Losing his home, car and job meant University of Idaho student Grant Louis gained sole responsibility for his three children and the future of his family.
Louis, a member of the Okanagan tribe from Vernon, B.C., plans to graduate in May with a degree in family and consumer sciences. He said stereotypes and myths still come his way on a regular basis.
“People still ask me if we live in teepees and igloos,” Louis said.
Misnomers about Native life persist, but Louis said he had to adjust to legitimate cultural differences as an incoming student. He said the male-dominated, European culture that produced U.S. school systems doesn’t mesh well with his culture’s more circular way of thinking.
“We try to look at the whole picture instead of just the problem,” Louis said.
Louis’ story exemplifies the misconceptions and assumptions that fail to address the underlying issues.
The mother of his children was removed from their home in Plummer, Idaho, in 2005. Shortly after, Louis said, he was evicted from the house, and his car was repossessed. Without a car to get to work Louis lost his job, which he said made him $10 an hour and “wasn’t cutting it.”
Louis said he left high school after his sophomore year, but finished his GED in Plummer then applied to UI. He and his children moved to Moscow in 2007, and he began working toward a degree in psychology. Louis changed his major to the Family and Consumer Sciences department and chose the Life option.
“Psychology was all about the problems — fixing problems,” Louis said. “I like this better because it’s about understanding where someone’s at — the family structure.”
Louis’ family, which included a 5-, 4- and 3-year old when he enrolled at UI, became a struggle to maintain along with his academic career. There are many places on campus that children aren’t welcome, Louis said, and he’s struggled to find facilities suitable for his family and his studies.
He talked about an instance when he took his children to the library with him.
“Some people got pretty angry,” Louis said.
Recently, Louis said he’s found a quiet room through disability services.
Daycare and afterschool programs are helpful, but Louis said the costs are crippling. He receives aid as a non-traditional student, but he said it isn’t enough.
Resources for Native students at UI abound, but in Louis’ first year as a student many programs and staff members had yet to appear. Louis said he failed his first two semesters at UI, and may have left altogether if not for a few key players.
“I didn’t know how to study, and I failed a whole year,” Louis said. “There was no Native center then.”
Steve Martin was hired to direct the newly opened Native American Student Center in spring 2007. Louis said Martin vouched for him and committed to helping him succeed.
Martin said he is proud Louis has made it this far, and that it’s taken a lot of work and support from Native faculty and staff.
“He’s trying to navigate the system,” Martin said. “He’s a non-traditional student trying to balance academic and family life.”
Louis said the Native center and the FCS department have been helpful. Other departments have chipped in to his success also, said Arthur Taylor, UI’s tribal liaison.
“It’s been a team effort to keep monitoring him,” Taylor said. “He just keeps getting up and moving forward.”
Louis said he’s learned to ask for help and communicate with professors.
“He was struggling initially,” Taylor said. “He didn’t know how to speak to professors, or what to do.”
Louis also had a relative who he looked up to as a role model. His uncle, Leonard (Len) Marchand, graduated from UI in 1964 and became Canada’s first Native senator.
“He’s proud of me,” Louis said.
After graduation Louis plans to move back to Plummer to fill a job offer in the addictions program at Benewah Medical Center. Louis said he is frustrated by the cycle of self-hatred he thinks is bred into Native families.
“It began with the boarding schools where Native children were beaten and separated each other,” Louis said. “From kindergarten to grade 12, they learned that who they are is bad.”
Louis called these stories “the history nobody hears.”
“Nobody wants to hear it because they think we’re making all this money in casinos,” Louis said. “People don’t understand where we’re coming from… We’re not crazy just because — there are reasons.”
Education is the way to healing, he said, because educated people can write grants and navigate the system more effectively.
“I’m one of the very lucky few,” Louis said.
He mentioned the 1 percent of college students nationwide who are Native.
Louis said his daughter isn’t afraid of education, and he predicts she won’t experience the culture shock he did.
“They’ve met all my tutors and teachers,” Louis said of his children, now 10, 9 and 8. “They’re excited about going to college.”
He said he wants his children to look beyond stereotypes and understand that people perceive life in a variety of ways.
Living away from his extended family has made Louis and his children stronger and more independent, which he said will benefit them in the future.
“I’m breaking the cycle,” Louis said.