Discrimination of Native American boys in schools

milkweed said:
Going over the first article. Here's my opinion.

baloney on the religious aspect. Cultural, ok I can accept some aspects of their cultures had symbolic hair meanings/traditions. The answer is in the article itself:
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""When you've chopped off someone's hair you have taken away their pride,"

"The worst thing to do to someone, historically, is to take their hair," she explained. ... past centuries where men were shamed by their enemies in battles by having their hair taken from them.

...the length of hair and the way it is styled can be incredibly symbolic in Aboriginal culture. She said some traditionalists believe that the cutting of hair represents a time of mourning the loss of a loved one."

So what we are talking is not so much religion as personal superstition.

One only needs to go to the Nishnawbe Aski homepage to find plenty of examples of short hair on both young boys and old men.

http://www.nan.on.ca/

That said, the Teachers aide was completely wrong to cut the kids hair, I dont care if the kid is canadian, mexican, indian, thai, whatever. It is a boundry/decision that the PARENTS get the final say on, not some part time school employee. No different than if the bus driver had cut some kids hair.
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It is not a personal superstition. It really can only be catergorized as a religious aspect. It is the Native American's "religion".

Just because people can find examples of Native Americans with thier hair cut means nothing. I have friends who are muslim and don't wear the hijab. I have friends who are jewish and don't wear the yamaka. The ones who chose to follow the practise should not be punished in society for making that choice.
 
John99 said:
All schools do.
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It demonstrates that all schools do or it gets the hose again.
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Neverfly said:
It demonstrates that all schools do or it gets the hose again.
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Its fairly common knowledge but i am not going to go and check the rules for every middle school in the u.s.

Like i said, only recently another kid was on the news who didnt want to cut his hair either and honestly the answer is a simple one- dont send your kid to school.

It is only on in later life that we can do whatever we want to do and no one will care and i can tell you that isnt so good either...when no one cares.
 
John99 said:
Its fairly common knowledge but i am not going to go and check the rules for every middle school in the u.s.

Like i said, only recently another kid was on the news who didnt want to cut his hair either and honestly the answer is a simple one- dont send your kid to school.
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No school I ever attended had that rule. In addition, a search on Google has revealed no schools in my area that has such a rule.

I searched for schools in the area that the article described and came up with nothing.

Common Knowledge is not Evidence.
You made it up- support your claims that the school had a rule about short hair or that the teacher had to cut the hair on that ONE kid alone because of lice or drop the issue.
 
Yellow Jacket said:
It is not a personal superstition. It really can only be catergorized as a religious aspect. It is the Native American's "religion".

Just because people can find examples of Native Americans with thier hair cut means nothing. I have friends who are muslim and don't wear the hijab. I have friends who are jewish and don't wear the yamaka. The ones who chose to follow the practise should not be punished in society for making that choice.
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Except I could find no writings establishing the religious connection, but in the article itself, it talked about wounded pride and enemies in battle adding insult by cutting hair.

I find nothing relating hair length and religion. Only personal preference. Cultural symbolism, but not religious.
 
Neverfly said:
No school I ever attended had that rule. In addition, a search on Google has revealed no schools in my area that has such a rule.

I searched for schools in the area that the article described and came up with nothing.
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How are you going to find that in a google search? Be realistic.
 
John99 said:
The kids hair will grow back to where it was in a few weeks and i am not aware of any religious reasons for american indians not to cut their hair. I guess there are rules as to the length and we must remember rules are made for everyone if not then that is discrimination.
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I also am not aware of religious reasons, however, I also found no reference to a school requirement for short hair in the canadian case. I did not go into the texas case. This seems to be a teachers aide deciding the hair must go.
 
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cosmictraveler said:
I am not trying to start an argument but would like to bring up head lice. Many times lice infect the heads of children and they bring them to school that affects other children by spreading the lice to everyone that may be around them. Perhaps this is what the teacher saw when they cut the hair, so that the lice wouldn't have a place to hide and to show the lice to the child. I don't know all of the details but it is reasonable to have the child's parents at least know about any problems before the teachers take any actions at all.
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What does this have to do with the article?

If this had something to do with head lice, it still isn't the teacher's responsibility to cut the hair. You can have long hair and still get rid of the lice. But, if this were the case, why only was the Native American boy's hair cut? If it were a lice problem, then the teacher should have been snipping everyone's hair.


