The Importance of Community Education
By Michelle Johnson

Community education is interwoven throughout the fabric of Native peoples' daily lives. Within it, a circular process evolves, with the Native American individual creating the community and the community creating the individual. Into the community we are born and gather knowledge forming our worldviews. We also derive our support from within our communities. Accordingly, our communities are directly impacted by our actions and contributions, and benefit from successful individuals.

  From the community, the seeds for success can be planted, facilitating a shift from the trend of focusing on failures to highlighting successes within Native communities. Successful Native people who are involved in the community will, in turn, foster a cycle of positive role models who promote achievement in others. Similarly, academic success or failure is impacted by cultural grounding and support from family and community.
   Community education embraces tribal culture, health education (mental, spiritual, and physical), family education and academic achievement. Native communities are presently stepping forward and creating programs that facilitate success within their communities.
   A plethora of positive community education programs exist. From tribal traditions to Web sites, Native communities are utilizing various avenues to learn from another. The desire to teach what one knows and learn from others inherently exists within the culture.
   Learning, teaching and practicing tribal traditions and customs can prove to be challenging in our current busy world. An individual who obtains knowledge of his/her background develops a positive self-image. This pride and sense of self-worth can assist with achievement in the non-Indian world. Many tribal communities rely on the Elders as teachers and on the children to maintain the educational process. The community is ultimately responsible for the maintenance of tribal traditions.
   Dan Jennings, Sac and Fox tribal Elder and a member of the Bear Clan, lives his life according to his beliefs. Through practicing his tribal traditions, he serves as an ardent community educator. He says, "On the inside I live it all the time. I've created a lifestyle that can be called minimalist, survivalist, or primitive. Some might describe me as an 'old Indian Hippie.' My part to the world is not wasting it by buying insulated resources. The dollar bill defines the values of the larger dominant society. Indian communities are attempting to maintain identities and attempting to express these identities and values to the children and grandchildren and still maintain a competitive way of life in the non-Indian world. When we deal with tribal and civil government, tribal kinships, and the individuals, we practice what used to be called 'grass roots,' but in the Indian world, it starts with the belief that everyone is the same height and sharing is the most important ingredient."

Academic and Community Partnerships
Educational systems must also be relied upon to teach individuals who can return and support their communities. Well-informed decision-making affecting tribal policy, opportunities, health and perpetuation of customs are the positive outcomes of such educational systems. The educational system should not be viewed as an entity separate from the community. To reap the greatest benefits, a collaboration of partnerships within the community members and the schools must be founded.
   The Walthill Public School, located on the Omaha reservation in Walthill, Nebraska, serves Omaha tribal members in the area. "What's successful and good for the school is what's successful and good for the community," states Mia Merrick, Omaha, grants and project development administrator for the Walthill Public Schools. Merrick is an a rdent proponent of partnerships between the school and the community. Walthill Public School currently offers two community education programs through school and state funds. A learning center houses an alternative education program that provides computer workstations where students receive individualized training. Accelerated graduation is offered to 10th and 11th graders, and those students who have Computer workstations offer individualized training not finished high school can attend to complete credits and continue working.
   Walthill is currently seeking grants to extend hours so that the community can take better advantage of the center. According to Merrick, "After all, when you start to utilize all assets of the community and school together, both the school and the community benefit. For example, when the school provides a school-to-work program, both the school and the community benefit."
   Walthill also offers a distance learning lab. With eight televisions and wiring for real time, online teaching connects the regular classroom to other schools and universities who maintain similar technology. Students are able to take classes previously not offered and the community benefits as well. After-school courses including GED, and university courses are also planned. "This saves the one-hour commute to the University of Nebraska. Furthermore, the community EMTs, who are volunteer only, can take their courses in the comfort of their neighborhood school," says Merrick.
   When schools partner with the community and support life-long learning, communities begin to gain ownership of the educational process. Further partnerships between community members and school are needed to form an empowered community that is actively involved in the academic educational process.

Internet Settings
   The Internet offers Native people a platform for informing and learning. When one seeks "Native" topics in a search engine, an abundance of Native-related URL addresses will emerge. One can find anything from health issues to language clips. Although this information can be overwhelming, Native people are now able to connect all of Indian country in one venue. This offers great opportunities for conducting community education.
   Mia Merrick is also co-founder of Indianz.com, the largest Web portal of current Native news. According to Merrick, "We are a small community to begin with. Our mission is to take the news and make sense of it’ Most tribal newspapers and magazines take a week or more for current information [to be distributed]. If somebody wants to know the news, wouldn't you rather know about it today?"

Community-Based Efforts
Smaller community organizations can also have a positive impact by encouraging support for academic success, tribal culture and general life-long learning. "Community is essential for progress among Indian people. It provides a source for community organizations like the Oklahoma Choctaws to provide opportunities to learn and re-learn Choctaw language, be informed about tribal and national affairs and to become involved in activities that promote the welfare of Choctaw people," states Grayson Noley, Ph.D., Choctaw, president of the Oklahoma Choctaws and chair of educational leadership at the University of Oklahoma.
   The Oklahoma Choctaws function as a community-based organization in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This organization promotes educational achievement and offers tribal language and dance courses. It also promotes an atmosphere of support among Native people in an urban environment. Developing and furthering community for urban Indians who might otherwise feel isolated from Indian Country needs to continue to be addressed.
   According to Dr. Gregory Cajete, Tewa, assistant professor at the University of New Mexico's College of Education, "The most creatively productive insights involve communication within the whole educational community, not just authorities recognized by main-stream educational interests." Conferences and gatherings are being held to identify successful methods of increasing community education. One recent conference entitled "Deconstructing the Myths" was held by the Catching the Dream organization to "develop a comprehensive research agenda for Indian education from the point of view of Indian researchers, administrators, parents, school districts employees, and tribal officials."
   By empowering ourselves to create new and powerful ecosystems of education, the communities of Indian Country will emerge successful and self-sufficient.

Michelle Johnson, Choctaw, M.Ed., is a first-generation college student who received her M.Ed. from Harvard Graduate School of Education and her B.S. in Education from the University of Oklahoma. Dan Jennings, Sac and Fox tribal Elder, is an ardent community educator. The Internet offers Native people a platform for informing and learning.