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Young (but wise) Ranger Hall of Famer still running. P9
Retire on
Rangers' Indian Ed program reinforces student heritage
Principal Ben Lewis says goodbye. P10
Photo courtesy of Forest Lake Schools BY MICHELLE MIRON Editor
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FOREST LAKE — To Nikki Lyons of Forest Lake, an American Indian Education Program through Forest Lake Schools is helpful in keeping her 13-year-old brother Travis in touch with his Native ancestry. That may be more important than it seems, she said, since the Forest Lake area has many “hidden Natives” not immediately apparent because they don’t necessarily look Native. “Without our past, we are nothing,” she said of the program’s importance to local
Native families. “Our history has been filled with genocide, conflict and revolution. We survived, we are here, our traditions are strong, our language is coming back but we still need to heal. We still need to advance. I believe it is important to pass these teachings along, to build our community stronger and help everyone thrive in a good way.” This school year more than a dozen students regularly participated in the federally funded program, which was based out of Columbus Elementary the first three years and moved to Forest View Elementary and
Forest Lake Area High School for 2014-15 to be more centrally located to those interested. Offerings this year included after-school groups at Forest View actively attended by about 18 students; development of a drum group through which students have learned to make hand drums and regalia; a lending library of materials about Native Americans; a blog site and a Facebook page. Columbus Elementary Principal Neal Fox helped get the program rolling in 2010 via a presentation to the School Board; his school became the original site due to its high con-
centration of Native American students. He said the group immediately drew about 20 students and began meeting monthly for an hour after school, engaging in activities like drumming and storytelling. “It was fantastic having them here,” Fox said. “We hosted the first mini pow wow (in April of 2013) and it was interesting. We didn’t know what kind of turnout we were going to get from the community — we probably just expected people who identified as Native American — and we (drew) over a hundred people.”
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