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School: Prescott College • Quest 1: Educating for the Future: Multicultural and Environmental Issues • Task : #7: Assignment due March 8, 2005
updated 12/13/2000 3:34:00 PM by Sharon F.
Report: Look To The Mountain Response
My assignment was to read Look To The Mountain and write a two to five page response.

(Chapter 1) Introduction - Modern American Education From A Tribal Perspective: Dr. Gregory Cajete is an educator, artist, and educational consultant. It is interesting to note that currently Dr. Cajete operates a private educational consulting firm that specializes in environmental education and multicultural curriculum development. Look To The Mountain is Dr. Cajete’s “ecology of indigenous education” and is his response using an alternative cultural educational approach to preserve the cultural whole. In order to maintain cultural roots, he advocates the development of a “contemporary, culturally based, educational process founded upon traditional Tribal values…using the most appropriate concepts, technologies, and content of modern education”. He also theorizes that Anglo education fosters prejudice, hypocrisy, alienation, and unethical conduct that finds its way into working society because economics are emphasized and ethics/morals are not. Traditional Native American education represents a nature-centered or environmental philosophy that is based upon spiritual, ceremonial, mythical, and artistic factors. Dr. Cajete makes a profound statement when he states that “contemporary American Indian education has focused on Indian people learning the skills necessary to be productive, or at least survive, in post-industrial American society. American Indians have been encouraged to be consumers in the tradition of the American dream and all that it entails. Indians have been encouraged to use modern education to progress by being participants in the system and seeking the rewards that success supposedly provides. Yet, in spite of many that have succeeded by embracing Western education, Indian people must question the effects modern education has had on their collective cultural, psychological, and ecological viability”. There is no measurement that can calculate what has been lost by an educational system that can educate a people out of cultural existence. Dr. Cajete also bases his educational theories on ecology and how the cost of material prosperity has resulted in the exploitation and degradation of the world’s environment and resources. He explains that “those who identify most with the bottom line often suffer from an image without substance, technique without soul, and knowledge without context. The cumulative psychological result is usually alienation, loss of community, and a deep sense of incompleteness”. Unfortunately, most of us probably are familiar with people whom this quote describes. A Lakota phrase, Mitakuye Oyasin, that means “we are all related” reflects the tribal method of education in that our lives are connected to other people through ritual, art, technology, and ceremony and is then used in the real world of living for life’s sake. In direct contrast to this cycle of ecological, social, and multicultural educational methods, the current American education system relies on objective learning with a detachment to nature, culture, and the environment. Dr. Cajete explains education must commit to “service rather than competition” and “promote respect for individual, cultural, and biological diversity”.

(Chapter 2) Finding Face, Finding Heart, and Finding A Foundation – An Overview of Tribal Indigenous Education: Unlike the current educational methods, tribal education involves storytelling, oratory, art, customs, ceremony, ritual, song, dance, and tutoring by wise tribal elders. Dr. Cajete explains that all indigenous education is patterned after unity through diversity. He also theorizes that Indigenous peoples were probably the first ecologists.

(Chapter 3) For Life’s Sake – The Spiritual Ecology of American Indian Education: Language is the expression of the spirit because it contains the power to move people by communicating human thought and feeling. Language communication in tribal education is expressed through song, humor, dance, prayers, chanting, ritual, story, ceremony, and art and should be expressed with dignity and responsibility. Dr. Cajete perceives language as “a reflection of how we organize and perceive the world. In every language there are key words, phrases, and metaphors that act as sign posts to the way we think about the world and ourselves”. Unlike modern consumers, whose real world consists of capitalism and materialism, the real world of Indigenous people is the world of nature and choosing the path of our own learning. The key is to translate these values into contemporary modern education and curriculum.

(Chapter 4) Singing Waters – The Environmental Foundation of Indigenous Education: Nature is a sacred reality for Native Americans and is the basis for traditional education. Traditional education has always been an ecological education. They acknowledge that all living entities of nature have important meanings to the human life. The real test of living was to establish a relationship with nature and to see it as a source of one’s life and livelihood. The land was full of life and everything had its unique expression of life energy. This nature-centered orientation helped Indigenous people come to terms with the environment. Dr. Cajete quotes Oren Lyons regarding the ecological characteristics of Native American communities and refers to these peoples as the “land keepers” of a natural democracy The natural world was the Native American church. As a result, they lived with as little impact on the natural state of the land as possible and only took from it what resources were necessary for their survival and it was a sacred responsibility. Mutual reciprocity for all species was the code of behavior regarding the environment since everything is mutually dependent and nothing in nature is self-sufficient, including the human species. Educational institutions today adhere to the European model of behavior modification by command and control. The foundation of their social structure, such as the clan system and extended families, is being rapidly replaced by modern views. Cultural diversity is just as important as bio-diversity. Tribal societies are being changed by the effects of Western-style civilization and the loss of this ecological and cultural wisdom cannot be replaced. Dr. Cajete states that “Indigenous peoples have become as endangered as indigenous places” and this is why they fight for their culture and ancestral lands.

