Left: The Little Eagle Singers were part of the recognition ceremony at the 2012 Johnson- O’Malley Award Potluck at the Grand Portage Community Center on May 23. One hundred thirty-seven K-12 students were recognized at the annual event. Also recognized were 22 adult Grand Portage band members and direct descendants who earned post-secondary degrees, licensure, or certification. Above: Cousins Ashley Deschampe and Colton Deschampe graduated together from Cook County High School on June 2.
“Students, we are extremely proud of you! Chi Miigwech!” This was the message from Grand Portage Education Director Haley Brickner at the 2012 Johnson-O’Malley awards potluck at the Grand Portage Community Center on May 23.
One hundred thirty-seven K-12 students were recognized at the dinner as well as 22 Grand Portage band members and direct descendants who will have earned associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees, and master’s degrees in everything from industrial engineering to criminal justice to public policy as well as a truck driving license and a Coast Guard boat operator certificate.
“This annual event is a very special evening for our students,” Brickner wrote in the program that listed all the students being honored. “They work hard all year pursuing academics and extracurricular activities. Each one of our students has many talents, all of which deserve to be celebrated. As parents, family, teachers, and community members, you are very important in the lives of our youth. The responsibility is great but the result is a long-lasting impact in the life of a child or young adult. …Let us work together to encourage, teach, and foster our youth and their various achievements.
“A special thank you and congratulations to the 22 Grand Portage band members and direct descendants graduating from college this spring and summer who show our young people that education is a lifelong pursuit and does not end with high school.”
Special recognition was given to Carolyn Higgins, who has been tutoring Native American students at Cook County High School for the last 20 years. She was surprised by the honor and received a plush blanket with the Grand Portage logo and a pair of fur-lined moccasins. Brickner called her “truly, truly special,” saying she was kind, caring, and compassionate. “Grand Portage is really lucky to have someone like her,” Brickner said. “I hope we have her for many, many years to come.”
Carolyn Higgins (right) was honored for 20 years of service as a tutor for Grand Portage students at Cook County High School at the annual Johnson O’Malley award potluck in Grand Portage on May 23. Recognizing her was Grand Portage Education Director Haley Brickner.
As Higgins thanked the community, someone from the crowed called out, “We love you, too!”
The Johnson-O’Malley Act, after which this annual event is named, was originally passed in 1934 and amended in 1936 and 1975. It provided federal funding for “education, medical attention, agricultural assistance, and social welfare, including relief of distress” for Native Americans. Funding for educational programs operating under this law must be used “for the purpose of financially assisting those efforts designed to meet the specialized and unique educational needs of eligible Indian students, including programs supplemental to the regular school program and school operational support, where such support is necessary to maintain established state educational standards.”
The 137 students recognized represent close to 25 percent of the total population of the schools they attend – Oshki Ogimaag, Great Expectations, Sawtooth Elementary, and Cook County Middle and High School.
American Indian-related higher ed programs
Two representatives from the University of Minnesota-Duluth (UMD) visited schools in Grand Marais and Grand Portage at the beginning of May to talk to students and teachers about Native American youth leadership programs, programs for Native American college students, and professional development opportunities with a tribal focus.
UMD has a Native American resource center that offers tutoring and financial aid, academic, and personal counseling and houses the Mishoomis Cultural Library, the second largest American Indian-specific library in the upper Midwest.
“We have 40 Native American staff at UMD, and that’s a lot compared to other universities,” said Nicole Kneeland, Center for Indigenous Knowledge and Language Revitalization student services director in the College of Education and Human Service Professions. “There’s a big support group there for Native American students.” Being at UMD would feel a little like an extension of one’s community back home, she said.
UMD also has the “best lacrosse team in the Midwest,” Kneeland said. Lacrosse is a sport that originated with Native American tribes.
UMD’s strategic plan, adopted in May 2011, states, “We serve the educational needs of indigenous peoples, their economic growth, their culture, and the sovereignty of the American Indian nations of the region, the state, and North America.”
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