BY: PHIL PRESTON

INDIAN TIME - VOLUME 22 - NUMBER 13 - APRIL 1, 2004 EDITION

Since time immemorial, as Haudenosaunee people, Mohawk or otherwise, we have educated, taught, and raised our own children. This is true all the way back to Creation times. There has never been a compulsion to use outside education until our people experienced colonization.

Schools were created originally for the sole purpose of socializing children. Socialize means to instruct someone on how to become an accepting and conforming part of an already present society. To go to school meant that the children were learning how to be part of the society, to be citizens whether American, Canadian, Chinese, English, Islamic, French, etc. Whatever system of education a child experiences will determine their ideologies, values, morals, and later their daily lives and occupations. Granted, intense parental and community influence can hold off part of what may be feared as negative from that system, but by and large, the system will naturally be more dominant. This philosophy comes from basic teacher education in colleges and universities throughout the world and also from within the Kaianeraserakowa (Great Law) and Kariwiio (Code of Handsome Lake).

Many people enter a system with a strong will/mind intent on only taking from that system what is attractive and leaving the rest behind. Unfortunately, example after example proves that the greater system will nearly always change the individual to fit instead. As parents and community members we can choose for ourselves if we want our children to become Americans and Canadians by going through American/Canadian schools. Even when reservation school curriculums are based on American and Canadian curriculums with Native culture elements incorporated, they are still American and Canadian schools. Whether these types of schools are chosen for our children or culturally based schools, there is no right or wrong answer. As parents and community members we decide for the children and do the best with what we have and what we are willing to create. As this and many Iroquois communities have proudly demonstrated, sometimes we decide to scrap a colonial or foreign way and create our own schools or choose home schooling.

Colonization is still strong and alive in us. Especially since residential school days, we have learned how to keep the colonization going strong. Knowing who we are has been proven to be one of the most important attributes for kids growing up. This is why teens coming out of Native tradition schools, usually language immersion with traditional culture as a curriculum base, tend to excel in high school and remain in their own communities. These same graduates often go to college and still return home to use their skills to benefit their communities. There is far less searching for who they are and less loss into party culture.

Our community is very diverse, even extremely diverse. Yet, we still live together. Shonkwaiatison created us long ago for specific purposes and gave us one way to follow in order to have the best lives possible and to live in the best we can. He gave us free will to make our own decisions, but everything was provided for us and all we needed to do in return was to express our gratitude. This is still true and it is all still here for as long as we want it and take care of it. We are created as Onkwehonwe, and here in Akwesasne to be Mohawk. Mohawk is Mohawk, Onondaga is Onondaga. Mohawk is not Canadian or American. With a changing world, Shonkwaiatison did not leave us fend for ourselves. Most recently Kariwiio (Code of Handsome Lake) was given to us to restore our pride and healthy ways and to learn how to live with our traditions and to accept only certain parts of the colonial ways so that we may survive.