'Two worlds': TCAPS ponders Native regalia at graduation

May 21—TRAVERSE CITY — Traverse City Area Public Schools will take a close look its policies regarding graduation attire at a special meeting Monday.

That discussion will determine whether Native American students will be able to incorporate traditional beadwork into their caps and gowns. According to current board policies, students generally aren't allowed to alter or decorate their commencement garb.

For Native students, regalia is often passed down through generations to signify connection with the community. It's more than just decoration. The choice of colors and patterns incorporated in the regalia often bear a special significance to one's clan and tribe, said Krystina John, an Anishinaabe beadwork artist.

"In Anishinaabek and many Indigenous cultures, beads and feathers are worn to signify important milestones, like graduation," she said.

The cultural significance is especially important in education, given the low high school graduation rate for Native American and Alaskan Native students, John said.

In the state of Michigan, about 70 percent earn a high school diploma, the lowest rate compared to any other demographic, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data.

"Graduating is above the standard for our children," John said. "Altering the policy allows for the preservation of Native culture, and in accordance with the Federal American Indian Religious Freedom Act that passed in 1994 on a federal level."

As graduation approached this year, questions about that policy were brought forward to Superintendent John VanWagoner. Those questions were followed up by a formal request nearly two weeks ago, said Scott Newman-Bale, TCAPS board president.

He said that was the first time he or the superintendent were made aware of the issue, although that's not to say "it hadn't been brought to someone else's attention in a previous administration or board."

TCAPS pushed up its previously scheduled special board meeting, previously slated for June 1, to address the issue. The meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.

The board's current policy requires students participating in graduation proceedings "to wear the cap and gown attire specified by the Board of Education during the entire commencement ceremony."

The only exception granted is for students in active military service in a branch of the armed forces, who are allowed to wear their designated dress military uniforms.

The superintendent doesn't have the authority to ignore that policy without board approval. So, if new rules are to be in place by the district's graduation ceremonies two weeks from now, a decision must be reached Monday, Newman-Bale said.

Other districts have less stringent policies.

Both Elk Rapids and Suttons Bay Public Schools allow students to adorn their caps and gowns with tribal regalia.

Indigenous People wear beaded regalia during ceremonies as a representation their heritage and to express pride in proceeding to the next stage of life, said Samantha TwoCrow, Indigenous education director for Suttons Bay Public Schools.

Before graduation, students or their family members might tie beads around the edges of their caps using colors or patterns that are significant to them. Those may be their school colors or the colors of the medicine wheel — an important symbol to many tribes, made up of the colors red, black, yellow and white to represent the four races of humanity, TwoCrow said.

Native families also sometimes gift graduates with a feather, traditionally given on important occasions, she said.

That merging of traditions represents a very poignant reality for many, she said.

"We walk within two worlds," TwoCrow said. "We live in tribal reservations ... we learn our community cultures and traditions. Then we step outside of that world, and then we enter a world where we're required to get an education and proceed as a good society member."

It also wasn't long ago that Native people were systemically stripped of their cultural traditions in the name of education. Indian Boarding Schools remained in operation as recently as the 1970s. TwoCrow's own mother was sent to one, and that generational trauma lingers, she said.

"That moment of wearing that eagle feather or beading your cap and gown to represent who you are, as an Indigenous person ... you're giving yourself that opportunity to take back what was taken from you," she said.

Students at some districts across the U.S. often sport flower leis or flashy sashes at graduation with no controversy, John said. Students are even allowed to visibly wear crosses, "but the rules governing our regalia at high school graduations have emerged as a legislative issue."

Disputes over such attire have spurred laws making it illegal to prevent Indigenous students from wearing regalia in nearly a dozen states including California, Utah, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington.

But even states without such laws in place may have statutes or constitutional provisions protecting religious freedoms, which can be applied to tribal regalia, said Heather Weaver, senior staff attorney for the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.

Michigan has a provision under Article 1, Section 4 of its constitution that protects the right to worship and of religious freedom, and that provision has been interpreted to provide the strictest legal standard to infringement, Weaver said.

In other words, districts have to have a very good reason to deny an act of religious expression. Justifications often given — discipline, obeying authority, uniformity — may not pass muster, she said.

Restrictions could also constitute a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prevents federally funded programs from discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. Such a violation could cause a district to lose funding from the Department of Education, Weaver said.

Newman-Bale said there was a certain appeal to the uniformity of caps and gowns — signifying that everyone's "reached the finish line together." But he also said he thought the board would be willing to make whatever accommodations necessary.

Still, the timing is unfortunate, with graduation so close on the horizon, he said.

He said he would have liked the ability to go over the policy in a slow, methodical way to ensure against any unforeseen circumstances.

"As you can imagine, changing such a policy will have repercussions that you probably have to let play out," he said. "Like, what can you, what can you not do now? Is it a free for all?"

On the other hand, TwoCrow said Suttons Bay's policies were relatively "simplistic," essentially allowing people to adorn their caps and gowns as they see fit, a long as it didn't cause harm to others. She said it made more sense "to allow people to be human," and celebrate their graduation in a way that's significant to them.

Weaver said that graduating students are seniors — adults or on the cusp of adulthood — and schools should make an effort to allow them to express themselves as they want. But, even if a district isn't willing to grant that, it should at least "err on the side of religious and cultural accommodation," she said.

"We've always been given the shorter end of the stick with a lot of things," TwoCrow said. "And when we come to the table with important issues, when we come to the table with things that you might not understand, it's really important to be open and understanding."