The Starting Point: A Century of Federal Schooling
For roughly a century, federal policy treated schooling as a tool of assimilation. Government and church-run boarding schools removed children from home, restricted their languages and customs and taught a curriculum designed in distant offices. Chiricahua children sent to Carlisle, and Apache children at schools in Arizona and New Mexico, were part of this story, and the lasting harm is covered in the material on Apache boarding school trauma. Day schools and mission schools followed the same general aims in some places, though experiences varied.
By the 1960s, studies were arguing that this approach had failed. A Senate subcommittee report in 1969, usually called the Kennedy Report, described poor results, high dropout rates and the absence of Native control. The report called national Indian education a tragedy and recommended giving Native communities a larger role. That conclusion helped bring the Indian Education Act of 1972.
What the 1972 Act Did
The Indian Education Act of 1972 was Title IV of a larger education law. In general terms, it:
- provided federal funds to public school districts that serve Native students, for programs meeting their particular needs;
- required that parents and community members take part in planning those programs, usually through a parent committee;
- supported special programs, including those aimed at teacher training and adult education;
- created an Office of Indian Education within the federal education bureaucracy.
The act did not hand over control of schools. Its significance was in the principle that Native parents had a recognized place in decisions about their children’s education. The details of funding have changed under later reauthorizations, so current programs should be checked through official sources.
From Parent Committees to Native-Controlled Schooling
The 1972 act sits within a group of reforms. A Navajo community school at Rough Rock, begun in 1966 with federal support, had already shown that a community-controlled school could operate in the Southwest. Three years after the Education Act, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975 allowed tribes to contract to run programs, including schools, that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had managed. Later laws supported tribally controlled community colleges in 1978 and tribally controlled schools in 1988.
Together these laws made Native-controlled schooling possible. A nation could choose to run its own school, to work with a public district, or to take part in a state or federally funded school while having a parent committee. Which choice a community makes depends on its own priorities, local resources and history.
What This Meant on Apache Reservations
Apache reservations vary a good deal in how education is organized. Some students attend public schools located on or near the reservation, some attend schools run under tribal or contract arrangements, and some attend off-reservation schools. Many of the Apache nations have education departments and some support language and culture classes in schools, along the lines described in the discussion of Apache language in schools. Several operate or work with community colleges and early childhood programs. The Apache education articles on this site cover the current picture in more depth, and each nation’s website is the best source for details.
In general terms, the changes after 1972 allowed:
- parent committees and tribal education offices to review programs funded under the act;
- inclusion of Apache language, history and culture in the curriculum, to the extent a school chooses;
- hiring of Native teachers and aides, and local training programs for them;
- scholarship and support programs for students.
Limits and Open Questions
It would be wrong to suggest that the 1972 act solved the problems. Federal funding has often been described as short of need, and school quality, teacher turnover, distance and poverty remain concerns in many rural districts. Public schools still carry the main load for many Native students. Achievement gaps, which educators and tribal leaders discuss in the material on Apache education equity, remain a subject of study and debate.
The language question is also complicated. Federal law in 1990 recognized Native languages as a matter of federal policy, and some schools have language programs. But the number of fluent speakers of Apache languages has fallen over time, and school programs alone cannot reverse that. Efforts in the home and community matter as well.
A Cautious Summary
The Indian Education Act is best understood as one step in a longer turn away from schooling imposed from outside, and toward schooling shaped by Native families and nations. It did not end the effects of the boarding school era, and it did not give every community full control. For current information on education programs, the Apache nations’ own official websites and education offices are the proper source. This site is independent and speaks for no Apache nation.