American Indian Education

More than 12,000 of Oregon’s nearly 550,000 K-12 students are American Indians, yet few of the state’s students are taught by Indian teachers or attend schools led by Indian administrators. Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling recently received two high-profile grants to help address this issue. 

Preparing American Indian Educators

Lewis & Clark has formed a consortium with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Indians in Central Oregon to train American Indians as teachers and educational administrators. Initially, the effort will recruit and train up to 12 American Indians. The consortium will be funded by a fouryear, $930,000 grant from the Office of Indian Education of the U.S. Department of Education. Lewis & Clark’s program is one of approximately 15 in the nation that received funding in 2005.

Planning for Indigenous Ways of Knowing

A $175,000 planning grant from the Ford Foundation will enable the graduate school to create a new program for Native American studies called Indigenous Ways of Knowing. Using funds from the grant, the graduate school will develop curricula as well as logistical and staffing plans to establish a new area of specialization for students preparing to be counselors, teachers, and educational administrators.