Tribal Student Achievement Relations and Resiliency

Spring Celebrations

Congratulation to all the powerful youth closing out the school year and our Seniors Graduating! An amazing accomplishment, 12 years in the making! Our TSARR team continues to work in there designated areas while collaborating within OPI to learn from each of our departments. Many of our team will be presenting at the OPI Summer Institute. We will be hosting Students and Knowledge Keepers throughout the week. 

Many Tribes have celebrations as we make it to the green grass. Thunder brings great things and I encourage you to look into the lessons and stories offered within the IEFA work and at the Tribal levels. 

We received word that our AmeriCorps grant was successful. We will continue the planning grant work and begin creating mentorships and leadership opportunities for graduated youth that start in September.

RISE

Our youth leadership work has been fully engaged with the students, with our last RISE meeting last week. Awards were given out and celebrations were shared. The youth want to connect during the summer and even work towards tribal exchanges during the pow wow season. They would share out their tribal customs with other youth! If interested in attending any pow wows, Alicia Doney has put together the dates and locations: 

One of our RISE students, part of RISE since the beginning, Big Sky High School President Snpaqsin Morigeau brought great positive work to his high school by sharing his Salish language throughout the hallways! The signs around the school represent the school’s motto: Be resilient, be respectful and be responsible. Morigeau oversaw the signage project and worked with local businesses to create the Salish language signs. Morigeau says his biggest takeaway from the project is that you can do anything you put your mind to. “Even if it's a smaller project of getting your name out there or as big as preserving a whole culture. It's just steps, and the steps you take lead to somewhere, and the steps I've taken led to banners being put up in a AA high school in Montana,” said Morigeau. NICE WORK YOUNG MAN!

Tribal Student Achievement

Shóotaachi!

During the month of May, the American Indian Student Achievement team has focused on integrating new staff and expanding the former Tribal Relations and Resilience unit.  The work has primarily been centered on working with other members of the TSARR Unit to set goals and create plans for the upcoming year. The theme of the AISA teamwork planning has been Discovery.  In the coming months, the AISA team will work to discover the strengths and resiliency of our tribal students, their schools, and their communities in order to provide the best support for our students to define and achieve success. 

Language and Culture 

As the Summer Solstice approaches, it is a time that is set aside by many tribes for cultural activities celebrating life. Like many gatherings, the past few years have had an effect on our traditional gatherings, and this year we will safely meet again. Take some time to enjoy one or more of these activities happening near you. Check out the Pow Wow dates above. Also, we encourage everyone to enjoy our great outdoors and think about what it is you love about the outdoors that you can share with your students when they return. Helping our next generation get the immersion into land/place-based knowledge can help activate their sense of community as well as self-sustainability.

Our team is working to close out the MILP initiatives, welcoming in our new team member, Jay Eagleman, and setting plans to work with the Tribal Nations during the summer months. 

Pinamaya!

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