Native American Prison Survival Schools (From Indians and Criminal Justice, P 187-195, 1982, Laurence French, ed. - See NCJ-84567)

• NCJ Number: 84572
• Author(s): L French
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 9 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; Allanheld, Osmun and Co Publishers, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Native American prison survival schools are designed to help Indian inmates develop a cultural identity in the Indian 'harmony' ethic while making this identity relevant to survival in the dominant white culture.

Abstract

Many young adult Native Americans are torn between two contravening cultural expectations without the possibility of fully belonging to either. The Indian 'harmony' ethic views humans as being subordinate to nature and the tribal identity, while the dominant white culture emphasizes dominance over nature and environment and the competitive struggle of the isolated individual in the socioeconomic arena. Indian survival schools, which are used with the northern Plains Indians in Nebraska, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Montana, aim to overcome the basic social causes of psycho-cultural ambiguity underlying much of the deviancy among Indians. In survival schools, the Indian inmate is taught his cultural roots and the tenets of the harmony ethic, with the intent that he adopt a native-oriented cognitive style. The Indian inmate is then taught how to relate his cultural identity to the dominant culture in which he must survive. A total of 21 references are listed.