15. November 2024 /
Spencer Tuinei /
Wendy Dau: Welcome everyone to the next episode of Provo City School District’s What’s Up With The ‘Sup podcast. I am Superintendent Wendy Dau. The month of November is recognized as Native American Heritage Month. In honor of that, I am excited to visit with Meredith Lam, the district’s Title VI Coordinator. But before we hear from her, here are our updates.
Wendy Dau: So today for our podcast, I’m here with our Title VI Coordinator. Her name is Meredith Lam. Thank you so much for being on the show with us.
Meredith Lam: Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate you having me on today.
Wendy Dau: This month is Native American Heritage Month. So tell us a little bit about why this month is so important, how it was set up.
I think it was set up by George H. W. Bush in 1990 or something. 1992. 1992. Okay, I was close. So tell us a little bit about the purpose behind that and how that manifests itself, that we hope it manifests itself in Provo City School District.
Meredith Lam: For sure. Well, I feel like the district has had a very long running relationship with the Native American community, and I love the camaraderie that comes as far as exchange in what we can offer as a culture.
And I think there’s a lot of unknown facts about Native American people that is really helpful to understand. We are celebrating the 100th year of Native American people in the United States actually becoming U. S. citizens.
Wendy Dau: Oh, that’s wonderful. And having the right to vote. And so that was not done until 1924.
That’s right. And it’s important for people to understand because Usually people are shocked at that because they’re like, wow, well they were here first, you know?
Meredith Lam: They should be shocked by that, actually.
And it’s a really important bit of fact to understand about Native American people, because yes, we have been here in the United States.
So we’re not eliminated, we’re not in any danger of going anywhere else. I think a lot of places that you go around the world. They kind of look at Native American people as unicorns or like fairies, you know, they just think that it’s some kind of mythical that they’re all gone. And that’s due to the Romanticism period in the United States.
And Native American history is a vital and very important part of American history. And because of that, so much is intertwined. With that exchange that we have with Native people, when it comes to influences, so many of our state names, street names, city names are very focused on Native American language and tribes, depending on where you live.
And so it’s really important to understand that we are still here. We haven’t gone anywhere. And there’s so much that we can share with others. And so I think that that’s a wonderful aspect of National Native American Heritage Month is that gives people the knowledge of getting to know the culture a bit more.
Wendy Dau: I think that’s wonderful. Tell us about some of those things that you would love to share about Native American culture that may not be as well known.
Meredith Lam: Yeah. Well, I feel like I grew up in a place in Arizona, page was where I grew up most of my life. And so I was one of many Native American students in my high school.
And my dad was actually a school board president. And so it was something that I have always grown up with until I hit my sophomore year. We moved to Prescott, Arizona, which maybe wasn’t too far away. But I became one of many Native students to the only Native American student in my entire class. So it was in the entire high school.
And so it was an opportunity for me to share my culture with other people who maybe necessarily didn’t know much. And what I loved about that too was it really got me to talking a lot to my teachers. My favorite teachers were the history teachers, just because they are so great and they were always so enthralled and fascinated with Native American history.
And I think that’s where it started. You know, that’s where the passion inside of me started as far as my love for my culture and my people and our history. And so coming to college, that ended up being one of my minors. I double minored in history and native American studies. And then my major was English.
And so through that opportunity, it was a time where I was able to fully immerse myself in my culture, and I went to BYU, so I had a lot of great professors, a lot of great people here in this community, and that’s actually how I got connected to the Title VI program here in Provo City School District was I took a job early on my freshman year with Kathy Bledsoe, and she was the Title VI director back then.
But it was really important for me to have this love for Native American people. I think there’s a lot of misunderstandings, but I think there’s a lot that people can actually learn if they just listen and it’s around us, it’s all around us. And that’s, what’s so beautiful about this place that we grow up in is that we may not have it in our face every day, like say in Arizona, but it’s a place where we do come across it and it’s important to understand.
Native American history, wherever you go, because it is everywhere in the United States. And so I do like to help people understand, there’s a lot of legal understanding as far as why Native American people have that legal status. As Native Americans, a lot of people will think, well, they’re just a culture, a group of people, but we’re actually people.
