The problem it responded to
By the late 1960s, a majority of Native children in the United States attended public schools rather than federal boarding schools, but many of those schools had little in their curriculum that reflected Native students’ languages, histories or communities. Native parents were rarely consulted. A Senate subcommittee study published in 1969, usually called the Kennedy Report, documented high dropout rates, low expectations and a lack of Native involvement. It described the state of Indian education as a national tragedy. The earlier Meriam Report of 1928 had raised similar concerns, which gives some sense of how long they had been recognized.
The Indian Education Act of 1972 was Congress’s response. It was passed as Title IV of the Education Amendments of 1972, and it was the first major federal law aimed specifically at the educational needs of Native students enrolled across the whole range of schools, not only those the federal government operated.
What the act set up
In general terms, the act did several things. It created a federal office to oversee Native education programs and a national advisory council on Indian education. It provided formula grants to school districts for supplemental programs designed to meet the particular educational needs of Native students, and it required local parent committees so that Native families would take part in planning. It also created competitive grants for special programs and for adult education. Over time Congress amended and renumbered its provisions, and the program was folded into the broader federal elementary and secondary education laws. The details have changed more than once, so the 1972 act is best understood as the beginning of a long-running program rather than a fixed set of rules.
The funding is supplemental. It does not pay for a school’s regular operations. Instead, it may support things such as tutoring, cultural programs, language classes, family outreach or counselors, depending on what the local parent committee and district decide. It is distinct from other forms of federal support, such as the Johnson-O’Malley program, which dates to 1934 and also helps meet Native students’ needs in public schools, and from Impact Aid, which compensates districts for the presence of untaxable federal land.
How it connects to Apache communities
On many Apache reservations, a large share of students attends public schools in districts that border or include the reservation, while others go to schools funded through the Bureau of Indian Education or run by the nations themselves. Districts serving Apache communities are among those that may be eligible for Indian Education funding, depending on how many eligible Native students they enroll and whether they apply. Programs vary widely from district to district, and no single description would fit them all.
For Apache families, the more concrete effects could include a supplementary cultural or language course, a Native education coordinator on staff, a parent committee with a say in how funds are used, or after-school support. Language is a good example. Efforts such as Apache bilingual education and the classes described under Apache language programs sometimes draw on several funding sources at once, of which this one may be one. Whether any given program is paid for through the Indian Education Act, tribal funds or other grants is a question for that school or nation.
Strengths and limits
Supporters of the program point out that it gave Native families a formal role in public schools and acknowledged that Native students might need approaches different from the standard curriculum. It also provided a stream of money for projects that otherwise would not exist.
Criticisms also appear in discussions of the program. The grants are modest compared with the needs of districts that serve many Native students, and they depend on annual appropriations by Congress. Program requirements can add paperwork for small districts. Parent committees work well in some places and less well in others. And a supplemental program cannot by itself change large issues such as teacher turnover, rural distance or deeper concerns about Apache education equity.
Place in the larger story
The Indian Education Act belongs with a group of laws from the early 1970s that moved federal policy away from assimilation and toward Native participation. Within a few years, the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 allowed tribes to run schools themselves, the beginning of Native-controlled schooling in many places. Together these laws helped create the mix of public, federal and tribal schools that serve Apache students today. Efforts around teaching Apache history in classrooms, though not a direct product of the 1972 act, reflect the same shift in expectations about what schools owe Native students.
Funding rules, program names and eligibility change over time. For current information on programs available to Apache students, check the websites of the relevant nations, school districts and the federal Department of Education.