Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 2006

Keywords

Native college students, Native faculty, Cultural isolation

Abstract

This opening stanza of the poem Indian Boarding School: The Runaways by Louise Erdrich (1984) describes the importance of and comfort with returning to one’s home, “the place we head for in our sleep.” In this poem, Erdrich describes the dreams of Native students who runaway from their boarding school experiences (for a detailed account of the culturally horrific, indeed even fatal, boarding school experiences, see Spring, 2006). But the runaways are also moving toward something: their homes where they can be culturally, socially, and spiritually nourished. Home is where the center of the soul belongs. Children of the boarding school experience recount how their time there devastated their ability to communicate and connect with their people back home. In many ways the present day experience of Native college students recalls the similar challenges of being away from family and home.

Publication Title

Taboo: The Journal of Culture & Education

Volume

10

Issue

2

First Page

37

Last Page

54

Required Publisher's Statement

Taboo: The Journal of Culture & Education, Vol. 10, No. 2, Negotiation and Resistance amid the Overwhelming Presence of Whiteness: A Native American Faculty and Student Perspective (Fall-Winter 2006)

© Caddo Gap Press

Comments

Permission to post this article was given by Caddo Gap Press. While the article may be read by visitors to Western CEDAR, it may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, or sold by anyone without specific permission from Caddo Gap Press.

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)

Discrimination in education--United States; Critical pedagogy--United States; Minority students--United States; Multiculturalism-Study and teaching (Higher)--United States; Educational equalization--United States

Geographic Coverage

United States

Genre/Form

articles

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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