Lessons in Rediscovering Lost Heritages

Along with the predictable population trends in Orange County’s schools--that the percentage of Latino students is growing and the proportion of white children is shrinking--another figure stands out in the county’s new campus demographic report.

Huntington Beach Union High School District counts almost 7%, or about 1,000, of its students as Native American. That might not seem like a lot, but it’s 14 times higher than the countywide average. Every other school district in Orange County reports a figure of less than 1%.

Huntington Beach certainly doesn’t have a tribal reservation or even a Native American enclave within its borders. Instead, the district philosophy for almost 20 years has been to encourage students to document their Native American heritage and obtain the myriad scholarships and educational opportunities available to people of American Indian descent.

The district also has an Office of Indian Education, funded with a $119,000 federal grant. “Our motto is build it and they will come,” said office director Michael Folsom, referring to the web of programs and services the district provides.

“What we have found is a number of students will volunteer they are Native American,” Folsom said. “But as you provide services, others will say, ‘Well, gosh, my grandmother was Cherokee.’ ”

Many of the students whom Huntington Beach schools count among the 1,000 Native Americans do not meet the federal government’s standard of having at least one-quarter Native American blood.

But county officials said they only collect the information and are not concerned about how the schools define ancestry.

Huntington Beach Union’s office is the catalyst behind a new consortium of Orange County Indian education offices that will include Westminster School District, Ocean View School District and Fountain Valley, all of which feed into the high school district.

“Since there is such a large number of [American] Indian students at the high school level, they have to be coming from somewhere, so clearly we are undercounting,” said Catherine Follett, assistant superintendent of instruction for Fountain Valley. “In the fall, we’ll be sending out a survey to our families to try to get a more accurate count.”

For federal funding purposes, most scholarship and aid programs still call for proof of one-quarter American Indian ancestry. Scholarships ranging from $500 to $35,000 and even full college tuitions are available to students of proven Indian ancestry.

But Huntington Beach Union offers its own services to any students who identify their Indian ancestry. Besides, educators note, the federal definition of Native American poses its own problems.

Because the government allows Indians to be enrolled in only one tribe, a student with a grandparent who is both Choctaw and Cherokee would not be considered one-quarter Indian, but only one-eighth.

Eighty tribes are represented at the district. Folsom’s office will help students recognize cultural differences that can confuse them and cause trouble for them in school.

Folsom often hears the complaint that education about Indians seems to stop at 1492.

“I’ve always noticed that, like in school, they’ll teach about the Trail of Tears, and then we just move on--it really bugs me,” said Erik Estrada, 17, an Edison High School student who is part of the district’s Indian student group, the Seven Voices.

Cherokees in Georgia and Alabama were forced from their homes in the 1830s after gold was rumored to be found on the land. On the long walk to Oklahoma, more than 4,000 Indians starved to death.

Estrada, who is part Umpaqua and Rogue River Kallyapuya, said his involvement with Native American culture is not new for him--his grandfather is on a tribal council in Oregon. But belonging to the Seven Voices council has helped him feel less isolated during the stretches between visits there, he said.

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Folsom’s office will provide students with up-to-date reading material and technology about various tribes. Students interested in learning Choctaw or Navajo languages can do so, for example, on the Internet.

Also, some Indian students find that their style of learning runs counter to mainstream educational expectations and methods.

Although differences among tribes are many, “traditional Indian culture does not embrace individualism,” said Ruth Ann Abrams, associate director of the Southern California Indian Center, headquartered in Garden Grove. The center sponsored the 23rd annual Indian Education Conference in Anaheim this month.

“When school systems have an emphasis on individuality, Indian students are seen as slow or not as capable because they don’t jump up with answers and raise their hands,” she said. “They don’t necessarily question their elders or maybe don’t look their teachers in the eyes.”

Also, belonging to such a small minority creates a sense of isolation, Folsom said. “Lots of students say to me, ‘There’s just something wrong with me, and I don’t know what it is.’ But that’s what it is.”

At a recent Seven Voices meeting, a gathering of Indian student representatives from the district’s seven high schools, most students said they were seeking information about their Native heritage that their families had lost over the generations.

After burning sage and giving thanks to the creator and their ancestors, the students, led by Folsom, spoke of family and culture.

One or two grew up visiting reservations or have relatives involved in Indian affairs, but most are discovering a heritage that is largely unknown, if somehow familiar to them.

Grandparents’ sayings and customs, for example, suddenly come into focus as tribal ways.

“I want to learn more about my heritage because that makes me more complete,” said Monique Rico, 17, of her Apache ancestry.

Some, who once identified themselves merely as Mexican or Irish, said they now add Native American to the mix.

Alexis Hernandez, 17, used to identify herself as Hispanic, but now she adds Native American to that. The district’s outreach programs have strengthened her sense of Cherokee identity, she said.

“It was a slow process for me, not one instant where I suddenly changed,” Hernandez said. “It happened over two years, and I think it’s a matter of finding out about yourself--it builds self esteem.”

