Yakama Rising

Michelle Jacob, a professor of sociology at UCSD, argues that the problems in Native American families can be easily fixed when the tribe acts together. I don’t blame you if you respond to this with “well duh!” and I won’t blame you, because we all heard the saying “it takes the village to raise the child.” But this is different; Native Americans were once a communal society, and since the 1880’s the US (and Canada) have tried to force on them the nuclear family ideal, with private property and general privacy. It doesn’t seem to work.

The first chapter explores how traditional dances, above all else, have had a great impact in steering Native American youth from alcohol and crime. It focuses on a woman named Sue Rigdon, a school counselor who grew up in a dysfunctional family, and founded an extracurricular group to teach traditional dancing to kids in Washington State. Others are making efforts to have kids learn the language to that it won’t die out. If that’s not enough, how about the traditional way of preserving fish?

Yakama Rising is something you’ve got to read if you’re looking into grassroots activism. Wherever you go in the USA, you’ll see teens getting into trouble because they’re bored. Afterschool activities have always been a cure-all for social ills, and the social ills always start with the kids.