Learning and Algonquian Children

FREIDA HJARTARSON Western Integrated School Board Corner Brook, Newfoundland

But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different conceptions of things and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some Experience of it. Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces: they were instructed in all your Sciences; but, when they came back to us they were bad Runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods ... neither fit for Hunters,, Warriors, nor Counsellors, they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig'd by your kind Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them. -Response of the Indians of the Six Nations to a suggestion that they send boys to an American college. Pennsylvania, 1744

1. Introduction

This paper shares the wisdom gleaned from Algonquian Elders during in­ dividual conversations and readings on learning and First Nation children. Discussions occurred with Elders in kitchens and living rooms, on the land and in the midst of gatherings. The Elders were men and women, young and old. Readings were found amidst the emergent literature. In one in­ stance, the wisdom was drawn from the published poetry of the Cree Elder Margaret Sam-Cromarty (1992) of Chisasibi. A dominant theme emerges. Prerequisites, or what we might refer to in English as 'informal learning", must be received by the child prior to the presentation of the concentrated formal teachings of the dominant society. Elders believe Algonquian children must firstlear n their native language. As well, the teachings of the medicine wheel are critical to their develop­ ment. Closely associated with speaking a native language and following the teachings of the medicine wheel is the knowledge of what it means to be a member of the First Nation peoples. How learning occurs is also addressed

225 226 HJARTARSON

by the informants who are considered to be the wisdom keepers of their People. It is apparent that the dominant school culture in Canada can learn from the teachings of Algonquian peoples. Their wisdom about the importance of language to learning and the necessity of maintaining holism have applications to the ways we teach all children.

2. Some Definitions of Terms

For the purposes of this paper:

"First Nation Peoples" stands for such other expressions as Indians, Na­ tives, Aboriginals and Amerindians. In this paper Algonquian Peo­ ples will refer to Algonkin, Ojibwa and Cree Peoples.

"Learning" is a process that involves the formulation of meanings (Bruner 1990). Through the process of making sense out of chaos meaning is given. The structuring of meaning from disippative structures (Csik- szentmihalyi 1990) is constructed from acquired knowledge, skills, beliefs, and values.

"Education" is defined as "any process, formal or informal that helps develop the potentialities of human beings including their knowl­ edge, capabilities, behavior patterns, and values" (Hawes and Hawes 1982:73).

"School" then could be defined as "an institution primarily for education" (Hawes and Hawes 1982:197).

"Formal education" in the context of this paper refers to learning that is initiated in a school. Then informal learning describes learning that occurs in any context outside the formal institution of school.

"Epistemology" , or ways of knowing, refers to the way a person frames experience, which is a function of subjectively construed goodness of fit criteria applied to the difference between the anticipations and the abstracted representations of events (Agnew and Brown 1989:55).

"Elder" is the term used to refer to those men and women of the First Nation Peoples who are acknowledged by their People to possess knowledge (Suzuki and Knudtson 1992:18). They may be young or old. Elders are considered to be the traditional teachers, the wisdom keepers, the respected individuals among their People. LEARNING AND ALGONQUIAN CHILDREN 227

3. Language

3.1. Acquiring a language Language includes written and oral forms as well as performance, the visual arts and music. It includes the ceremonies and rituals of the people that have been transmitted over time. Language is the means of transmission of knowledge of a people and it is the process of transmission. Sacred to all people, and Algonquian Peoples are no exception, is the language they speak. In the language is embedded the values and beliefs of the People. In the language the epistemology of the People is found. What is expressed in the language forms the matrix of the thought processes of the People. It is what makes them unique. It is what guides their customs and rituals, signifies what is important and what is not important and gives value to their lives, determining their purpose(s). Language offers structure to a peoples' belief system. It is the architecture of the People. Without the language there is neither form, nor cognition. Children who never learn their native tongue lose the inheritance their ancestors struggled to preserve for them. Elder Russell Wright is reported to have said:

We were left a legacy, one our ancestors worked hard at and suffered to leave to us, so we can't default in teaching our children, especially language. Cultural values are built in, and there are Blackfoot terms that have no English equivalencies, ... Many descriptives in Blackfoot assume the tribe is one family and that's why old people still speak in kinship terms, addressing young people as "my daughter" or "my son". (Meili 1991:53)

According to Algonquin Elder, William Commanda, when First Na­ tion Peoples' children learn their native language they learn the inherent values of their people. Through the values and beliefs of their People that are embedded in the language, First Nation Peoples' children acquire their sense of identity, and a code of ethics to live by. Without a code of values to believe in and guide them, children will not know what to believe in, what choices to make, or who they are. They will not come to know they are Algonquian People. Furthermore William Commanda (1993) queries, how will the children know what it means to be Indian? If they look In­ dian but do not talk Indian how do they know who they are (Commanda 1993:3-4)? They can never stop being Indian because that was their birth right. However if they do not know what it means to be Indian and yet genetically they are Indian, life becomes confusing. How will they know what to value and how to act? What code will guide them when they are faced with choices? How will Algonquian children know what to learn? 228 HJARTARSON

