Projects
American Indian Community Data Profile, 2002
Namadji Youth and Elders Project Report, 2001
Forum Reports
1997 Fall: Tribal Sovereignty and
American Indian Leadership
1996 Fall: Tribal Governments: What will they look like in the year 2010?
1996 Spring: The Threatened State of Tribal Sovereignty
Namadji: Youth and Elders Project Report
Challenges Going Forward
The Namadji Project generated many initial insights regarding the challenges the American Indian community faces in closing the distance between youth and elders. From the broadest to the most basic, these include:
- family and community structure
- negative attitudes and stereotypes
- perceived generational differences
- differences in communication styles
- practical concerns such as physical distance, transportation, long work and school hours.
Family and Community Structure
Contemporary social structure limits meaningful contact between American Indian elders and youth. Not only because the two groups are often segregated, but also because American Indians today must participate in mainstream society that operates on a different cultural basis. In mainstream society, the nuclear family model that often relegates elders to nursing homes is the first and most obvious structural barrier to intergenerational contact. The problem is much larger in scope, however. Mainstream social norms understand and approve placing both parents in the workplace, children in daycare or school, and older people in care facilities. In other words, mainstream society is age-segregated. These institutions are absent any American Indian cultural accommodations, and as such, none can conceivably promote American Indian culture. This dichotomy is overly simplified, but is an important point when we are examining why American Indian culture and traditions are not being passed from generation to generation. Demonstrating how American Indian youth have a proclivity for learning by observation, Alicia Peterson noted,
"I learn about Mexican culture, not because they taught me about it, I just learn by being around them." There simply are too few opportunities that allow for youth to "be around" older people.
About getting to know elders, Kim Taylor age 13, said, "If I get to know 'em, I get to know 'em." Apparent indifference is a prevalent attitude that poses real challenges for successful intergenerational contact. Some may recognize a generation gap, but simply accept it as "that's the way it is." Most Indian elders commented on a lack of respect and discipline among youth. For instance, Robert James said, "A lot of young people have no respect for the elders. They act as if the elders are in the way." Elders seem to have experienced negative attitudes from youth, and in turn, foster some negative opinions about young people.
Generational Differences: "Times have changed"
All the elders commented on the overwhelming differences between the world of today's youth and the different situations that elders encountered growing up. Tom Denton explains these differences and his interest in overcoming them:
"It seems like kids now want to go out to play and don't want to work, but I was young once so I understand. I think they're willing to learn. But I don't like the way they talk and I don't like rap music. I also think children should be seen and not heard. That's their generation. Times have changed."
These sorts of differences range from superficial, to fundamental differences that can create genuine barriers to mutual understanding. Perceived differences create misunderstandings between elders and youth. For instance, an elder, Derrick Charles, relates, "Times were hard then. If you wanted to get decent clothes or shoes you had to go out and work to get them because your parents couldn't get them, they just barely made enough to feed themselves. It wasn't like nowadays. Nowadays everything's easy for a kid." Eric Wolf challenges this perception, however.
"Some have it easy, but some grow up with alcohol and drug abuse, child abuse, and sexual abuse. That's hard on some of us. Some of us don't have it easy. Some of us sacrifice. They should see what we have to go through for a few days. Some of us still grew up in poverty, it's still like that."
Communication Styles
The native language that once held communities together is fading from existence. In the old days, Indians had a style of communicating that, compared to today's standards, was a slow process; nothing hurried about it at all. But today, the more verbal you are, the more likely that modern success will come your way. In contemporary society there is little use for native language. No price is connected to it, so one could say it is without value. However, it is valued in a different way, by Indians who know their identity and their culture. They know the premium of the native language. Without it, the culture dies. One Dakota elder said it succinctly, that if we keep going the way we are, "we'll all end up being little brown white people." On the horizon, however, it appears that a resurgence of the native language is developing. Of course, if one is to know the context in which the native language thrives, they must be immersed in its use. This means being around the old people for a longer span of time.
To meet the needs of the urban Indian community, local government and private sector social service organizations tend to deal with one issue at a time. They do so, often on a crisis basis, and just as often from a European-based social work mentality. Indian youth in need of services often receive care in this manner. Yet, the encouragement that youth need for improving their self-esteem and identity, the cultural nourishment essential to developing a strong sense of self, are needs left unmet. The multiple effects of damage to a young Indian person's cultural identity and self-esteem can be seen in the disproportionately high number of dropouts from school, suicide rates, and alcoholism. This is not to say that these problems have one single cause; certainly, these complex problems have many different contributing factors. However, there is also no question that lack of a strong sense of self, including a sense of one's culture, is a significant contributing factor in myriad social problems.
Historically, American Indian cultural nourishment was orally transmitted. Youth learn their culture as passed down to them by their elders. As the generation gap widens, the means of providing this essential cultural nourishment moves farther out of reach. This report articulates some of the non-physical, but nonetheless crucial, needs that remain unmet when youth and elders lose contact. To put it simply, American Indian youth and elders need to connect. A catalyst is needed to make this connection.
As stated in the beginning of this report, the generation gap cannot be adequately addressed separately from broader problems facing the urban American Indian community. A few of these broader problems include: historical factors separating Indian youth from their families and their culture; current economic and social crises facing urban Indian families; a social structure that removes elders and erases the multi-generational family model; mainstream view of education that relegates learning to the classroom; and others too broad and numerous to mention. This project is too small to encompass all these concerns, yet a narrow focus on the problem risks ignoring the accurate depth and scope of the problem. To overcome this dilemma, we offer the following recommendations:
- Social researchers to undertake broad scale, discovery-oriented research to more fully explore this topic;
- social service agencies begin chipping away at this problem by incorporating intergenerational components into existing programs;
- program planners, educators, social service agencies, and American Indian leaders create new, innovative venues for elders and youth to come together;
- Indian agencies and policy makers make room at the table for Indian elders when designing and planning programs for the Indian community.
- all these groups report their observations and results to the broader community, including policymakers.
In summary, as the future unfolds organizations serving the urban American Indian community must consider developing and implementing culturally sensitive and/or culturally competent programs. Invoking Indian culture is a very real method in which to work with Indian youth. Too many Indian youth miss out on the positive experiences of growing up with their culture. Many have to reach adulthood before realizing what they missed; some never do.
From nowhere we come and into nowhere we go. What is life? Life is the flash of a firefly in the night, it is the breath of the buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass, that loses itself in the sunset.
Chief Crowfoot, Siksika Nation
Sayings of the Elders, John W. Friesen. Detselig Enterprises Ltd.
Calgary, AB, Canada 1998
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