American Indian – Page 2 – St. Joseph's Indian School

National Family Week Project

National Family Week is an annual celebration observed during the week of Thanksgiving that celebrates the family and its value to society.

These siblings made beautiful cards to take home to their family.

St. Joseph’s Indian School has recognized and celebrated national family week for over a decade. With the assistance of the Shakopee Tribe, we are able to provide $30 worth of food to each of our families. For the convenience of our families, food cards are purchased in advance and distributed to parent/guardians as they pick their child(ren) up for Thanksgiving break. These cards empower families to shop independently for necessary items to complete their Thanksgiving meals. When families have higher needs or find themselves in a difficult position over the holidays, St. Joseph’s staff assesses the situation and makes recommendations for further assistance. For example, this year one single, working mother’s financial resources were spread so thin that the return of her two children for Thanksgiving created a larger grocery bill then she could provide. St. Joseph’s was able to provide an additional food box filled with staples such as dry cereal and canned goods.

While food cards are greatly appreciated by our families, they are only one piece of our family week celebration. One week before the students departed for break, sibling groups were brought together for one hour to create and decorate items for their families. Each sibling group customized a card of THANKS and a I AM THANKFUL FOR … sheet. While parent/guardians and other family members enjoy reading these cards and treasure them, I believe that the students’ energy around this night is the highlight of the week! Older siblings will join younger siblings in their homes, while sometimes younger siblings join older siblings in their homes. Regardless of the combination, sibling groups are together – laughing, giving hugs and talking about things that they are thankful for.

This year a larger group gathered in the Perky Home to shared stories about each other and their family.

This year, I was in the Perky Home where a larger group gathered to shared stories about each other and their family. As the younger kids looked at and talked with their older brother and sisters, their admiration and excitement was obvious! Older siblings began to delegate coloring projects and ask the younger siblings what they were thankful for, one couldn’t help but smile as the groups worked and laughed together.

This group of sisters had such a great time during National Family Week!

I also joined the Stevens Home, where a group of four sisters not only worked together, but also played together. After wrapping up their projects, they posed for pictures, allowing their personalities to shine through. Following pictures, they joined their cousins in the TV room where they all played “Just Dance” and enjoyed each other’s company.

A reflection upon National Family Week, always helps me to remember how truly blessed we are at St. Joseph’s Indian School …

Helping boys becoming men

Mike and April's philosophy, "don't give fish, but rather come along side them and teach them to fish."

Hello,

My name is Mike. I have been a houseparent at St. Joseph’s Indian School for three and a half years. My wife April also writes on this blog. We currently work as six-day houseparents in the Carola Home with 10 high school boys, as well as our two youngest children Miranda (6^th grade) and Seth (5^th grade). When we first came to St. Joseph’s we worked three days in the Rooney Home with 6^th-8^th grade boys and then three days in the Pinger Home with 6^th -8^th grade girls. Needless to say, life changed drastically every three days. 🙂

Almost every time I tell someone what I do, they ask just what is a houseparent? My typical response is, it’s the greatest job in the world. Artist mold and shape clay, doctors help mend broken bones, but we mold and shape lives, we help mend hearts and minds. We get the privilege to watch boys become men. My philosophy as a houseparent isn’t to give fish, but rather come along side them and teach them to fish.

We began working in the Carola Home last year with 10 freshman boys. Three of the boys were with us in the Rooney Home during their 7^th and 8^th grade years. The others, I coached in football their 8^th grade year. We ended the year with eight boys. All eight boys are back with us this year as sophomores and we have added two freshman. One of the freshman was with us his 6th and 7^th grade years in the Rooney Home. It truly is a privilege to watch as these boys work towards becoming men.

An example of our boys working to become men is the following. Our typical day starts at 6:30 am. While I’m getting breakfast ready, the boys wake up on their own, clean their rooms, bathrooms and come downstairs by 7:00 am. While they’re eating, I check their rooms and bathrooms. Once they have eaten, they do various chores such as: cleaning the kitchen, living room, game room or sweeping the stairwells. I drive the school bus to the high school for all the homes, so I leave around 7:25 am to get the bus ready. The boys finish their chores and Ms. April checks them. They get on the bus by 7:40 and arrive at school around 8:00 am.

Last year, I went up stairs and went to each room waking each one. I discovered not everyone is a morning person like me. 🙂 I then watched as they cleaned their rooms and bathrooms. After several reminders we made it down stairs, however not everyone was on time. At the beginning of this year, I asked them if they wanted me to wake them or use an alarm clock. They all agreed to the alarm clock. I asked if they could get their cleaning done on their own or did I need to come and watch. They all agreed they could do it on their own. They even set the consequence for anyone who wasn’t downstairs on time. To date, we have had far fewertardies and fewer reminders about their cleaning . One of my favorite posters in our home is a quote from the 1 Corithians 13:11:

When I was a child I spoke, thought and behaved like a child, but as I became a man I put away childish things.