One of the few groups in the United States that does have that legal status because of our unique history with the United States government. And so it’s that tribal sovereignty, that right to sovereignty, that we actually have that relationship. And so that gives us our legal status. And with that, since we’re federally recognized, I do like to describe to people the differences, the unique differences between Indigenous people.
So when I say Indigenous. That includes people from all over the world that are indigenous to wherever place they come from. And so here in the mainland U. S., we have American Indians. And then in the Alaska region, you have Alaska Natives. So they have their own legal status. They’re separate and they’re not called Native Americans.
So you wouldn’t go to Alaska because they would immediately correct you. They would be like, no, that’s not who we are. That’s not who we are. And then Canada has their own recognition for their Indigenous people andthey are First Nations. And so a lot of times in, over, you know, This period of history, we have come across to a lot of intermixing, a lot of intermarriage.
So we’ll have like my children are actually part Native Hawaiian. And so it’s been really great to have kids, you know, who have come from such mixed backgrounds and then just having them also understand where they come from. And so they’re able to tell people where they’re from, how their names came to be, but it’s just so important for people to understand that there is that unique difference with Native American people.
And that’s why it’s so important is because our history is so important to who we are. More than anything, if you study the history, you can find the most beautiful resiliency in the culture and in the stories and just as people in general. And when I say Native American, I don’t mean to homogenize the group.
We obviously are A very diverse, federally recognized group. And so there are 574 federally recognized tribes with, in the United States alone.
Wendy Dau: Wow. So that’s a lot.
Meredith Lam: And each has their own history, their own language, their, their own culture. It’s so incredibly beautiful to see over the years, how many tribes have come out and it’s just makes that more important, I think, for other people to know how, how well connected and how vast, you know, Native American people are in this country.
We may be small. Like most places, we’re usually less than 1 percent of the population, but we’re still here and we love to share our culture with others.
Wendy Dau: Tell us a little bit more about that relationship between tribal sovereignty and the United States government, how that works, because I think a lot of people have misunderstandings about what that’s about.
Meredith Lam: Right. So that tribal sovereignty, like I said, it’s a very unique relationship. The easiest way that I can really describe it, even to my own students and my own families is like, I’m like, think of it as having like a dual citizenship in the sense of that you have your own tribal nation.
that you’re registered with, but you still are an American citizen. And so that’s really important for them to understand because I think as you progress and get older, a lot of times people don’t understand why there are special programs for Native American people and why we have our own hospitals, why we have these designated lands called reservations that were federally guaranteed–
given to us by the United States and they do oversee that land. And so there’s different departments that overlook different segments of Native American or Indian country. The most federally recognized tribes are looked over by the BIA, which is the Bureau of Indian Affairs. So that unique relationship is kind of set apart.
As we believe in tribal sovereignty, because if you look at the unique legal relationship between Native tribes and the United States, the United States kind of functions with their form of government, our form of government, as an umbrella over tribal nations. So, it’s not truly tribal sovereignty because we’re not on our own, but we do have that unique relationship where we do work with each other.
And so, that’s also where Title VI comes in.
Wendy Dau: Tell us a little bit about what the Title VI program does for students in Provo City School District, because you’re involved in a lot of different things to help support our Native American students, so talk to us a little bit about that.
Meredith Lam: Yes, I love our program, and there’s so many programs throughout the nation. Just like Title VI, I believe in Hawaii, even though the native Hawaiians are not federally recognized, they do take part in the Title VI program. And we do see them at the National Indian Education Association conferences every year. So, they’re very well represented because there’s been a movement over the last 10 years, I want to say with Native American tribes and education departments to salvage the language.
Title VI was born out of a true federal policy, and you can actually look it up. It was kill the Indian and save the white man. It was what we refer to as the “forced assimilation” policy. And I think Biden just gave an apology to native people. And he knows that that’s not going to solve the entire history of boarding schools or residential schools.
And so what was, Born out of that forced assimilation policy was that Native American children were not allowed to speak their language. They were taught to be ashamed of who they were. And a lot of them ended up dying in those boarding schools and not, never seeing their families again. And so for those of.
The children that did survive, there was a hidden passion, I would say, to connect with the culture, but it’s hard to be out of the culture and then to go back into it. And, you know, a lot of them had their hair cut, they were no longer seen as a part of their, uh, Or accepted like they were before, just because they had gone through so much in that forced assimilation.