These questions posed by Elder Commanda are not peculiar to the Algon­ quin Nation, but to all First Nation Peoples. Most likely they are also the inner aches of all displaced peoples in the world who find themselves forced into another dominant society because of war, greed or economic strivings. There is little or no catering to the language needs of First Nation Peoples' children in the urban school centers and scarce attention given in schools of education to the treatment of the cultural needs of these children. Little or no credence is given to the language or cultural needs of the new political refugees that flood into the country. Rather, there appears to be a silencing that echoes deeply of a need to order all peoples into the mainstream of a dominant cultural context. When language is silenced the values embedded in the language are neglected, even lost.

3.2. Directing the acquisition of knowledge Learning occurs deliberately. It also occurs without deliberation. The code of directives that is inherent in a language provides the sign posts directing the learning process of the people. For example, as a result of the James Bay I Hydro Development Project the Cree Nation of James Bay have their own school board and are taking control of educating their children. The following observation was made in a kindergarten Cree immersion class­ room. There is a gentle hum to the room. A Hallowe'en party is being held. Approximately 90 guests, including children, mothers, fathers, teach­ ers and other visitors gather. There is no loud talking or calling out. In fact not a lot of language is heard. Adults sit on the edge of the room visiting and watching the children while others, teachers and members of the school committee, show children how, and guide them through activ­ ities. Children who do not want to participate are not forced. However, children are not allowed to play and eat at the same time. They may eat or play. They are to concentrate on one activity at a time. Learning is programed in the games and the nonverbal directing. Values are apparent. Observing, offering choice, speaking softly, learning by seeing and doing is valued. One activity at a time appears to be the explicit code. Implicit in this value is the need to focus, and attend. Energy is not to be scattered in two simultaneous activities. Concentration is an implied value. Learning is deliberate. Considering the example cited above, the ed­ ucators together with the members of the Cree school community have made decisions. Deliberate choices have been made concerning the use of language, the method of instruction, the activities in the classroom, the opportunities offered to the children, and even the selection of party food served. Learning has been planned based on the goals and objectives of the Cree Nation of James Bay and the legislated educational requirements. LEARNING AND ALGONQUIAN CHILDREN 229

There is also nondeliberate learning occuring. One example is what is worn to a Hallowe'en Party. Approximately 90% of the children who came to the party worn store-bought costumes. The choice of the costumes was made possible by the ordering clerks at the Co-op and Northern stores in the community. It is quite probable the costume orders they made were based on the choices available to them. Inadvertently the ordering clerks made choices about the learnings of what was appropriate and/or possible to wear to a Hallowe'en party and, in turn, this influenced children and parents. They made nondeliberate choices based on availability that influenced the acquisition of information about desirability of costumes, the existence of characters ... the possibilities of what is the costume of Hallowe'en. The learning that occurred in the classroom at a school party was not deliberately planned by the teachers or even the Cree School Board. It could be argued, but not in this paper, that it is possible the choices about the desirable characters for Hallowe'en are a part of an interna­ tional economic culture. However, the point is that the Hallowe'en party demonstrates that learning is both deliberate, (planned by educators), and non-deliberate (independent of the educaton process). Whether the learning is deliberate or not, it is imparted by language which may be verbal or nonverbal. The code of directives that is inher­ ent in a language provides the sign posts directing the learning process of the people. Language whether verbal or nonverbal, direct or indirect, structures learning and, subsequently, the formation of thought. Learning gives form to thinking. Thinking is inseparable from language. Children in the kindergarten classroom that day were learning about Hallowe'en. They learned about the possible characters on Hallowe'en night. Games were played, skills taught, values emphasized, and language acquired. The language acquired contributes to the world view, defining reality.

3.3. Learning through narratives According to Cree Elder, Issac Masty, the stories were valuable learning tools. They were the vehicle for transferring knowledge from one gen­ eration to another generation. Through the use of narrative the Cree People preserved their cultural values. Narratives entertained, educated and chronicled the life of the people. In a verbal society without written records children were told stories, rather than given books to read. Chil­ dren were taught from a very early age in an informal fashion through stories. Children were taught to listen, to understand, and to transfer the knowledge gleaned from the story into the pragmatics of their daily existence. Learning to know about life through the oral storyline is not unique to the Cree Nation. It is, in fact, true of all cultures. Children are guided 230 HJARTARSON

to comprehension of the world through metaphor at an early age. The implied comparison between the story and the world in which they live is learned by children early. Implicit in this method of learning through narratives is the structuring of reality based on the values given to what is observed and told about. What is observed and related is unique to the epistemology of the culture. It frames the world view of the particular culture. For example, the Canadian goose is of immense importance to the Cree of James Bay. They have a reverence for this bird. Children learn its habits in intricate detail. They are taught out in the goose camps to observe the life pattern of the Canadian goose. Close observation has been a necessity for these nomadic people who were dependent on this bird for survival. As Cree People were nomadic people, constant activity was a way of life. From the moment you woke until you went to sleep most everything that was done had a purpose. Small talk did not exist in Cree society, not because the people were unfriendly, but because practically every word that was spoken had to have a purpose. Words were not wasted. As Issac Masty (Hjartarson 1992a:9) tells there was no time to develop any kind of small talk.

