American Indians urged to become leaders

Nicholas Valenzuela Arizona Daily Wildcat Howard Rainer, an American Indian motivational speaker, addresses a group of UA students and other individuals. Rainer is a retention specialist for Continuing Education for Native Americans at Brigham Young University.

"Know your purpose, keep your vision, get your priorities together and show up," Howard Rainer said to a crowd of about 50 people yesterday in the Memorial Student Union.

Rainer, a Taos Pueblo-Creek Indian, is a retention specialist for Continuing Education for Native Americans at Brigham Young University. For the past 25 years he has visited universities and American Indian communities, giving speeches throughout the United States and Canada.

Rainer gave the keynote address Tuesday at RETAIN '97, a national conference on American Indian student retention in Tempe.

He began his speech yesterday by asking all of the American Indians in attendance to join him in prayer.

"I never saw an Indian function, meeting or gathering that didn't begin with a prayer," he said. "Spirituality and spiritual values are essential to your success."

Rainer said many American Indians drop out of colleges and universities because they don't know why they are in school.

At the University of Arizona, 69 percent of American Indian students drop out by their senior year.

The high drop-out rate demonstrates a lack of vision, Rainer said.

"You need to have a vision because you are not on this campus by accident," he said. "You are being prepared and you are going to go somewhere."

Rainer encouraged American Indian students to stand out and make a difference on campus and in their communities. He said too many American Indians want to be leaders but lack the vision to follow through.

"Stop thinking small," he said. "Some of you are destined to speak out on behalf of Indians everywhere."

Asking everyone to stand and repeat his words, Rainer chanted:

"I am Indian. I am intelligent. Great things lie ahead."

"That is our new war cry at the UA," he said.

Rainer urged students to study their family trees and learn their tribal history. Future American Indian leaders need a formal education, but they also need to know the values and traditions of their people, he said.

"You owe us your best," he said. "You owe Indian America your genius and you owe Indian America your spirit."

Most of the American Indian students in the audience said they were inspired by Rainer's words.

"It was a real wake-up call," said Lisa Perry, an environmental sciences sophomore.

Perry, a White Mountain Apache, said she tends to get overwhelmed and lose sight of reality because of academic pressures. She said Rainer reminded her to draw strength from her cultural values.

"You need to stay connected to your heritage because our Indian ancestors fought and died so that we could be here today," she said.

Linda Mitchell, a Navajo microbiology junior, agreed.

"Growing up in this generation, a lot of things need to be changed," Mitchell said. "It is our responsibility to be the new leaders."

After the speech, Bruce Meyers, assistant dean for Native American Student Affairs, asked all of the American Indian students in attendance to volunteer for a new mentoring program designed to improve retention.

Faculty Family and Alumni Mentoring and Learning for You is a program established by a grant from the Diversity Action Council.

Meyers said FAMILY matches American Indian freshmen and transfer students with mentors from the university and the Tucson community.

"We need to get these people connected," Meyers said. "They are dropping out because they think nobody cares."