Educator Academy Presentation Schedule
Registration and Check-In
Welcome
Rebecca Crooks-Stratton, Secretary/Treasurer, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
General Session
Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Too Afraid to Ask
Presentation Description
“I had a profoundly well-educated Princetonian ask me, ‘Where is your tomahawk?’ I had a beautiful woman approach me in the college gymnasium and exclaim, ‘You have the most beautiful red skin.’ I took a friend to see Dances with Wolves and was told, ‘Your people have a beautiful culture.’ . . . I made many lifelong friends at college, and they supported but also challenged me with questions like, ‘Why should Indians have reservations?’” What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers—or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matter-of-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what’s up with Indians, anyway. White/Indian relations are often characterized by guilt and anger. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.
Breakout Session 1
Indigenous Language Revitalization
Presentation Description
A clarion call to action, incorporating powerful stories of struggles and successes, that points the way for all who seek to preserve indigenous languages. Across North America, dedicated language warriors are powering an upswell, a resurgence, a revitalization of indigenous languages and cultures. Through deliberate suppression and cultural destruction, the five hundred languages spoken on the continent before contact have dwindled to about 150. Their ongoing survival depends on immediate, energetic interventions. Anton Treuer has been at the forefront of the battle to revitalize Ojibwe for many years. In this impassioned argument, he discusses the interrelationship between language and culture, the problems of language loss, strategies and tactics for resisting, and the inspiring stories of successful language warriors. He recounts his own sometimes hilarious struggle to learn Ojibwe as an adult, and he depicts the astonishing success of the language program at Lac Courte Oreilles, where a hundred children now speak Ojibwe as their first language. This is a manifesto, a rumination, and a rallying cry for the preservation of priceless languages and cultures.
10,000-year Significance of our relative the Bison to our people
Paul Dressen and Tori Campbell, Prairie Island Buffalo Project
Presentation Description
Learn about our shared history with our relative here in Mni Sota Makoce the homeland of the Tatanka and the Dakota Oyate.
Taku Wadaka He? What do you see?
Presentation Description
Joanne Zacharias is a Member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. She is the author of “Taku Wadaka He? What do you see?” This Native American children’s book is written in the Dakota language and in English. She will read her book and share her journey of learning the Dakota language!
First We Must Consider Manoomin: Stories and Science from a Tribal-University Research Collaboration Studying Wild Rice
Madeline Nyblade, University of Minnesota, and Jennie Sirota, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community
Presentation Description
Manoomin, the Ojibwe word for wild rice (Dakota: Psiŋ, scientific name: Zizania palustris), provides spiritual, physical, and cultural sustenance as a sacred food and relative for Anishinaabe, Dakota, and other Indigenous peoples. This annual aquatic plant grows in shallow lakes and rivers across the Upper Great Lakes region of North America, but it has experienced regional declines since the onset of Euro-American colonization. In 2018, an interdisciplinary group from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities came together with natural resource managers from tribes and inter-tribal organizations to study Manoomin within its socio-environmental context. The collaborative that formed was given the Ojibwe name: Kawe Gidaa-naanaagadawendaamin Manoomin—or First, We Must Consider Manoomin. In this talk, I will share stories about our research collaborative’s context and process, as well as our recent findings about the relationships between Manoomin, water levels, and climate.
Using the 7 Grandfather Teachings for SEL and College Planning
Tami Johnson and Alicia Garcia, Saint Paul Public Schools
Presentation Description
We will review the 7 Grandfather Teachings of the Ojibwe and share how we use this in our work with students. Alicia Garcia is a school social worker and uses the 7GT in her SEL groups with middle and high school students. Tami Johnson is a school counselor and has developed lessons around the 7 GT in college planning groups with high school students.
Teaching American Indian Content to All
Eden Bart, Minnesota Humanities Center
Presentation Description
This session builds educators’ capacities to teach accurate Native content and information to all students. We’ll share perspectives from Native parents and educators from a Twin Cities suburban district about why it’s important that Native content is taught accurately. This content is often taught inaccurately today, as it has been in the past. Educators will also learn about how the education system is and has been used as a weapon against Native students and families and come to understand the importance of building trust and not damaging relationships through systemic and individual interactions. Educators will be introduced to a tool to assess the perspective/bias of the creators of content about Native people and topics. Minnesota Humanities Center will also share some resources that have been co-created with Native scholars and community members.