And so it would take years for that healing to begin. And it’s still going on. But what I like to remind people is that every Native American person that you meet, every Indigenous person here in the North and American. area. We are all survivors of residential or boarding school era. My own mother was actually a boarding school survivor, as well as my grandparents on both sides, paternal and maternal.
So I remember growing up and hearing the stories. And so that obviously adds to the passion of why I do what I do. Yeah. Title six was born out of that need to reconnect students. The U. S. Department of Education saw that it was a need. to connect the children with their culture and how important that is for them, especially when they are in public school settings.
A lot of them are removed from their reservations or they don’t attend Bureau of Indian Education schools on the reservation. So there’s not a lot of contact with their culture. And so a lot of those schools that are on the reservation, they do have language barriers. programs. Title six provides that and it reconnects urban Native American students to their culture.
But in fact, what I love about even that happening is that there’s something magical that just comes from doing that actively and having parents involved with their students education, but also caring a lot about their connection to their culture. And I feel like it’s so inspiring, and we’re always open to other people in the community coming.
We’ve actually had, like, reporters come and, like, see our weekends where we have our dance classes. We would have parents that were making their regalia for powwows for their children. We even have a bunch of moms that get together and towards the springtime, they’re making stoles for graduation for the Native seniors that are going to be graduating.
So it’s just such a wonderful opportunity to see, and to have parents be so involved, and to value that part of their child’s education, because it’s really important. And that’s one thing that I think I was really grateful that my parents did for me as well. But all of these things that I’ve learned as I’ve come through life and have just gone through different phases, it’s just made me so grateful for everything that we do have.
And so it is a great program. And if you’re wondering, in the state of Utah, we actually have 21 Title VI sites throughout the state. And we do meet monthly because we’re a federal program. So we have Dr. Foster over at Utah State Board of Education who oversees all of the meetings that we have.
And so it is a federal program that is, it has a title. So it’s like a Title I, Title III. So there are requirements for us to have the Title LEA through Provo City School District. So it’s It’s been so wonderful to have that running relationship and I can see that sometimes it can be intimidating for people from the outside, like, okay, what does this entail?
You know, I’ve gone through some like boss changes over the years, but I always love every boss because they are like, okay, tell me a little bit about this. And so it’s great to have that rundown in that education of how– how these programs actually do help our students. And, I have to say one really positive thing about Title VI is ever since Kathy started, you know, we were, I think, I believe, maybe in the 80th percentile for graduation rates, but we’ve been, I want to say, in the last seven or eight years at a hundred percent.
Wendy Dau: Yeah, it’s been really impressive. It is so exciting. It is.
Meredith Lam: Yeah. And, and that’s, that’s where you know, and you feel like, okay, this is a win.
Wendy Dau: Oh, absolutely.
Meredith Lam: You know, as kids are going through their adolescence, they’re figuring out their identity and they’re finding out about their family history and all of those pieces.
This is very important for our Native American students too. How does having individuals who are recognizing that and seeing that, how does it helping them with that graduation? Because I think there’s a direct correlation there, right? They’re seeing. They’re valued, they’re understanding where they come from, they understand how much they have to contribute.
Do you have any experiences with students where they’re like, this is awesome, like, and share that with us and because you also hold a special graduation ceremony for our graduating seniors to just tell us a little bit more about that. We do. And I feel like this is where I don’t. want to get too emotional.
But when you go through this and, and I know one of the things that Kathy told me was she’s like, it’s just such an honor. I know it’s not my culture, but you’ll realize that working with this committee and just, they’re just such good people. And I honestly– now that I’m a mom, and that I have my own children in the district, I really look at these students like, you know, our Native American cultures are very matriarchal.
They’re all centered around the mother or the woman. And so I take that very seriously because I know that a lot of these children, Have maybe come from whatever circumstance and maybe they’re living off the reservation and legally living with auntie and uncle and so they’re missing the reservation.
They’re missing home. And so I feel like the program has really provided a place for these students. So many of my students have gone on to do such awesome things. And I feel so old, you know, now that I’ve been doing this as long as I have, I– I’m just so proud of a lot of these students. We’ve had students that have started nonprofit organizations, you know, here in the state of Utah that are executive directors.
