Floy-Pepper-with-Eliza-Elkins-Jones_Mutual-Respect-and-Equality_OHQ-107_1_Spring-2006

OREGON VOICES Mutual Respect and Equality An Advocate for Indian Students in Oregon by Floy Pepper With Eliza Elkins Jones AS A YOUNG WOMAN IN COL she wrote in the 1990s, is used in Oregon lege, Floy Childers Pepper declared schools today From the time Floy Pepper was a that she would never be a teacher She thought this because her mother was a child, learning was a large part of her teacher and she wanted to something life and she continued to take classes different Peppers mother, a German in her adulthood Ln 1959, after having woman married to a Creek Indian, ad worked in education for twenty years, vised her to take education classes in case Pepper took a course at Portland State they would be useful later In 1939, Pep University in which she read work per received a Master of Science degree by Dr Rudolf Dreikurs, a follower of from the School of Home Economics at the Alfred Adler school of psychology Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical Heavily influenced by the work, Pepper College, a significant accomplishment decided to take a course with Dreikurs for a young Indian woman The two became fast friends, and Pepper Pepper began a distinguished career published her first book, Maintaining in education, and several times in later Sanity in the Classroom, with Dreikurs years she regretted not having taken her and Bernice Bronia Grunwald in 1971 (a mother s advice Throughout her career, she worked with educators all over the third edition was published in 1998) In her work with Dreikurs and with country and the world to develop and other members of the Oregon Society of implement techniques that encour Individual Psychology and the Interna aged the teaching of and about Indian tional Society of Individual Psychology, people She also worked extensively with Pepper found a way to express and special needs children, helping to bring build on her convictions about work them into mainstream classrooms and ing with students, especially Indian to modify their behavior Much of her children The teaching techniques she work, particularly curricula materials demonstrated and talked about ? in 106 OHQ Vol.107, no ? 2006 Oregon Historical Society This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms All photos courtesy of Floy Pepper Floy Pepper, during a recent visit to Oklahoma relationships among cultures Much of meetings, classrooms, books, and cur ricula ? were based in her belief in her work had to with giving Indian the power and necessity of equality and students and cultures respect and equal mutual respect She strove to demon strate those values as they applied to ity in the classroom Throughout her career in education, both individual classroom and fam Pepper also worked as a wife and moth ily relationships and to broader social er She married Gilbert Pepper, a Kaw, Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 107 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms on March 23, 1940 Their son, fames became director of student services in (Jim) Gilbert Pepper ? who became a the Parkrose School District, married well-known jazz musician ? was born Steve Henry, and had two sons named in June 1941 and their daughter Suzanne Jim and Jesse (Suzie) Marie Pepper in April 1944 Both children learned Indian traditions, This story of Floy Pepper's life is gath ered from an autobiography she wrote in especially dancing and music, from their 1995 and an oral history interview with parents and Indian grandmothers Suzie Eliza Elkins Jones in July 2005 ON MARCH 14, 191 7, I SO was warm, loving, affectionate, had completely confused my parents, a pretty good sense of humor, was James A and Louisa Childers, by be education oriented, a good money ing born a girl that they did not name manager, and a hard worker As an me for several weeks I grew up with elementary school teacher, she instilled my sister Zella Marie, older than me in my sister and me the importance by four years, on a 160-acre farm that of a good education At home, all our was part of my father's Indian allot games were educational For instance, ment Our farm was located five miles she'd call out the cap?tol of a certain south of Broken Arrow in the center state and we'd have to give her the of what had formerly been known as state, or else she'd call out the state and the Creek Indian Nation That part of we'd have to give the name And she'd Oklahoma was prairie land with broad two times this or six times that, river valleys, winding streams with to see what we could Papa had a tangled brush, and beautiful rolling great sense of humor, laughed easily, hills covered with oak trees It was rich was warm, easygoing, affectionate, had corn and hog country, modern cow good relationships with people, and country, and sometimes a dust bowl allowed me a great deal of freedom Grandma Childers owned land to the He was a tall graceful man, a wonder west My uncles and cousins owned ful dancer, and a renowned farmer and adjacent land to the east, north, and stockman south There