Changes in North Dakota Over Time with Marc Bluestone

Remember the three affiliated tribes I also have my mother Seneca Cayuga so I have a very different bloodline to would like to call Heinz 57 Indians with a lot of different Indian tribes involved mom my father being from here and then my mother being from Oklahoma I’ve been fortunate in my career as the school working in the school district for 31 years to see a change in the school district to see how we’ve been able to go with very little cultural education to a lot of opportunities for children to learn who they are and where they came from you know that was not a easy process in the state of North Dakota will we go as they process when we first started teaching native language at the high school back in 1992-93 and I was part of that we actually were approved under an experimental course code process and it became kind of a interesting process to persuade the state legislature to say our languages are worthy of being treated in the same format our culture as worthy of being trade this than the treaty the same as Spanish language French language any other native language and I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time to assist with getting that original bill passed and testifying and it wasn’t just me there was a whole bunch of others uh Cheryl coulis and it was the director of Indian education at the time she kind of led the fight and then there were several us that were in the background that actually helped write the write the law and then did the presentation and so we had represents all over but it started because Newtown taught Abe native language called Hadassah language which we teach today as an experimental course code and even back then I was I was a much younger man and I think about how offensive that is to know that our language was considered an experiment oh and so to know that we were able to get that past and then get a structure forgetting language and culture teachers by the state of North Dakota I think is a monumental decision in our history of Indian education for North Dakota and so now we have like Newtown Public Schools we have we have a full-time language teacher ahead ODS a language teacher at the elementary school middle school we have a full-time native studies teacher who also teaches tribal culture tribal government I have a full-time hit odds in called culture and teacher hit odds the language of culture teacher and this year we have a half-time Saanich language Arikara language being taught which is a monumental move for us as well to look at what Newtown does and of course I’m in the background I help with ensuring that those things can be laid out I give the right kind of nudge I help make sure there’s funding available I help make sure that all those are in place but you know the real work is done by our instructors you know and we are so fortunate to have four caring instructors willing to have the passion to bring our language our culture our way of life on a day to day basis and for that it is so great to be part of that and to know that we this all started because of an experiment you know that’s where it started from back in 1992-93 you know I was fortunate to write the course codes for all the native language classes used similar to the Spanish and French languages for years one two three and four I was fortunate enough to be the person to write the tribal culture course code for the state the tribal government the tribal history the native studies and I wrote all those for the state and I took them single-handedly through the process of getting them all approved and so I it just was the right thing to do at the time and at that time I was an assistant in elementary parents of what I was also an Indian education director and I’ve been a Indian education director for the school district for a long time