Many years ago I started a personal research project on what it meant to “Think Indian” or more specifically “Think Lakota or Cheyenne.”

I was working with learning-challenged students at the University of Colorado-Boulder in the University Learning Center. I was also working with American Indian students at various academic levels and saw the unique cognitive challenges they were having in mainstream academia. All of these students were very intelligent and scored high enough on the ACT to be admitted to the University of Colorado, but were challenged by the academic methodology and pedagogy.

While teaching in the American Indian Upward Bound Science and Self-Determination program, I realized my students were cognitively processing information differently. I learned to teach to their cognitive strengths.

Throughout my life, I often heard people say, “You Indian people are different.” Although their meaning was derogatory, inside I knew we were different in some way. I have known many intellectually talented Indian people in my life. Many were unrecognized geniuses, sometimes only possessing an eighth grade education. I began to wonder why these brilliant people, my heroes, unsuccessful in their academic pursuits.

I decided to conduct my own research on cognitive processing and how Indian people think. My first task was to learn as much as I could about the brain and how it works. My research revealed that all human brains are the same. They function in the exact same way for every living human being. A person’s ethnic background or race does not physiologically affect cognitive processing. Attributes for learning capacity are identical in all human beings. The only exception is when a person suffers a brain injury or significant cognitive processing issues related to a condition or disease, such as autism or Alzheimer’s.

I continued my self-guided research intent on exploring how and why Indian people think differently. Cognitive processing is the way the brain processes information it receives from all internal and external stimuli. All brains process information the same way. So why do Indian people think differently?

Using the analogy of two different computers functioning as brains, the computers have the same operating systems and the same ability to process data (cognitive processing). The difference in “thinking” originates in the software that is applied to the computer (brain). The software for Indians and Western Europeans differs significantly. The software for Indian people uses oral communication as the central mode for learning. This “thinking process” is enhanced by visual observations and practical applications in an experiential mode. There is a much greater reliance on intuition and in some cases a higher level of mental telepathic communication.

There is and has been significant evidence that describes the ability to communicate with animals, plants and Mother Earth. I have watched as an elderly man would stand facing into the wind and accurately predict the weather for the next few days. When I asked how he did this, he explained that the wind carries information, the trees and plants know what to expect and behave accordingly, the clouds reveal what is happening in the upper atmosphere, and he can sense changes in barometric pressures. This is not something you can teach in a classroom.

The difficulty in understanding the complexity of the cognitive process used is part of the problem of finding workable classroom solutions that will enhance the academic preparation of our students. I see students who are “Indian thinkers” excel in mainstream academia because somehow they have created cognitive interactive software that allows them to learn in any environment. We need to learn more about how they are able to do this.

As I continue to study “Indian thinking,” I believe there is a natural intuitive learning process that originated in our ancestors and is passed from generation to generation. This is the same for all people. Just as kernels of corn have genetic instructions that, when planted, allow them to produce a fully functional plant with leaves, stalks, silk, certain patterns of kernel alignment, color, and many other characteristics, people have the same inherited codes that define who they are physically and mentally.

Over the years the environment and human interaction significantly affected the inherited traits of individuals. I believe thinking Indian is not just a philosophical approach, it is a cognitive process. If American Indian people ever stop “thinking Indian,” we will become cognitively extinct.

There has been significant research related to Indian students and learning modalities, styles and specialized pedagogy, but it is often juxtaposed with Western theories of learning and cognitive processing. The tribal colleges have intrinsically become centers of “Indian thinking” and need to continue their practices and research to improve American Indian
student outcomes.

Richard B. Williams is the president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, the nation’s largest provider of private scholarships for American Indian students seeking to better their lives and communities through a college education at the nation’s 33 accredited tribal colleges and universities.