Culture Arts Program: Title VII Indian Education

By Roy Cook

The March 12, 2008 Wednesday evening San Diego Unified School District Indian Education Culture Arts Program, Oak Park School, 2606 54th St. continues to provide opportunities for enrichment and to develop self esteem from positive results in student accomplishment. The students are encouraged to develop habits of observation, questioning, and listening. While attending the classes the students will learn to make choices, for example; choosing the colors of the beads and designing the patterns for their beadwork. Learning is a lifetime experience.

Organized by SDUSD Indian Education Community Liaison Vickie Gambala, the cooperation and support of the Native American Leadership program of the San Diego Indian Center and SCAIR, Southern California American Indian Resource center has enabled the Indian Education program to deliver the culture program and selected special events.

Along with the SDUSD Title 7 staff tutor, Jennie Alvarado, the principal culture instructor is Edward ‘Chuck’ Cadotte, Dakota. At first stringing the looms for beading was very difficult for the younger students. We gave them larger beads and beading string to make bracelets. Chuck continues to encourage the student projects. Traditional designs are charted on modern graph paper for the student to follow.

Indian Education Community Liaison Vickie Gambala has been able to search out other means to bring events and the culture component to the Indian students attending public schools. Also, this year Vickie has also been able to secure a cooperative partnership by the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Title VII Indian Education Program and the American Indian Recruitment (AIR). This program offers an outreach to the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) Title VII Indian Education Program Indian students.

All these efforts are to acknowledge our Tribal cultural traditions and assist the educational opportunities for our Indian students. Enjoy these images of our Indian students involved in Tribal craft activities and being tutored in academic subjects by Jennie Alvarado the same evening.

A schedule of the upcoming Indian Education Title 7 culture nights and special activities is available on the Internet or you may wish to call Vickie at the SDUSD Indian Education office number: 858-627-7362.

http://www.americanindiansource.com/indianed/schedule.html