Vision-A powerful tool for the twenty-first century Native American

Howard Rainer
Native American Educational Outreach Programs
Brigham Young University

I am grateful for this opportunity to address you. We have invited from across the nation some of the brightest Indian minds who are standing on the mountaintop of visionary anticipation for the dawning of the twenty-first century.

Make no mistake, at this symposium, profound things will happen. They will definitely impact you and others who could not attend this national assembly. Let us boldly begin to look beyond the dark clouds of the present and commence to make daring preparations for the untapping of unexplored possibilities of the future.

This symposium could easily dwell on many of the self-destructive forces eroding Indian life on a national scale. We could converse for two days on what is wrong with our people and depart with despair that another national Indian conference has adjourned and addressed the same "no-win" solutions.

But what a rare opportunity we have to gather this week. As the great Sioux philosopher Black Elk once admonished in the 1800s, "Let us put our hearts and minds together and see what great things we can dream for our children."

We are not here at this gathering to sit comfortably, but to stir one another's minds and souls to declare what is potentially positive about being Native American. We are not here to merely listen with admiration to what other Native Americans are achieving. We are here to visualize our own dreams and determine what personal commitments are necessary to prepare for the great events and aspirations for the twenty-first-century Native American. This is the generation that must take its rightful place in the world of fine arts, to become principal players in the political arena, and to become power brokers in national and international trade and major contributors in the sciences, high technology, medicine, and education.

No doubt about it, this conference is no ordinary gathering! It is a summons to each of you to set your thinking on a higher plane, to seriously question where we can be as a people, and to make a commitment to boldly lead the way as we enter the unknown vistas of the twenty-first century.

Perhaps there is one among us who has been waiting for such a gathering all his or her life. Is your heart here? Are you open to new horizons? Are you ready to accept your own dawning of potential and possibilities?

Allow me to take you on a journey into Indian country, perhaps your own community. It is a Native American community that I have long dreamed of visiting. There is a huge sign that greets us. It reads, "Welcome to our reservation and community. Our community is totally alcohol and drug free; please obey and respect our laws." There is a tribal directory that is most impressive. I glance down the listings and stare in awe at what this tribal community offers. Two miles up the road is the First Nations Indian Business College. There is the Red Earth Research Laboratory, the North American Academy for the Advancement of Native Fine Arts, and the Red Clay Industrial Park.

I sit in my car spellbound as I continue to discover what other tribal enterprises exist within this Indian community. There is the War Dance auto dealership, three auto repair shops, Native family enterprises, and the Red Mountain Mall with a listing of twenty-five Indian -owned and -operated businesses.

On this directory there is a roster of ten churches listing times of services. Then my eye catches the title, North American Institute for Native American Youth Achievement. A hundred questions quickly race through my mind. What is this center all about? Why is it here? What exciting things are happening within this edifice?

For a moment I envision a small building or wood-frame house. My curiosity gets the best of me. I look carefully on the directory to find the location of the center. As I proceed toward this center for Indian youth, I am delightedly amazed to see a three-acre parking lot filled with beautiful cars and trucks. The showroom and car lot are busy with Indian salespeople talking to customers everywhere. On my right I approach the First Nations Indian Business College. There must be over a hundred automobiles parked in front of this three-story, space-age building sprawled across two city blocks. There are Indian students of all ages pouring in and out of this building with looks of determination on their faces. A huge sign proudly proclaims, "Welcome to the First Nations Indian Business College; we don't talk business, we mean business!"

I am ecstatic as I take a long look at this marvelous sight. Thoughts race through my mind: "What kind of Indian people live in this community? Who had the lofty visions to make all this happen? What kinds of Indian people did it take to establish such an industrious community?"

Finally I drive up to a beautiful structure that makes my heart leap! It is a modernistic building that resembles the ancient pueblo dwellings of the Southwest. I observe for a moment what this national institute for Indian youth is all about. The first thing I notice are the license plates on the cars parked nearby. They are from numerous states and from Canada. Some display bumper stickers that identify their tribes or reservations. What I see inside this building would astonish all of us!

