Native tribes are working with schools to boost attendance [Video]

As the Watonga school system’s Indian education director, Hollie Youngbear works to help Native American students succeed — a job that begins with getting them to school.She makes sure students have clothes and school supplies. She connects them with federal and tribal resources. And when students don’t show up to school, she and a colleague drive out and pick them up.Video above: Hood Museum at Dartmouth College features many Indigenous worksNationwide, Native students miss school far more frequently than their peers, but not at Watonga High School.Youngbear and her colleagues work to connect with families in a way that acknowledges the history and needs of Native communities.As she thumbed through binders in her office with records of every Native student in the school, Youngbear said a cycle of skipping school goes back to the abuse generations of Native students suffered at U.S. government boarding schools. “If grandma didn’t go to …