When the Latter-day Saint settlers arrived in 1847, one of the tribes already living along the Wasatch Front was the Utes. The Utes gave the future state its name and became the mascot of its flagship university.

The government seized land roamed by the Utes in Utah and Colorado and repeatedly promised to educate their children when they drove tribal members into the Uinta Basin.

Now, Utah people say Utah has neglected to educate its children effectively for decades, and the data backs it up, a Salt Lake Tribune study reveals. bottom.

For example, in 2020, 58% of seniors at Ute College in Dachène County School District graduated. This is lower than the percentage of students with disabilities.

Language arts is also a strong example. Approximately 90% of all students at Ute in the Dachène and Uintah School Districts did not meet proficiency on the 2022 reading and writing end-of-year exams.

The Yute children are exceptionally behind by every metric, decades behind them.

“We were never really serious about educating our children,” said former tribal education leader Forrest Kutch. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have seen this pattern for so long.”

Here are three main takeaways from the Tribune series.

Kaylina Cornpeach, who picked up her 5-year-old son early from kindergarten, overheard her teacher call her son “stupid.” That’s the same word her elementary school teacher called her in the late 1980s. Now it happened again with her son.

Now in the Uinta Basin, Ute students who participate in the public education system face stereotypes and are left failing for a long time, Kornpeach said. “That’s how they’ve always treated the Yute kids here,” she said.

Reporter Courtney Tanner Visits Uinta and Ouray Reservations With the permission of the tribal leader, I spoke with students and families several times. She also researched hundreds of pages of records ranging from boarding school days to public school transitions, recent grades, ACT scores, and graduation rates for the Uinta and Dachène school districts.

She found that the disparity between white and Indigenous students in these two school districts has been documented for decades. The Gap is part of the legacy of two Commonwealth Indian Boarding Schools. UtesThis is a reservation for Mr.

“The Ute children of the 1940s and early 1950s failed hopelessly unprepared at White Rocks boarding school…and fell further behind each year,” says researcher Kim Grunwald. warned Mr. In a 1996 paper.

Only one school district in the state has a majority of native students. It is a San Juan County school district in southeastern Utah, populated primarily by Navajo (Dineh) students. Over the past five years, the indigenous children there have done better on tests than the Ute students who live in the Huinta Basin.

They are also nearly twice as likely to graduate as Ute children, with 85% to 90% earning a high school diploma.

Some have argued that native students are still accustomed to public schools, so they may not fare well in the Uinta Basin, but the San Juan School District has shown that native students are more effectively served by the district. there is

[Read more: The Ute Tribe’s kids have been failed by the public school system more than any other students in Utah.]

Researcher YT Witherspoon knew that when he looked at how well Ute State students were learning compared to their white peers, he would find gaps.

He didn’t expect how badly Ute students would turn out. He found that many students “score no more than by chance.”

Either the Yute children “didn’t learn anything from their educational experience,” or “for some reason, testing wasn’t an effective tool,” he determined. After trying a combination of verbal and nonverbal tests instead, Witherspoon came to the following conclusions. Ute students were poorly prepared to enter school and were unable to keep up.

The analysis, he writes, shows that “this disadvantage is compounded as children progress to public schools.”

his 1962 studyAt the request of the Ute, it is one of a century that has continued to warn Ute students of their inability to receive an effective education.

Warnings came from additional Utah studies and national reports, including the influential 1928 Merriam report and the poignant 1969 report. “Indian Education: A National Tragedy — A National Challenge” The Kennedy Report, named after then-President John F. Kennedy.

The Kennedy report included the work of the late Francis McKinley, a prominent member of the Ute tribe who was active in the field of education. He wrote the following solemn summary:

“The education system has failed to provide the majority of Indian children with the minimum competencies necessary to prepare them to be productive citizens in the larger society.

“Furthermore, little has been done to perpetuate the unique values ​​and culture of the Indian people, to give them pride in their heritage and confidence in their ability to effectively control their future development. “

[Read more: Utah’s education system is failing Ute kids, and a former tribal education leader thinks that’s intentional.]

For more than 70 years, Ute students have struggled in public schools, and leaders knew what would help them succeed.

Brian Braboy, a member of the Lambie tribe and director of the Indian Education Center at Arizona State University, is outraged by the discrepancy.

“Sometimes we forget that what we’re looking for isn’t really new,” says Braboy, who is also a professor of indigenous education. “There is a long history and a long list of studies that show that students can do very well if they can leverage culture in the classroom.”

He is backed by studies, graduate studies, and federal reports that have repeatedly shown that incorporating both native language and cultural lessons into instruction leads to higher test scores and graduation rates for Indigenous students. It is

Last year, the Uintah School District was scrutinizing the new Native curriculum, according to Jamie Leiva, who oversees all the underrated students as Title VI coordinator. But when asked for an update this year, Leyva said those plans were shelved. In any school, “there’s nothing concrete about the Native American curriculum,” he says.

Neither school district offers Ute language classes in secondary schools. The tribe sends instructors, and Duchene has one class for elementary school students, which he must choose to take during breaks.

Harold Chuck Foster, State American Indian Specialist in Public K-12 School officials said the Utah Board of Education could provide guidance and discuss funding, but ultimately operations would fall to the direction of the local school board and the Utah legislature.

He notes that unlike the foreign languages ​​such as Spanish, German, French and Chinese that are currently taught in Utah schools, the state legislature does not fund language instruction for indigenous peoples.

“Why aren’t we getting funding?” Navajo Foster asked. For native children, “language really makes a big difference.” “It’s something that makes them feel very proud and accepted at school.”

[Read more: The Ute Tribe is trying to make up for the state’s education shortcomings, but resources are limited.]

One place where this approach has been taken is at a Ute-run public charter high school. Students learn their culture there and are successful.

[Read more: The Ute Tribe has its own high school. It outperforms its public school neighbors.]