We have students that have become platform speakers during COVID and became famous influencers, you know, who speak out for the Missing, Murdered, and Indigenous Women Movement. And so it’s really. It’s amazing to see these young students become these amazing influencers or people that are actually just succeeding in education and in career.
And a lot of that is because they know who they are, you know, and I think that’s really important. And does start at such a young age. And we are in that constant, I like to tell them, I said, you know, when you come to school, we don’t expect you to shed your cultural skin. We don’t want you to shed who you are.
We want you to, to– to be proud of who you are. All the time. And so I think that’s something that I see with my students over the years is especially being the teacher for the classes for powwow dancing and specifically hoop dance– Utah has like the largest population of hoop dancers and that are professional.
Wendy Dau: They’re amazing.
Meredith Lam: They are incredible. It’s incredible. And it kind of amazes me because they practice and I’m like, I remember when I first taught them in kindergarten, you know, it just, it really, it really just, I mean– they definitely outperformed their teacher, but it’s– it’s a moment to be proud when I watching living legends at BYU and just knowing that, you know, those kids started out so small, but it’s been such an honor to be in that position and to– and to see them grow and to see that confidence just build like there’s nothing, I mean, teachers, educators, this is why we do what we do.
Wendy Dau: Das ist richtig.
Meredith Lam: And you look back at it and you just think, gosh, it goes by so fast, but I know that children are like sponges. They really, really do take in everything that they learn.
And with those students, I remember every year when I start out, say with a new student or students that are learning dances, I’m like, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be hard. Right. But you’ve got this. We’re all here to learn from each other. Like so and so can teach you. They’ve been, they started the same way.
And you’ll always have a student come in and be like, you can do it, you know, and I’ve had some students cry because they’re like, I don’t can’t do this. It’s so hard. But that moment when you see them performing their first powwow is just the best feeling in the world. And in fact, I just had a couple students dance at the UVU powwow just last week.
And so it’s just so fun to see them, throughout the years, become leaders. And really just honing that message of that. We’re still here and that they’re proud of who they are, and their cultural heritage, and learning to speak their language because that’s one thing– that I may not be the most fluent Navajo speaker– but we do have our Navajo language class in the district as well, so that our Navajo students can qualify for the Navajo Nation scholarships. It’s been fun to see these students, but I tell them, you know language is everything It is everything, because it’ll tell you everything you need to know about the culture.
Wendy Dau: Yes, it will.
Meredith Lam: And it’s been great to see them. Over the years now I have some that are in the university, I actually have a couple that are in law school. It’s like– it’s crazy to think, but they will never forget those lessons. It just makes me so happy to see them try to hone in and sustain their culture through the language.
And I’m proud of them, you know, for– for learning and to take that on because it’s another aspect that I would love to just, you know, dive myself into. It’s such a blessing to be able to see. These students just succeed in their life and you couldn’t wish for more. It’s just, they thrive. They do. Yeah. They really do.
Wendy Dau: When they understand that they thrive, they do.
Tell us a little bit about, you have purchased books for centennial middle school. So talk to us a little bit about this as they’re recognizing. Native American Heritage Month.
Meredith Lam: Sure. Well, they have a great program over there. You know, they have Amanda Skeets and I think Amanda teaches Native American history and she does it every other year.
And then Corey Small Canyon is also there as well. And Corey is incredible in so many areas. He’s a genealogist, so he found our link and we’re actually cousins, we’re related.
Wendy Dau: Oh, wow.
Meredith Lam: So he was able to figure this out because he understands Native American genealogy, which is very, very tricky. But uh, Corey Small Canyon over at Centennial has worked with the principals over the years to make sure that they have a celebration for Native American Heritage Month with the Native students. And so this year, I know they have Dusty Jansen, who actually used to be a former member of our parent committee. And Dusty is now at the state level and he works with Governor Cox as the director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs.
So Dusty’s going to be coming and talking to the students.
Wendy Dau: Oh, gut.
Meredith Lam: It’s great. And then Corey always tries to– he has the aspect in there where he wants the students to meet local Native American students that may be at BYU or UVU. And so he’ll bring like a speaker or someone to talk to the kids just so that they can see themselves in that.
