♪ [powwow singing] ♪
- My name is Reggie Cadotte
from the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe nation
in northern Wisconsin,
and I'm currently living and teaching
in the Red Cliff nation and the Bayfield School District.
♪ [singing in Ojibwe] ♪
Our population--
Our student population here
is about 85% Native Americans from the Red Cliff reservation
which is only a few miles north of us here.
And the teachers here
do their best to provide those students
with language and culture opportunities.
- What was number 20? - Student: Niishtana.
- All: Niishtana. Niishtana.
- It's not just one person
that's in charge or responsible
for teaching language and culture to all these children.
So, we work as a community.
The teachers all work as a community
because they know how important it is
to bring that culture and that language to these students here.
- Are you aware of another term
that would be the term for the sugar bush?
- Do you remember which word it is?
- I don't. - Iskigamizigan.
- [tries to repeat Ojibwe word] - [Reggie Cadotte repeats word]
- [inaudible Ojibwe word] iskigamizigan.
- When you don't know something that well,
it's okay to ask for help.
If you go to the Wisconsin First Nations website
that talks about Wisconsin Act 31
you're going to find all kinds of links to videos, resources,
as well as phone numbers, and other people you can talk to
that know quite a bit about this stuff.
And they can help you.
They want to help you.
That's one of the greatest things
about American Indian Studies
is that a lot of the knowledge
came from table time talks
and so when these people come from the community
into our school district
the teachers sense that the students pay attention more,
listen more, and potentially even learn more
than if we were to teach them out of a book.
Everywhere in the state you go,
you can find people in the community
who know something about that land.
Ask them to come into the classroom
and ask them to share their history and their experience
with the children
because oftentimes the kids listen better
when it's somebody other than their regular teacher.
- When we think about deer,
all we're thinking about is that animal, right?
That animal in Ojibwe, waawaashkeshi.
- You know, as teachers, we can't be shy
because we teach these kids here
so we need to ask those questions
of who can help us in the community
because we have this website Wisconsin First Nations,
we have people listed on there
who are willing to help.
We might know people
from traveling around powwow to powwow
who can help you in your particular area.
so if you're a brand new educator trying to teach
Native American Studies, American Indian Studies,
I encourage you to look at what has been done in the past.
I encourage you to look at the current events,
what's happening now.
Contact those tribal members.
Look at their websites.
Every tribe in the state has a website.
They all have current events.
Take a look at what's important to those tribal members
for the 11 federally-recognized tribal nations
in the state of Wisconsin
and the one un-federally recognized tribal nation.
It's important for those people to know who they are,
but it's also important
for everybody that lives in the state of Wisconsin
to know the history of what happened here in Wisconsin,
why it happened,
and how it was corrected.
It's important to remember our history
so we don't do those things again in the future.
It's important to come together as a community,
whether it's tribal nations coming together,
tribal nations and non-tribal nations,
or every member of the state of Wisconsin.
It's important that we band together
and take care of our home.
♪ [powwow singing] ♪