Absent?: Native Americans and Standards

4 thoughts on “Absent?: Native Americans and Standards”

1. Pingback: Revisiting the Hullabaloo about the Civil War, Slavery, and Racism in Textbooks and Standards | Cloaking Inequity

2. We recently addressed this issue before current 12th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Here is the intervention: “Today we request your support, solidarity and intervention on behalf of our indigenous community-based high school, Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School of North America.

   ISSUE:
   Intervention on the interdependent relationship between education, youth, language and cultural revitalization by Indigenous Peoples, especially in the urban context, for Indigenous Peoples living outside of “traditional territories”. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is on the verge of closing Anahuacalmecac, the only Indigenous Peoples’ high school in Los Angeles, California, due to a “Papers Please” policy against Mexican Indigenous charter school petitioners and parents.

   RECOMMENDATIONS:
   That the Global Indigenous Peoples Caucus (‘GIPC’) recognize that the implementation of the rights of Indigenous Peoples must be secured at all levels of government and community including local, city, state, and national organisms, entities, authorities and government offices;
   That the GIPC recognize that the rights of Indigenous Peoples and youth to mother language, cultural revitalization, autonomy over educational institutions and access to all levels of education reflected in Articles 3, 4, 13, and 14 of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples must also defend actions taken by Indigenous Peoples in acts of self-determination, particularly as related to the establishment and maintenance of autonomous Indigenous Schools using whatever mechanism of legal policy available to them, including local, state and national mechanisms accessible to non-Indigenous Peoples such as “charter schools” in the United States or “escuelas piloto” in Mexico;
   That the GIPC protest the acts of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendant John Deasy, and members of the LAUSD Board of Education against our community in violation of civil and Indigenous Peoples’ rights to education based upon maternal language, community autonomy, autocthonous culture and access to all levels of education by demanding renewal of the charter of Anahuacalmecac through 2018 AS THE ONLY EXAMPLE CURRENTLY IN OPERATION IN THE ENTIRE CITY OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.
   That the GIPC call for the dissemination of the design, vision and organization of autonomous autocthonous educational centers of regeneration through education such as Anahuacalmecac in all communities who so desire it without interference from local, national or other government actions or operatives;
   That the GIPC call for the organization of autonomous Indigenous Education incubation camps aimed at preparing parents, elders, educators, organizers and youth to disseminate the strategic development of Indigenous Survival and Regeneration schools in any Indigenous community who so desires it;
   That the GIPC recognize the relationship between autonomous self-determined schooling for Indigenous children and youth and the revitalization of the languages, cultures, economies, sciences and traditions of Indigenous Peoples by call for a study of this relationship in both urban and tradtional/rural territories;

   NARRATIVE:

   I write to urgently request your organizational opposition to an egregious abuse of authority on the part of the LAUSD Charter School Division and the Office of Inspector General. For years we have been targeted unfairly and illegitimately by the LAUSD OIG. Now they have gone to far. The OIG is demanding that our charter school’s petitioners, including parents and educators provide SOCIAL SECURITY numbers for an illegitimate “Due Diligence” investigation. We urgently seek all supporters to call on elected officials to intervene on behalf of and support the renewal of the charter of Anahuacalmecac, demand a halt to discriminatory “papers please” practices on the part of the LAUSD OIG/CSD and seek redress for Semillas to compensate our struggling community-based nonprofit for years of harassment.

