Sovereignty

Santa Fe Indian School as a tribally controlled school has made strides to provide an education that respects and validates the traditional and cultural beliefs of the students and communities that we serve.

However, administration is cognizant of the fact that current assessments and other externally enforced educational priorities, for example, do not accurately measure the extent of the knowledge of our Native American students. For this reason, the Santa Fe Indian School is actively engaged in defining, identifying, practicing and validating a concept we call Educational Sovereignty. Based on the work of our Tribal leaders, including our Pueblo Governors, our educators, administrators, staff and students, the notion of Educational Sovereignty has achieved circulation status within our school community as a concept that is a major developmental priority.

As a sovereign we believe it is our right and responsibility to instruct, inform, and empower our students through the use of critical constructivist pedagogy and methodologies. Our collaborative work with students and communities must also be community and culturally-centered, adhering to and conscientiously valuing the principles, priorities, knowledge and experiences of our Native American people. More importantly, as a school that is considered by our Pueblo Governors to be the 20th Pueblo, we believe it is our right to establish those indicators and assessments that measure the totality of what our students know in relation to how we, as a sovereign, define success.