were no more Creek al Grandma and Papa taught me to see lotments after 1910 or Creek Indian the beauty in nature and in all things land By the time my sister and I were around me and that all things had a born, we didn't get anything spirit that we should respect They Mama was courageous to marry an taught me that there really was no Indian because such marriages were death, that when your body becomes unusual in those times Mama was not old, your spirit leaves you and even accepted by the Indians at first and was tually you come back and live again frowned upon by the whites In spite ? perhaps in another form, such as a wildflower, a tree, or some other of it all, she gained the respect of both the Indian and white communities and form of nature These teachings are the gained stature for her family Mama foundation of my beliefs today io8 OHQ vol.107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms From the time I could toddle, I fol other times I was told, "oh, you act like a white woman." lowed my father everywhere We would repair fences, minor carpentry jobs, Zella and I had both Indian and build water gaps, feed the pigs, search white friends We played together for wild grapes, wild plums, onions, Many of our Indian friends attended strawberries, and blackberries As we government residential schools My worked Papa would count, "hvmken sister and I used to cry and wanted (hum-gun), hokkolen (huck-kol-len), to go to boarding school with them tutcenen (tuck-chen-nan)." I would I remember my mother saying, "You repeat "hum-gun, huck-kol-len," and girls have to live and make a living so on That is how I learned to count among white people You must go in Creek I learned to sing Creek to school with them and learn their Stomp Dance songs and to Stomp ways so that you can progress with Dance while we were cleaning out them You have to meet the demands and stamping down new dirt on the of living in a divided world ? voca chicken house floor Papa would sing and I would reply: tionally, spiritually, and socially You must be able to fit in wherever you Yo-o-o-o Hee Yo-o-o-o Hee find yourselves." I was born at a time when the Indi A-a-Ah-who-wey A-a-Ah-who-wey Hey-yay Hey-hay Hey-yqy, EEEEEEEEEEE ans were already involved in acquiring many white ways and values Being of Uwho-a-willie-ya-yeh Hee Yo Uwho-a-wil both cultures, I was sensitive to both lie-ya-yeh Hee Yo Uwho-a-willie-ya-yeh with leanings toward my "Indianness" Hee Yo O-o-o-o-Ho-we-go Hee Haw O-o-o-o-Ho-we-go Hee Haw O-o-o-o due to the close early association with my Indian father and my Indian Ho-we-go Hee Haw O-o-hu-uga hu-wey Hu-uga wry Hu-ugagrandmother As a member of one wry O-o-hu-uga hu-wey Hu-uga wry.of the Five Civilized Tribes, we were Hu-uga wry O-o-hu-uga hu-wey Hu accorded more privileges at an earlier uga wry Hu-uga wry Whey-highway-a date and did not face as many preju yona Whey-highway-a-yona dices and discriminatory situations I grew up living in two worlds Ias did other tribes The members of lived in the white world because that'sthe Five Civilized Tribes were granted where I grew up We were an Indiancitizenship rights and privileges in family among white people I grew 1901, twenty-three years before other tribes up with the white children, but there were Indian children, too They were Even though I was born into there all the time except when fallcultural conflict, I did not feel it as a came they all disappeared because youngster growing up in Oklahoma they all went to the Indian [boardIt was not until I left Oklahoma as an adult that I came face to face with ing] school, and my sister and I were always left behind If we did certain the racial difficulties of being Indian things, why, people said, "well, that's Probably the ease and security I felt the Indian in you coming out." Andas an Indian were due to both my Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 109 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms parents' attitudes and beliefs They THE BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS taught my sister and me to be proud of our Indian heritage and to retain our identity as Indians They gave us a strong sense of family, a sense of equality, and a real feeling of love for the land and nature tried to recruit me when I graduated in 1938 In 1939, the agency came after me again Consequently, I went to work teaching for the bia at Fort Sill Indian School for sixty dollars a month The bia had a two-year apprenticeship I graduated with a B.S degree from program, but since I had a master's Oklahoma A&M in 1938 and received degree they waived the second year a graduate assistantship for the fol As an apprentice teacher, I was to learn lowing year to work on my master's as well as to teach My knowledge of degree Mama and Zella thought I Indian arts and crafts was only fair, so should take it, so I did Aunt Tillie was that is the area I studied I learned to very upset and angry with me because all types of beadwork and to make I already had a college education and I moccasins I was placed as one of the supervisors of the Practice