   Founded in response to indigenous parent demand in 2008, Anahuacalmecac is the only successful Indigenous charter high school in Los Angeles. LAUSD is on the verge of closing Anahuacalmecac due to a “papers please” policy against Mexican indigenous charter school petitioning parents and educators. LAUSD currently has a “policy” that requires charter petitioners to complete a “due diligence questionnaire” that: 1) requires petitioners’ Social Security Numbers (“SSNs”) as a condition of charter school renewal/approval; 2) releases LAUSD and its staff from any liability arising from the release of SSNs; and 3) waives any rights of individuals to insist that SSNs be kept confidential. This policy facially violates 5 U.S.C. section 552a, and moreover, LAUSD continues to apply the illegal policy in a selective, discriminatory way that violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
   Last year, LAUSD staff opposed Semillas’ charter renewal petition in 2012 because Semillas’ leaders, who are well-known to be of indigenous Mexican origin, exercised their right to not provide their SSNs to LAUSD for LAUSD to “investigate” them. Semillas’ program is centered on indigenous values, language (Nahuatl) and culture of pre-contact Mexican peoples, and this is something that was plainly addressed and described in the charter petition presented to LAUSD staff for review and consideration. Semillas’ leaders articulated that LAUSD’s “papers please” demand reflected an actual and/or institutionalized racial bias against persons of Mexican origin in light of the well-documented abuses surrounding immigration and rights of families, with or without citizenship documentation, to attend and enjoy public schools within the District.
   Semillas then immediately requested documentation from LAUSD to determine whether LAUSD had ever recommended other non-Mexican led charters for denial based on failure to submit SSNs. Based upon the information LAUSD provided, it appears that similar recommendations for denial had never occurred, even though non-Mexican charter petitioners frequently did not submit SSNs verifying their citizenship. For instance, just between April and October 2012, the LAUSD Board of Education considered 25 charter petitions, and none were recommended for denial based on a failure to provide SSNs. As late as October 2012, LAUSD’s attorneys still promised to release information about the due diligence questionnaires and LAUSD’s use of SSNs. However, to date, LAUSD continues to stonewall Semillas’ attempts to obtain public records that will shed light on discriminatory use of SSNs at LAUSD.
   Anahuacalmecac meets or exceeds all required legally established academic and organizational elements for charter renewal. On Monday, May 13, 2013, despite our protest to the “papers please” policy upon submission of the renewal charter, LAUSD issued the following demand of us:
    
   “LAUSD received Due Diligence Questionnaires, including resumes, for the following petitioners: Marcos Aguilar, Solomon Zavala, Minnie Ferguson, and Sandee (Gitana) Vasquez on behalf of the renewal petition of Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School.  In order to conduct due diligences, CSD will need the following information:  dates of birth, Social Security numbers, primary  residential addresses, and original signatures authorizing the Office of Inspector General to conduct  due diligences on the questionnaires of four petitioners.”