You were simply chasing the daylight tending to all the work that was re­ quired when you travelled from one place to another. ... For instance you had to travel a certain territory in the fall season before the ice formed on the lakes. During that period before you can start walking on the ice there were certain things you had to do. You had a very short time to do them. And practically from the time that you woke up right to the time that you went to sleep every single thing that you did had a purpose and you just simply did not have the time to sit down. There was no time to relax, have coffee, a cigarette or something. That did not exist simply because of the time.

The stories that were told, according to Elder Masty, were entertainment with a purpose. Stories provided comfort before bedtime and taught the code of the people. Again it must be asked, if children are taught only a language that is not the native tongue of the people, how will the children learn the stories of their people? How will they learn the inherent code of values of their language? If the experiences do not exist in the language the children are acquiring, how will they learn the cognition that is peculiar to their people? To learn only a language alien to your inheritance implies that a way of thought is not taught and, over time, the cognition is destined to be lost though disuse. Ruth Norton, Language Director of the Assembly of First Nations, tells the story of an old woman who was the last survivor of her native tongue. She was often found walking in the cemetery. When queried LEARNING AND ALGONQUIAN CHILDREN 231

about this she said this was the only place left to speak her language, to hear her stories. When she died, a way of life died. Knowledge that never was recorded was lost. Stories in their native tongue will never be told to this woman survivor. Her children will never know the nuances of their language. They will never inherit their legacy.

3.4. Finding your identity Language anchors individuals in their culture. It teaches the nuances of the culture. Elder Margaret Sam-Cromarty (Hjartarson 1992b) tells how the culture becomes the person and the person is the culture. For her the most fundamental of all learnings resides in knowing who you are. It is knowing that you are Indian. It is knowing that your culture is deep within you. It is realizing that you do not learn your culture but, rather, that you are your culture. It is understanding who you are so that you do not get lost when you move into another culture. For example, when you travel to the south or learn another language with all its inherent values, it is important to know who you are and what you believe in so that you will not get lost and take the wrong path. According to Elder Margaret Sam-Cromarty when they have acquired a sense of self and an identity, Cree children are ready to move into other cultures, to learn their ways. Children are ready because they are anchored in their own culture. They have learnt their language. They have become their culture. It is in the acquisition of language that children learn the values and beliefs of their people. Through the learning of their language they gain a sense of who they are as people. Language moulds the people, and the people through ceremonies, rituals, narratives, and performance invest the language with acts of meaning.

4. The Medicine Wheel

The Algonquian ways of learning according to Jacob Wawatie, grandson of Elder Lena Nottoway, orginate in the medicine wheel. Jacob Wawatie sat on the platform outside his grandmother's tent in front of the pails of boiling maple sap at the sugar bush. He was drawing me a picture of the medicine wheel in the mud, while he told me of how the medicine wheel taught the importance of the interconnectedness of all aspects of life. He made reference to the book, The Sacred Tree, that describes the medicine wheel as follows:

This is an ancient symbol used by almost all the Native people of North and South America. There are many different ways that this basic concept is expressed: the four grandfathers, the four winds, the four cardinal directions, 232 HJARTARSON

and many other relationships that can be expressed in sets of four. Just like a mirror can be used to see things not normally visible (e.g., behind us or around a corner ), the medicine wheel can be used to help us see or understand things we can't quite see or understand because they are ideas and not physical objects. (Four World Development Project 1984:9)

The medicine wheel has a round surface like the drum, directions like the compass, and a center that focuses and integrates all. Like the surface of a drum, no point on the medicine wheel can be touched without influencing the whole. Disturb the balance of the drum and harmony is lost; the song is lost.

4.1. Interconnectedness of all life Inherent in the symbol of the medicine wheel is the concept of the inter­ connectedness of all life. The medicine wheel teaches about the unity of all races of the world as in the four colours, white, red, yellow, and black. The medicine wheel also teaches about the four elements, fire, earth, air, and water. It also teaches about the four aspects to our nature: mental, physi­ cal, emotional, and spiritual. It is a universal symbolic form represented by the circle. All points that make up a circle are connected, forming a whole. Like the mandala, the medicine wheel represents the universe. Both the medicine wheel, and the mandala are founded on the unity of four.

