This history examines the educational programs American Indians developed in Chicago and gives particular attention to how the American Indian community chose its own distinct path within and outside of the larger American Indian self-determination movement. In what John J. Laukaitis terms community self-determination, American Indians in Chicago demonstrated considerable agency as they developed their own programs and worked within already existent institutions. The community-based initiatives included youth programs at the American Indian Center and St. Augustine's Center for American Indians, the Native American Committee's Adult Learning Center, Little Big Horn High School, O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School, Native American Educational Services College, and the Institute for Native American Development at Truman College. Community Self-Determination presents the first major examination of these initiatives and programs and provides an understanding of how education functioned as a form of activism for Chicago's American Indian community.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments

Introduction. American Indian Education as Community Self-Determination

1. Relocation and Urbanization: American Indians in Uptown Chicago

2. The Heart of the Community: The American Indian Center in Chicago

3. A Matter of Mission: St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians

4. The Promise of Empowerment: The Native American Committee

5. Bright Stars of Hope: Little Big Horn and O-Wai-Ya-Wa

6. Education for a Credentialed Leadership: NAES College

7. Education for Opportunity: Truman College and INAD

Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Local history
• Midwestern United States
• Indigenous peoples
• History of the Americas

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 11 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438457703
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION
Louis Delgado with O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School Students. Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw.
SUNY series, Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in American Indian Nation Building
Brian Hosmer and Larry Nesper, editors
COMMUNITY SELF-DETERMINATION
AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION IN CHICAGO, 1952–2006
JOHN J. LAUKAITIS
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2015 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Ryan Morris
Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laukaitis, John J.
Community self-determination : American Indian education in Chicago, 1952–2006 / John J. Laukaitis.
pages cm. — (SUNY series, Tribal Worlds: Critical Studies in
American Indian Nation Building)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5769-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5770-3 (e-book)
1. Indians of North America—Education—Illinois—Chicago—History. 2. Indians of North America—Illinois—Chicago—History.I. Title.
E97.65.I5L38 2015
371.829'97077311—dc23 2014040650
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Victor and Rose Laukaitis
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction. American Indian Education as Community Self-Determination
Chapter 1. Relocation and Urbanization: American Indians in Uptown Chicago
Chapter 2. The Heart of the Community: The American Indian Center in Chicago
Chapter 3. A Matter of Mission: St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians
Chapter 4. The Promise of Empowerment: The Native American Committee
Chapter 5. Bright Stars of Hope: Little Big Horn and O-Wai-Ya-Wa
Chapter 6. Education for a Credentialed Leadership: NAES College
Chapter 7. Education for Opportunity: Truman College and INAD
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
List of Illustrations Frontispiece Louis Delgado with O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School Students. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 1.1 Day-Labor Agency on North Broadway Street in Uptown. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 2.1 American Indian Center Sign, 411 North LaSalle Street. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 2.2 Robert Reitz, Director of the American Indian Center. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 2.3 American Indian Center, 1630 West Wilson. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 2.4 and 2.5 Youths at American Indian Center. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 3.1 Father Peter John Powell at St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians, 4718 North Sheridan Road. (Courtesy of St. Augustine’s and Father Peter J. Powell). Figure 3.2 Edith Johns, Caseworker at St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians and Board Member of the American Indian Center. (Courtesy of Nora Lloyd) Figure 3.3 St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians, 4512 North Sheridan Road. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 3.4 Children at St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians. (Courtesy of St. Augustine’s and Father Peter J. Powell) Figure 4.1 GED Class at the Native American Committee. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 4.2 Students in the Native American Committee’s Adult Learning Center. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 4.3 Dorene Wiese, Director of the Native American Committee’s Adult Learning Center. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 5.1 and 5.2 Children in Uptown. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 5.3 and 5.4 O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School, 5306 North Winthrop Avenue. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 5.5 Regina Dodge, Graduate of Little Big Horn High School, 1972. (Courtesy of Carla McFall-Osawamick) Figure 5.6 Craftwork at O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 5.7 Teacher Connie Jones with O-Wai-Ya-Wa Students. