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Native youth connect with culture to break cycles of addiction

John Spence assists a rider with the stirrups on a saddle during a demonstration of Native equine therapy at powwow grounds in the Grand Ronde Valley. (Elyse Wild/Native News Online)

BEAVERTON, Ore. — On a hot July morning, Dr. John Spence stands outside of an equestrian training arena, watching a 15-year-old boy lead a caramel-colored horse around an obstacle course marked by bright orange cones.

Spence, a citizen of the Gros Ventre tribe and tribal consultant for the Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, or NARA NW, is lean and strong at 83 years old. He wears sunglasses, a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a black T-shirt that reads, “I am worthy.”

The horse swishes its coarse black tail as it walks gently behind the teenager, who is wearing an oversized white hoodie despite the triple-digit heat. Half a dozen other teenage boys stand in the arena, waiting their turn. Some shuffle their feet, their hands shoved in their pockets. A 16-year-old wearing long basketball shorts, a wide-brimmed baseball hat over his dark curls, and tattoos on his forearms calls out, “Nice job, man.”

Spence leans forward, his smile widening.

“Look at that,” Spence says quietly. “The horse won’t…

Education for Native Youth Is a Work in Progress

Some Native American children fear bullying and harassment so much, they hide their ethnicity at school, according to an education expert.

“A lot of Native students feel invisible,” said Katrina Boone, an associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit whose mission is to change education and life outcomes for underserved children.

Boone said many students have told her they don't feel comfortable letting their teachers know they are Native American because they have “been harassed and bullied, not just by peers, but by teachers in school.”

Native American students languish in schools across the country and often face worse outcomes than their white, black and Latino peers, she said. And the rates of high school and post-graduation trends are below the rates of their peers.

The suicide rate for Native youth exceeds the rate of their peers, Boone said. And national data indicate that rates for illicit drug use and tobacco use are higher for Native youth than for their peers, she said, citing the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

False history

Native Americans have been discriminated against “for hundreds of years,” Boone said…

Native American Youth and Family Center celebrates 50 years in Portland

Native American Youth and Family Center celebrates 50 years in Portland - OPB

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