An eye on the future

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, May 26, 2008 by Jan Biles

By Jan Biles

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

POWHATTAN - By October, Jessi Whitebird had earned enough credits to graduate from Kickapoo Nation School. She couldn't wait to leave the reservation near Horton and make her way in the world beyond Indian country.

The middle child in a family of 15 children, Whitebird said she was ready to escape "the noise" of her home. She wanted to take a path that would lead to a career rather than a casino job, and she needed to separate herself from her troubled past so she could become a role model for her siblings.

"I'm doing it for my little brothers and sisters so they can go on and have a better life," she said.

Whitebird, 19, is among five young adults who graduated this spring from Kickapoo Nation School, the only tribal school in Kansas. Enrollment at the K-12 school hovers around 100, with some students being bused to classrooms in Powhattan from as far away as Topeka and Kansas City.

Like Whitebird, fellow senior Kathleen Cueva, 18, of Topeka, also earned enough credits to leave school early. Rounding out the Class of 2008 are Carmalee Kent, 18, of White Cloud, and Bryan Gutierrez and Phillip Wewenis, both 18 and living on the Kickapoo reservation.

In January, Whitebird moved to Lawrence and enrolled at Haskell Indian Nations University, where she is majoring in natural science. She is the first child on her father's side of the family to go to college and the first child to leave home to go to college on her mother's side.

Kent said she plans to enroll at Highland Community College or Haskell to study art and eventually become a tattoo artist. One of her pencil drawings of a teepee, buffalo head and Indian figure was selected for a show at the prestigious Heard Museum in Phoenix.

"It sold," she said humbly.

Wewenis, who attended Horton High School before transferring to the Kickapoo school in December, said he has a football scholarship waiting for him at Highland Community College. He plays offensive and defensive tackle but was sidelined last season by a torn ACL.

Wewenis, who was adjudicated in juvenile court this spring after being charged in a series of burglaries, plans to major in psychology .

Returning to the reservation after college seems like a long shot.

"I might come back to the reservation to see if I could find a job," he said. "But if there's jobs here, it's part time or temporary."

He and Whitebird both fear returning to the reservation will land them back in an environment where peer pressure and too much spare time wear on their common sense.

"It's boring because there's nothing to do and there's not a lot of job opportunities," Whitebird said. "You're more likely to get in trouble if you stay around here."

Reservations aren't the only places losing young people, though. Small rural communities across the country are also seeing high school and college graduates migrating elsewhere to pursue better job or lifestyle opportunities.

Still, Mandy Cisneros, 26, a member of the Kansas Kickapoo Nation who recently earned a master's degree in indigenous nations studies at The University of Kansas, understands the struggle facing young adults on the reservation, where a depressed economy and drug and alcohol abuse can kill dreams.

"Lots of my family and friends fell through the cracks," she said, referring to loved ones in jail or fighting addictions. "You get numb to it after a while. It's easy to get trapped into that."

Cisneros, a member of Kickapoo tribe who was born in Horton and moved with her family at age 13 to Kansas City, earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 2005 from the University of New Mexico. She is the first member of her family to graduate from a four-year college.

In the fall of 2005, she interned with the Senate Finance Committee on the staff of U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

"It really opened my eyes to how our voices need to be represented on Capitol Hill - not just my tribe, but of all tribal nations," she said. "There's a critical need to have an indigenous voice out there. We have a different set of issues and problems and need to communicate our concerns and viewpoints to them."

Next fall, Cisneros will enroll at KU's law school and plans to return to the Kickapoo reservation in a few years as an attorney focusing on tribal water rights and economic development. She also would like to teach while practicing law.

Even though she wanted to "bust out" when she was younger, Cisneros said she knows returning to the reservation is the right thing for her to do.

"The best thing is to be back home," she said. "I'm interested in working for the tribe and lobbying in Washington for the Kickapoos' specific issues."

Cisneros said she hopes the graduating seniors at Kickapoo Nation School realize they have power to change their lives and their community.

"If you want to see things change, you're the best person to do it," she said.

On a recent visit to Kickapoo Nation School, Whitebird said, a teacher encouraged her to get her college degree and return to teach at the school.