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Volume IX Winter 1997-98 Number 3

A Community Responsibility for Welfare Reform

by Marjane Ambler

Tribally controlled community colleges understand as well as anyone the destructive nature of dependency. When the faculty and administrators walk out their colleges' doors every day, many see evidence of the despair that accompanies unemployment, despair that threatens to destroy tribal cultures and people. Depending upon welfare checks erodes self-esteem, leaving people who cannot imagine themselves earning a living.

Nevertheless, most tribal college leaders object to the approach taken by Congress and the administration in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. The law's proponents describe it as a way to create a work ethic in individuals and to create jobs; they believe that welfare reform will make clients productive and responsible for their own welfare (food and shelter). By its punitive nature, however, the law attacks the symptoms of poverty instead of the root causes. In the law, education is an afterthought. The colleges, however, believe and are demonstrating that education should be the cornerstone of meaningful, long-term welfare reform.

To decrease dependency, tribal colleges have been reforming welfare for the past 30 years from another perspective: community responsibility. Instead of focusing exclusively upon "personal responsibility," they promote their communities' capacity to help students reach their full potential. Using their traditional values as a foundation, they have created models that should be studied by anyone interested in reducing dependency and despair in this country. 

Instead of pointing fingers, the programs described in this issue concentrate upon problem solving. The colleges are attacking the causes of poverty: the shortages of job skills, business role models, and self-esteem. They are re-tooling the minds of people accustomed to welfare. The colleges work on both personal development and community development, recognizing that most of their students will want to stay on the reservations and contribute to their communities.

The tribal college models are at the vanguard in the fields of entrepreneurism and family-based education. The tribal colleges' progressive models rest upon an ancient belief system that emphasizes sharing, generosity, sustainability, and reciprocity. The question is whether the welfare reform law signed by Congress will undermine their efforts.

Third World conditions

The full impact of the welfare reform law will not be clear for some time. Although regulations under the new reform vary from state to state, many tribal college students have been advised by welfare workers to drop out of college or lose their benefits. Colleges do not keep statistics on how many of their students are welfare recipients. However, the unemployment levels on many reservations result in large proportions of the reservation residents being on welfare rolls. The colleges do know that many of their students are first generation college students, and when they graduate, some become the first generation to earn salaries. 

Welfare reformists designed their legislation primarily for urban areas, not for rural areas and certainly not for reservations. There is very little understanding of the unique economic conditions and governmental status of reservations. The 500 tribes in this country vary dramatically. The law's title (Personal Responsibility and "Work Opportunity") implies that work is available for those willing to work. However, the Navajo Nation estimates it would have to create 2,500 new jobs to meet the first year work participation requirements of the welfare reform law. While the national unemployment rate is about 4 percent--the lowest since 1973--many tribal colleges' reservations have unemployment rates over 50 percent. In contrast, the unemployment rate on the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan is only 3 percent. 

Tribal casinos have reduced unemployment and built health clinics and schools in a few places, but collectively, Indians remain at the bottom of most economic statistics. According to the 1990 census, 31 percent of American Indians were living below the poverty level. Tribal colleges are tackling economic conditions on many reservations that have been compared with Third World countries. 

When outsiders see the economic conditions on poor reservations, it is easy for them to assume that culture is somehow to blame for poverty. Few look to the reservations for models of different but viable economic models. In our constant search for easy answers, we assume that the poverty results from unwillingness to leave reservations for work, that Indians have to choose between their cultural values and economic success. Tribal colleges do not make these assumptions. Based in reservation communities, they cannot afford the luxury of easy answers. Therefore, they take a holistic approach, developing both students and the community within a cultural context to make the reservations more viable places to live. The articles in this issue describe several models for lifting people out of poverty and out of the welfare mind set.

In this issue

ENTREPRENEURISM:

When the tribal colleges first began, many people asked why they should train people when there were no jobs, according to Turtle Mountain Community College President Gerald "Carty" Monette. The colleges discovered, however, that as they train people, jobs are created. On the Turtle Mountain Reservation in northern North Dakota, for example, the unemployment rate is 50 percent. Nevertheless, 87 percent of the tribal college's graduates are employed, he says. 

On many tribal college reservations, there are similar discrepancies between the local unemployment rate and the number of graduates who are employed. Part of the explanation is entrepreneurs: tribal college graduates often become entrepreneurs and create their own businesses, sometimes employing others as well. More than 16 of the 31 tribal colleges offer entrepreneurial training or small business management degrees. In addition, more than 10 of the colleges based on reservations have Tribal Business Assistance Centers that provide help to community businesses. These programs are described by Carolyn Casey in this issue. 