(Chapter 5) Living Our Myths – The Mythic Foundation of American Indian Education: Dr. Cajete explained that “humans are storytelling animals and story is the source through which humans think, relate, and communicate. We make stories, tell stories, and live stories….” Myths, legends, and folk tales have been art forms and teaching tools in all cultures. This chapter of the book was very interesting to me personally since I have several pieces of petroglyph art in my home that were presented to us by a local rock artist. Dr. Cajete explores the relationship of myths and rock art and how they teach stories.

(Chapter 6) Seeing the Voices of Our Heart – The Visionary/Artistic Foundation of American Indian Education: Dr. Cajete states that Indigenous people today suffer from “cultural schizophrenia” caused from trying to adapt to two different worlds and this has resulted in confusion and misery, as well as social and personal dysfunction. The educational process needs to provide opportunities for the youth to revitalize and reconnect with their creative side and prevent further cultural decay. Dr. Cajete does not believe that this concept would be instituted in today’s mainstream contemporary educational institutions, but rather in Tribal schools.

(Chapter 7) We Are All Related – The Affective/Communal Foundation of American Indian Education: “Human cultures…create environments through which humans are able to live…they conform to the same general ecological principles as physical environments”. Indigenous education harmonizes the natural community with the human community centered around day-to-day learning and is reciprocal with the nature. It is living a symbiotic life in a symbolic culture in the natural environment. Leadership was a role that had to be earned in Indigenous peoples and the elders achieved respect and integrity by walking the “Good Road”. Everyone was at one time or another both a teacher and a learner.

(Chapter 8) Living the Vision – Indigenous Education for A Twenty-First Century World: Dr. Cajete explains that “alienation from mainstream approaches to education have been one of the consistent criticisms leveled against modern education by Indian students”. Instead of addressing school curriculum and student alienation, the knowledge, values, skills, and interests that the students possess are ignored in favor of making them conform to mainstream education. The potential and worth of these perspectives of education have not been taken seriously by modern educators. The development of Tribal community colleges, contract schools, and other educational institutions have introduced Indigenous educational principles to students who have not reached their full potential. “Ethnostress” contributes by disrupting the cultural life over many generations and can be changed by empowerment. Culture is an active and perpetually creative process that may be dormant - the tree may be lifeless, but the roots are alive and ready to sprout.

(Chapter 9) Final Thoughts – Indigenous Education and Its Role In Individual Transformation: Economic survival and harmony associated with education. The history of Native American education has been a policy of assimilation to fit the mainstream profile of modern American life. There has been no pro-active or self-determined educational purpose or process. Native Americans “continue to be one of the most educationally disadvantaged and at risk groups in America”. The development of Indian education can alter a negative learning process into learning with the heart as well as the mind.

There are other cultural realities and orientations and these systems should be recognized and preserved. In addition, this storehouse of environmental wisdom should be adapted to contemporary times in order to defend the environment against the challenges that it now faces from modern society. Western society needs to become nature-centered in its educational philosophy. “Look to the mountain” translates as a journey to a higher place – a place that allows one to see where one has been, is, and may wish to go. Through curriculum development, a foundation can be created for activities and opportunities for students to develop a personal relationship with nature and the environment in contemporary society and modern times.

This book personally helped me understand a large sculpture that I have in my living room. It is titled “Earth, Wind, and Fire” by the artist and is a sculpture of three Native American women in a circle back to back. Each woman has a different piece of pottery either in her hands, at her feet, or on her head. I purchased this sculpture many years ago because I thought it was very unique and beautiful, but after reading this book I realize that it represents the three elements of nature and the foundations of life on earth.


Review:
Gerry,

Thank you for writing such a comprehensive review. This book is quite amazing and central to the issues of this course. Indigenious cultures model the intersection between culture, education, and the environment in both philosophy and practice. The Native American experience demonstrates that assimilation into the "mainstream", even if successful (which it has not been), omits a traditional way of life that reveres the natural world. Standardized education and culture in this culture does not foster this ethic. I hope everyone takes the time to read your response and, at some point during their ADP career, reads one of Cajete's books. -Jeanine


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