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Connecting curious minds with uncommon, undeniably Northwest reads

Teaching Native Pride

Upward Bound and the Legacy of Isabel Bond

Tony Tekaroniake Evans

$27.95

Native and non-Native voices tell the story of the federally sponsored Upward Bound program at the University of Idaho, intertwining personal anecdotes and memories with accounts of the program’s inception and goals, as well as regional Native American history and Isabel Bond’s Idaho family history. Dedicated to helping low-income and at-risk students attend college, the curriculum celebrated that heritage. Many Native students broke cycles of poverty, isolation, and disenfranchisement, and non-Indians gained a new respect for Idaho’s first peoples.

“It was a very different time back then. Non-natives received white lunch tickets, but native students received green lunch tickets with INDIAN written on them. My brothers were told they could not date white girls.”—Chris Meyer, part of Upward Bound’s inaugural group and the first Coeur d’Alene tribal member to receive a Ph.D.

Tony Tekaroniake Evans is an enrolled Bear Clan member of the Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec, and an award-winning journalist.

Illustrations / notes / index / 6″ x 9″ / 240 pages  (2020)

Listen to Tony Tekaroniake Evans’ Tribal Conversations interview with Steve Glickman on KXRW 99.9 FM

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Description

Based on more than thirty interviews with students and staff, Teaching Native Pride employs both Native and non-Native voices to tell the story of the University of Idaho’s Upward Bound program. Their personal anecdotes and memories intertwine with accounts of the program’s inception and goals, as well as regional tribal history and Isabel Bond’s Idaho family history.

A federally sponsored program dedicated to helping low-income and at-risk students attend college, Upward Bound came to Moscow, Idaho, in 1969. Isabel Bond became director in the early 1970s and led the program there for more than three decades. Those who enrolled in the experimental initiative—part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty—were required to live within a 200-mile radius and be the first in their family to pursue a college degree. Living on the University of Idaho campus each summer, they received six weeks of intensive instruction in mathematics, laboratory sciences, composition, literature, foreign languages, and study skills.

Recognizing that most participants came from nearby Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene communities, Bond and her teachers designed a curriculum that celebrated and incorporated their Native American heritage—one that offers insights for educators today. Many of the young people they taught overcame significant personal and academic challenges to earn college degrees. Native students broke cycles of poverty, isolation, and disenfranchisement that arose from a legacy of colonial conquest, and non-Indians gained a new respect for Idaho’s first peoples. Today, Upward Bounders serve as teachers, community leaders, entrepreneurs, and social workers, bringing positive change to future generations.

“It was a very different time back then. Non-natives received white lunch tickets, but native students received green lunch tickets with INDIAN written on them. My brothers were told they could not date white girls. I think because of the racism that existed on the reservations we were continuously reminded that we were different. We internalized this idea that we were less than white kids, that we were not as capable. Even today there are low expectations for native students,” says Chris Meyer, part of Upward Bound’s inaugural group and the first Coeur d’Alene tribal member to receive a Ph.D. She now oversees the tribe’s Department of Education.

Listen to an interview with the author on New Books Network.

What readers are saying:

“This book is about an extraordinary person who took time away from her life and her own family to help others…She put her time, effort, and even her personal resources on the line to make sure those around her had an opportunity to better their lives…I am grateful that she cared enough to make a difference in my life.”—From the Preface by Bill Picard, Vice Chairman of the Nez Perce Nation Executive Council

“This book offers a model of what to “do” with history, how to use history to heal young people’s alienation from the riches of their own heritage.”—Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared

“Not only does Evans demonstrate a great competency for interviewing so many diverse individuals, but of bringing their voices to center-stage…he is a beautiful writer and wordsmith, with great command of the descriptive scenes he provides, weaving together personal narratives, Program history, and Native experiences and expressions. It is a great blend.”—Rodney Frey, author of Carry Forth the Stories: An Ethnographer’s Journey into Native Oral Tradition

Tony Tekaroniake Evans is an enrolled Bear Clan member of the Kahnawake Mohawks of Quebec, and an award-winning journalist.

Read more of his writing on Native Americans for the History Channel and The Idaho Mountain Express:

How Mohawk ‘Skywalkers’ Helped Build New York City’s Tallest Buildings

Shoshone-Bannock Tribes mark milestone in sockeye recovery efforts at Pettit Lake

Indigenous groups call for salmon protection and treaty ratification at Shoshone Falls

Illustrations / notes / index / 6″ x 9″ / 240 pages  (2021)

ISBN 978-0-87422-379-8 Paperback

Recognition

“This book offers a model of what to “do” with history, how to use history to heal young people’s alienation from the riches of their own heritage.”—Kim Stafford, author of 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do: How My Brother Disappeared

“Not only does Evans demonstrate a great competency for interviewing so many diverse individuals, but of bringing their voices to center-stage…he is a beautiful writer and wordsmith, with great command of the descriptive scenes he provides, weaving together personal narratives, Program history, and Native experiences and expressions. It is a great blend.”—Rodney Frey, author of Carry Forth the Stories: An Ethnographer’s Journey into Native Oral Tradition

“With its underlying message of how just one person can make a generational spanning difference, Teaching Native Pride: Upward Bound and the Legacy of Isabel Bond is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists and community/college/university library Contemporary Native American Studies, 20th Century American Education, and American Biography collections.”—Library Bookwatch, April 2021

Additional information

Dimensions 6 x 9 in
Format

eBook, Paperback