American Indians are engaged in a tug-of-war between the need to assimilate to US culture but also wanting to remain faithful to their cultural roots. Loewen states that as American Indians have to commute away from the reservation to get good jobs it becomes "harder to maintain the intangible values that make up the core of Indian cultures" (Loewen 132).

This reminded me of an article that I read while I was doing my Janterm intercultural placement in a inner-city school in San Francisco. The article, "Community Mobilization Project: A Strategic Plan for American Indians in the San Francisco Bay Area" (1), discussed the large American Indian population in San Francisco. Even though there are over 40,000 Indians in the Bay area, they are so dispersed that they become almost invisible to the community. The Bureau of Indian Affairs relocated multitudes of American Indians from the reservations into the city from the 1950's-1970's. The article discussed ways to increase American Indian well-being and create a positive cultural identity. I found out that the school I was at in San Francisco had a 60% American Indian population. However, instead of focusing on Native American culture, the school had a much larger focus on the Japanese students- even though the Japanese population only made up 15% of the school. During a lunch period I asked my master teacher why there was such a focus on Japanese culture and not on the large American Indian culture. She replied that the Japanese families were very proud of their culture and worked hard to share this pride with the community. She then said that the American Indian culture did not seem to have much pride in their heritage and seemed to want to fit into the American norm instead of standing out for being "different".

This difficulty of cultural assimilation is also exposed in Alexie's poem "Things (for an Indian) to Do in New York (City)". He writes "that he must be an Indian/ adopted as a young child by a white family, and now/ confused and desperate, has come to New York City"". Later this man goes back to his white family and they "don't say a word about his new braids/ and they all travel to a powwow together/ slightly embarrassed to find their feet tapping/ along in an imperfect rhythm with the drums". This goes to show that even a child who is raised in a white family will suffer if not exposed to his heritage.

American Indians are growing up and realizing that they have to either fit into the classic American mold or else cling to their culture and stay on the reservation. If only our history would have been different. Or at least, if only our history teachers taught history differently. Teachers need to teach children that all cultures are equally valuable and that to be American Indian, or Japanese American, or African American, or Mexican American, or any other culture is just as worthy as being from European decent.

1. United Indian Nations, I. A. (1996). Community Mobilization Project: A Strategic Plan for American Indians in the San Francisco Bay Area. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.