   THIS ESTABLISHES A DE FACTO POLICY AGAINST INDIGENOUS PARENTS IN LOS ANGELES PETITIONING THE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO ACCESS CHARTER SCHOOLS AS AN OPTION TO EDUCATIONAL REFORM AND REDRESS.
   On 1/31/13 we filed a letter of complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”). On 2/14/13 we received a letter from the OCR not directly addressing our principal complaint against the LAUSD. On 4/10/13 we submitted a second letter to the OCR requesting their intervention. We have still not received response to this second communication. Essentially we outlined the following complaint against the LAUSD:
   Semillas Sociedad Civil’s (“Semillas”) requested that the OCR investigate an ongoing pattern and practice of harassment by the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”) based on Semillas’ leaders’ national origin.  We were surprised that OCR staff did not see that there is not only an inference, but actual evidence that discrimination based upon national origin took place, and continues to take place through the patently illegal “papers please” policies of LAUSD.  Pursuant to Section 306 of the Case Processing Manual.   
   First, we believe the OCR overlooked several significant instances of discrimination that occurred within the 180-day window prior to our letter, and that continue to occur:
   ·      LAUSD’s misuse of Social Security Numbers is particularly harassing in light of the prevalent political rhetoric hostile to the rights of so-called “undocumented” persons of indigenous Mexican origin. 
   LAUSD currently has a “policy” that requires charter petitioners to complete a “due diligence questionnaire” that: 1) requires petitioners’ Social Security Numbers (“SSNs”) as a condition of charter school renewal/approval; 2) releases LAUSD and its staff from any liability arising from the release of SSNs; and 3) waives any rights of individuals to insist that SSNs be kept confidential.  This policy facially violates 5 U.S.C. section 552a,[1] and moreover, LAUSD continues to apply the illegal policy in a selective, discriminatory way that violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 
   Last year, LAUSD staff opposed Semillas’ charter renewal petition because Semillas’ leaders, who are well-known to be of indigenous Mexican origin, exercised their right to not provide their SSNs to LAUSD for LAUSD to “investigate” them.  Semillas’ program is centered on indigenous values, language (Nahuatl) and culture of pre-contact Mexican peoples, and this is something that was plainly addressed and described in the charter petition presented to LAUSD staff for review and consideration.  Semillas’ leaders articulated that LAUSD’s “papers please” demand reflected an actual and/or institutionalized racial bias against persons of Mexican origin in light of the well-documented abuses surrounding immigration and rights of families, with or without citizenship documentation, to attend and enjoy public schools within the District. 
   Semillas then immediately requested documentation from LAUSD to determine whether LAUSD had ever recommended other non-Mexican led charters for denial based on failure to submit SSNs.  Based upon the information LAUSD provided, it appears that similar recommendations for denial had never occurred, even thoughnon-Mexican charter petitioners frequently did not submit SSNs verifying their citizenship.  For instance, just between April and October 2012, the LAUSD Board of Education considered 25 charter petitions, and none were recommended for denial based on a failure to provide SSNs.  As late as October 2012, LAUSD’s attorneys still promised to release information about the due diligence questionnaires and LAUSD’s use of SSNs.  However, to date, LAUSD continues to stonewall Semillas’ attempts to obtain public records that will shed light on discriminatory use of SSNs at LAUSD. 
   ·      Threatened Charter Revocation. 
   In August 2012, LAUSD singled out Semillas for charter revocation from among 29 charter school sites that had been issued notices by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety concerning code compliance.  LAUSD singled out Semillas even though LAUSD staff was fully aware that Semillas had resolved the facilities issue with LADBS.  Semillas was the only charter among that group that was formed and led by persons of indigenous Mexican-origin, and that espoused cultural and linguistic pride in that origin as a critical part of the educational model. 
   ·      Lawsuit Against Semillas. 
   On October 22, 2012, LAUSD filed a meritless lawsuit against Semillas based on Semillas’ alleged failure to provide LAUSD with copies of “all” of its business records, after Semillas spoke out against LAUSD’s illegal “papers please” practice of requiring SSNs from petitioners of Mexican origin.  Notably, Semillas had been “randomly” selected for an audit by the LAUSD OIG at least three times in the past five years—the only charter school known to have been targeted in this manner.  LAUSD then dropped the harassing lawsuit a few days later when it was discovered that the LAUSD Board of Education had never authorized the lawsuit.  LAUSD has never sued another charter school for records or anything else in the past 20+ years it has been authorizing charter schools. 
   ·      LAUSD Staff Tampering with Semillas’ Student Records. 
   On October 23, 2012, LAUSD staff tampered with Semillas’ student records on LAUSD’s web-based software system used to track online IEPs and special education services.  Without explanation, LAUSD staff manually altered several Semillas students’ statuses to “inactive,” which made it appear in the system that Semillas was not serving its students.  Before Semillas could notice and correct the errors, LAUSD identified Semillas as “noncompliant” for the week.  Not only did LAUSD ignore Semillas’ complaint that it investigate its staff’s tampering with our files, LAUSD staff suspiciously stated that there was “no record” of what we were reporting, despite the fact that we submitted screen shots as evidence of LAUSD’s illegal tampering with student files.  LAUSD has not provided any evidence that any other charter formed or led by persons of non-Mexican origin has even been subjected to such treatment, and we do not believe this has ever occurred to anyone but Semillas. 
   We understand that in order to state a Title VI claim that OCR will accept for resolution, we must describe facts that are sufficient to raise an inference that the school district’s actions in the bullet points above were motivated by race or national origin.  While the above acts plainly constitute harassment, we believe the OCR’s response overlooked overwhelming historical evidence that the harassment is motivated by Semillas’ leaders’ race and national origin.  Our letter included a slew of events that occurred outside the 180-day window in order to establish context and depth, but which constitute more than enough evidence to raise an “inference” that LAUSD’s continual harassment of Semillas is a pattern and practice of discrimination based on race and national origin.  For example:
   ·      In April 2012, Semillas’ Executive Director Marcos Aguilar was barred from entering the LAUSD Board of Education room because he was dressed in traditional indigenous ceremonial regalia.  He was forced to remove his indigenous cultural regalia in full view of the school’s students and parents.  It is hard to imagine an act more symbolic and insulting to a people than this to demonstrate harassment motivated by race and national origin. 
   ·      In 2007, the LAUSD OIG commenced the first “random” audit of Semillas.  We use quotation marks because there was nothing random about it.  When Semillas asked at that time how it was “randomly” selected, LAUSD replied by providing a copy of a racist diatribe authored by a controversial Los Angeles radio host alleging that not only Semillas’ Aztec curriculum but its Indigenous Mexican leaders fostered an anti-American agenda of racial separatism.
   Semillas has called for the Office of Civil Rights to investigate this egregious pattern and practice of discrimination by the largest school district of the largest state in this country, against the only school in the country that teaches an Indigenous Mexican language—Nahuatl—which is the most-spoken Indigenous language in the Americas.  We seek an outcome where LAUSD’s wrongful acts are exposed, and Semillas can operate its schools and educate children without the constant disparagement and harassment by LAUSD. 
   The charter petition of AIUP which is under review for renewal represents the culmination of over five years of work to build the curriculum, culture and community of the only public middle and high school in the Los Angeles neighborhood of El Sereno NOT in Program Improvement status. AIUP is a WASC authorized, IB World School that merits support not demolition. We would then appeal the LAUSD’s decision before the LACOE Board of Education for consideration by that entity. However, in the event the charter of AIUP were to be revoked by the LAUSD, and LACOE, its 75 currently enrolled students would have to be enrolled in another school. Our existence is itself a critique of the LAUSD’s historic educational discrimination of students in our communities. The County Office of Education, for example, is a bit removed from this educational deficit and liability. However, if LAUSD recognizes its legal and moral obligation to continue to oversee the charter of Anahuacalmecac, it leaves open the possibility of future collaboration to the benefit of our communities and other indigenous students within LAUSD’s schools.
   The hearing to consider the renewal petition of Anahuacalmecac will most likely be on June 11, 2013, the last regularly scheduled meeting of the LAUSD Board of Education. However the last communication we have received from the LAUSD is a continued insistence for our petitioners to provide social security numbers or face negative recommendations. Our community, Consejo de Encargados and our legal counsel remain firm in our insistence that capitulation to such a demand would be tantamount to the acceptance of an anti-Mexican policy unfairly targeting and preventing undocumented parents, workers or educators from petitioning for charter schools in our communities.
   With your help our community can begin to address long-standing educational discrimination, including forced and institutional assimilation and loss of mother languages through positive efforts of community affirmation, survivance and revitalization.
   The time to act is now. We MUST mobilize all of our networks to get the LAUSD to respond positively to our charter renewal demands for Anahuacalmecac.