On a side note, perusing for more info for the article, the aide has never made an official comment as to why. She was suspended and that was the last of that. Never fired, no charges pressed. She never explained a thing, just hid. Not even an apology. And the thing that irratates me more? Where was the teacher? Did she allow this to happen as well? Seems, just like the parents, we will never know.
 
milkweed said:
I also am not aware of religious reasons, however, I also found no reference to a school requirement for short hair in the canadian case. I did not go into the texas case. This seems to be a teachers aide deciding the hair must go.
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You found no references to rules for middle aged school kids to keep their hair a certain length? No rules for dress codes either? That is strange. Schools must have these rules in place somewhere.
 
milkweed said:
Except I could find no writings establishing the religious connection, but in the article itself, it talked about wounded pride and enemies in battle adding insult by cutting hair.

I find nothing relating hair length and religion. Only personal preference. Cultural symbolism, but not religious.
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OK, I have to rephrase this I guess. When I say "religion" it's because, well it's hard to explain. Native Americans don't really have a "religion". That is because their whole way of life, the reason they say and do things, the way the believe and have been raised is steeped in a type of spiritualism. And yes, the men and women, those who aren't so "Americanized", those who live deep within their roots......the hair is important on a level. I provided a link, a video that slightly explained this.

Here is a link that explains "religion" of Native Americans.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050330085408/http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_032600_religion.htm

and another:

http://www.native-languages.org/religion.htm

Hard to explain, but to those outside of the world of Native Americans, there is a desire to classify what their way of life and beliefs are. The only way to call it is "religion", such as for the purpose here. To protect the right to wear their hair in according to their beliefs.
 
Religion is just a word. If you have ceremonies and believe in god\gods then it is what we would refer to as religious. Very little difference between spirituality and religion particularly if they have set practices.
 
John99 said:
Religion is just a word. If you have ceremonies and believe in god\gods then it is what we would refer to as religious. Very little difference between spirituality and religion particularly if they have set practices.
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Ummmm, we do have ceremonies and we do have our gods. In my tribe we call upon the Higher Power, the Spiritual one. We give thanks to the gods, different ones for different reasons. Maybe YOU should do a little research instead of just stating things. It's not bad to learn about other's cultures, religions, etc. Each tribe has a different set practises and beliefs. This is one of the many reasons it's hard to catergorize it. But going back to the OP, one of the universal thing across the board is the hair. Each tribe may have a different reasoning for the hair, but it is same. Do not cut a native americans hair. Period.
 
Yellow Jacket said:
OK, I have to rephrase this I guess. When I say "religion" it's because, well it's hard to explain. Native Americans don't really have a "religion". That is because their whole way of life, the reason they say and do things, the way the believe and have been raised is steeped in a type of spiritualism. And yes, the men and women, those who aren't so "Americanized", those who live deep within their roots......the hair is important on a level. I provided a link, a video that slightly explained this.

and another:

Hard to explain, but to those outside of the world of Native Americans, there is a desire to classify what their way of life and beliefs are. The only way to call it is "religion", such as for the purpose here. To protect the right to wear their hair in according to their beliefs.
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Really, it is no different than born-agains who try to live their lives regarding what they perceive as the "truth". They also will claim every aspect of their life is intertwined with their spirituality. One can place the burning of rock and roll albums as an extension of the "spirituality" however, it is not a part of the 'religion'. It is a superstition meme passed from one person to another and not a part of the religion.

The article itself makes no reference to the tie in to religion. The closest it gets is the hair cutting being a symbol of a recent death acted out by some individuals. Wearing black to a funeral? Tradition. Custom. Lots of words here. Typical religious requirement? Nope (except maybe jewish funerals, I dont know for sure).

Note, I am not arguing that religion does not exist in Native life, I am saying the hair issue is cultural, not religious.

I am also in agreement that the teachers aide was way out of line for the actions taken. But for a different reason than religion.
 
I don't see why he should have to cut his hair period. It's his hair not society's hair or the school's hair. How does his haircut affect anyone else? It doesn't.
 
cosmictraveler said:
I am not trying to start an argument but would like to bring up head lice. Many times lice infect the heads of children and they bring them to school that affects other children by spreading the lice to everyone that may be around them. Perhaps this is what the teacher saw when they cut the hair, so that the lice wouldn't have a place to hide and to show the lice to the child. I don't know all of the details but it is reasonable to have the child's parents at least know about any problems before the teachers take any actions at all.
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Why would someone have to cut your hair if you had lice? Long hair can still be washed and parted with a comb. :bugeye:

Since this case didn't seem to have anything to do with lice and even if it did. When is it ever okay to cut people's hair without their consent? (aside from the military but I guess you consent when you enlist)
Unless they were having brain surgery I can't see why anyone would think that is okay.
 
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