Thank you for all your support. Please pray for us as we encourage our young men on their journey. Also, if you have a favorite quote about becoming a man we would love to hear it. We have many posters on our walls encouraging our guys to become the man their families and communities need them to be.

Until next time,

Mike

Student athletes recognized for achievements

The student athletes at St. Joseph's Indian School did a great job!

After school the 6^th– 8^th grade youth gathered in the Rec Center for our Fall Sports Awards. Student athletes were recognized for achievements in cross country, football and volleyball.

Besides the awards for the best athletes in those sports, I am always touched by the acknowledgement of the kids who have the best attitude, make the most improvement and show leadership by their teamwork.

While being a little competitive is a good thing, I hope the sports and activities here teach our young people teamwork and the importance of preparing, practicing and working hard especially when the odds are against you.

Generous hearts and attitudes

Thanks to our other staff members for keeping you up to date on school activities while I was away this past week.

I serve on my Religious Community’s (SCJ) Formation commission. We gathered to discuss the education and formation of our seminarians, as well as vocational efforts for finding quality people who might be thinking about becoming a brother or priest. A couple of us attended the National Religious Formation conference in Kansas City. The theme was about the prophetic nature of religious life. One keynote I particularly found inspiring was a look at many women prophets in the bible.
I did work in Formation with college seminarians for five years and that has shaped my philosophy of our programs at St. Joseph Indian School. We are trying to educate and form well-rounded young people, who have self-confidence, know how to work through troubles and adversity, love to learn and know how to take care of themselves and others.

I believe a key to all of that is having a solid relationship with God and trying to understand how we can follow God’s will and ways and use our gifts and talents accordingly.

One nice example that I heard when I returned was from the Cyr Home (4th-5th grade boys). For a service project they decided to help a family in need for Thanksgiving. All 12 of the boys did extra jobs around campus to earn a few extra dollars. They also made money from selling Powerade and water at football games. The boys made a list of what they would like to eat at Thanksgiving, and three of the boys looked over food ads in the newspaper. They learned about budgeting and discovered how much their dollars would buy. Four of the students went to the grocery store to buy the food. Others helped wrap the food and included a turkey plate they found at Central Storage. When all was in order, they delivered the food to the pastor of a church downtown, who delivered the food to the families so the students would remain anonymous. I’m inspired through their generous hearts and attitudes.

This afternoon, our third graders put on a hoop dancing performance. We sat on the floor against the wall in the school gym, and watched them make their hoops into the shape of butterflies and eagles and let their spirits soar as they danced. Good exercise, great fun and an appreciation of Lakota (Sioux) culture as well.

We had a journalist from Germany taking video of happenings around campus. At the end of the day, he was interviewing three of our high school girls, and asked a question something like, “Why is being away from home more important than being with your family?” Danisha, one of our seniors, wisely put it in perspective.

Nothing is more important than family. Being at St. Joseph’s gives me opportunities and an education so in the long run, I can help my family even more.”

Things have really picked up lately

Greetings to all! My name is Mike and I am a houseparent in the William Home here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. We are home to ten 4^th and 5^th grade girls. This is my ninth year in the William Home. This has been a very quick and exciting start to our school year. We have been very active and have had some very fun moments here at St. Joseph’s. We took the girls to Custer, South Dakota in September and went to the Buffalo Round-up in Custer State Park as well as taking in Crazy Horse Monument. The laser light show at Crazy Horse was awesome and the tour of the facility is very educational for our Native American youth. The round-up is an experience as almost 15,000 people sit on the hills and wait for the cowboys to bring the tatanka – buffalo to the corrals!

The girls at St. Joseph's Indian School have done a great job in basketball this year!

Things have really picked up lately. We had five of our girls make the first quarter honor roll and we are very proud of them. The girls are involved in dancing dolls with the Chamberlain community and have their performance in December and our 5^th graders are in band. I also have the pleasure to help coach our 4^th and 5^th grade girls basketball team which is always an enjoyable time of the year. We have played four games so far and have five left before Christmas break. It’s a good fit for me since this time of year in my off time I referee college basketball and will soon start working high school games for the 27^th year.

It is hard to believe that we are on the door of Thanksgiving break and Christmas is right around the corner. We would love to have you stop and see the great things St. Josephs has to offer. Hope you have a blessed and safe holiday season!!

We serve and teach; we receive and learn

Hello/ hau,

LaRayne imaciyapiyaye. My name is LaRayne.

Waunspe Lakota. I teach Lakota.

I also teach Native American Studies curriculum, which is a large part of my class.

The American Indian kids love hoop dancing! — The Lakota (Sioux) kids love hoop dancing!

