Preschool’s Cultured Outlook : Indian Kids Learn Traditions and to Look Ahead

Nestled in the back of San Antonio Mission on the Pala Reservation and surrounded by grove-covered hills, a small frame building houses the Pala State Pre-School.

It is morning, and director Brenda Mojado, 41, a kindly woman with long black hair pulled back to reveal delicate green beaded earrings, is leading a few of the 16 children who are in this morning’s session in what she describes as a moccasin dance. She sings the chant/song which she has composed, as the youngsters heel/toe and move in slow rhythm.

“Now get ready to become eagles,” she says, as the children drop to the ground, cover their heads, then slowly rise with arms outspread like wings. “Eagle, fly high, higher high,” she chants in a slow melody as the children circle the room, sweeping the air with imaginary wings.

Look for food on the ground.

It’s all around.

Take the food to your nest.

Come back and finally rest.

They swoop around the classroom and finally all light in separate places that feel just right to each eagle/child.

“ ‘Eagle Fly’ talks about sacred eagle power in the native American culture,” Mojado said. “Many of these children go to powwows and other religious ceremonies. The moccasin dance helps them identify with their culture--and helps the non-Indian children know and understand the culture.”

The preschool is part of Educational Enrichment Systems, a private, nonprofit corporation, and is financed through the state Department of Education. It serves low-income families. Currently, 44 children, 3 and 4 years old, from a population of about 500 residents, attend each day in morning and afternoon sessions.

The children are predominately Indian (Luiseno and Cupeno in most cases), with a few Latino and some Anglo. They come from Pala Reservation, nearby Pauma Valley (including Pauma Reservation), local dairies and the other five reservations that are within 15 miles of the school.

According to Charlene Richardson, executive director of the local office of Child Development Associates Inc., Pala State Pre-School is the only nursery school on a reservation in San Diego County.

“It is important to have such a service for the child right on the reservation and run by a native American in a culturally appropriate way,” she said. “It speaks to the state department’s interest in quality care for children.”

Father Xavier Colleoni of the San Antonio Mission, which has served the Indian population since 1816, says Mojado’s school helps the children keep their traditions as well as move forward.

“The nursery school prepares them for kindergarten here at the mission,” he said. “It is a great help for the people around here, because they are very poor.”

Mojado, from the Ute tribe in Utah, started the preschool in 1965, soon after marrying Richard Mojado of the Pala Reservation (he is Cupeno) and moving to the area.

“At the time, the only available school for the children of the area was an elementary school 14 miles from the reservation,” Mojado says. The mission now has a school from kindergarten to eighth grade. Mojado also started a Headstart program in 1967 on the mission grounds. Although they are not officially connected, the two preschools share a playground, and teachers often share ideas.

Today Mojado, herself the mother of two, has seen many children go from her preschool to the mission school, and a few have gone on to Palomar College, for which she credits the Outreach Program of the American Indian Studies Department at Palomar.

“Most tend to stay in the area, though,” she says. A former student of Mojado’s recently registered her own preschooler for the program.

Mojado’s approach is a blend of traditional preschool education, mixed with the stories, songs, legends and history of Indian people--all blended with a strong multicultural slant that embraces the diversity of many cultures, including Irish, Eastern European, African, Vietnamese, Jewish and Mexican.

One of her favorite teaching tools is a book with pictures of people of all races from all parts of the world. “The children know they can look at this book any time they want to,” Mojado said.

She pointed in the book to a picture of a red-haired boy with freckles. “The children were very interested in him,” she said, because most of the children here are dark.

“We do a lot of multicultural work, because we’re so far out,” Mojado said. “The nearest town is Escondido. These children need to know there are others beside those they see here. They need to know who they are--who others are--and how they fit in the community.”

To emphasize Indian culture, she invites a grandmother from the reservation each year to come and tell the children stories from the tribe. “And we have dress-up clothes, including traditional Indian shirts for the children to put on,” she said.

A large beaver-hide shield hangs on one wall. “The children hold up this shield and all that shows is their feet and maybe their eyes peeking over the top,” she said. “They can then become a beaver, or any other furry thing--a rabbit or cat if they want to. It is also for feeling and touching.”

Interspersed with bright paintings, collages and numbers from 1 to 10, references to the Indian culture are scattered throughout the room--a photograph of an Indian mother and child, a chief in full headdress, a map showing tribes in California and dental-care posters showing children in traditional Indian dress.

