Cherokee Culture And School Achievement

Abstract

Cherokee children today have an educational tradition that is unique among American Indians. Wahrhaftig (1969) states that after Cherokees were removed to Oklahoma they began in 1841 to set up a national school system. So successful were their efforts that at its height it was reported to be the finest school system west of the Mississippi River (Fannin, 1968). Most of the schools were at the primary level, but for those graduating from the primary schools separate academies were set up. With the earlier invention of the Sequoyah syllabary in 1821, a large majority of the people had already become literate in the Cherokee language. In those schools attended largely by full-bloods, bilingual teachers taught from text-books printed in the syllabary. Fuchs and Havighurst (1972) report that the Cherokee school system was so successful that Oklahoma Cherokees had a higher English literacy level than the surrounding white populations. But in spite of the many successes, the Cherokee school system was abolished when the Oklahoma territory became a state in 1906.\nThe following study looks at Cherokee children currently attending elementary school in Eastern Oklahoma. Hypotheses regarding age trends, sex trends, and cross-cultural differences in cooperative and competitive behavior are examined. In addition, an attempt is made to determine the relationship between cooperative and competitive behavior and school achievement. Cooperation and competition are two variables in traditional Cherokee culture that have long been thought to play an important part in the academic achievement of Cherokee Indians (Sanders, 1972; Garrison, 1970). Although ethnographic studies have found evidence that Cherokee children favor cooperation and avoid competition, no experimental evidence has been offered to substantiate the belief that the high cooperative behavior of the children leads to their low academic achievement.

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