We Smudge Here: The Journey to a School District Smudging Policy
Lisa Bellanger, John Bobolink, Michelle Fairbanks and Julia Littlewolf, Saint Paul Public Schools
Presentation Description
We will present our smudging journey from classroom use to a student driven journey to a district wide Smudging policy. We will share our journey, but also be available to talk about the use of smudging, about why it is an essential tool, where we are today with our district wide policy and how we address the pushback.
ExploraDome
Gaagige Aanakwadikwe, Bell Museum
Presentation Description
The Bell Museum is thrilled to share the wonders of the cosmos with you through our ExploraDome mobile planetarium. These sessions will include a brief overview of prominent Ojibwe constellations and talk through the names and meanings of the moon phases from perspectives in Ojibwe territory. We will also discuss Ojibwe names and explanations for basic astronomy and space terms developed with first language speakers. We will take a journey from our perspective here on earth, out to the solar system, and beyond. Ojibwe terms will include brief Ojibwe to English translations to provide context for the word parts and meanings behind the concepts.
Tour of Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake
Hoċokata Ti staff
In lieu of Breakout Session 2, board shuttle beginning at 10:30 a.m., will return to Mystic Lake Center for lunch.
Presentation Description
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s public exhibit at Hoċokata Ti, called Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake, provides visitors with a cultural experience that enhances their knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and their history. Cultural interpreters will guide you through the exhibit.
Breakout Session 2
Lacrosse as the “Creator’s Game”
Presentation Description
John Hunter and Art Coulson (author) discuss first-hand experiences of how their own communities’ ‘ball-game’ can give direct insights into both the current Native experiences alongside the historic roots of the game. More widely known as ‘lacrosse’, the game means a lot more than competition and ties directly into unique understandings of Native American experience of colonialism, sovereignty, and broader tribal and individual world views.
Reconsider Minnesota History – Exploring Dakota Stories with New Curriculum and Puppets
Maria Asp and Tessa Flynn Henderson, Speaking Out Collective
Presenatation Description
Critical literacy expert, Speaking Out Collective, spent the past year documenting Dakota stories which culminated in new curricula that enriches the way we teach Minnesota History. After hearing a story, teachers explore ideas and themes by making simple puppets. The puppets are designed for ages Pre K – 5th grade with adaptations for early learners. Enjoy learning about new instruction materials and creating impactful puppet tools to use in your classroom.
Restoring Land, Reviving Heritage: Conservation through Indigenous Culture
Hannah Smith, Belwin Conservancy, with Laura Sullivan and MaKylah Woods, Anishinabe Academy
Presenation Description
Anishinabe Academy, a pre-K-5th grade MPS elementary school, and Belwin Conservancy, a land-based nonprofit in Afton, Minnesota, have partnered over the past five years to grow a program centering the generational transfer of traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge for the youth and families of Anishinabe Academy while restoring this significant piece of land in the Valley Creek Watershed.
Water Story
Lowana Greensky, Holly Pellerin and Diana Dalbotten
Presentation Description
This project was a National Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM Learning Pilot and Feasibility Study that brought together University of Minnesota (UMN) researchers with two highly successful informal science organizations, the UMN’s Bell Museum and the gidakiimanaaniwigamig, a youth STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) camp program, located on the Fond du Lac Reservation. The project incorporated the use of new technologies and media: GIS (geographic information systems) story maps (which combine multi-media presentation tools with interactive maps), and the planetarium program format of storytelling (which combines an immersive theatre experience with narrators that lead dialogue with the participants based on a semi-scripted format). Access to these media gave students skills to amplify their voice and support their leadership on environmental issues meaningful to them and their community. The students worked with the Bell Museum staff and created a new video that was shown in the University of MN/Duluth planetarium. Students engaged the community in its dialog about water and its value from many perspectives: cultural, spiritual, environmental, and recreational.
