10/01/2026
Indian Education exists because history matters. For generations, education was used as a tool to separate Native children from their families, languages, cultures, communities, and identities. Boarding schools and assimilation policies attempted to convince our people that success in education required leaving pieces of ourselves behind. That history is not distant for the families we serve. Its effects continue to shape how Native communities experience education today. Washington itself acknowledges that public education was historically used as an instrument of colonization and that the resulting intergenerational trauma and mistrust continue to affect Native students and educational outcomes. (OSPI)
Our Radical Dream is to change that story. At LR, Indian Education is not just a program. It is a commitment to our students, our families, our community, and to the belief that our kids should never have to choose between academic success and cultural identity. We believe those things belong together.
We dream of students who walk into a classroom knowing who they are and their identity is a source of strength; of curriculum that does more than acknowledge Native people in a paragraph or a heritage month. We want learning that makes room for Indigenous knowledge, Tribal history, language, culture, community, place, and lived experience, and where appropriate, brings those things into the everyday educational experience of our students; of students achieving academically, pursuing college and careers, becoming leaders, artists, educators, scientists, tradespeople, athletes, Tribal leaders, parents and whatever else they are called to become. And we dream of an educational system where our families are not just invited into the building, they are partners in the education of their children.
That means listening to families. Listening to our elders. Listening to Tribal leaders, culture bearers, language teachers, parents, grandparents and, most importantly, listening to our students.
Indian Education is federally recognized as a means of meeting the unique educational and culturally related academic needs of Native students while helping them meet the same rigorous academic standards expected of every student. Federal law also explicitly recognizes the importance of Native students gaining knowledge of their communities, languages, histories, traditions and cultures. (U.S. House of Representatives)
That is the space we want to occupy here at Lake Roosevelt.
Our Radical Dream is to increase academic achievement without separating achievement from identity. To strengthen cultural knowledge and belonging without treating culture as an extracurricular. To create prevention, wellness and support systems that recognize the whole child, mind, body, spirit, family and community. To create spaces where asking for help is strength, where leadership is cultivated, where wellness is protected, where violence, su***de and substance abuse prevention are approached with care and connection, and where students know that their lives have profound value.
And to build a school-family-Tribal partnership rooted in relationship, respect, reciprocity, relevance, responsibility and representation, principles that Washington’s Office of Native Education identifies as central to Native student success. (OSPI)
We are bigger than a program. This is about reclaiming education as a place of possibility.
That is our Radical Dream.
To see our students succeed by carrying who they are forward.
