I am a member the Ojibwa tribe on the Fort William first nation located in Thunder Bay, Ontario. However, I do not live on the reservation like the majority of my cousins and relatives. I live in the United States because my grandpa was able to live the "american dream." My grandpa knew that in order to find hope and be successful that he had to leave the reservation. So, he came to the United States and started his own engineering business. The company was very successful and so was he. Raising his kids in the United States, my mom raised me here too. If it wasn't for my grandpa, I wouldn't be living in the wonderful home or town that I do today. I would be living on the reserve, a place filled with little hope nowadays and much poverty. Kids especially on reservations struggle in school since education for most Native American Indians is not ideal. As students, even though we attend a private school in the Unites States, we can understand the challenges and struggles of striving to get an education.
Besides education, every day life on the reservation is not ideal. Each year, when my family and I travel to our reservation, we spend a lot of time with our relatives, especially my cousin Kami. Kami is like my insight to what is happening on our indian reservation. Some of the things that she has told me about the reserve is that her cousins got pregnant and dropped out of school, her dad is back in jail for getting drunk and starting a fight, and her mom is too busy drinking that she has to be the one to care for her other three younger siblings. Kami and the rest of her family live in a small two-room home on the reserve, with a tiny lawn displaying all of their scattered baby toys. Like Kami's family, other families on the reserve live in poverty. In fact, in 2012, a total of 29.1% of American Indians and Alaskan Native alone lived in poverty, making up 15.9% of the nations poverty and the highest of any other ethnic group (National Indian Education Association).
Along with the harsh daily life of native americans, education is a growing problem. The native americans continue to need more help in the school environment as they aren't as academically advanced as others. "In 2009, 19% of American Indian and Alaskan Native 9th grade females received special education services, compared to the national rate of 7% for all 9th grade females, and 8% for White 9th grade females. In the same year, 27% of American Indian and Alaskan Native 9th grade males received special education services, compared to the national average of 13% for all 9th grade males, and 13% for White males" (National Indian Education Association).
In addition, Native Americans from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the state with the largest proportion of Native students, are not doing nearly as well as other races, like the whites, when it come to academics. On a standardized math test in the 2012-2013 school year, only 42% of the native americans achieved "proficient" or advanced," compared to 80% of the white student. Similarly, on the reading test, 47% or native Americans scored a level of proficient or higher, compared to 79% of whites (National Indian Education Association).
Finally, the most devastating statistic of them all... graduation rates. In 2013, only 49% of native americans graduated school within the standard 4 years. Plus, 64% of the native americans completed high school and got a diploma, with an extension of their years spent at high school. However, this is still 17% or more lower than all the other subgroups in the state of South Dakota (Education Week).
Ultimately, I hope what you all can take away from this TED talk is that people on Native American Indian reservations don't always live a good life. They live in poverty, and education isn't ideal. This problem of Native American's education needs to be recognized more amongst people, especially the government. They are americans too, and it's awful to know that they aren't getting educated properly while we sit here in a private school that values everyones education so much. With help, Native Americans can get a better education and be more successful in life. Being well educated and getting a good education is their only hope to help them get off the reserve and be successful in life. But, these graduation rates or test statistics will not change if no one helps, so lets help these people get a better education like most of us have.
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