Before I go on, how many of you firmly believe this reservation can exist? By the reactions on your faces it is apparent that you think I am out of my mind from eating too much fry bread and the grease has settled on my brain.

The important task for us as thinkers, planners, educators, and visionary leaders is to make this Indian community a reality. I have come to believe that Indian people across this nation have to decide whether they are content to live in the shadows of the nineteenth century or are willing to step out of their circles of socio-economic comfort and extend their untapped energies beyond the twenty-first century. They must be the ones to determine whether the federal government is going to lead them by the hand another century, or whether the Native American has sufficient vitality to become a national and international influence.

I would now like to bring to your attention a perpetuating national perception of Native American character that needs to be rectified at this historical gathering. In a recent Sports Illustrated magazine article entitled "Shadow of a Nation," fourteen pages were dedicated to revealing the tragic story of an outstanding Native American high school team from Montana. These exceptional young Indian men became the state high school basketball champions. However, they succumbed to negative peer pressure, drank their opportunities away, and never entered college. The article went on to tell how they lost their personal vision, power, and self-control off the basketball court.

The author of this article should visit your reservation and interview some of your young athletes who are having their moments of glory and who are refusing to foul out on their future opportunities by drowning themselves in alcohol and drugs. I wish not to dwell on this tragic essay, but to declare to you and to this nation that we have among us here today a positive story that deserves equal time.

I can vividly recall the glory days here at Brigham Young University when many Indian students like myself sat proudly in the bleachers to watch Mr. Larry EchoHawk, a Pawnee Indian, play on the first string as a hard-hitting, successful football player. He did not have limited vision and did not fumble in the darkness of self-destruction after a football game. Instead, he remained on the winning team, possessing a serious game plan of wanting something in life beyond the fleeting fame of the football field.

Years of consistent hard work, self-determination, and personal commitment were the driving forces that have now brought Larry EchoHawk to one of the most powerful legal positions in the state of Idaho—state attorney general. He could have given up under the political pressures and negative campaigning hurled against him; he could have said law school was too hard at Stanford University. But Mr. EchoHawk is a proud member of a Native American family of achievers and doers. Athletics for him was merely the fuel to launch him off into the sky of many opportunities. Surely Sports Illustrated needs to contact Mr. EchoHawk for an interview. The Sunday newspaper supplement USA Weekend recently declared that Larry EchoHawk is among twenty of the most promising American citizens in national politics today. What a tribute not only to Larry but to his family and all Indian people.

Another legend in sports who was unable to attend our symposium due to pressing congressional responsibilities is Colorado Congressmen Ben Night Horse Campbell. A great Indian athlete in his own right, Mr. Campbell, a Cheyenne Indian, overcame his own personal challenges and is fulfillng his personal goals that may very well have significant political impact on the twenty-first-century Native American. Congressman Campbell is a no-nonsense Indian who won a gold medal in judo in the World Olympics, proving to himself and to the world that Native American tenacity and personal conviction have a definite place in sports. Today his athletic talents have blessed the lives of many young people of all races.

Mr. Campbell understands the meaning of taking risks and exploring the possibilities of the unknown. His work as a master jeweler has earned him a deserved place as a leading international, contemporary Indian artisan. In addition to his artistic ability, his influence in the halls of Congress in Washington, D.C., is paramount.

I know of many more outstanding Indian athletes who are not drowning themselves in self-destruction, and I am confident through you, future Sports Illustrated writers will discover these great Indian athletes. Perhaps there are twenty-first-century Native American athletes such as the EchoHawks, the Campbells, or the Billie Millses in your own hometown, state, and reservation who are the very ones paying the price now to take their prominent places.

The reality of political prominence, cultural prestige, and national and international influence for Native Americans will be heightened here at this symposium by those who catch the vision that Indian people with specific educational tools will be tomorrow's power brokers. They will provide the expertise, professionalism, and futuristic master planning for Indian tribes in North America.