House should get out in the work field to earn Zella had been transferred from Chilocco Indian School in Oklahoma She withdrew her support from me except to send me about a dozen to Haskell Institute in Lawrence, pair of hose, which I appreciated Kansas She came to help me move to Mama suggested I take some educa Fort Sill Indian School, near Lawton, that "almighty dollar." tion courses as ?lectives since I might Oklahoma, to begin my teaching want to teach someday I remember career On the way to Fort Sill, we saying, "Mama, I will never teach as stopped off at the Oklahoma Indian long as I can something else." I took Fair at Anadarko While viewing the elective courses that I was interested exhibits, we met a personable young in and ended up having minors in Kaw Indian man Zella introduced me to Gilbert art, physical education, science, and Pepper, who was the baker at Fort Sill English literature The topic I selected for my thesis Indian School He was on vacation was "The Costumes of Ten Indian and on his way to the World's Fair in Tribes at the Time of their Removal San Francisco I fell in love with him to Oklahoma." My research included at Fort Sill Gilbert was transferred visiting museums in several towns in to Haskell in November 1939, and I Oklahoma as well as lots of library stayed at Lawton In order for the bia research I visited elders from the vari to transfer us together the next year, we ous tribes to get a more personal slant had to be married We had planned to on the subject I received my master of have more time together before we got science degree in the spring of 1939.1 married, but we were married March was the youngest ever to graduate from 23,1940, during Easter vacation, in the Oklahoma A&M with a master's, and Baptist church in Lawton In the fall, the fact that I was an Indian made it we were transferred to the Chemawa more noteworthy Indian School near Salem, Oregon no OHQ vol.107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms F/oy Pepper and her husband, Gilbert Gilbert and I drove to Oregon We place was cleaned, furniture was req uisitioned, and the kitchen and back checked in with the white superin tendent at Chemawa, and after much porch were remodeled discussion we were assigned our hous Gilbert and I looked so young ing quarters, which turned out to be ? even if we were almost twenty an apartment in a duplex It was rather three years old ? that most of the bleak The house was dusty and sparsely employees and all the students thought furnished with old wicker furniture in we were students The second day we the living room When you sat on the were there, we were scheduled to help sofa, the cushion and you went through chaperone students to the state fair to the floor There were no rugs, chairs, in Salem Some of the boys tried to tables, or curtains, though there were a make a hit on me, and the girls flirted damaged mattress on the rickety bed with Gilbert We had a heck of a time and two dead mice We stayed the first gaining and maintaining our positions week in the guest quarters while our of authority Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 111 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms As the arts and crafts teacher, I Indian history Whenever there was discovered that the Indian youth had a war, it was always the Indians' fault no knowledge of the history of their Whenever there was a dispute over tribes The history of Indians was anything, it was the Indians' fault not being taught The white history was being taught The students knew what tribe they were, but they didn't know what that meant My sister and I were friends with the gentleman And that's not always so It was about fifty-fifty The second year at Chemawa, I was assigned part-time to a class called seventh grade The ten students in that who was in charge of Indian educa class were ages twelve to sixteen and tion in Washington, D.C I told himwere several years behind grade level I wanted to teach the students about and considered problems in school their tribes He told me to go ahead The students and I discussed their So, with his permission and with the interests and what they wanted to superintendent's permission, I divided later in life I had no training for teach the students into homerooms as to ing the abc's or the 1-2-3's or reading, tribes and started the study of their but I searched and found high-interest background I was able to institute books with low reading levels We also homerooms one morning a week, used comic books and other materials during which time students were not commonly associated with schools separated into tribal groups to study at that time For arithmetic, I asked the farm their historical heritage The historical information was manager what he needed built When all written It was written in white he indicated that he could use another chicken coop, we set about learning to build one as a math project I was Northwest Indian basket weaving, I a pretty good carpenter, thanks to asked permission to visit the museum following Papa around in my youth at the University of Washington