And that’s always been, I think our goal in Title VI is we want to connect them to that higher education and we want them to see themselves in higher education, whether it’s vocational school or college or university, just– we just want to make them feel like there is a place wherever you go, there’s a place for you and you’ll succeed.
Wendy Dau: So what book have you chosen for this?
Meredith Lam: So the book that I’ve chosen, she has an adult version and one for young people. And so for any of those people that love history, I love history. This is a book I picked up at the National Indian Education Association Conference, it’s called An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, but this version is for young people.
And so it’s by Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz and she is a historian and she does some really great succinct summarizations of Native American history over the years. And so, it’s a really easy read and there’s just different portions of the book that if you wanted to know, she kind of starts with the land, but really just hitting on the different important parts of American history that I think would be important for any young person to really know because it’s not truly taught in– in schools.
I feel like our curriculum definitely gives the conqueror’s version perspective. There’s always two sides to every story and that’s one thing you learn in history. When I majored is. There’s history is like a pendulum, you know, anything you, you read or believe it’s there’s a pendulum. And so try to take in as many resources as you can.
And so I feel like she gives a really wonderful perspective of Native American history from the perspective of a Native American person. And so she talks about, you know, the birth of the nation and just how that affected Native people. She ends in hope. What are you going to do and how are you going to continue on this history?
And we all have a place in history and where we fall into that. And so I love that it’s up to the students to kind of figure out where they will go with this knowledge. So I– I really do love this book. Last year we gave another book to the students. It was “Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about Native American people, but was too afraid to ask.”
And so you know, some of these books, there’s, there’s a lot of great books that are out there and I love the resurgence of just Native American literature from Native people. And so you’re seeing a lot of it in the movies and the media. A lot of very educated Native people that have come to the forefront.
And what I’m loving right now is at NIEA, I was so excited to see how many Native American authors and Native Hawaiian authors there are for young, for young readers.
Wendy Dau: Yeah, that’s really important.
Meredith Lam: It was just so– it was so cool to see the adolescent category– you know, for– for youth. And I have a lot of, you know, non- Native friends that’ll say, “well, what’s a good book for me to read?”
You know, and I, a lot of them may have been inspired by Killers of the Flower Moon, which also, he’s not a Native author, but he did an incredible job writing that book. But it’s fun to see people’s excitement towards Native American history and like, why don’t we talk about it more?
Why is that something we don’t talk about? And I’m like, well, because it’s a hard pill to swallow. It’s really hard to to reconcile what has happened in our history. But I think a part of that, too, in healing is that coming together of just– let’s– let’s not repeat that, you know, let, let’s learn from this and let’s move on because there is so much we can learn from each other.
Wendy Dau: And our society is better because we have all of these different perspectives. Like it just, it is, it’s just richer.
Meredith Lam: It is. One thing my dad would say is “If you come into a community that’s not your own, you just make sure that you go into those communities with open ears. You don’t need to say anything.”
You don’t need to tell them how to live their life. Like, just go and listen. You know, you can learn a lot.
Wendy Dau: You can learn a ton.
Meredith Lam: Learn where you can be helpful. And so, I’ve always taken that to heart. And so, I do love that about our district is that we are Definitely growing, you know, as far as diversity, so it is important.
It’s important for us in so many different ways to learn about each other and to learn where we come from because everybody has a narrative. Everybody comes from someplace. Where you’ve come from or how you’ve acquired your identity, I think that those are so many important stories that we can learn from one another.
That can definitely strengthen us.
Wendy Dau: I agree. Thank you so much, Meredith, for being on this podcast with us in celebration of Native American Heritage Month and for just sharing. So, oh my gosh, you’re just a wealth of knowledge and just so much passion. We are lucky to have you here.
Meredith Lam: Well, Ahéhee’. Thank you so much. And that’s thank you in Navajo.
Wendy Dau: Thank you for joining me for this week’s episode of What’s Up with the ‘Sup. As always, all episodes will be posted on the district website, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts.
If you have any topics or questions you would like us to discuss on the podcast, please email us at podcast at provo dot edu.
Don’t forget to join us again next week when we are back with an all new episode of What’s Up with the ‘Sup. Have a great week, everyone.
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