Introduction & Welcoming New Teachers with Charles Moran

My name is Charlie moran or Charles Moran senior my head odds a name is Shi XI which means not so much of a snort where they’re both sucking in through your nose but blowing out from your nose in your mouth like a bull charging you know how a bull would rake the ground or a buffalo bull or a buck would scrape the ground and then make that noise before it charges that’s my name that noise that that male animal makes is my name I’m here odds ax Mandan and turned them on band of chippewa and now my non-indian side I am Irish it’s where my last name comes from came through the Turtle Mountain people and also French through my grandmother again from Turtle mountains through the midship people how we try to work with our teachers here the new teachers that come aboard as we try to give them a taste before they start they might have worked in another ending community prior to being here or they could be a brand new teacher from out east or west I’ve never been on the plains and we tried to tell him and show them some of the places where they could take their children or maybe they’re curious about where these kids know when new teachers come in we want to show them or teach them about us about us here and like I said maybe they have maybe they’re not from the plains or from the mountain regions because we our territories extended out there maybe they’re East Coast West Coast and foreign maybe even that foreign teachers here so we try to show them who we are in the plains I tried to take him around and in visit spots where these were a lot of the children they’ve some of the tribal visit visiting places like there are large villages some of the buttes where they can drive up for the sightsee show them where the stores are the churches clinics just a lot of different places do a tour of our community and to explain to them who we are we’re Plains people but yet at the same time we have to be Western North Dakota and that’s really tough because of the situations that the boundaries on both sides it could be Native American it can be non-indian but just two boundaries and people either cross those boundaries in the bad way or you can cross them in a good way and we tried to do both in a good way so that these kids will feel comfortable with their teachers because a lot of times you get a teacher that comes into your school system and maybe always a little loan money and is working through a program where they have to teach and Native American community and then they can go back to wherever they’re from work you know something like that or maybe they’re just done tired of traveling and teaching on the road and want to go home to where they’re from so we get a la not I would say a lot of teach but we get a high turnover of teachers when your teachers and it’s really hard for our children to trust because of historical brief because of all the things that the children been told by their parents their grandparents in which they were taught by their parents and their grandparents of all the hardships so it’s hard to trust it’s hard to it’s hard to cross some boundaries and to give that attention depth how other Native American teachers get because it’s a different feeling for them it’s like why are they gonna be here another year are they gonna stick around do I trust them to be here to tell them things and then they’re gonna go to the principal’s or are they gonna mark me label me you know and it’s hard here is it’s it’s it’s not all bows and arrows and making earth lodges and cooking traditional food say there’s a lot of hardship and he’s trailer and carry a lot of garbage a lot of heart hurt and it’s it’s hard to sometimes come to work because you know these children are hurting but at the same time you want to be here to help them and that’s what I try to get across to the new teachers that go to public events go to all these activities in our communities dances honoring public ceremonies go to those not just to basketball games not just to football games volleyball matches not just to the school events but the community events go out there and be public so these kids see that they start saying oh you’re gonna stay there you’re gonna be here for a while because we have teachers here that don’t live in a community that these kids never see outside of the school so they don’t like no we don’t we don’t trust them or well I don’t think they’re gonna be here very long oh well you know we’ll just do what we have to do and then get through it but if but if you are in a community people these kids really you probably get adopted you know these kids open up it won’t be you want to make you part of their family I never seen that with a lot of teachers here that I do stick around I do become community members and are active in the community not just to school activities pretty soon they’re called auntie or uncle or grandma or grandpa you know no family members no other grandparents know them you know I’ve seen that not just in this community here in Newtown but also in Madrid I worked am Andrea for six years as well and I seen their teachers the same way that our real active within the community you know do another thing so it was cool it was nice to see that and you know it’s it’s how people are not in our communities how people get along you know it’s it’s it’s it’s a hard thing for some of these kids to even get along at home you know and to trust your own so there’s a lot of doubt that these children carry like I can’t even trust my relatives at home work well you know I don’t wanna trust these guys here so they act out or they’re looking for negative attention any attention they can get whether it’s good or bad you know so I try to talk to the new staff about things like that you know the lifestyles where they’re coming from drive out in the communities and see some of the communities that are having a hard hardship some of the communities are the streets that are doing okay you know I try to show them both sides I’m not just trying to pick it give him a negative picture as soon as they come to work here I’m not trying to do that I tried to give him a lot of different things