in So the students could learn about Seattle I also helped to plan a spring measurements, I added a cooking pageant that focused on the history of class, and everybody learned to add, man's language, in white man's books Since I did not know anything about some tribes I found out information, subtract, and multiply They also and I brought it back to the children became interested in reading and did in Chemawa I think everyone should more to teach themselves and each other than I could have ever done As know where they come from I knew where I was from from I look back, what I believe happened the time I was born My mother and was that the lack of pressure and hu father instilled that in me Oklahoma miliation allowed the students to feel history was taught in the schools at free enough to risk making mistakes home, and I learned it there Oregon ? even to the point of being able to history was taught here, but not in laugh at themselves My part in their Indian schools In the Oregon public progress was having to scramble for schools, they taught a biased sort of and provide materials 112 OHQ vol.107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms War was declared in December with less coverage and higher rates I 1941 Gilbert went into the shipyards in was thoroughly outraged and wrote Portland as a welder I resigned from letters to Governor Sprague, whom the Indian Service in March 1943 We I had met at Chemawa, and to the moved to Vanport, a wartime housing editor of the Oregonian, which were project located just north of Portland I thought this was an excellent time published After about two months, I heard that we could go across the to try other jobs, so I worked as a river into Vancouver, Washington, to dress saleswoman in a large depart purchase the insurance we wanted at ment store, a waitress, a census taker, regular rates an income-tax pr?parer, a cashier for Other aspects of how we were various rides at an amusement park, treated that bothered us were that and the playground recreation direc sometimes we would not be allowed tor for the Vanport housing project I to enter nightclubs and we couldn't didn't stay long in any of those jobs as get decent seats in restaurants When I found out very quickly I didn't like we were interested in buying a house, doing them we were discouraged from looking I had applied to work in the in certain neighborhoods At school Vanport nursery schools and was sometimes our children were called hired as the acting director I opened names and teased about getting drunk and staffed four nursery schools and every weekend One teacher made had them in good working order by racially slurring remarks to my son the time the director arrived I then in class I took the teacher to task and worked as the head teacher in one of threatened to report him to the Board the nursery schools until a few weeks of Education, which I probably should before the birth of our second child, have done Racism was quite evident Suzanne Marie Pepper, in April 1944 It made me twice as adamant about being good at whatever it was I was GILBERT AND I BOTH FOUNDTHAT going to be I had to be the best or I Indians in Oregon were not treated wasn't good enough with the high regard that we were used to in Oklahoma As long as we were In the fall of 1946,1 read that Port land Public Schools was short of home employed by Chemawa, we had no economics teachers I approached the trouble opening charge accounts, buy Home Economics Supervisor with a ing cars, or securing insurance Once log ? much bigger than a "chip"?on away from there, life became more my shoulder I stated the position I complicated At the Indian school, you wanted, gave her my qualifications, belonged because there were Indians and proceeded to say that I was part Away from the school, you didn't Indian and wanted to know right belong because you were Indian Our now, before going through a regular car insurance was due We attempted interview, if that was going to make to renew it and found that, in Port any difference I obtained the job land, Indians were put into a category and discovered that I needed a home Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 113 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Floy Pepper in Canada for a children's convention, where she spoke about special needs children from different countries, helping a child to get rid of his headache economics teaching certificate I was Indians from east of the Mississippi one of the first minority persons to River to Oklahoma I was discussing be hired by Portland Public Schools broken treaties, disregard for human and probably the first Indian Two life, and inequities imposed on the In years later, I encouraged a black home dians Miss H said she had never heard economics teacher, a friend of mine a discussion from that point of view from Vanport, to apply Eventually, before and that she found it very in she was hired One year I was assigned to teach eighth-grade social studies, arts and crafts, and home economics The principal, Miss H., was to visit my teresting and wondered where I found