   Please keep yourselves informed by visiting:

   http://www.semillasdelpueblo.org

   SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION! CIRCULATE WIDELY:

   You can also easily circulate the blog laying out our case at: 

   Radical Regeneration – Anahuacalmecac

   We are calling for the charter to be reviewed at the last regularly scheduled board meeting on June 11, 2013. IF LAUSD REJECTS the renewal, we will push to go before the LACOE board of Education before the end of June.

   Renewal of the AIUP charter petition assures Semillas can continue to provide an innovative and high quality alternative to families who seek indigenous maternal language and culture, autonomy, and access to all levels of educational institutions for Indigenous children.

   Towards the implementation of the EDUCATIONAL & CULTURAL Rights of Indigenous Peoples
   As an Indigenous community-based organization and as an organism of our traditional society of Aztec Dancers, Semillas has sought the positive intervention of the members of the Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues of the United Nations to advance the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in our lives, communities and urban realities.  As such, our Council of Trustees and our schools’ community of families and students have adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in public, community assemblies. Therefore, Semillas seeks to further all of the rights outlined in the Declaration with particular attention to the rights of Indigenous parents, and children. OUR COMMUNITY RECOGNIZING THAT WHILE THE UN DRIP ADDRESSES THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AT THE INTERNATIONAL LEVEL BETWEEN STATES AND NATIONS, WE ALSO RECOGNIZE THE REALITY THAT OUR RIGHTS, PARTICULARLY IN EDUCATION, ARE EXERCISED IN A LOCAL CONTEXT VIS A VIS LOCAL OPERATIVES AND APPARATUSES OF THE STATE. 

