Adult Literacy Within Native American Communities

This chapter is an introduction to literacy and literacy practices within Native American communities, examining the many complexities and different contexts that shape the topic. A central goal of the chapter is to provide a baseline understanding of how many Native communities contend with settler-colonialist literacy practices and have ultimately shaped and created their own literacies. After unpacking some of the challenges inherent in current assessments of Native American adult literacy levels, the chapter explores, to the extent possible, what these assessments can and cannot illuminate about these literacy levels. Readers can use this chapter as a starting place for understanding some of the nuances that make literacy a contested space, how it has historically been used as a tool for settler colonialism and assimilation, and how Native peoples have worked to define literacy and forge literacy practices to preserve their languages, cultures, histories, and epistemologies. Lastly, the chapter outlines considerations for the adult education classroom and how educators might co-create inclusive educational spaces with Native and non-Native students alike.