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Native American Education and
Virginia Cross Native Education Center
There are currently over 500 Native American students in the Auburn School District. Grades of these students range from Head Start through grade 12. There are over 60 tribes represented in the Auburn School District. The Muckleshoot Indian Nation represents the largest tribe with approximately 200 enrolled Muckleshoot students in the school system. Other tribes represented are: Aleut, Apache, Arapahoe, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Calista Eskimo, Cherokee, Cheyenne River Sioux, Chinook, Chippewa, Choctaw, Chugash (Alaska), Coeur d' Alene (Idaho), Colville, Comanche, Coos/Umpqua/Siuslaw, Coquille (Oregon), Cowichan (British Columbia, Canada), Dakota Sioux (Canada), Delaware (Oklahoma), Dot Lake Village (Alaska), Grand Rhonde, Athabaskin, Haida, Inupiat Eskimo (Alaska), Karuk (Alaska), Laguna, Lakota, Lummi, Makah, Navajo (Arizona), Nez Perce (Idaho), Nisqually, Nooksack, Ogalla Sioux, Omaha (Nebraska), Oasage (Oklahoma), Potawatami (Oklahoma), Puyallup, River Desert Band, Rosebud Sioux, San Pasqual Band, Sitnas/Bering Strait (Alaska), Snoqualmie, Spokane, Standing Rock Sioux, Steilacoom, Suquamish, Tla-O-Quiant (British Columbia, Canada), Tlingit (Alaska), Towakan Pueblo, Trinidad Rancheria CCA, Tulalip, Turtle Mt. Chippewa, Upper Skagit, Yakima and Yukip Eskimo (Alaska). All Tribes and Nations are welcome and these students are valued in the Auburn School District.
"Indian Education" is a part of the public school system because of legislation by the United States Government. Title IX laws state that: "(1) the Federal Government has a special responsibility to ensure that educational programs for all American Indian and Alaska Native children and adults--(A) are based on high quality, internationally competitive content standards and student performance standards and build on Indian culture and the Indian community; (B) assist local educational agencies, Indian tribes, and other entities and individuals in providing Indian students the opportunity to achieve such standards; and (C) meet the special educational and cultural related academic needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students."
The Virginia Cross Native Education Center serves students, grades 9-12, who are at-risk of not going to school. The program was originally developed as a drop-out retrieval program. It serves Native American students who were not attending Auburn schools or tribal schools. This program focuses upon the student earning high school credit and progressing towards high school graduation. The students attend school at the Virginia Cross Native Education Center which is on the Muckleshoot Reservation.
For more information, contact the district Native American Education office at (253) 931-4999 or Brad Sprague, West Auburn High School principal at (253) 931-4990.
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