Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 21, 2008 11:13:36 GMT -5
Native students trying to break stereotypes By JODI RAVE - Lee
Enterprises - 06/09/07
www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/09/montana/c01060907_06.txt
<http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/09/montana/c01060907_06.txt>
CORVALLIS, ORE. — Michelle Gattone gave one of her final
presentations before a panel of professors last week, a final salute to
her undergraduate years at Oregon State University.
The Cherokee woman will graduate June 17, taking her place among
hundreds of Native students earning degrees from tribal colleges and
universities in the heartland and coast to coast. I watched Gattone make
her presentation when I visited the OSU campus this past week.
Being around the OSU Native students reminded me of a recent interview
with Philip "Sam" Deloria, the new director of the American
Indian Graduate Center based on the University of New Mexico campus in
Albuquerque, N.M.
Deloria spoke highly of the students he's meeting in academia these
days. This new cadre of young people is graduating from college and
ready to serve local communities. They are eager to make a difference
and move Native people past historic oppression.
One young man attending school on the East Coast exemplifies these
ideals. Cory Cornelius, a Dakota, Kootenai and Oneida, will graduate
from Dartmouth University on Sunday.
Cornelius picked up a bachelor's degree and a double major in
computer science and Native studies. His resume shows he excelled in the
college classroom and received rave reviews from professors, which led
to a temporary computer science job with Dartmouth's Institute for
Security Technologies Studies upon graduation.
The young man credits his late Dakota grandmother, Fern Eastman Mathias,
for opening the door to a world of computer technology. She gave him his
first computer when he was 13 years old. It was a Mac. One of the first
things he did was design an American Indian Movement Web site for his
grandmother, who was an active AIM member.
Cornelius told me she understood the value of computers at a time when
most people didn't.
"I never really figured out why," he said.
She also helped instill a strong sense of Native identity in her
grandson. He embraces his culture, along with the idea that he
doesn't need alcohol to find his place within a peer group. He said
his views on alcohol sometimes left him at odds with other Natives at
Dartmouth. In fact, he almost decided to go to Cal-Berkeley after his
first visit to Dartmouth.
But Cornelius thought about his grandmother.
She had always wanted someone in the Eastman family to attend Dartmouth.
It had been 120 years since the Eastmans saw their last family member
graduate, an academic feat soundly resting with Charles Eastman, the
famed Dakota doctor and author who was recently profiled in the HBO
special, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."
The year 1887 and five generations stand between Eastman — who was a
brother to Fern Eastman Mathias' grandfather, David Eastman —
and Cornelius' graduation.
Back on the West Coast, Gattone is wrapping up an undergraduate degree
as an ethnic studies major. A 10-week internship at a Corvallis
elementary school required her to debrief a professorial panel about the
experience.
She was calm when she did her presentation, and comfortably revealed
many of the frustrations she had in working with teachers who often left
her feeling overwrought and in despair.
Teachers have tremendous power to influence, interpret and reflect on
the world in which we live, she said. And they have a captive audience
children.
She encountered positive teachers as well, though, who couldn't see
past the European-American boundaries that dominated their lives. To
them, the highlight of American history began with the Lewis and Clark
Expedition, the gold rush and pioneers.
Others appeared unaware that non-whites can and do get treated
differently because of their race and ethnicity.
"I saw school as a racial project," she said. "Race is
constructed here at a young age."
But the word "race" was often viewed as a four-letter word and
not something teachers wanted to talk about.
"That was the thing; the teachers didn't believe racism still
existed in our society," said Gattone.
A professor attending the presentation said every public school teacher
should read "Beyond Heroes and Holidays."
Gattone's internship made her more determined to remain in school
and pursue ethnic and women's studies as part of a graduate degree
program.
When she's finished, she hopes to one day teach, write books and
work with indigenous people at a grassroots level. Her internship
intensified her resolve to make a difference in someone's life.
"I know this is the field I want to be in."
Enterprises - 06/09/07
www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/09/montana/c01060907_06.txt
<http://www.helenair.com/articles/2007/06/09/montana/c01060907_06.txt>
CORVALLIS, ORE. — Michelle Gattone gave one of her final
presentations before a panel of professors last week, a final salute to
her undergraduate years at Oregon State University.
The Cherokee woman will graduate June 17, taking her place among
hundreds of Native students earning degrees from tribal colleges and
universities in the heartland and coast to coast. I watched Gattone make
her presentation when I visited the OSU campus this past week.
Being around the OSU Native students reminded me of a recent interview
with Philip "Sam" Deloria, the new director of the American
Indian Graduate Center based on the University of New Mexico campus in
Albuquerque, N.M.
Deloria spoke highly of the students he's meeting in academia these
days. This new cadre of young people is graduating from college and
ready to serve local communities. They are eager to make a difference
and move Native people past historic oppression.
One young man attending school on the East Coast exemplifies these
ideals. Cory Cornelius, a Dakota, Kootenai and Oneida, will graduate
from Dartmouth University on Sunday.
Cornelius picked up a bachelor's degree and a double major in
computer science and Native studies. His resume shows he excelled in the
college classroom and received rave reviews from professors, which led
to a temporary computer science job with Dartmouth's Institute for
Security Technologies Studies upon graduation.
The young man credits his late Dakota grandmother, Fern Eastman Mathias,
for opening the door to a world of computer technology. She gave him his
first computer when he was 13 years old. It was a Mac. One of the first
things he did was design an American Indian Movement Web site for his
grandmother, who was an active AIM member.
Cornelius told me she understood the value of computers at a time when
most people didn't.
"I never really figured out why," he said.
She also helped instill a strong sense of Native identity in her
grandson. He embraces his culture, along with the idea that he
doesn't need alcohol to find his place within a peer group. He said
his views on alcohol sometimes left him at odds with other Natives at
Dartmouth. In fact, he almost decided to go to Cal-Berkeley after his
first visit to Dartmouth.
But Cornelius thought about his grandmother.
She had always wanted someone in the Eastman family to attend Dartmouth.
It had been 120 years since the Eastmans saw their last family member
graduate, an academic feat soundly resting with Charles Eastman, the
famed Dakota doctor and author who was recently profiled in the HBO
special, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee."
The year 1887 and five generations stand between Eastman — who was a
brother to Fern Eastman Mathias' grandfather, David Eastman —
and Cornelius' graduation.
Back on the West Coast, Gattone is wrapping up an undergraduate degree
as an ethnic studies major. A 10-week internship at a Corvallis
elementary school required her to debrief a professorial panel about the
experience.
She was calm when she did her presentation, and comfortably revealed
many of the frustrations she had in working with teachers who often left
her feeling overwrought and in despair.
Teachers have tremendous power to influence, interpret and reflect on
the world in which we live, she said. And they have a captive audience
children.
She encountered positive teachers as well, though, who couldn't see
past the European-American boundaries that dominated their lives. To
them, the highlight of American history began with the Lewis and Clark
Expedition, the gold rush and pioneers.
Others appeared unaware that non-whites can and do get treated
differently because of their race and ethnicity.
"I saw school as a racial project," she said. "Race is
constructed here at a young age."
But the word "race" was often viewed as a four-letter word and
not something teachers wanted to talk about.
"That was the thing; the teachers didn't believe racism still
existed in our society," said Gattone.
A professor attending the presentation said every public school teacher
should read "Beyond Heroes and Holidays."
Gattone's internship made her more determined to remain in school
and pursue ethnic and women's studies as part of a graduate degree
program.
When she's finished, she hopes to one day teach, write books and
work with indigenous people at a grassroots level. Her internship
intensified her resolve to make a difference in someone's life.
"I know this is the field I want to be in."