Describes "Promoting Environmental Restoration/Management for American Indians" (PERMA), a joint effort of all Indian controlled colleges to create certificate programs in environmental and waste management. PERMA includes a summer bridge program to build science/math skills; a core academic transfer curriculum; a vocationally oriented two-year…

Describes the formation and operations of the Navajo Dryland Environments Laboratory (NDEL). NDEL, established by the Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium of New Mexico on the campus of Navajo Community College, focuses on environmental geology, hydrology, and resource management of the Colorado Plateau drylands. (DMM)

Describes the American Indians in Mathematics (AIM) project developed by Montana State University's Center for Native American Studies and Mathematics Department. The AIM summer program uses new technologies and teaching methods and focused mentoring to create learning communities in classrooms, schools, and reservations. Discusses AIM's…

Describes Turtle Mountain Community College's week-long College for Kids for students entering grades three through eight. Younger and older students engaged in separate activities designed to increase student knowledge of the indigenous plants, water, and insects in the region. Offers a day-by-day summary of activities. (DMM)

Describes Saskatchewan Indian Federated College's preprofessional, university-level science program and its focus on building math and science skills and on Indian culture, traditional medicine, current and future health care needs, and the goals of Indian people. Reports departmentwide enrollment increases. (DMM)

Describes the nursing program at Salish Kootenai College, focusing on recruitment, retention, individual curriculum plans, remedial/refresher courses in math and science, staffing, clinical practica, student responses, and funding. (DMM)

Describes the growth of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College's science and technology programs through grants which have funded new faculty positions, the construction of new science and computer facilities, 16 computers, and the implementation of long-distance learning systems. (DMM)

Describes Sinte Gleska University's Human Services Program, which offers associate and baccalaureate programs to train midlevel human service professionals (i.e., criminal justice and mental health/social workers) within a reservation context. Describes program outcomes. Stresses the need for training to serve culturally different persons in the…

Underscores the importance of preserving the Navaho language. Discusses eight stages of linguistic strength and security. Recommends that parents speak Navaho to their children and that English be excluded from particular social interactions, such as social introductions, to create a linguistic bond among Navaho people and maintain cultural…

Bill Leap responds to questions regarding reasons for the disappearance of traditional languages, steps in and barriers to language renewal, the need for written language, the importance of understanding a community's culture when studying or teaching the language, and the roles tribal colleges and linguists can play in language preservation. (DMM)

Traces native language usage among three generations of a Lakota family, explaining one woman's decision not to teach her children Lakota to protect them from abuse at a boarding school and her descendants' efforts to learn and preserve their language. Offers a Lakota studies and language instructor's perspective on his students' hunger for their…

Offers recollections of boarding school experiences that encouraged students to think negatively about their own language. Highlights efforts at Sinte Gleska University to integrate language and culture in training Lakota linguists and teachers. Presents recommendations and warnings about Lakota language instruction in public schools. (DMM)

Underscores the need for specialized native teacher training programs, describing university and community college programs fulfilling this need. Discusses the necessary anthropological, sociological, and historical foundations of Native American education. Highlights instructional methodologies for native students, including culturally responsive…

Describes individual, community, organizational, and college examples of efforts to promote sobriety and recovery from alcoholism among Native Americans. Discusses a sobriety movement tenet that alcoholism threatens the entire tribe and requires collective action. Highlights links with a broader movement for spiritual and cultural renewal. (DMM)

Offers statistics on family violence in the United States. Indicates that, although the concept of family violence is diametrically opposed to the philosophical and spiritual beliefs of indigenous peoples, it is pervasive in Native American communities. Urges tribal colleges to acknowledge its presence and confront its causes. (DMM)