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Helping the students identify their heritage is one of the program’s big services, Abrams said. “We are always fighting statistical elimination.”

Often, Indians with Latino surnames or ones who do not have stereotypical Indian features are misidentified if the task is left up to others.

Complicating the process is that although the Indian community does not distinguish between people whose ancestry traces to tribes living within the United States and those south or north of the borders, the federal government does. The one-quarter requirement must trace to a tribe living in the United States.

Mexican Americans with Indian ancestry traced to local tribes would be eligible for federal resources, for example, while those whose Indian ancestry stems from tribes south of the border would not.

But Abrams called these artificial distinctions.

“We did not create these borders and don’t recognize them,” she said.

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Ethnicity in Schools

Huntington Beach Union High School District has a disproportionately large Native American student population, compared to the countywide average.

Countywide*

Native American: 0.5%

Huntington Beach Union High School District

Native American: 6.8%

*for elementary, middle and high school districts Source: Orange County Department of Education Racial & Ethnic Survey, Fall 1999

Changing Face of County Schools

A look at the ethnic balance of Orange County’s school districts.

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School Native Asian Pacific Filipino Latino Black White District American Islander ----- Countywide 0.5% 12.0% 0.6% 1.3% 41.2% 2.2% 41.9% ----- ELEMENTARY Anaheim City 0.2% 4.7% 0.5% 1.4% 79.6% 2.2% 11.5% Buena Park 0.2 11.6 0.7 3.3 52.4 6.2 25.5 Centralia 0.2 13.8 2.0 3.6 35.3 4.5 40.3 Cypress 0.6 17.2 0.8 3.6 16.5 4.4 56.8 Fountain Valley 0.8 17.4 2.5 2.2 9.8 5.1 60.3 Fullerton 0.4 16.9 0.5 0.9 41.7 2.6 37.0 Huntington Beach 0.1 8.8 0.1 0.3 10.7 0.7 79.3 La Habra City 0.0 1.7 0.1 0.4 69.9 1.5 26.4 Magnolia 0.5 8.6 2.3 2.3 59.7 3.9 22.6 Ocean View 0.8 11.4 0.3 0.7 27.2 1.3 58.1 Savanna 0.7 10.8 2.0 3.6 43.9 5.9 31.2 Westminster 0.9 31.9 1.1 0.9 35.8 1.3 27.8 UNION HIGH SCHOOL Anaheim 0.5% 11.6% 0.9% 3.1% 51.2% 3.6% 29.2% Fullerton Joint 0.5 16.7 0.2 1.7 43.8 2.4 34.8 Huntington Beach 6.8 23.0 1.0 1.2 17.1 1.2 49.7 UNIFIED Brea-Olinda 0.4% 9.9% 0.3% 1.3% 22.2% 1.7% 64.2% Capistrano 0.4 5.0 0.3 1.1 16.9 2.3 73.0 Garden Grove 0.3 28.0 1.1 1.1 47.5 1.3 20.6 Irvine 0.5 28.1 0.3 1.5 6.9 2.0 58.7 Laguna Beach 0.5 1.3 0.8 0.7 9.1 0.8 85.9 Los Alamitos 0.4 9.4 0.7 1.5 11.8 3.4 72.8 Newport-Mesa 0.3 4.3 0.8 0.6 36.3 1.0 56.6 Orange 0.4 10.3 0.4 1.4 37.9 2.4 46.6 Placentia- Yorba Linda 0.2 7.9 0.2 0.6 27.5 1.7 61.8 Saddleback Valley 0.4 7.9 0.1 2.1 15.9 2.2 71.3 Santa Ana 0.0 3.8 0.2 0.1 91.4 1.1 2.9 Tustin 0.4 9.0 0.5 1.6 43.5 3.7 41.2 OTHER County programs 0.6% 5.8% 1.0% 0.4% 44.4% 2.8% 45.1%

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School Multiple District ----- Countywide 0.3% ----- ELEMENTARY Anaheim City 0.0% Buena Park 0.1 Centralia 0.4 Cypress 0.1 Fountain Valley 2.0 Fullerton 0.0 Huntington Beach 0.0 La Habra City 0.0 Magnolia 0.0 Ocean View 0.2 Savanna 2.0 Westminster 0.3 UNION HIGH SCHOOL Anaheim 0.0% Fullerton Joint 0.0 Huntington Beach 0.0 UNIFIED Brea-Olinda 0.0% Capistrano 1.0 Garden Grove 0.0 Irvine 2.0 Laguna Beach 0.8 Los Alamitos 0.1 Newport-Mesa 0.0 Orange 0.5 Placentia- Yorba Linda 0.0 Saddleback Valley 0.0 Santa Ana 0.4 Tustin 0.0 OTHER County programs 0.0%

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Source: Orange County Department of Education Racial & Ethnic Survey, Fall 1999