the material I told her I had learned it from my Indian grandmother When teaching Indian history, the things that I used to say all had to be classroom for evaluation purposes I documented with facts If there wasn't was teaching about Andrew Jackson a fact to substantiate it, then it wasn't and his ruthless methods of removing the truth All white people had to 114 OHQ vol.107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms was to say it The difference is that Indians and other minorities had to be (osip) Another group had attempted to form a similar organization a couple able to prove whatever we said as fact, of years before but did not get it off and if it wasn't written, it wasn't fact the ground Jerry Becker was elected In later years, everything that I wrote president and I was elected secretary for curriculum was documented by Through these efforts osip became history, by the written fact known I also published the first edi nomics but was interested in counsel the American Society of Adlerian ing In the fall of 1959,1 took a course Psychology I continued to teach home eco tions of the Education Division of at Portland State University called "The Maladjusted Child" from Dr IN LATE 1964, I TOOK ON THE Raymond Lowe and was introduced to job of head teacher, directing the school at Edgefield Lodge Residential dolf Dreikurs Dr Dreikurs was born Center for Emotionally Disturbed and raised in Vienna, Austria, and a children Edgefield Lodge was a week psychiatrist He moved to the United day residential treatment center for States in 1937 and settled in Chicago children ages six to twelve, located in Psychology in the Classroom by Dr Ru He was interested in education, and east Multnomah County and funded that interest never wavered as his ca by the Multnomah County Commis reer in psychiatry progressed Dr Dreikurs was teaching a work shop at Oregon State University dur sion The treatment was carried on in a milieu setting, which meant that all of the staff were involved in treat ing the summer of i960 Dr Lowe ment Families agreed to come in for suggested that I go to Corvallis and take the workshop, "Prevention of Maladjustment." At noon, I was check ing into a motel when Dr Dreikurs counseling and training and to pick up their children on Friday afternoons and return them Sunday evenings The staff was trained in behavior modifica and Maurice Bullard drove up Dr tion techniques prior to opening and Dreikurs asked me if that was my car as an ongoing educational process and my typewriter I said, "Yes." He throughout the years turned to Maurice and said, "You will I came to the position with a firm no longer need to drive me to classes philosophy based on Adlerian psychol This young lady will drive me where ogy, child development principles, I need to go." He insisted that I join and a belief in positive relationships them for lunch From then on, when involving mutual respect and equal "Dr D." was in Oregon, I was his driver ity As the number of students grew, Thus began a friendship that lasted for I hired four more teachers and, with twelve years ? the rest of his life Mickey Robeson, proceeded to teach After attending Dr Dreikurs's them the concepts of mutual respect and equality, group discussions in of us got together and founded the Or the classroom, encouragement, and summer school classes in i960, a group egon Society of Individual Psychology preventative discipline Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 115 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms I JOINED THE COUNCIL OF EXCEP tional Children (cec) in 1965, when I County Education Service District (mcesd) took over the budget, I had started working in special education In 1971, cec put together an Ad-Hoc very little money to spend for sup plies and materials I felt the students Committee on Minority Groups to needed art, music, and physical educa look into the special education practic tion There was a little white house on es concerning minority children The purpose of that committee was to see the campus that was not being used, so I was able to secure that for the that minority groups ? all minority arts and crafts building I contacted groups ? were entered into the edu the Industrial Arts Association of cational stream The committee was Portland Public Schools and asked for made up of representatives from the The first year, before Multnomah help They built two carpenter tables Asian American, Mexican American, with vises attached and donated all African American, Hispanic Ameri the equipment needed for our classes can, Native American, and European I contacted a couple of building struction companies, and they sup plied all the lumber I needed for the years I spent at Edgefield I contacted the Carpenters' Union, and they built cabinets and moveable shelves for the arts and crafts house as well as book shelves for use in our classrooms I contacted the Home Economics American groups I was appointed to the committee to represent Native Americans We laughingly called our selves the Jelly Bean Committee?one red, one black, one tan, one brown, one