A culture of understanding
Courtesy Photo<br>Barney Finley helps Kristie Kenmille, right, a preservice teacher from SKC, make stick game sets. On the left, Darcy Koemans, a teacher from Dixon, works on her own set. Making stick games sets was just one of the activities teachers worked on at the Big Sky Culture Camp last week.
Zach Urness
Leader Staff
The key to building positive relationships is discussion and learning, and those ideas took center stage at the Big Sky Science Partnership Culture Camp last week at the Blue Bay campground.
For three days teachers and professors from around the reservation and other areas, along with teachers from SKC, gathered with tribal educators and elders to learn about Native American culture, and to look carefully at better ways to teach students across western Montana about those issues.
"Our goal is to deepen each other's understanding of teaching science more effectively to Native American students," said Regina Sievert, camp director and a member of the Indigenous Math and Science Institute at SKC. "Everybody has a different type of knowledge to contribute, and for this week, the tribal members are the experts."
The culture camps, which take place every summer, focus on bringing in teachers to learn from tribal members and elders, the idea being for the teachers to take that knowledge and apply it in the classroom.
The camp is paid for by the National Science Foundation and comes from a grant given to the Indigenous Math and Science Institute at Salish Kootenai College.
"We want to teach these teachers how to balance the two worlds so that when they go back to their classrooms they can teach better," said Naida Lefthand, one of the camp organizers. "It is important they know things about our culture so they can understand our children better."
"We're trying to build bridges between the K-8 schools, colleges and the tribal community," added Sievert. "By working together like this, and meeting throughout the year, research shows that we can sustain a positive relationship in learning."
The camp began on Tuesday, Aug. 7 and continued through Aug. 9, with the focus on learning and building relationships. Organized by Sievert and brought together by tribal members Mary Jane Charlo and Naida Lefthand, the teachers and professors from Missoula to Kalispell learned about traditions, history and culture of tribal living through lectures and workshop projects hosted by local elders.
"I think that it's a really good start," said Charlo. "There was a real good opportunity for the teachers to become culturally competent. They're not going to get everything because the idea is too big, but I think that they were able to grasp many of the ideas and develop a good awareness of the culture that can help them when they're teaching."
Some of the activities that the teachers took part in included putting up tee-pees, playing stick games, working on cradle boards, taking part in bead work, making bows, creating their own pouches and other activities designed to teach the teachers about tribal culture, history and tools.
There were also discussions about contemporary issues relating to science, like the environment and land and water management, but the centerpiece of the weekend were the discussions that focused on the importance of community and family in teaching tribal children.
"My education was really lacking when I was growing up and I felt alone in the classroom," said Charlo. "And what made me really happy was to see how many of the teachers were serious about understanding and becoming culturally competent. That kind of understanding and acceptance is better for all the students. It shows me that things are changing."