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Title
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Press release about the Native American Studies at the Evergreen State College, 1978
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Description
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1978
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extracted text
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~\f.: Nw·tJ As
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NEWS
The Evergree.n State College
Olympia, Washington 98501
G
for immediate release
January 20, 1978
for further infonnation:
Judy Annis, 866-6128
Native American· students at The Evergreen State College in Olympia show a success
lrate more than five times higher than the national average for Native Americans who
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icomplete college, according to a study recently completed by Washington State's newest
four-year college.
Eighty out of nearly 400 Native Americans enrolled since Evergreen opened its doors
in 1971 have earned their bachelor of arts degrees, representing a whopping 22 percent
success ratio.
National trends show that four percent of most Native American students
who begin actually complete their college educations.
Revealed in a report on Restructured Undergraduate Learning Environments (RULE),
sponsored by a grant from the National Science Foundation, information also portrays
~vergreen's typical Native American student as being at least 30 years old (the median
age), a Washingtonian (in 95 percent of the cases), attending college for the first
time, and as likely to be male as female (49 and 51 percent, respectively).
In addition, records show that both current Native students and -alums tend to
focus on a wide variety of academic areas, including management and administration, health,
counseling, education, and social services, as well as the more culturally specific Native
American studies.Evergreen's central location to major Native American population centers in Western
Washington has been a major factor in serving the state's largest minority group, observes
Evergreen Academic Dean Dr. Will Humphreys.
However, Native American faculty like Mary F. Nelson, a Colville tribe member, believes
the college's policies toward numerous evening courses and individual study contracts
r more advanced students enable even those who work full-time and/or live on the
JUDY ANNIS, Director
In for mat ion
Services
reservat_ion to attain their four-year degrees.
~/creased
In addition, Nelson and others feel that
hi ring of Native American teaching and support staff _make it possible for many
students to maintain a critical link in identity once they arrive on campus.
~1ore
than five years ago, Evergreen deans and faculty p1anners sought to broaden the
school •s study offerings in Native American studies.
As a result, Native and non-Native
students alike now have the opportunity of zeroing in on issues and academic research speci~ically
11
related to northwest and other Native peoples.
Programs such as this year•s
A Separate Reality, 11 for instance, make it possible for students and faculty together
to probe the matter of cultural identity and to understand anthropology, sociology, politics
and other subjects within a Native American context.
By their very nature, other programs and courses offered at Evergreen incorporate
subject matter of specific interest to Native Americans today.
Two examples are 11 Cultures
of the Pacific Northwest, .. and 11 Exploring Southwest Native American Art. 11 Currently in
planning for the 1978 academic year are courses related to the salmon industry, social and
\rc(mily structures, myths and folklore, .and earth/environmental sciences, among others.
Faculty members such as educator/sociologist f1ary Ellen Hillaire Hkaytillwit (Lu11111i),
media expert Lovern King (Creek/Cherokee), artist and art historian
~1ary
Nelson _(Colville),
early childhood education planner Jacqueline Delahunt (lakota), and others assure that even
traditional disciplines will contain an often overlooked Indian perspective.
Poet/author Don Jordan (Iroquois-Chippewa), also a member of the Evergreen faculty,
feels strongly that an interdisciplinary approach to 1earning can best include Native
American views, but that Native Americans also have the right
of personal interest to them.
t~
focus on any subject
Jordan enjoys teaching enthusiastic, creative people of
many backgrounds to explore their own experience more fully and to build .on their abilities.
Re frequently schedules informal sessions for students and others to share their own
or to discuss others• works in order to foster learning and the
creat~ve
writin~
process.
Those who articulate the meaning behind the graduation statistics most clearly,
. ' -J.!
however, are the Native American alums themselves.
\_/
Speaking on his experience at Evergreen, Jim Brieler of Omak (class of '74} says
he found most of. his motivation through working with Native American instructors, and
in learning to look at issues through a multi-subject (cross-disciplinary} approach.
Currently a cultural researcher for the Colville Tribal Museum, Brieler focused his
studies on political science as it relates to Native Americans.
~
Colleen Neal, a minority advisor for the Bainbridge Public School System, hopes
she can continue to grow in her cultural awareness and values and share them with
others.
Of mixed Phillipino and Suquammish heritage, she had waited 12 years to finish
her four-year degree.
After talking to Evergreen Native faculty three summers ago,
she enrolled and was soon on her way toward meeting requirements for graduation.
Olympian Rocky Watts, a Rosebud Sioux, is one of five in his family to graduate
from The Evergreen State College.
An accounting services staff member at the State
Office of Financial Management, he gained his assignment throuqh a pilot program to
)niovide upward mobility for minorities in state government.
Evergreen, Watts asserts,
allowed him to develop his interests in the legislative process and prepare for a
significant role in government.
During his last two years of school, he served in a
series of off-campus internships for non-governmental agencies, monitoring bills as
they affected Native Americans.
Rocky's brother Richard Watts is a vocational rehabilitation counselor for the Port
Angeles branch of the State Department of Social and Health Services, where he assists
Indian people and others to prepare for occupations.
A class of '75 graduate, he gained
experience in counseling while serving an internship in the North Thurston School
District during his last year at Evergreen.
is a real problem," he says thoughtfully.
"The drop-out rate among Indian students
"We need our own people to work with them."
Viola Lewis, mother of Rocky and Richard Watts, had thought off-and-on about going
college while raising her family and working 11 years for state government.
Encouraged
by her own children, she took the big step in 1973 and has just completed graduation
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requirements.
r
·· ~·
Beginning in Native American studies, Lewis shifted to business administra-
tion in order 11 to prepare for working with Indian people in social health and welfare ...
Noting that
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1ndian people should be working with Indian people, .. Viola Lewis recounts her
efforts recently in establishing the Thurst9n County Indian Center.
For her, Evergreen
allowed her the dignity of her age ( 11 somewhere between 40 and 60 11 ) in that she could be
- informal and study information in line with her experience and interests.
on campus with her children, she claims
11
As for being
1t was great-- I'd reconmend it for any parent ...
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1973-86_NAS_8D38_02_17