It is early in the school year, and Mojado is concerned about teaching the children basic safety. She will don a hairy black glove with a red spot on the palm to teach them about black widow spiders, which nest in the wooded, grassy areas nearby. She will also discuss how they should avoid talking to strangers and will make sure they know the other teachers and school personnel. In a few weeks she will test them, and the tests will be repeated in May, at the end of the school term.

Mojado will soon pull out two very special items--a tepee (though local Indians don’t use them) and a computer--both donated to the school by a parent.

“I use the tepee for a quiet space in the classroom,” she said. “It is big enough for four at a time. The child has to be quiet and reverent, and cannot take toys in, only books.

“The children learn ABCs and numbers on the computer, and it helps with hand/eye coordination.”

Mojado, who has a bachelor’s degree in child development from the University of Utah and a master’s degree from Pepperdine University and is close to a second master’s in counseling, has at least one teacher and two aides with her during both sessions. Joyce O’Brien, a social worker, is also on the premises each morning to keep track of attendance and to be sure all children receive required immunizations and check-ups, including dental.

The preschool program involves the parents, as well as the children. According to Mojado, some parents spend time helping with things like fixing broken toys and assisting on field trips.

A few parents, in fact, become so involved that they work in the school as aides, and a few mothers have gone on to work on child development teaching certificates.

“I want to inspire parents to realize education is important at an early age,” Mojado said. Many of the families have low educational goals, she said, something she hopes to change.

“And some parents need a basic understanding of child development in order to help their children,” she added. To help educate parents, Mojado has presented workshops and worked with parents individually.

A little boy wouldn’t pick up a pencil, crayon, or do any work at the table when he came to school. “I realized, after talking to the mother, that she was very strict and had told the child to stay within the lines in coloring books when he was only 2 or 3 years old, and too young to be able to do that.

“I gave the mother a big roll of butcher paper, and said, ‘You and he both do scribbling, and make a game of it.’ After doing this for a while, finally the little boy went back to his coloring book and scribbled in it. And the mother praised and praised him. This was a big, big step. He then advanced through the stages of scribbling (no control, line control, shape control and naming).

“The refusal to color when he first came to the preschool was his rebellion against his mother. Also, the scribbling time together with his mother was good for him. Before that he only got the attention that was leftover. His social and emotional level on the playground improved, too.”

To help the children and parents of the Pala Reservation build a bridge to the future, Mojado stresses the use of English for the children in the school who aren’t versed in it. “Some of the Hispanic children don’t know English when they come here, but when they leave, they do, and then they become translators for their families.”

And she tries to build self-esteem by helping the children gain skills. “I want all the children, not just native Americans, to have a good feeling about themselves, and also to know how to cut, use crayons, to share and participate, so they will be ready for kindergarten and they will excel.”

At the same time she also believes it is important to teach the appreciation of Indian heritage, as part of a multicultural emphasis.

When Mojado shows or says a word for the children, she often does so in English, Spanish and the Indian languages of Luiseno, Cupeno and Diegueno.

“The (Indian) culture is dying out because people are letting go,” she said. “The language is gone in some areas; for example, only one or two people on the Pala Reservation can still speak Cupeno. I want to let the children hear the language.

“There’s a need to keep the culture intact. At a preschool level it is important to show care and to show the importance of background--to give them a sense of knowing who they are.

“And, on the other hand, it is important for people on the outside to understand the values of native American people. In the eyes of an Anglo teacher it may seem that something is wrong with an Indian child (when he is very quiet). She may think he is mute, can’t speak, but that child has been taught to show respect and be reverent. In the native American culture, the child is taught to not speak out. If a child doesn’t look at the teacher, it is because he has been taught to not look his teacher in the eyes, that it isn’t reverent.

“In general, an American Indian child doesn’t show emotions, but holds within. In the preschool I try to bring out the thoughts and feelings of these children so that when they reach the elementary level, they can communicate with peers and with teachers.”

It’s not easy, though, she admits, for each tribe is not the same. One example involved a small picture of a coyote that Mojado has on her office wall. “The coyote is a messenger in some Indian cultures, but in others it represents death in a family,” she said. “One mother wouldn’t come in the office because of the coyote picture. I had to take it down and actually take it out of the room before she would enter.

“I have to be careful about masks, too, on Halloween, because for Apaches masks are used in ceremonies to ward off spirits.”

Besides directing the preschool, Mojado teaches child development some semesters at Palomar College, and although she has had offers to teach full time or to head child development programs, she has declined.

“I want and need to be with the children,” she said. “My songs, my ideas, came with them. I love to watch the children grow up. My main concern is to be right here for now.”

“When they leave here, people will look at them differently. There are two ways--the way it is for them here--and the way it has to be in order for them to make it in the outside world.”