yellow, and a token white We worked for three years putting together materials to help minority students remain in the mainstream of Association of Portland and found the schools There was and still is much several teachers who only worked part work to be done Many students could time and agreed to volunteer their not speak or understand English We services and portable sewing machines knew that the intelligence tests minor to teach the students to sew I found ity students were required to take were a great lady, Felice Wolmet, a music biased New tests needed to be made therapist from Vienna, who happened and standardized to take into account cultural factors to know Dr Dreikurs and who worked tirelessly with the students for a mere In August 1973, we had a national pittance of what she was worth Edge meeting called "A Topical Conference on Cultural Diversity." I headed up taught physical education and did the Indian section of that conference therapeutic training with physically and gave a keynote speech entitled field Lodge hired a young man who deficient youngsters Eventually, we "Survival or Genocide: The Dilemma were able to hire an art teacher who of Education for Indians." As a result was especially good in painting and ofthat conference and my work on the clay work I felt we finally had a well ad hoc committee, I was asked to write rounded and balanced curriculum for a chapter, "Teaching the American our youngsters Indian Child in Mainstream Settings," li? OHQ vol 107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms in a book entitled Mainstreaming and chair The students came in, and the the Minority Child, which was edited boys and one girl sat to my left while by Reginald Jones and published by the other girls sat to my right I started CEC in 1976 my usual opening by having the stu I was in demand as a speaker for a dents introduce themselves The girls lot of different occasions I spoke on giggled, and the boys grinned and equality I spoke on how to teach Indian wiggled Right away, I knew I was in trouble I continued for about fifteen minutes and decided to call for a cof students, because they had to be taught differently than other students I spoke on getting along with people, how you fee break I talked with the ringleader can that I just opened my mouth, of the boys and asked what was going on He asked me if I knew that the and it all came out I used to tell people they needed to have group discussions students were from different schools, with their students, and people said that when you get Indians in a group not from one classroom Did I know they wouldn't discuss anything Yet, I That explained the situation to me I told him that we had a job to do: we could take a group of Indian students and within ten minutes have them all that the girls were from a girl's school? had to show the audience that students chattering about something I think could think, that they have good ideas I did that by showing belief in them and solve problems You have to show your belief in them and trust them to speak When presenting the concept of group discussions, I preferred to work with a group of students to demon strate the technique I had been told that Indian students "do not talk and it would be useless to try to carry on dis cussions with them." I said I had faith in the students I asked for a group of seven to eleven students from one classroom to meet with me; the grade level did not matter It came time for the students to enter and to be seated I reconvened the meeting, told the audience what I had discovered, and stated that we would continue, regardless I then posed the following questions: "What you in class that bugs the teacher?" "What does the teacher do?" "If you were the teacher, what would you do?" After getting this information, I continued: "Why you suppose students act up in class?" From then on, it was a lively discus sion I was able to help the students see their mistaken goals in their behavior Usually, after students understand in front of the group of teachers, su their behavior, they continue their pervisors, and parents I had arranged present behavior but to a lesser extent for name tags so I could identify the students and they usually not enjoy it as much The audience was amazed that There were fifteen boys and girls from the eighth, ninth, and tenth grades (not at all like the group I had asked for) I had arranged the chairs in a semi-circle, with me in the center the students talked freely It was interesting that the young sters did not want to leave I invited them to stay and suggested we talk about the traditional values of their Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 117 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms F/oy Pepper in Portland, at a workshop with Pacifie Island teachers, in 1964 elders as compared to the values they had to say, and she listened and stayed presently held They came to the with me until I got it said." You have clusion that they preferred the values of their elders The demonstration to give it time Working with the American Soci was a