Dear David

Dear David,

There's this book you really need to read. It's called The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. It's about this boy, named Arnold, who's Native American, and lives on a reservation, and wants a better life for himself, but upon trying to achieve that better life, he comes across all these different obstacles. Even though this kid faces some really tough things in life, he's able to overcome them, because of the way he chooses to respond to them. Arnold is able to overcome the impossible, and would be a great role model for other kids his age. Like you.

     Like Arnold, you've been through some really tough times in your life, and at such a young age. But I want to encourage you to read this book. It might be a great help to you, in terms of trying to figure out how to deal with all these tough things. Arnold's a lot like you, so In a way, you might even connect with him. Just read the book. You'll like it.

The Current State of Affairs of Native Americans in the U.S.

I decided to choose Sherman Alexie's tribe, and the Choctaw tribe to research. I decided to choose the Choctaw tribe as well, because it runs through the bloodline on my Dad's side of the family, so it hit a little closer to home.

Sherman Alexies's tribe has a new project going called STEP. It stands for the Spokane Tribe Economic Project.

The video link can be found here: http://www.spokanetribe.com/

Some more information about it can be found here: http://www.stepspokane.com/

Learning about this project was interesting to me, since I had never found a current project like this being offered to Native Americans, I was kinda impressed something was actually being done in attempt to help improve the reservation life. Although the tribe is getting proceeds from the project, it would have been nice to see the ancestral land preserved, instead of having  a huge shopping center built over it. I think they could have done that a little differently.


The other Native American Tribe I researched was the Choctaw Tribe. I found a link that pretty much explained how they have a casino that took in proceeds that would go to the tribe's health care, and would create jobs and things like that. But I feel that this link paints the picture nicer than it probably really is. Yeah, the proceeds may provide health care, but is it good health care? It's almost another example of how the history books don't always share all the details of what really happened..

Here's the link:  http://www.choctawnation.com/tribal-economy


Bibliography:  "Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma." Tribal Economy. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

Website

 "Spokane Tribe of Indians." Children of the Sun. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

Website

 "STEP Spokane | Spokane Tribe Economic Project." STEP Spokane. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2014.

Website

Pacifica Radio topic

I decided to write about the Seattle Teacher Uprising topic. The teachers at Garfield High School, in Seattle are expected to receive a 10 day, no pay suspension for boycotting a  standardized math test that they have to give their students every year, to evaluate their academic level. The teachers are saying it's a civil rights issue, because not all of the students have the same resources to be able to prepare for the test. They mentioned that it was mostly students of color who did not have the equal resources, like a computer to help them prepare. They also mentioned that the test doesn't allow for  any accommodations made for students with special needs, making it hard for them to succeed.  They also said that some things on the test are usually never taught to students, and that it  makes it difficult for them to succeed this way as well. I think it's a good idea for teachers to boycott the standardized tests. They're standing up for something they believe in, and trying to create a better way of evaluating students academically. Students don't care about those tests anyways, sometimes they just bubble in random answers just to finish early, and get it over with. That's what I did sometimes. Towards the end of some standardized tests, I remember seeing certain math questions that I had never seen, or been taught before. Seeing that would just frustrate me, and I'd bubble in some random answer. Boycotting these tests is a good idea, the teachers simply don't want to set their students up for failure, resulting in faulty test scores. Maybe with this, someone can come up with a better idea on evaluating students academically.