Americans in northern Wisconsin protested Native Americans who were spearfishing on and off Ojibwe tribal water and land where they had rights to fish. Laura Hiebing, associate professor of American Indian studies at UW-Madison, says the disagreement reinforced the idea that Wisconsin citizens were not educated on tribal law and the sovereignty of tribes. Looking to the Public Under the state law, public schools are required to include instruction on Native history, culture, and tribal sovereignty at least twice in elementary school and once in high school. Ali Hilsabeck, a non-tribal, fourth grade teacher at Schenk Elementary School, says the only enforcement mechanism she knows of is indicating on each student’s report card that they have learned these Native American topics. However, she doesn’t believe there is a larger enforcement mechanism from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The department chose not to respond to requests for comment. Although the Department of Public Instruction doesn’t appear to be doing much to hold local teachers accountable, Hilsabeck says she understands and values the importance of keeping the culture alive in her classroom. The official textbook provided for her social studies class does not even mention Native American topics, so she often references a book by former UW-Madison professor Patty Loew, “Indian Nations of Wisconsin.” Where Are We Excelling? What the law was supposed to do is happening at the Indian Community School, a private school in Franklin, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. It’s 8:30 a.m., and the first thing the 23
Top: The Indian Community School birchbark canoe was made by Wayne Valliere of the Ojibwe tribe and ICS students as part of a year-long project. Middle: Dr. Renee Pfaller stands before the colorful landscaping of the Indian Community School. Bottom: Sun shines through the window at the Place of Nations.
students hear in Dr. Renee Pfaller’s Oneida language classroom is the whimsical tones of the Oneida language with long, drifting vowels. “Shékoli,” Pfaller says, greeting the students with a hello. “Nyaweh,” she adds, thanking the students for being there with her. In Pfaller’s classroom, her students try to remember their October Oneida vocabulary words. Some students are wriggling in their seats with their hands stretched toward the sun, eagerly waiting to be called on. Other students can’t wait and shout to the sky with the words they remember. The school is one of a few schools in the state of Wisconsin that passionately pursues keeping Native American languages alive. Michael Zimmerman, an Ojibwe language teacher at the school, says Native American language is nearly nonexistent in other schools, so he believes it is his goal and duty to “perpetuate the language” and keep it alive in his career as a language teacher. Pfaller was inspired by the words of an Elder who told her she can’t keep the language if she doesn’t give it away. She must continue to teach for the children of our children who aren’t born yet. The school teaches three Wisconsin Native American languages: Oneida, Ojibwe and Menominee. Every person in the building, from students to staff, is required to learn a language to help preserve it, Zimmerman says. Not every school in Wisconsin has the knowledge and resources to keep the Native American culture alive within its unique school culture. “I think Act 31 itself, as a law, is a really needed law, and it’s a really positive thing, and there’s a lot of people doing really great work to promote the law both to educators and to children in schools, but ... the [phrase] ‘missed opportunities’ keeps coming to mind,” Hiebing says.