Robinson Researches Life of Gifted and Talented Leader in Native American Education

Dr. Ann Robinson, director of the Jodie Mahony Center for Gifted Education at UA Little Rock, is using her research skills to uncover the life story of Dr. Stuart Tonemah, a leader of gifted education for Native Americans.

A member of the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, Tonemah directed the first office of Native American Programs at Dartmouth, testified to Congress on Indian students' needs, and wrote commissioned reports on K-12 gifted education best practices for talented indigenous students.

"This is a very fun project for me. Lots of scholarship is fun but this project is a delightful walk down memory lane," Robinson said. "I met Stuart Tonemah twice in my life. He was extremely kind to a young graduate student. He was always easy to talk with and always interested in whatever young scholars were doing. He was committed to and talented in advocating for the development of programs for gifted and talented Native American youth."

Tonemah was appointed by the U.S. President to serve as executive director of the National Advisory Council on Indian Education, which advises the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of the Interior, from 1977 to 1979. He also served as the president of National Indian Education Association. It has grown into the largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native educators, administrators, parents, and students in the country, providing a much-needed forum for the issues affecting the education of Native people in the U.S.

"He was one of the few Native American scholars interested in gifted education," Robinson said. "He did work for the U.S. Department of Education, served on presidential commissions, and was a skilled educational diplomat. He wrote and published in the field when not many Native American scholars were interested in gifted education. He also established a foundation in Oklahoma to assist with all kinds of projects to develop talents among Native American students."

Tonemah passed away in 2009. Robinson has been collecting information on Tonemah's life through newspaper articles, scholarly work, interviews with family and colleagues, artifacts, and a family Facebook page celebrating his life.

"A Kiowa/Comanche educator, Stuart's life and work are exemplars for educational advocacy and action today," Robinson said. "Dr. Tonemah lived much of his life in Oklahoma where there are family and tribal community members whose perspectives are critical to this research project. I found the Tonemah Family Facebook page and blog through online searching. There are clips of Stuart talking with community members at church and family gatherings, and those are precious documents."

Robinson had the opportunity to learn more about Tonemah's life through a visit with his daughters, Keri Tonemah Parks and Ginny Tonemah Underwood, at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, during the fall 2022 semester. She learned fun facts about his life. In 1961, Tonemah earned the nickname of "Golden Toes Tonemah" and helped lead the Cameron University Oklahoma Junior College football team to their first Junior Rose Bowl victory.

[Link]Stuart Tonemah's daughters Ginny Tonemah Underwood and Keri Tonemah Parks visit the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.

Robinson also learned about Tonemah's dedication to providing summer educational programs for American Indian children. He designed Project Eagle as a summer camp for American Indian adolescents and their families. Another summer camp, Explorations in Creativity, was a four-week summer program for American Indian high school students that was held at Riverside School in Oklahoma, a former boarding school. One of Tonemah's daughters attended the camp, while another served as a camp counselor and met her future husband there.

"He had a body of work that ended up in scholarly literature, but it's clear to me now that I've only seen a tiny portion of the projects he created," she said.

Robinson has presented her research to the American Educational Research Association and the National Association for Gifted Children. She has also written a biography blog about Tonehmah that traces out his influence as an educator. In the future, she would like to add his story in a second volume of a book she edited, "A Century of Contributions to Gifted Education: Illuminating Lives." The 2014 book represents a history of the field of gifted and talented education told through biographies of scholars in the field.

"His story needs to be told," Robinson said. "What is most distinctive about his life is how he influenced two educational movements - gifted and talented education and Native American education. He was such a humble person that he didn't particularly make sure we knew about all of the wonderful things he did. He left an impact that remains 30 years after his death. I don't think his whole story has been told."

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