   We affirm these rights by including them here:
   “Article 3
   Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
   Article 4
   Indigenous peoples, in exercisi8ng their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.
   Article 13
   1. Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
   2. States shall take effective measures to ensure that this right is protected and also to ensure that indigenous peoples can understand and be understood in political, legal and administrative proceedings, where necessary through the provision of interpretation or by other appropriate means.
   Article 14
   1. Indigenous peoples have the right to establish and control their educational systems and institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their cultural methods of teaching and learning.
   2. Indigenous individuals, particularly children, have the right to all levels and forms of education of the State without discrimination.
   3. States shall, in conjunction with indigenous peoples, take effective measures, in order for indigenous individuals, particularly children, including those living outside their communities, to have access, when possible, to an education in their own culture and provided in their own language.”
   Xinaxcalmecac and her sister school Anahuacalmecac, collectively known as Semillas Community Schools (“Semillas”), are the only two comprehensive public schools in the City of Los Angeles that serve the intellectual and cultural needs of Indigenous children. Founded and operated by Indigenous educators, mostly from original Peoples from Mexico, Semillas provides an educational alternative for Native parents in the greater Los Angeles area, a region that boasts the highest density of Indigenous Peoples in the United States – in a way no other school attempts to address their needs. Semillas is a non-governmental, community-based, educational organization led by Indigenous Mexican educators whose mission is to promote academic excellence rooted in the cultural and intellectual heritage of Indigenous Peoples and the advancement of social justice. 
   In summary we ask that you support our fight to demand respect for our collective rights and our children’s individual rights by addressing the state authorities which intersect with our school community, by documenting your support for Anahuacalmecac as an exemplary design of autonomous indigenous community-based education and by circulating support for our struggle through your international networks.”

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3. I showed the film, “Black Indians an American Story” to my high school students yesterday. One of the captions for the film says a lot about issues mentioned in the Blog: (I highly recommend it!)
   Quote regarding the film: “To build the future, you must know the past. But what if that past has been hidden, lost, or denied?” That question is posed by this program (part of the Circle of Life documentary series) and its answer is explored through interviews with people with mixed African and Native American heritage. Black Indians from many walks of life (including workers, scholars, and artists) discuss the search for, and expression of, their unique identity — and the racial tensions and stereotyping they have encountered in their lives.”
   Another “hidden” Native story, right under our noses in my district, came to us and our school district. Our district includes Yosemite National Park. Our service learning project in collaboration with the Center for Multi-Cultural Understanding from Fresno, CA demonstrates that “high stakes testing” is a distraction compared with the depth of learning that happened with that project. See on UTube (produced by students): “I walk my path: The Story of Helen Coats”  Go to: Center for Multi-Cultural Understanding: The Helen Coats Story. The most dramatic part of the story tells about the National Park Service burning all the Ancestral Homes of Native American families, including Helen Coats who lived and worked in Yosemite National Park in 1969. It was the the same year that Native American activists OCCUPIED Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.
   At that time, (1969) Richard Oakes sent a message to the San Francisco Department of the Interior:
   “ We invite the United States to acknowledge the justice of our claim. The choice now lies with the leaders of the American government – to use violence upon us as before to remove us from our Great Spirit’s land, or to institute a real change in its dealing with the American Indian. We do not fear your threat to charge us with crimes on our land. We and all other oppressed peoples would welcome spectacle of proof before the world of your title by genocide. Nevertheless, we seek peace.

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4. I buried by heart at Wounded Knee.I really did.

   My heart has been buried, too, due tor the education industry’s total marginalization of my Native American friends such as the Noleys, Hopi Indians from Oklahoma, and the Teeples in Tama, a reservation in IA.

   ACT (and here I have to cry again, like I did many times at ACT) never showed compassion towards our Native American brothers and sisters, when I insisted that we needed to do something targeted to them, considering theirs were the lowest scores in every benchmark, in every test, every single year, since they started categorizing students by race or ethnicity.

   In fact, when I first presented a communications strategy for reaching out to Hispanics (I was Senior Communications Associate for the Hispanic market- duh), their words were, “If we do something specific for Hispanics, then we have to do it for other minorities.” To what I said, “Well, that’s good marketing, let’s do it.” Their answer, “We serve ALL students equally.” BS, total BS. That statement is the best example of the ill-understood color-blindness, which is no other than another way of racism and discrimination.

   Have a great weekend.

   Lourdes

   Maria de Lourdes Pérez Ramírez, MA President, Founder HispanEduca, Inc. PO Box 621133/ Orlando, Fl. / 32862-1133 319-331-5827

   About HispanEduca HispanEduca is a nonprofit organization, founded and registered in the state of Florida by Hispanic educators and parents.

   Our mission is to empower Hispanic parents, especially from low-income families so they have the opportunity to influence and develop education policy that help increase Hispanic/Latino education attainment levels.

   On May 17, 2013 at 10:23 AM Cloaking Inequity wrote:

   > Julian Vasquez Heilig posted: “Last evening I watched a film on Netflix > entitled “The Reel Injun.” Midway through the film, the director profiled when > Sacheen Littlefeather presented a speech on behalf of actor Marlon Brando, for > his performance in The Godfather, when he boycotted the ” >

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