1975-03-01 Char-Koosta News

              I   Volume 4    Number 21
RONAN
PARENTS TALK WITH BOARD
Ronan: "We are not opposed to sharing Indian education programs with white students", Ronan Johnson 0' Malley Committee Chairman, Tom "Bear-head" Swaney told the District 30 School Board Feb. 17. "On the contrary", he added, "we want you and your children to understand the customs and laws which govern us".
Swaney and 15 members of the Indian parents advisory committee appeared before the board in an effor to restore JOM and TITLE IV Indian Education Act programs to the school. In January, the board had issued a statement cancelling all federally sponsored Indian Education programs from the Ronan School system. The statement attributed "racial discrimination" in the programs as the reason for its decision to no longer accept contracts involving the parent's committee.
Swaney, acting as spokesman for the committee, noted that discrimination in such forms as special education for handicapped children, already existed in the Ronan School and all other schools. He said that Indians also represent educationally disadvantaged situation in schools and pointed out that special programs
(Cont. on page 2 - JOM)
i NEW MOON OF THE GOOSE FLIGHT       March 1,1975
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RESERVATION JOM COMMITTEES MEET ON RONAN SITUATION
St.Ignatius: ..."The Ronan School has thrown us a challenge and the way we deal with that challenge is going to affect the culture of Indian Education on this reservation." That is the way Tom "Bear-head" Swaney characterized a move by the Ronan School board to do away with Indian Education Programs at the Ronan School.
Swaney, Chairman of the Ronan Johnson O'Malley Indian Education committee, was among 150 persons who braved snow and sub-zero temperatures to attend a reservation-wide meeting in St.Ignatius Feb. 5. The meeting was hurridly called late in January to discuss a controversial move by the Ronan School Board to eliminate all JOM and other federally financed Indian Education programs from the school system.
The Ronan School Board, earlier in January, had issued a policy statement rejecting community controlled Indian Education programs because they require "an identification of students by race".
Swaney lashed out at the board's use of race as a reason for dropping the programs, saying "When it is convenient for them to call us Indians, they call us Indians but when it doesn't suit them to have
Indian students, they call us something else". "My kids", he emphasised, "are full time Indians."
Swaney recounted the developments that led up to the rift between the Ronan School board and the community JOM committee. He said that some friction between the board and the committee had existed for several years, but said it began to boil last summer when the board hired four non-Indian students to conduct an Indian vocational career assessment project. Swaney said that initially two Indian students were
also hired and by summer's end only one remained with the project. "As if it was not bad enough having affluent white kids taking jobs away from Indians", Swaney added, "they also made a mockery of the whole project by interviewing BIA employees and Indian NYC kids...what kind of career evaluations are they going to develop with subjects like that?".
Swaney said that the situation boiled over late last year when the committee complained to the board about the way the elementary school councelor's position was being handled. Cathy Dupuis, the Title IV (Indian Education Act) counselor explained that
her job was changed from Indian student counseled to special education counselor.
Miss Dupuis, a tribal member with a masters degree in educational counseling, said (Cont. on page 2 - MEETING)
JOB CORPS TO GO CO-ED
Ronan: Will the Kicking Horse Manpower Training Center change its name to "Person-power" Training Center? Will the students remain "Jobcorps-men" or will they be called " Jobpeople"? These are questions which will have to be resolved when the Tribally operated facility near Ronan goes co-educational next month.
According to Tribal Secretary Fred Houle Jr., the U.S. Department of Labor is expected to approve the concept of a co-educational training center this month, later. House said the Department, which contracts with the tribe for the operation of the Kicking Horse Center, will also approve a budget modification to pay
JOB CORPS)
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