Chapter 6: Fostering Inclusive Educational Environments for American Indian Parents and Families in Urban Schools and Communities

When asked to write this chapter, I began to reflect upon my own personal experiences as an American Indian¹ woman growing up in the southeastern United States. I was particularly concerned with the events and people who helped to shape my educational development and subsequent academic trajectory. The challenge for me was figuring out how to relate my experiences as a rural southerner to those of Native² children and youth in urban schools and communities. After much reflection, I realized that the connection for me was one rooted and grounded in the stories I heard as a child; stories of aunts, uncles and cousins who no longer lived in the South, having moved to the North, during the 1940s and 1950s, in search of educational opportunities and jobs and away from the rampant racism and prejudices of the South. What my relatives did not fully comprehend was they would continue to encounter oppression in the North.