success When I got through, I ety of Individual Psychology, I trav said the audience could ask the Indian eled all over the world I was taking students anything they wanted to, but the Society's teachings all over, and I that the Indians didn't have to answer talked about Indians along the way if they didn't want to They asked The integration of the Society of In one boy why he answered me and dividual Psychology and working with discussed in the group He said: Well, the Indians are much the same I used Mrs Pepper would have waited on me them both together, and that's what all day she wanted to know what I made it so strong In 1965, Floy Pepper began working in Public Schools to integrate special-needs the Special Education Department of classrooms into the public school system theMultnomah County Education Ser During this time, Pepper also continued vice District in Portland In cooperation to teach classes on behavior manage with parents, teachers, students, and ment and the emotionally disturbed principals, she worked with Portland child at Portland State University, as ii8 OHQ vol.107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms she had done since 1967 In 1975, she tant services to schools." The stress of and Mickey Robeson founded the Rudolf these responsibilities weighed on Floy, Dreikurs Institute, "a non-profit busi however, and her doctor advised her ness that offered marriage and family counseling services and offered consul I RESIGNED MY POSITION AT mcesd as Supervisor of the Emo tionally Handicapped Program on that she was likely to have a stroke if she continued and returned to their respective schools to lay the groundwork Robin and I vis ited each site at least once a month, giv March 20,1983, after eighteen years of ing the teachers training workshops and dedicated service In June of 1983, after at-the-elbow feedback training in how two months of retirement, Gilbert and I decided that I needed a job I was to present Indian culture within daily classroom lessons and how to work about to run him crazy, following him with Indian students in the classroom around and asking, "What are you go We did many live demonstrations, ing to now?" "Is this all there is to modeling for the teachers the principles retirement?" "Is this all you ? clean and activities we were talking about and house, read, watch tv, and sit?" So I went to work for the North helping the teachers gain confidence in their own skills west Regional Educational Laboratory (nwrel), Research and Development Since we were field testing the materials we had written, we added Program for Indian Education My and made changes as necessary At the end of two years, we took the task was to produce a monograph for teachers who teach Indian children Robin Butterfield was to write the cur teachers' suggestions and our changes and compiled them into three mono riculum monograph, and the director, graphs ready for publication In 1985, Joe Coburn, was to write a monograph for the administrators He had a heart NWREL published "Effective Prac attack three weeks after I was hired, so Monograph," "Effective Practices in Steve Nelson and I inherited the job of writing the administrative mono graph In four months, I had the draft ready to present to teachers A few weeks later, we finished the draft for tices in Indian Education: A Teacher's Indian Education: An Administrator's Monograph," and "Effective Practices in Indian Education: A Curriculum Monograph." These monographs have been well received by teachers and the administrators The department administrators who work with Indian material: Great Falls, Heart Butte, and children and are used throughout the United States and Canada had selected five sites to field test the Lame Deer, Montana; Fort Hall, Idaho; and Auburn, Washington Each school selected a building team to head up the project The teams met in Portland for their orientation I always had trouble in knowing whether what I was writing made sense and it had to make sense in order for it to affect teachers, so I always had Gilbert read everything that I wrote If Pepper, Mutual Respect and Equality 119 This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms it wasn't clear in his mind about what I their rightful place in history I feel that was wanting to say, then I'd rewrite it I made an impact on the committee and that the history educational stan There were a couple of teachers later dards will reflect that on who worked with me, but I'd take Before I went to Salem, I believe him over them because he knew what there was one page in the history He was a clarifier for what I had to say I was thinking before I thought it book about Indians in Oregon, and When my work at nwrel was I insisted that they were worth more completed, I was out of a job I began than one page I tried to instill in to freelance workshops, keynote talks, the committee an understanding of and consulting to school districts and Indians and what they stood for and what they did I remember I went to and curricula pertaining to Indian the committee in Salem with a book colleges I also started