Posts Tagged ‘California budget crisis’

27
Jul

California looks to close only Native American preschool

   Posted by: admin    in Education, Urban Indians

Carmen Nez wraps one of her students in her jacket as others give her hugs during an outdoor recess at the Hintil Kuu Ca Childhood Development Center in Oakland, Calif., which is on a list of preschools slated to close. (Oakland Tribune/Laura A. Oda)

Carmen Nez wraps one of her students in her jacket as others give her hugs during an outdoor recess at the Hintil Kuu Ca Childhood Development Center in Oakland, Calif. (Oakland Tribune/Laura A. Oda)

Well, this story is just sad as sad can be. Oakland’s Hintil Kuu Ca preschool, started for Native American children, is on a list of preschools to be eliminated as California tries to cope with its deficit.

The school has a long history, according to this Oakland Tribune story by Katy Murphy.

    Almost 40 years ago, a group of Native American mothers founded Hintil Kuu Ca, which means “The Indian children’s place,” to help their young children succeed in a strange, new urban environment. Many of them had recently moved to Oakland with their families from reservations and were caught between worlds. Some children were dropping out of elementary school, said Agnes Tso, who has taught at Hintil since 1981.

    “The parents started the school because they were really concerned about their kids not having a place,” she said. “I think they were just lost.”

    Hintil now serves mostly non-Native American children; about 15 of its 90 preschool and school-age students are American Indian. Guevara asserts that the center is an important resource for the community, and that it’s the only urban childhood development center in California with an American Indian cultural focus.

Teacher Shirley Guevara says that other teachers, along with parents and Native leaders, are seeking grants and asking Indian casinos for helping in keeping the school open.

Gwen Florio

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10
Aug

California Budget Crisis Hits Native health Center

   Posted by: admin    in Business and Economy, Health

The American Indian Healing Center in Whittier, Calif. (AIHC photo)

The American Indian Healing Center in Whittier, Calif. (AIHC photo)

The American Indian Healing Center in Whittier, Calif., which primarily serves low-income Native people, may have to shut down because of California’s ongoing budget crisis.

The clinic has just learned it won’t get its annual grant from the state this year, according to this Whittier Daily News story. The clinic has already had to close one day a week, and may cut its hours further. Most of its other private funding sources also are drying up, says the center’s executive director, John Andrews.

According to the center’s Web site, Los Angeles County has the greatest concentration of urban Indian people in the United States, with nearly 77,000 Indians representing more than 100 tribes. Yet, says Ron Andrade, executive director of the Los Angeles City Council Native American Indian Commission, only one other clinic – in the city of Los Angeles – serves them.

Dolores Carrasco of Whittier is both a patient and a board member of the clinic. “Can you imagine the influx that’s going to happen in the emergency rooms of the hospital, especially now with swine flu?” she wonders. “There will be crowds and lines. It’s going to be devastating.”

To find out how to donate, go to this page on the center’s site.

Gwen Florio

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