Introducing MENTOR Minnesota
Presentation Description
Potential is equally distributed; opportunity is not. MENTOR aims to drive equity and close the mentoring gap through quality mentoring relationships for young people. Relationships change outcomes. We activate a diverse cross-sector movement that prioritizes relationships and fuels opportunity for young people everywhere they are — home, community, school, and in the workplace. MENTOR Minnesota supports and collaborates with more than 200 mentor programs that serve approximately 130,000 youth of all ages (primarily 8-18) in mentoring relationships across Minnesota. Within an introduction to MENTOR Minnesota, this session will highlight how we do this work and why it matters.
Incorporating Traditional Talking Circles Into Classrooms
Mercedes Van Cleve, SMSC Community Member and Shakopee Public Schools Indian Education, Dee Buros, Shakopee Public Schools Indian Education, and Lisa Fulton, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, Four Directions Behavioral Health
Presentation Description
Traditional talking circles have been used by Native peoples for generations. They are a traditional method of solving problems and discussing difficult topics. It is a very effective way to remove barriers and allow people to express themselves with complete freedom. The symbolism of the circle, with no beginning and with nobody in a position of prominence, encourages people to speak freely and honestly about things that are on their mind. During this session you will participate in smudging and learn how to responsibly bring aspects of traditional talking circles into your classrooms.
ExploraDome
Gaagige Aanakwadikwe, Bell Museum
Presentation Description
The Bell Museum is thrilled to share the wonders of the cosmos with you through our ExploraDome mobile planetarium. These sessions will include a brief overview of prominent Ojibwe constellations and talk through the names and meanings of the moon phases from perspectives in Ojibwe territory. We will also discuss Ojibwe names and explanations for basic astronomy and space terms developed with first language speakers. We will take a journey from our perspective here on earth, out to the solar system, and beyond. Ojibwe terms will include brief Ojibwe to English translations to provide context for the word parts and meanings behind the concepts.
Lunch Buffet
General Session
Author panel: Exploring Indigenous Voices in Literature
Panelists: Art Coulson, Marcie Rendon and Monique Gray Smith
Facilitator: Allison Waukau, Hennepin County Library
Tour of Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake
Hoċokata Ti staff
In lieu of attending Breakout Session 3, board shuttle beginning at 1:15 p.m., will return to Mystic Lake Center for Breakout Session 4.
Presentation Description
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s public exhibit at Hoċokata Ti, called Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake, provides visitors with a cultural experience that enhances their knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and their history. Cultural interpreters will guide you through the exhibit.
Breakout Session 3
Decolonize Your Bookshelves
Presentation Description
In this session, native children’s author Art Coulson will explore strategies for decolonizing your bookshelf and incorporating Native American literature into your curriculum. As educators, it is important to provide students with diverse perspectives and experiences, and to challenge the Eurocentric canon that dominates our educational system. By incorporating literature by and about Native Americans into our curriculum at all grade levels, we can provide students with an understanding of Indigenous cultures, histories, and contemporary issues. We will discuss the importance of including Native American literature in your curriculum and provide practical strategies for doing so.
Native Books for Children and Educators
Tom Peacock and Betsy Albert-Peacock
Presentation Description
Black Bears and Blueberries (BBB) is a Native-owned publisher of Native books, written by Native authors and illustrated by Native illustrators. We mostly publish children’s books, although we have published books for young adults and adults. We’ll focus our discussion on the need for authentic materials and share examples of our offerings for participants. We are retired teachers, university educators (UM Duluth College of Education), and school administrators.
The 7 Generations and 7 Grandfather Teachings
Presentation Description
This talk will present the traditional teachings of the Anishinaabeg as a means of developing interconnectedness and interdependence. The seven grandfather teachings, the sacred law of the Anishinaabeg, show us how to lead Mino-bimaadiziwin ‘the good life’ a life of without contradiction or conflict, a life of peace and balance.
Native Education for All: Preparing for a National Movement
Waquin Preston and Dr. Casie Wise, National Indian Education Association
Presentation Description
In this presentation the National Indian Education Association will describe the national movement for Native Education for All (NEFA). The presenters will focus on the importance and goals of NEFA, its historic trajectory, relevance in Minnesota, and sketch out best and promising practices for educators. At the end of this session attendees should understand what NEFA is, how it may affect them, and how to prepare for NEFA implementation.
