Introduction and Brief History of Lewis & Clark with Carmelita Lamb

I’m Carmelita Lam and I’m the associate dean of the School of Education and behavioral sciences at the University of Mary I’ve been there for five years now and prior to that my entire career had been spent along the Turtle mountains in the Turtle Mountain region I worked as a high school science teacher at dunseith and then from there went to turn Mountain Community College where I oversaw a grant that supported native scholars to become science teachers and that was a grant that the National Science Foundation had awarded at Turtle Mountain at that time and from there my career just went into more of teacher preparation I became chair of teacher education and it was recruited then to the University of Mary after a long a long career there Intermountain to Bismarck and I’ve I struggled with that decision to move away from that reservation community that I loved so much and the people that I love and feel strongly connected to even though my heritage I’m an enrolled member of the Apache the leap on ban at South Texas so you know they’re not but we’re all related and you know that and so my affinity towards Native scholars and scholarship has always been really strong and now in my capacity at the University of Mary I work with undergraduates in a very small limited way within classroom management but I also work with the master’s students and the doctorate students and across all those levels I have probably upwards of 60 native scholars at undergraduate and masters at the doctorate level and within that entire spectrum we have this continuous dialogue about what is the truth you know what is the truth of our history what is the truth of our story and how is it that we cannot voice that truth in a better way and so having this resurgence in understanding of self-identity for our native people particularly in this community which is like all about Lewis and Clark all about the Lewis and Clark story and how it’s you know and I’ve had I’ve had college students who had been in the BIE system from head start until the tribal college having gone through an essential understanding of what Lewis and Clark is tell me I never knew that Indian people were even involved in that part of history consider that he said I knew there was one Indian in that story but never knew how all the different tribes fed clothed sheltered guided and so I always bring you know how is it that truth is not being brought forward and how powerful would be and so that’s just one way in which a better understanding of the contributions of Native people to our society to our history to our everything really is important and it’s important in all classrooms not just Native classrooms but there’s a there’s a particular gift that we as educators bring to Native children when we recount the stories that show how important they were to this history and I think that’s the part that essential understandings looking at broadening that curriculum at really dissecting what the what the truth is and then saying your people were important they contributed without your people this could have never happened which in itself is a tube two-sided sword right because children that Lewis and Clark and that extradition met on their travels across the Pacific Northwest by the time they were adults they were on a reservation so you know there’s that there’s mixed feelings on that as well you know we contributed all this we helped we clothes we fed we medicines and yet this is how we ended up so there’s there’s a sad reality to that but at least the idea that because of their how because of their people’s generosity this troupe of 30 people made it all the way across and all the way back I mean the idea that couldn’t have happened without Native people helping there’s preposterous it’s ridiculous in the you know it wouldn’t have happened so that’s just one segment I feel like the more that we can integrate this greater understanding of what true history was what the idea of that story being shared is important and I talk about it almost every day in one way or another you know thinking about within my doctorate students who are going to be those educational leaders they’re the future principles that the superintendent’s the tribal college presidents the deans of academics those are the people my doctorate program and so it’s important for them to understand the importance of sharing knowledge across a broader perspective and then when you look at those masters students who are going to be curriculum specialists who are going to be educational strategists they need to be advocates for this bigger story and then at the undergraduate level that is where the true rubber hits the road if you will that’s where the true work happens because they’re the ones that deeply engage in those lessons in those curriculums in those units that allow the students to discover the truth that’s where it happens and so at each level you know at the undergraduate the Masters and the doctorate you know we have to really be intentional in bringing forth that importance and so that’s kind of my involvement within I’ve been gifted with this opportunity to serve so many wonderful educators at all levels you know undergraduate to Doctorate and within that entire group of individuals who are so caring and so dedicated being able to provide them an opportunity to consider what their classroom what their building what their district might look like if we had a broader understanding of the contributions of native people to our story and I’ll probably do that until I can’t anymore