Indigenous Students

Lily Gladstone arrives at the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Lily Gladstone arrives at the 96th Academy Awards Oscar nominees luncheon on Feb. 12, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Jordan Strauss/Invision via AP
Equity & Diversity Q&A The Lily Gladstone Effect: A Teacher Explains the Value of Indigenous Language Immersion
Students in the Browning public schools district in Montana engage in a Blackfoot language immersion program for all ages.
Ileana Najarro, March 6, 2024
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5 min read
Indigenous Navajo high school students in the hallway of a high school.
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Equity & Diversity Schools Struggle to Properly Count Native Students. Some States Want Them to Try Harder
Michigan recently became the latest state to require the collection of data on Native K-12 students' tribal affiliations.
Mark Lieberman, September 5, 2023
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7 min read
Demonstrators stand outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, as the court hears arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act on Nov. 9, 2022, in Washington. The Supreme Court has preserved the system that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children. The court left in place the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, which was enacted to address concerns that Native children were being separated from their families and, too frequently, placed in non-Native homes.
Demonstrators stand outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as it heard arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act on Nov. 9, 2022. In a ruling Thursday, the court preserved the system that gives preference to Native American families in foster care and adoption proceedings of Native children.
Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Law & Courts Supreme Court Backs Indian Child Welfare Act, as a Justice Cites Boarding School Legacy
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch says the nation's "devastating" policies of removing Native children from families necessitated the federal law.
Mark Walsh, June 15, 2023
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7 min read
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Kaylee Domzalski/Education Week
Equity & Diversity Video A Native Community Revitalized a Language. Here’s How a School District Carries It On
Native students' well-being and grad rates improve when they're exposed to their cultural languages. How one district is making that happen.
Kaylee Domzalski, June 9, 2023
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4 min read
Image of a gavel.
Marilyn Nieves/E+
Law & Courts A Native Student Barred From Graduation Over a Sacred Feather: Why Her Lawsuit Was Revived
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said a district may have selectively enforced its policy on graduation decorations.
Mark Walsh, December 9, 2022
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2 min read
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Equity & Diversity Video A Native American Elder Reflects on His Boarding School Experience
Dwight Howe’s Native boarding school experience in the 1970s was mostly positive. Fifty years earlier, it would have been a different story.
Kaylee Domzalski, December 8, 2022
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3:41
A high school football player in a blue helmet with an orange arrow on it tackles a player in a white and green uniform.
A player from the Westlake High School Warriors in Thousand Oaks, Calif., plays football in a helmet with an arrowhead logo. California has banned only certain Native American-themed mascots, but other states have passed broader restrictions.
Alex Gallardo/AP
Equity & Diversity More States Push Schools to Drop Native American Mascots
At states' urging, schools will drop Native American mascots, citing the harm of racist stereotypes. The changes bring logistical and political challenges.
Evie Blad, November 28, 2022
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6 min read
The East Anchorage High and Scammon Bay students gather at a home in the Native Village to learn how to comb fur from a musk ox hide using special combs and common forks. The fur can later be spun into yarn.
Students from East Anchorage High School and Scammon Bay, Alaska, gather to learn how to comb fur from a musk ox hide through a federally funded cultural and educational program for Alaska Native students.
Erin Irwin/Education Week
Education Funding Grants Aim to Support Alaska Native Students' Education, Well-Being
The U.S. Department of Education is providing more than $35 million for projects in its latest round of funding.
Libby Stanford, September 6, 2022
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2 min read
Image shows a young student working on a laptop with a teacher.
E+/Getty
Science How to Close the STEM Achievement Gap for Indigenous Students: Feature Local Culture
Study examines factors that will positively impact Indigenous students' STEM proficiency.
Lauraine Langreo, June 28, 2022
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2 min read
Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland visits the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, Friday, June 17, 2022. Haaland spoke of the U.S. Department of Interior's efforts to help Native American communities heal from Indian Boarding School policies during a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, June 22, 2022.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland is keeping an intense focus on the Interior Departments investigation into abuse of Native American children in government boarding schools.
Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP
Equity & Diversity Native American Advocates Testify on Need for Recovery Efforts From Boarding School Trauma
The testimony follows an investigation that found tens of thousands of Native American children suffered abuse at government boarding schools.
Libby Stanford, June 22, 2022
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3 min read
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks at the Cherokee Immersion School on Dec. 3, 2021, in Tahlequah, Okla. The Interior Department is on the verge of releasing a report on its investigation into the federal government's past oversight of Native American boarding schools. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Wednesday, March 16, 2022, the report will come out next month.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland speaks at the Cherokee Immersion School in December, in Tahlequah, Okla. Her agency's report documents harmful conditions, deaths, and physical punishment for Native American students forced to attend federal boarding schools.
Michael Woods/AP
Equity & Diversity Native American Children Endured Brutal Treatment in U.S. Boarding Schools, Federal Report Shows
Deaths, physical and psychological punishments, and manual labor occurred at the more than 400 federal boarding schools.
Eesha Pendharkar, May 11, 2022
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5 min read
Fri., February 18, 2022, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET
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Conceptual illustration of a lone figure not fitting into the digital environment
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and Victor Grow/iStock
Science Catching Up Native American Students in Science
The pandemic dealt a setback to science education for Native American students, but culturally relevant lessons could offer a path forward.
Sarah D. Sparks, November 23, 2021
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7 min read
Tatanka Gibson of the Haliwa-Saponi/Nansemond Tribal Nations leads attendees in song and dance during a gathering marking Indigenous Peoples Day at Penn Treaty Park in Philadelphia, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021.
Tatanka Gibson of the Haliwa-Saponi/Nansemond Tribal Nations leads attendees in song and dance during a gathering marking Indigenous Peoples Day at Penn Treaty Park in Philadelphia.
Matt Rourke/AP
Equity & Diversity Census Prompts Push for More Indigenous School Lessons
American Indians and Alaska Natives say census numbers prove that Indigenous history should get more attention in public school classrooms.
Tim Henderson, Stateline.org, October 22, 2021
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7 min read
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