American Indians can tap into the "old ways" offered through tradition to boost their skills as parents, tribal leaders and educators said Monday at the opening session of the 4th Annual Indian Child Welfare Conference in Ogden
The workshop on "Positive Indian Parenting — Values of the Old Ways" and the conference are just a part of the 2004 Child Welfare Institute that draws together experts from a variety of fields as well as state Division of Child and Family Services employees.
Robert DePoe, education director for the Paiute Tribe, said it is tough in "modern" society for Indians to hang onto valuable traditions as teaching tools for their children.
"Parents need to understand that raising children and educating children wasn't left up to chance," he said. "There are things that parents went through growing up that amounted to a formal education in the native ways. Those ways are nurturing ways."
Both DePoe and Janet Canyon, the Indian education coordinator for the Salt Lake School District, introduced to workshop participants a curriculum that is eight sessions long and available for parents, foster parents and other professionals to bolster parenting skills through American Indian traditions.
The tribe's purpose through time, for example, has been to ensure its future through its children. Through "Positive Indian Parenting," there is the recognition that extended family has historically played an important role in parenting.
Canyon said the notion is that when a community raises a child, the child is stronger and so is the community.
Parenting, while a challenge for anyone in today's society, poses complex issues for American Indians, who often straddle two worlds.
"I like to compare it to a light switch that you have to keep turning on and off, depending on where you are," Canyon said. "When you are on the reservation, you can't question elders or question the norms. When you are out in 'society,' you can question anything and everything."
Both Canyon and DePoe used the example of the cradleboard as an "old ways" tool that teaches babies early about the need to stay quiet.
Much like swaddling, babies are tightly strapped to a board worn by the mother. Traditionally, it is made by the father as a way to bond with the child.
DePoe said studies have been done that show babies who spend time in cradleboards have accelerated development of sensory skills such as hearing, sight and smell.
Babies, because they are confined in the cradleboard, are forced to become observers and spend less time flailing their limbs about. They are also comforted by the closeness of their mother, instinctively knowing it is a time to be at peace and rest, Canyon said.
The curriculum, explored briefly in the workshop, also stresses how traditional storytelling — much like the emphasis on reading to a child today — can increase quality time between parent and child and forge bonds that don't erase with time.
Native Americans American Indians can also turn to their rich, historical tradition of connecting with nature to teach children.
"At one point in our history, the world was our classroom," DePoe told participants. "Nature can be our teacher. There are all sorts of stories in our own back yardsbackyards."
Sometimes, he said, "society" helps craft self-imposed barriers that affect American Indians' Native Americans' ability to reach back to the old ways to enrich children's lives. "This class is all about exploring what parents have — something they have had all along, but now someone is telling them it is OK to use it."
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