Gifts from Our Relatives, The Plants
Hope Flanagan, Dream of Wild Health
Presentation Description
As a representative of Dream of Wild Health, I will be presenting on gifts from the plants, by bringing dried and fresh samples of plants labelled with their Ojibwe names. I will also bring information about our agency, Dream of Wild Health.
Native Arts Resource: Supporting the Implementation Art Standards
Alina Campana and Sam Zimmerman, Minnesota Department of Education
Presentation Description
The Minnesota 2018 K-12 Arts Anchor Standard #10 prompts students across the state to “Demonstrate an understanding that artistic works influence and are influenced by personal, societal, cultural, and historical contexts, including the contributions of Minnesota American Indian tribes and communities.” As educators, what is important to center in teaching and learning about Dakota and Ojibwe arts and cultural expression? This session will provide background on the development of a Native Arts resource to support this learning, as well as provide participants an opportunity to explore some draft elements of the resource, including essential understandings, and make connections to their own work.
ExploraDome
Gaagige Aanakwadikwe, Bell Museum
Presentation Description
The Bell Museum is thrilled to share the wonders of the cosmos with you through our ExploraDome mobile planetarium. These sessions will include a brief overview of prominent Ojibwe constellations and talk through the names and meanings of the moon phases from perspectives in Ojibwe territory. We will also discuss Ojibwe names and explanations for basic astronomy and space terms developed with first language speakers. We will take a journey from our perspective here on earth, out to the solar system, and beyond. Ojibwe terms will include brief Ojibwe to English translations to provide context for the word parts and meanings behind the concepts.
Breakout Session 4
Ojibwe Cultural Renaissance
Presentation Description
The traditional practices of one Ojibwe family, carried out through the seasons of the year and across the seasons of life, demonstrating the enduring power of culture and identity. Today’s Ojibwe people have maintained a dazzling array of deep, beautiful, adaptive ways of connecting to the spiritual, natural, and human beings around them. Variations in Ojibwe cultural practices are, of course, as diverse as their homelands, which stretch across the Great Lakes, Canadian shield, pine forests, and prairie potholes of four US states and three Canadian provinces. And Ojibwe culture, like every other culture, has changed over time. But these variations and changes have always followed a distinct path, reflecting an identifiably Ojibwe worldview. While the world around, in, and connected to Ojibwe spaces continues to envelop myriad cultures and peoples, the Ojibwe have found a way to stay recognizable to their ancestors. Anton Treuer tells stories of one Ojibwe family’s hunting, gathering, harvesting, and cultural ways and beliefs—without violating protected secrets. Following the four seasons of the year and the four seasons of life, this intimate view of the Ojibwe world reflects a relatable, modern, richly experienced connection to the rest of the planet. It also opens up a new way of understanding these living traditions, which carry thousands of years of cultural knowledge still in the making.
Writing Prompts for Older Students
Presentation Description
In this workshop I will share writing prompts that I use in classroom visits that anyone can use with their students. I will ask you to participate by doing the exercises which you can then use, adapt as you wish in the classroom. 1) Three poetry prompts; 2) Three short story prompts; and 3) Creating a 3-person, very short, performance piece.
Gifts of the Cottonwood
Jacob Bernier, Ben Gessner, Gabby Menomin, and Fern Renville, Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi
Presentation Description
From traditional stories to medicine to the way they doctor the earth, Cottonwood trees are generous relatives that play sacred and secular roles in Dakota life. In 2021, Wakaŋ Tipi Awaŋyaŋkapi (formerly Lower Phalen Creek Project), an Urban Native-led environmental nonprofit in St. Paul, Minnesota, developed a program responding to the assertion that cottonwoods are ‘junk trees’ in an urban environment. Initially created to inform the miseducated, the programming developed into a multi-year, robust menu of cultural, educational, conservation and arts opportunities – including a webinar that reached hundreds of our relatives at the height of the pandemic and the revitalization of traditional dugout canoe-making and related apprenticeship and youth programming. Participants will gain understanding of how traditional ecological knowledge can be applied – through various program models – to both influence a miseducated wider audience, but more importantly provide specific enriching cultural opportunities. Participants will hear from a traditional storyteller, a canoe-maker, a program director and a Native scientist how a holistic (traditional) approach has wildly succeeded in a modern setting. Participants will have new insights regarding how gifts from our plant relatives are not only present today, but beget and magnify our own gift-giving and sharing.