4.2. Unity The medicine wheel is a symbol of unity. As Jacob Wawatie (Nottoway 1993) told, the medicine wheel teaches of a holistic approach to life. When you make a basket you focus on the making of the basket. The basket is made in a day and other activities do not interrupt. Your whole being is focused on the making of the basket. The making of the basket is not broken up into periods of attention like the periods in a school day in the White man's school; 40 minutes for art, 40 minutes for mathematics, and then 40 minutes for something else. You are connected to the whole process of making a basket. Like the medicine wheel, all is connected. Your knowledge of the basket, the feelings you invest in the process of making the basket, your patience in making it and the energy you focus on the building of the basket are all important aspects that are interrelated in the process of making your basket. This is how people learned in traditional ways. Learning is total involvement. LEARNING AND ALGONQUIAN CHILDREN 233

4.3. Balance The medicine wheel teaches balance. Balance is integration, equipoise, sta­ bility. Take for example the four directions as represented by the medicine wheel. One direction cannot exist without the other three. Without the east there is no west or south or north, and without the west there is no east or south or north. The medicine wheel has all four directions and a center that integrates all, balancing, and connecting all directions. The medicine wheel represents wholeness, as in a circle. Wholeness is complete­ ness, fullness, not fragmentation. It is balance. The medicine wheel teaches about a holistic approach to learning. For example, to develop and learn, the child needs wisdom which is represented by the northerly direction of the medicine wheel. However the child cannot be taught the wisdom of the north unless there is a desire to learn. Desire is founded in the child's emotional makeup and represented in the direction of the west. Motivation, or drive, the physical aspect of the child's nature is found in the south. Unless motivation is present there is no acquisition of knowledge. And, without the spirit of the east there is no direction to the child's learning or development. All four directions are needed if learning is to be whole, and complete. The teachings of interconnectedness, unity and balance that are a part of the medicine wheel are teachings that are revelant to the learning pro­ cess for all children, not only First Nations Peoples' children. The wisdom of the medicine wheel advocates a holistic approach to education, which is important to all children if their potential is to be reached. Learning is frus­ trated, fragmented even fractured when there is no interconnectedness of teachings to the total context . If educators are to realize the interconnect­ edness of all learning there cannot be a splintering of time into segments with children moving from one subject area to another on the ringing of bells. Nor can there be the long periods of time when children are off on holidays without a well-thought-out learning agenda. A core set of values must be at the center of all learning . The values are to represent a balanced view of life that combines the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual, not one that focuses solely on a dimension, such as the physical needs of humans as represented by materialism and economics. The medicine wheel to First Nations People is a symbolic reminder of the need for unity, interconnectedness, and balance of all aspects of life. It represents a holistic approach to life.

5. Conclusion

This paper considers the wisdom offered by Algonquian Elders on learning and Algonquian children. This inquiry began by focusing on the needs 234 HJARTARSON

of First Nations' children who frequently have difficulty in the dominant culture schools and who may suffer from a high rate of drug- and alcohol- related problems and suicide; it ended with a realization that the knowledge found is relevant to all children. Children must learn to speak their mother tongue which is laden with a code of values to guide them through life. A strong sense of self is needed before moving into another culture with a different, and perhaps conflicting and competing, world view. Honoring the interconnectedness of all aspects of life is critical, as are unity and balance. All the teachings of the medicine wheel are relevant to all children, and not only to Algonquian children. We must not teach solely in one style. Taking the example of the Elders who gave the teachings found in this paper, we must remember learning occurs everywhere, in someone's kitchen, in small gatherings, beside a fire, on the land, in conference rooms and also in classrooms. Teachings are presented in different ways: through reason and logic as in the conversa­ tions with Elder Commanda that occured in his living room, at meetings, and over dinner; through metaphor, using the poetic mode as in Elder Commanda's teachings of the stories woven into the wampum belts he car­ ries; through narratives as in the stories of Elder Issac Masty; and through participation and experience as in the harvesting of maple sugar or the building of boats and the making of moccasins. What has become apparent is that all children can benefit from the wisdom shared by Algonquian Elders on learning and Algonquian children.

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Hjartarson, F'reida 1992a Interview with Issac Masty. Ms. 1992b Interview with Margaret Sam Cromarty. Ms. 1993 Interview with William Commanda. Ms. 1993 Interview with Lena Nottoway. Ms. Meili, Dianne 1991 Those Who Know Profiles of Alberta's Native Elders. Edmonton: NeWest Press. Suzuki, David, and Peter Knudtson 1992 Wisdom of Our Elders . Toronto: Stoddart. Sam-Cromarty, Margaret 1992 lames Bay Memoirs A Cree Woman's Ode to Her Homeland. Lake­ field, Ontario: Waapoone.