You must relay the following urgent message to every Indian home, school, and tribal council: high academic achievement at all levels of education must be included to complement the shiny trophies and gold medals of athletic achievement. There must be a new war cry proclaimed nationwide from this conference that a "superior" education afforded every Indian child can become the fertile ground for preparing over 600,000 Indian children for personal success and achievement that will open the doors of opportunity beyond the year 2000.

I am elated to report that at the present time, there are over 91,000 Native American men and women attending a two-year or four-year institution of higher learning in America. The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac reports that 1986 statistics revealed there were 40,000 Native American males and 51,000 Native American females attending college four years ago.

We must ask ourselves, "What is the untapped potential of Native people who are willing to commit themselves to four to ten years of schooling to acquire academic knowledge, skills, and training that will make a difference in Indian country?" Let's make sure our own vision is clear as to the availability of well-educated and adequately trained professional Indian people who can fulfill the needed functions and services on every Indian reservation in America.

Reality indicates that over 50 percent of this nation's Indian population is under twenty-five. What that should mean to those of us forecasting projections is that more and more Native American young people are searching for a quality lifestyle. They will have to be competing and knocking on doors of employers outside the reservation. To prove my point, in the February 12, 1991, issue of the Lakota Times, it was reported that nine of South Dakota's biggest cities had Native American migration from outlying reservations of over 50 percent. What was significant was the graph in the article that showed some interesting figures. Mitchell, South Dakota, had a Native American population increase of 92 percent, Huron had 60 percent and Brookings had 80 percent. What does this mean for the future of the Sioux Nations of North and South Dakota?

If our Indian reservations cannot accommodate our growing population beyond the year 2000, then we can expect a mind drain and talent drain as Indian people begin an exodus to the cities and bordertowns of America. Education and varied technological training will play a major role in the ultimate outcome of this challenging futuristic dilemma. In the July 11, 1991, newspaper, Deseret News, a headline proclaiming "American Indians move to cities in rising numbers" indicated that Los Angeles, California, has the largest urban Indian population in America, with 87,487. This population figure from one metropolitan city would equate to nine entire Indian tribes relocating and living in the Los Angeles area. The 1990 census revealed that 685,464 American Indians, Eskimos, and Aleuts live on tribal lands, but over 1.2 million Native Americans are now living outside the reservation boundaries. Be assured that Native Americans will definitely be looking for jobs and socio-economic opportunities outside their reservation boundaries. What are the chances for our young people if we do not adequately prepare them today for the approaching crisis of competition in the employment market of this nation? To further prove my point, the nation's number one best-seller, Megatrends 2000: Ten New Directions for the 1990s, states that America is heading toward an information economy.

The information economy is producing an extraordinary number of well-payng, challenging jobs. However, you must possess the required skill to do those jobs. Really, the unskilled, the undereducated will command salaries that match their economic value in an information society—not very high. The information economy jobs require such a high degree of competence that the United States does not presently have the human resources to fill them. Nor will it for the rest of the 1990s.

In the February 1991 issue of Good Housekeeping, an article reported Native Americans today should heed the forecast of where the jobs will be and how we can prepare our young people today to secure those jobs. "By the year 2000, four out of five jobs will be in service industries, where the most growth is occurring." The article went on to identify eight of these employment opportunities. They were paralegal workers, bread/pastry bakers, medical records technicians, child-care workers, bank tellers, computer operators, medical secretaries, and bill/account collectors.

Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for our Indian people to get serious about their educational opportunities and insure that the thousands of Indian youth who will be graduating from high school in the years to come will be afforded the necessary training to acquire the skills and expertise to meet the future with full confidence and a competitive edge! What about possibilities in environmental careers in the 1991 summer issue of Winds of Change, published by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, the call for Indian people of all ages to value Indian land was declared in the article "Native Americans Choose Environmental Careers."