Indigenous Foodways: Cross-Curricular Opportunities
Andy Adams, Liz Cates, Vern DeFoe, Riva Garcia, and Ash McLeod, NATIFS
Presentation Description
Foodways are how food is built into culture, history and daily lives as individuals and communities. Foodways naturally change over time. People invent new recipes, new ways of growing, and new systems to support the food needs of a community.
North American Indigenous Food Systems’ (NATIFS) team from the Minneapolis Indigenous Food Lab (IFL) will present on their work to bring back foodways that were disrupted and to find new ways to keep food traditions alive that support the health of Indigenous communities. Join them to learn and be inspired to take foodsystem knowledge into your classrooms to teach across subjects.
North American Indigenous Food Systems’ (NATIFS) team from the Minneapolis Indigenous Food Lab (IFL) will present on their work to bring back foodways that were disrupted and to find new ways to keep food traditions alive that support the health of Indigenous communities. Join them to learn and be inspired to take foodsystem knowledge into your classrooms to teach across subjects.
Leading with a Light Heart
Presentation Description
A presentation focusing on hope, possibilities and lighting a way forward. Monique will share her personal journey and how it was a stranger who said to her, “I look forward to reading your book one day,” that changed her life. Monique will introduce her Cultural Resilience model: 4 Blankets of Resilience and how these blankets have supported her in her own resilience and sense of self-determination. Throughout our time together, Monique will offer readings from her various books, including her most recent picture book, I Hope. She will share what it means to lead with a light heart, reminding us of the importance of bringing forth the gifts we’ve been blessed with and using them in a good way. Together, we will explore the integral role love and joy have in educating hearts, minds and spirits.
Tribal Sovereignty and Incorporating an Indigenous Lens in PreK-5 Education
Jillian Stately and Laura Wagenman, Osseo Area Schools with Isabella Griffin, Minnesota Department of Education
Presentation Description
According to the We Are Still Here Minnesota website, “Exercising sovereignty is one of the most important efforts for Indigenous peoples across the world.” In this session, participants will experience a 5th grade lesson created by members of Osseo Area Schools’ Department of Indian Education and a former member of curriculum and instruction. Participants will also get a deeper understanding of the historical sovereignty that Native Nations were given by treaties and current rights they hold to help teachers build their foundation of the sovereignty lessons as both historical and contemporary. The lesson was created to describe tribal sovereignty and help students understand that Dakota & Anishinaabe people have dual citizenship: of the US and their tribal nation. Tribal sovereignty lessons for grades PreK-4 will be shared along with additional lessons that attend the Minnesota Benchmarks with an Indigenous lens.
Art as Activism
Panelists: Marlena Myles and Thomasina TopBear
Facilitator: Rita Walaszek Arndt, Minnesota Historical Society
Presentation Description
Join artists Marlena Myles and Thomasina TopBear in conversation with Rita Walaszek Arndt as they discuss how their work supports community and challenges mainstream perceptions of what Native American “should” be.
ExploraDome
Gaagige Aanakwadikwe, Bell Museum
Presentation Description
The Bell Museum is thrilled to share the wonders of the cosmos with you through our ExploraDome mobile planetarium. These sessions will include a brief overview of prominent Ojibwe constellations and talk through the names and meanings of the moon phases from perspectives in Ojibwe territory. We will also discuss Ojibwe names and explanations for basic astronomy and space terms developed with first language speakers. We will take a journey from our perspective here on earth, out to the solar system, and beyond. Ojibwe terms will include brief Ojibwe to English translations to provide context for the word parts and meanings behind the concepts.
Closing Session
Reuben Kitto Stately and Ramona Kitto Stately
Presentation Description
Ramona Kitto Stately will offer reflections on the purpose of this insightful and thoughtfully planned event. Native peoples have a complicated history with institutional education in the United States, and we must begin here to understand the significance of how the invisibility of one group can impact all students. What have we learned and how will we take those lessons back to our classrooms?