Part of this teaching is being able to share the art of hoop dancing with the 3^rd grade class.

They are taught about the sacredness of our symbol of the circle. Then we create 5 different shapes/designs with our hoops.

We honor our circle by dancing in each hoop before we pick it up with our foot. We then shape out the bird, eagle, Mickey Mouse, a butterfly and a circle before we dance with all the hoops above our heads. The kids are encouraged to dance to the beat of the drum while they create these designs.

Yes, we are having a portion of it videoed, but I am not sure if and when that will be available for your eyes to see.

I love my path that has brought me to St. Joseph’s Indian School.

I truly enjoy living our motto: We serve and teach; we receive and learn.

Becoming role models

The work is progressing on our Akta Lakota Museum expansion. I spent a lengthy phone conversation reviewing some of the text panels for our displays that will tell the history of St. Joseph Indian School. I thought I knew a lot about our history from the books and journals I’ve read, but as alumni and workers fill in details, I’m learning more all the time.

In the classrooms during study hall, I noticed several 8^th graders in the rooms helping younger children. The school has started a mentoring program for those students doing well and caught up. It gives them a chance to give something back and be a role model. It also helps the younger kids feel a sense of connection and a goal to reach for when they see older friends and relatives mastering the material.

I stopped in for supper at the Carola Home (high school boys). Mike, the houseparent had made his famous Texas fried chicken, with spuds and white gravy and sweet tea to wash it down. It’s one of the boys’ favorites, and rather than just eat and run, they sat around the table a bit longer to talk of school, sports, and give a good-natured teasing to one another – a good atmosphere in the house.

Please pass the “Farmer John” cheese

Each year, there are always a few staff who have babies, and this afternoon Chris, our Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator brought her newborn son, Mavrick to the office for everyone to ooh and aah over. His dad Jason is an avid hunter and he was wrapped in a camouflage colored afghan. We teased Chris about being out during one her normally busiest times, Red Ribbon week. But we know how important that initial bonding time between mother and child is. We look forward to her return in a couple of months.

We had a phone conference with Split Rock Studios who is helping us develop the historical portion of the alumni center and tell the history of St. Joseph Indian School. We’ve been setting money aside for the project for the past couple of years. A few of their ideas would have taken us over budget, and since we’re very conscious of that, we talked about alternatives that would get us back on track.

At the end of the school day, we held our Honors Assembly. Our principal, Kathleen, announced the students who had perfect attendance or were on the A and B honor roll. Fr. Anthony and I helped with the distribution of certificates and congratulations for a job well done. We pass out some small tokens or prizes. I think it’s the recognition that our students appreciate most, and always hope it helps more students to believe in themselves and work for excellence in the classroom.

For supper at the Cyr home (4^th-5^th grade boys), Odis made his homemade pizza.

The parmesan cheese was next to me, and one of the students asked me to, “Please pass the Farmer John cheese.”

I got a chuckle out of that, and enjoyed the lively conversation. For enrichment class, right before the students watched a Veggie Tales cartoon about the Golden Rule, they saw the wisdom about treating others they way they would like to be treated, but it’s not always easy to live up to that.

Changes to serve more students

Walking down the hill to church, the weather was still frigid. We had the first hard frost of the season and the grass crunched underfoot. I know this is just the first of plenty more to come, but know there is still plenty of time for lovely fall days.

In the development office, Marcia’ turned 50today, and her co-workers decorated her office well. At mid-day break, we had carrot cake awaiting, and Marcia came in wearing oversize silver glittery glasses in the shape of 5 and 0.

Our home remodeling project is moving along well. Next year, all of our homes will be back in play, and we will be able to serve more students. What we are starting to do now is evaluate how best to make use of the beds we will have. Which age group would best be served by expansion? Should we keep an equal number of boys and girls homes or change the mix? Should we change the mix of ages any? We will start to have discussion sessions with staff to come up with good and workable ideas.

Lots of giggles

When I arrived back in the office, I had several baskets of treats for Bosses’ Day awaiting me. While I try my best to affirm the staff at St. Joseph’s Indian School for their work and dedication, I receive far more affirmation than I ever give out.

While walking through the school to catch up on the news and see what our Lakota (Sioux) youngsters were up to, I met new Robin, our new Special Ed teacher. Robin isn’t exactly new, since she worked here at St. Joseph’s several years ago and we’re happy to have her return.

In first grade I met Glenn, our newest student. She was still a little shy and overwhelmed, but giving it her best try. When there are openings here because students are able to move back with their families, we look to our waiting to see who else in need we can be able to serve.

I ate supper in the Crane Home (high school girls) and was pleased to see that besides stories, they were full of lots of giggles. The house had that comfortable feeling when students are cooperating and helping one another. There is drama and conflict to be sure, but we always work towards creating more of the happy kind of memories.