Steve Cadue: Treaty guarantees for education remain unfulfilled

Every school year, thousands of American students continue to receive an education that remains separate and unequal. For these students enrolled in tribal schools, the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education isn’t so much about commemorating a disgraceful past as it is recognizing a disparate present day.

Almost exactly 100 years before Brown v. Board of Education, our Kickapoo leaders signed a treaty with the United States of America. In signing the treaty on May 18, 1854, they agreed “to be at peace with all men, and therefore bind themselves to commit no depredation or wrong upon Indians or citizens, and whenever difficulties arise to obtain by the laws of the United States in such cases made and provided as they expect to be protected and to have their own rights vindicated by them.”

Our Kickapoo people greatly valued education and included provisions related to it in each of our treaties with the United States. Yet today, funding has remained woefully inadequate for tribal schools, ensuring Native youth have little chance to achieve educational success.