Teaching Native Pride

Based on interviews with students and staff, "Teaching Native Pride" employs Native and non-Native voices to tell the story of Upward Bound at the University of Idaho. Participants' personal anecdotes and memories intertwine with accounts of its inception and goals, regional tribal history, and Isabel Bond's Idaho family history. "It was a very different time back then. Non-natives received white lunch tickets, but native students received green lunch tickets with INDIAN written on them. My brothers were told they could not date white girls. I think because of the racism that existed on the reservations we were continuously reminded that we were different. We internalized this idea that we were less than white kids, that we were not as capable. Even today there are low expectations for native students," says Chris Meyer, part of Upward Bound's inaugural group and the first Coeur d'Alene tribal member to receive a Ph.D. She now oversees the tribe's Department of Education. Part of Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty, the federally sponsored initiative was dedicated to helping low-income and at-risk students attend college. Bond became director in the 1970s and led for more than three decades. Those who enrolled were required to live within a 200-mile radius and be the first in their family to pursue a college degree. Living on the university campus each summer, they received six weeks of intensive instruction. Most participants came from nearby Nez Perce and Coeur d'Alene communities, so Bond and her teachers designed a curriculum that celebrated and incorporated their Native American heritage. Many of the young people they taught overcame significant challenges to earn college degrees. Native students broke cycles of poverty, isolation, and disenfranchisement, and non-Indians gained a new respect for Idaho's first peoples. Today, Upward Bounders serve as teachers, community leaders, entrepreneurs, and social workers, bringing positive change to future generations.