[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6012-S6013]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            INDIAN EDUCATION

 Mr. INOUYE. Mr. President, I rise in support of a most 
important and timely of resolutions proposed by my distinguished 
colleague, Senator Pete Domenici. Senate Joint Resolution 100, which 
was introduced on June 17, 1996, goes to the very heart of a matter of 
utmost concern--the education of American Indian and Alaska Native 
children and youth.
  In exchange for millions of acres of the vast landscape which 
ultimately formed the very foundation of our Nation, the United States 
undertook certain responsibilities to those who were here before us. We 
entered into over 800 treaties with Indian tribes, many of which 
contained provisions for the education of Indian children. But as we 
know, this history is a less than honorable one--not only did we 
violate provisions in almost every single treaty--but we entered into a 
dark chapter where education meant the forced removal of Indian 
children from their families and communities.
  This nearly century-long Federal policy began in 1819 when the 
Congress enacted a law establishing a civilization fund for the 
education of Indians. This fund was turned over to religious groups 
that established mission schools for the education of Indian children. 
In the late 1840's, the Federal Government and private mission groups 
combined efforts to launch the first Indian boarding school system, and 
in 1860, the first nonmission federal boarding school was established. 
Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of the Carlisle Indian School and 
considered to be the father of Indian education, believed that in order 
to transform a people, you must start with their children. This 
attitude was also expressed by the Federal Superintendent of Indian 
Schools in 1885 when describing his duty to transform Indian children 
into members of a new social order.
  By the end of the 19th century, this pattern of forcibly removing 
Indian children from their homes and families and sending them to 
faraway boarding schools had become so pervasive that the Congress 
enacted legislation in 1895 which made it a crime to induce Indian 
parents by compulsory means to consent to their children's removal from 
their environment.
  And so, for nearly a century, under the guise of education, the 
Federal Government sought to cleanse Indian children of their 
Indianness by separating them from their families and communities for 
many years, by forbidding them to speak their native language and 
practice their cultural traditions. The ramifications of such policies 
are still being felt today, and are still remembered in the minds of 
once-young children, now in their eighties and nineties.
  While this dark chapter has long since been brought to a close and we 
have distanced ourselves from such practices, in some respects, I 
believe we have not come far enough. Indian students today have the 
highest drop-out rates, the lowest high school completion rate, and the 
lowest college attendance rates of any minority group. Nearly 38 
percent of Indian children above the age of five live in poverty.
  Such statistics are unacceptable. We simply have not done enough, and 
we, as a collective body, must agree that more should be done and that 
we must act accordingly. Mr. President, that is precisely what this 
measure before us does--it declares the sense of the Senate that the 
Federal commitment for the education of American Indians and Alaska 
Natives be affirmed through legislative actions of this Congress to 
bring the quality of Indian education up to parity with the rest of 
America.
  Mr. President, this is about capacity building, about school repairs 
so that Indian children can learn in safe environments, and about 
sufficient funding for the operation of 184 Bureau of Indian Affairs 
schools. It is about addressing Indian adult literacy needs and special 
education, disability and vocational education needs. It is about using 
that same educational system which once sought to strip native people 
of their Indianness, and using it instead to strengthen Indian people 
and their communities.

[[Page S6013]]

  Mr. President, I am proud to join my esteemed colleague, Senator 
Domenici, as a cosponsor of this resolution, and I urge each and every 
Member of this Chamber to do the same.

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