The Indian land remaining as Indian reservations is about 50 million acres. Tribes need trained staff to conduct studies, develop solutions, analyze development proposals, prepare environmental documents, and review and comment on documents which may have direct or secondary impact on the reservation environment.

Can you visualize hundreds of our Indian youth filling these needed positions? Look around you. Who is sitting next to you? He or she might be a tribal leader, community planner, concerned parent, educator, or even a curious, optimistic young person. What does their presence mean for the twenty-first-century Native American? I am certain that education somewhere has played a major role in bringing many of us here to this symposium!

Before I close I would like to share with you one more exciting futuristic insight taken from another national best-seller on predictions that will definitely affect Indian people. This information may or may not be good news for some of you in this room today. The reality is that there is an unseen national movement knocking on every reservation's door in North America, and we might as well prepare and accept the fact that part of the survival and futuristic success of Indian nations will depend on our involvement. The book Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives tells us that the futuristic power of computer technology is upon us.

In the business community, computer learning is flourishing . . . California computer consultant Arthur Luehrmann calculates that ten to twenty hours of actual hands-on computer experience translates into a $1,000 annual advantage in the job market.

Does this statement interest any of you? To make you feel a little better about the advancement of computer technology, Mr. Luehrmann went on to say, "But whether you work with computers or not, it is important to become friends with the computer and become computer literate, because the computer will permeate the whole world of work."

How many of you today fear the computer, refuse to put your hands on a computer terminal, will die resisting being trained on the many uses of computers, declare it is not the Indian way of conducting business or operating a tribal enterprise?

I will be truthful and confess I was one of those Indians who thought I could remain in the world of the familiar by refusing to have a computer anywhere near me, until one was put on my desk and my faithful old typewriter of the twentieth century was put to rest. You can be like me and make all kinds of excuses why computers won't be a part of your life-style or the Indian's future, but as was quoted, computers are going to "permeate the whole world of work."

Instead of wasting mental and physical energy combating computers, get your kids, your families, your tribes, and your people ready to get a jump ahead of millions by introducing them now to the power, benefits, and rewards of computer technology. This talk was written, edited, and transmitted onto another computer system for publication. The cover of the publication you will receive was designed wholly by computer.

Our Indian young people's chances of future employment, political prowess, social prestige, and tribal economic power will definitely be attributed to those who utilize the computer as opposed to those who reject its benefits.

I know that I have shared with you many thoughts and bits of information that may fade away as soon as the next speaker takes this podium, but I want you to know I have spoken the truth. I believe with all my heart that our Indian people throughout North America are like a big grizzly bear about to wake up from a cold, dormant winter. It is springtime. It is time to awake and come out of the centuries of hibernation. An abundance of opportunities awaits our people.

We don't have time to dwell on the past mistakes, tragedies, and misfortunes of our people. Your voices now need to be raised so your young can hear their day of promise is at hand. They need to see all of us at this gathering coming and going with purpose and achievement on our minds.

Why should we fear the future if we are prepared for it? Why should we remain silent when we have so much to offer this nation and the world? Who can dare stop a Native American who has personal vision, ambition, and spiritual strength to fulfill it? Personal vision will be the greatest tool for the twenty-first-century Native American. Take home your own vision of a productive and industrious community; take with you a vision of how powerful a superior education could be in shaping the possibilities of Indian people. Ultimately, the twenty-first-century Native American dream starts with you! If you go home with limited vision, or no vision at all, at least remember what the Bible prophetically states: Our people will surely perish!

Catch the vision of your own potential. It is not too late. It is not tomorrow but today that your mind is ready to explore, rethink compute, and take charge of a new horizon beyond the year 2000.

I leave you with these inspiring words that I borrowed from the poet Bernard Shaw and altered:

Some Indian people see things as they are and just say, "why?" I, HOWARD T. RAINER, a Taos Pueblo-Creek Indian from Taos, New Mexico, dream of things that never were and say, "WHY NOT!"

WHY NOT, INDIAN AMERICA, WHY NOT!

Vision-A powerful tool for the twenty-first century Native American

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