Palm Springs Unified launches Native American parent group
Beginning next week, Palm Springs Unified School District will kick off its first Native American Parent Advisory Council, a group the district hopes will start as an open forum for discussion about advocacy and cultural responsiveness.
Christina Alaniz, who teaches second grade at Agua Caliente Elementary School in Cathedral City, was the initial force behind the council. Growing up on the Morongo Band of Mission Indians reservation, Alaniz said she realized the value of community support for Indigenous students and the impact that parental involvement can have.
"It's just something I've always been passionate about," Alaniz, who is Cahuilla and Serrano, said. "It's like heart work for me."
The first council meeting on Feb. 1 will be followed by two additional dates on March 1 and May 3. Organizers hope attendees will include Native American students and family members, and also non-Native members of the community who want to learn more. Though the initial meeting will be open-ended in topic, Alaniz said, the discussion might range from Native visibility in local schools, to how the district wants to help advocate for cultural awareness.
"I feel that historically Indigenous people have had their voices silenced," said Dr. Nicole Crawford, coordinator of diversity and racial equity for the district, who is also assisting the new group. "And I appreciate the fact that the school district is allowing us to have our voices be heard ... and to allow people who don't identify as Native to be able to come to support and be co-conspirators with us."
Palm Springs Unified already has similar groups, like the African American Parent Advisory Council, which host elections and have established their own boards. That model could eventually be duplicated with the Native American parent group.
"There are some parents that have reached out to me that really have some great ideas, so I would love to build it beyond a forum," Alaniz said.
In recent years, the school district has done other work to incorporate the perspective and history of local tribes.
Together with the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, whose tribal land checkerboards Palm Springs and the western Coachella Valley, the district launched a 10-lesson Native American curriculum program in 2019 to teach third graders about Agua Caliente culture, traditions and history. Since then, the program has expanded to serve eighth graders and will soon be rolled out for 11th graders. Agua Caliente was honored for the curriculum with an award from the Harvard Kennedy School last year.
Because of the historical mistrust some Native communities have of the public school system, in general it's going to take a lot of outreach to build the relationship between tribes and districts, Alaniz said. In the 19th and 20th centuries, Native Americans throughout the country were sent to boarding schools, where the goal was forced assimilation into English-speaking culture.
Alaniz is grateful Palm Springs Unified understands the time it will take to form a council "the right way."
"It's important for all districts throughout the state to hopefully do the same," she said of building trust with local tribes. "And I'm hoping that Palm Springs is going to continue to be a vanguard for that."
The Feb. 1 meeting will be held over Zoom and begins at 4 p.m. To receive Zoom meeting information, attendees can use an online registration link or call the district's family center at (760) 416-1374.
Amanda Ulrich writes for The Desert Sun as a Report for America corps member. Reach out on Twitter at @AmandaCUlrich or via email at amanda.ulrich@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: PSUSD launches Native American parent group