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 5.8 and 5.9 O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School Dancers. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 5.10 O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School Pow-Wow. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 5.11 O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School Class Photograph, 1976. (Courtesy of Tevelee Gudino) Figure 5.12 O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School Class Photograph, 1978. (Courtesy of Brenda Sanapaw) Figure 5.13 Lucille St. Germaine, Principal of Little Big Horn, at Graduation Ceremony. (Courtesy of Brenda LeRonge) Figure 5.14 Zena Reeves, Teacher at O-Wai-Ya-Wa, and Thomas McDonald, Principal of Goudy Elementary School. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.1 Members of NAES College’s Board of Directors, (left to right) Willard LaMere, Sol Tax, David Beaulieu, Robert Thomas, and Larry Wetsit. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.2 Faith Smith, President of NAES College. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.3 NAES College at 4550 North Hermitage Avenue. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.4 Robert Dumont, Director of Academic Programs and Faculty at NAES College. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.5 Armin Beck, Faculty at NAES College. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.6 Class at NAES College. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.7 David Beaulieu, Member of NAES College’s Board of Directors. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.8 Students in the NAES College Library. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.9 Sol Tax, Member of NAES College’s Board of Directors. (Courtesy of NAES Collge and Dorene Wiese) Figure 6.10 NAES class, Spring 2006 (first row, left to right) Jolene Aleck, Roger Standing Cloud, and NAES president Dorene Wiese; (second row, left to right) Robert Miller, Toni Whitaker, Georgina Roy, and Butch Deloney; (third row, left to Right) Melanie Cloud, Johnnie Jimenez, NAES-EIU Faculty Doug Miller, Charles Roy, and Jan Horak. (Courtesy of NAES College and Dorene Wiese) Figure 7.1 Michael Limas, First Director of the Institute of Native American Development. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 7.2 Dorene Wiese, Second Director of the Institute of Native American Development. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 7.3 INAD Students at Truman College. (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 7.4 INAD Students at Truman College, unidentified woman (left), Roxanne Skenandore (center), Renee Delacruz (right). (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese) Figure 7.5 Roxanne Skenandore, Student and Tutor at Truman College (Courtesy of Dorene Wiese)
Preface
On an unseasonably cool August day in 2009, I attended the dedication of a mural on Chicago’s North Side titled “Indian Land Dancing,” after a poem by E. Donald Two-Rivers (Ojibwe). The mural transformed a drab urban space into a vibrant visual history of the city’s American Indian community. The walls of the Foster Avenue underpass at Lake Shore Drive presented a bricolage of photographs, drawings, and mosaics that paid tribute to well-known American Indians associated with Chicago and lesser-known American Indians who dedicated much of their lives to serving others in the city. The juxtaposition, for instance, of Maria Tallchief (Osage), a former prima ballerina with the New York City Ballet and founder of the Chicago City Ballet, and Edith Johns (Ho-Chunk–Nez Perce), a former registered nurse and the first caseworker at St. Augustine’s Center for American Indians, called attention to the diversity of people who have, in so many ways, woven the fabric of the community over its history. 1 The walls of the underpass, however, could never show all who deserve to be remembered. Simply stated, there are too many. From the American Indian families who lived in Chicago prior to World War II and assisted the influx of people arriving from reservations in the 1950s to the individuals who made the growth of grassroots programs possible in the 1970s, the history of Chicago’s American Indian community is largely one of unsung people working collectively to maintain a sense of cultural identity and livelihood within an urban context.
As I began researching the history of American Indian educational programs in Chicago, I learned that it could not be understood without first understanding Native concepts of community. Louis Delgado (Oneida), who directed O-Wai-Ya-Wa Elementary School and the Community Board Training Project at Native American Educational Services (NAES) College, shared an insight with me that began shaping how I approached writing this book. When I met with Delgado in 2006, I prefaced a question with, “As a leader in Chicago’s American Indian community.” He politely stopped me and said, “I don’t necessarily like the word leadership because in the Native community I think it’s viewed a little differently. It’s not someone standing out there as a leader as much as it’s people. Everybody takes a turn at leadership and takes certain responsibilities and takes certain roles.” 2 Susan Power (Standing Rock Sioux), a respected elder who came to Chicago in 1942, shared a similar message. When I asked her about her role in helping establish the American Indian Center in 1953, she replied, “You’re making me look important. There were many who were here. I won’t let these people be forgotten.” 3 Over the course of many years, I came to realize and appreciate how the value of community largely directed the actions of individuals. The American