Tribe Charges Discrimination Against Native Children

A version of this article appeared in Rural America In These Times in June 2017. “I don’t want another generation to be pushed into suicide, addiction or prison,” said tribal executive board member Roxanne Gourneau, shown left, of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, in northeastern Montana. The executive board, which represents the reservation's impoverished Sioux and Assiniboine tribes, has asked the U.S. Justice and Education departments to investigate treatment of Native students in the public schools of Wolf Point, a reservation town. White families obtained land here in years past and have since controlled the local economy, politics and educational system. The tribal complaint alleges extreme disciplinary measures targeting Native children in the Wolf Point School District. These are accompanied by continual taunts and bullying by white administrators, teachers and students alike, as well as discriminatory employment practices that shut out Native teachers who might be