In the past, entrepreneurs have been defined by their competitiveness, rising to success over the bodies of their rivals. In mainstream society, people-centered management or "altru-preneurism" is the newest trend, however. Such innovative businesses find that they can increase profits by treating workers, customers, and competitors with respect. To many Indian economic experts this is nothing new. First Nations Development Institute calls it "culture-first capitalism" and has provided financial and technical support for such efforts for 17 years. Tribal college business instructors tell their students to take their cultural values with them into the marketplace. 
 

VOCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC EDUCATION:

Located in their communities, tribal colleges design vocational training to suit the changing local needs, according to the article in this issue by Dr. Nate St. Pierre. Students often enroll with a specific vocational certificate in mind and discover that they love learning. Allowed to dream, they earn bachelor's and master's degrees and become teachers, registered nurses, and business leaders. As indicated in the profile of Cheryl and Brandy Parish in this issue, education becomes a family tradition.

The welfare reform law, however, discourages education. Vocational education programs must be shorter than one year to qualify. The law intends to move clients off the welfare rolls and into entry-level positions, not the careers that many students could achieve. Such jobs are often, figuratively speaking, "slave labor" instead of skilled labor. Many fulltime workers remain under the poverty line. Without enough earnings to cover basic costs of living, such jobs become just another form of dependency. Should tribal colleges discourage students from dreaming of pulling their families above the poverty line?
 

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: 

For welfare clients to move into the workplace, they need transportation and child care. For entrepreneurs to build their businesses, they need loans. For Indian students to succeed in their education, their families must also believe in education. For students to see themselves in careers, they need to see Indian role models in their classrooms and in their curriculum material. For all these reasons, tribal colleges find themselves taking on roles that other community colleges do not attempt. A few of these programs are described in this issue.

Reading through the articles in this issue about grants that different tribal colleges have received, a reader might get the impression that the tribal colleges can implement welfare reform successfully and that resources are plentiful. However, that would be a false hope. True, there is no shortage of personal responsibility and initiative in the programs described here. For example, it is exhausting just to read the list of agencies recruited by the committee creating child care on the Rosebud Reservation. Nevertheless, even the most eager workers cannot depend indefinitely upon taco sales and short term grants to provide child care or other services on their reservations. Reliance on such funding precludes long-term planning.

Lisa Little Chief Bryan's business students know she is also a successful entrepreneur. Photo by Natural Light Studio

Welfare reform is only one of many laws that utilizes federal block grants distributed through the states. In fact most education funds in this country funnel through state institutions, but states cannot be counted on to provide resources or education to Indian people. As Dr. Michael Pavel says in this issue, tribes' and tribal colleges' relationships with states have been lukewarm at best. Animosity dates back to the colonial era, and despite some progress in some places, continues today. For example, states typically exclude tribal colleges from their state vocational education plans. Thus for tribal advocates, each federal law requires another difficult battle in Washington, D.C., to remind lawmakers about the unique governmental status and situations of Indian tribes. The tribal colleges' work is important but it cannot transform the culture of poverty within five years, as the national welfare reform law assumes. Dr. James Shanley's article in this issue brings us back to the bottom line on welfare reform: there are not enough resources; there are not enough jobs; and long-time welfare clients cannot all become employable within a few short months. The nation's safety net has been dynamited, and widespread misery is likely to result.

A passion for serving

In the Indian community, a leader is a person who has a passion for serving the people. The tribal colleges are demonstrating their passion for serving their communities and thus their leadership. They are re-tooling minds out of the welfare mind set. They are building job skills, self-esteem, and dreams. Their graduates are becoming self-sufficient entrepreneurs, professionals, and tradespeople.

With its emphasis on personal responsibility, we hope the nation doesn't go backwards to a time when Indian people were forced to leave their reservations for work. We hope the tribal colleges are not forced into being merely training centers because "Indians are good with their hands." As reservation communities start valuing higher education, we hope that the nation supports them. It is the responsibility of the larger community and not just the tribal community to educate Indian people and transform the welfare mind set.

Marjane Ambler is editor of the Tribal College Journal. Thanks to Dr. Carty Monette, Elden Lawrence, Linda Pease, Dr. James Shanley, Jay R. DeGroat, Dr. Wayne Stein, and Carrie Billy whose thoughts contributed to this article. Also see Peter Edelman's "The worst thing Bill Clinton had done," Atlantic Monthly, March 1997. For a history of tribal/state relations, see Wayne Stein's "Gaming: the Apex of a Long Struggle," Wicazo Sa Review, Spring 1998.