to write articles education This work has been a source called First Oregonians, put out by the Oregon Council for the Humanities of joy and pleasure for me In 1989,1 became associated with That made a great impression on the the Portland Public Schools Multi curriculum department cultural/Multiethnic Education Task I wrote curriculum for all ages Force and with the American Indian and all subjects I started out in Home Curriculum Advisory Committee, Economics, as a specialist, and then the which had been set up at the Portland curriculum advisor wanted to know if School Board and superintendent's I could some curriculum work in request Dr Matthew Prophet, the science I said I thought I could, so I superintendent at the time, was an started with science and moved gradu African American and supported ally to history and all the other phases multicultural education In 1990,1 be of it In writing it, I liked the structure came co-chairperson of both groups, of curriculum The structure was and acted in that capacity on the task based in a main subject rule and then force for many years In 1993,1 became you deviated from that For example, chair of the American Indian Curricu you could talk about the main qualities lum group Both committees involve of stone and then break it down into a great deal of time and effort, and different categories, such as sandstone, the attendance record of members of granite, and so forth I became a senior curriculum both groups has been spasmodic and writer for Portland Public Schools and disheartening During the spring of 1995, the was writing in the areas of child care, Oregon Department of Education personal relationships, and family requested that I serve on the State Edu relationships I wrote the knowledge cation Standards Committee I agreed and information I received in Dr Drei to if I could join the History Section I wanted to make sure that multicultural kurs's class into the home economics curriculum We believed in equality, concepts and issues were included and and that's what the osip was founded that American Indians would be given on That influenced everything I did 120 OHQ vol.107, no This content downloaded from 63.237.237.195 on Wed, 27 Mar 2019 22:42:42 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms What I believe, what I talk, what I vote lerian psychology ? melded together ? everything I believe in is based on to help make me what I am today equality Equality and respect is the When I speak of equality, I am sense of being, the sense of achieve referring to social equality I believe ment, and you have to be able to feel that everyone has the right to a feeling it as well as to live it And if you don't of dignity, a feeling of worthwhile have it, why, you will feel inferior and ness, and a feeling of accomplishment you will show that You provide an regardless of their race, color, creed, example for your students by having or economic status The two Indian respect for yourself As I reflect back over my life, I real values that I have adhered to through out my life are the concepts of "direct of Indian cultural values My philoso contribution," which is enlarged from the traditional Indian value of gener phy of life, my beliefs on interpersonal osity and sharing ? whatever Indian ize that I was influenced by a number relationships, and my attitude toward people have, they share ? and the teaching are based on the principles Indian practice of basing relation of respect and equality These two ships on equality and mutual respect, concepts were beliefs that my parents or recognizing individual differences instilled in me as a youngster and, as Another Indian value I live by is the I discovered in about i960, are the importance of family ? the extended foundations of American Indian re family ? which includes more than lationships and Adlerian psychology one generation: aunts, uncles, cous I understand the influence that Dr ins, and other significant individu Rudolf Dreikurs and Adlerian psychol als Another value I appreciate is the ogy had in shaping the last forty years concept of cooperation Cooperation how the two ? Indian values and Ad of my life What is interesting to me is is necessary for family survival and human survival Floy Pepper suffered the devastating loss Pepper has received many awards for of her son Jim in February 1992 and her her work in education, including a Life husband Gilbert in October 1992 Still, time Award from the North American she has continued her involvement in Society of Adlerian Psychology in 1990, education The work she began in Che recognition as a Special Contributor to mawa continues today In Oregon s 2004 Indian Education by the Oregon Indian middle school/high school curriculum, ''Indians in Oregon Today" she is cred ited as the writer In September 2004, she joined her grandson, Jim Henry, Education Association in 1992-1993, the Ed Elliott Human Rights Award from the Oregon Education Association in 1996, and the U.S Department of who is on the staff of the Smithsonian Education Lifetime Achievement Award National Museum of the American In (