The discussion presented by Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve, delves into the profound implications of historical trauma within the Winnebago community, drawing upon the enlightening perspectives shared by elder Sarah Snake. Central to our discourse is the assertion that acknowledging and honoring cultural heritage serves as a pivotal mechanism for enhancing teaching and learning experiences among Indigenous students. Sarah Snake elucidates the generational impacts of trauma, emphasizing that every member of the Winnebago tribe carries the weight of historical injustices, which continue to reverberate through their educational experiences. This episode underscores the necessity for educators to cultivate culturally responsive teaching practices that not only recognize but also celebrate the unique cultural identities of their students. Ultimately, our conversation invites educators to reflect on their roles in fostering an environment of trust, understanding, and empowerment, thereby contributing to the healing and resilience of the Winnebago community.

This episode offers a compelling exploration of historical trauma as recounted by Sarah Snake, an elder of the Winnebago tribe, and its profound implications for educators working with Indigenous students. Snake's narrative sheds light on the historical injustices that have shaped the experiences of the Winnebago people, particularly the impact of forced relocation during the Trail of Tears. This historical trauma is not an abstract concept; it is a lived reality that influences the very fabric of the community, affecting the emotional and psychological well-being of its members across generations. As educators, it is incumbent upon us to engage with these narratives with sensitivity and awareness, recognizing the historical context in which our students' lives are situated.

In addition to understanding historical trauma, the episode emphasizes the necessity of culturally responsive teaching practices that actively honor and incorporate the cultural identities of Indigenous students. Snake articulates the importance of integrating Indigenous perspectives and traditions into educational curricula, which not only validates the identities of these learners but also fosters a sense of pride and belonging. This integration is vital for breaking the cycle of trauma and creating a supportive educational environment where Indigenous students can thrive. The insights shared in this episode challenge us to reflect on our pedagogical approaches and consider how we can actively contribute to healing and empowerment through culturally informed practices, ultimately enriching the educational experiences of all students.

Takeaways:

• The concept of historical trauma profoundly impacts the educational experiences of Native students, specifically within the Winnebago community.
• Understanding the history of the Winnebago tribe fosters trust and strengthens relationships between educators and students.
• Culturally responsive teaching is essential for honoring the unique heritage and experiences of Indigenous students in the classroom.
• Generational trauma significantly affects the identity and experiences of individuals born into the Winnebago tribe today.
• Practices such as smudging are integral to the spirituality of the Winnebago people and can be incorporated into educational settings to promote cultural awareness.
• Educators must approach interactions with empathy and avoid assumptions regarding the backgrounds of Native American students.

Links referenced in this episode:

• beafunkteacher.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Be a Funky Teacher
• Winnebago Tribe
• Winnebago Public Schools
• St. Augustine Boarding School
• Ho Chunk

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Well, this episode is going to be focusing on understanding historical trauma lessons for teachers from the Winnebago Tribe.

That's right.

That's going to be my focus here.

But before I get into that topic, I want to talk about three things I'm thankful for.

First off, I'm thankful for thrift shops because you never know what treasures you'll find.

I so it's sometimes hard for me to pay full price for stuff anymore.

I work hard for my money and boy if you can find some deals at a thrift shop.

My wife and I do enjoy going to thrift shops sometimes to find some treasures.

We actually last weekend was able to find some some treasures, a couple of things that I a couple of pieces of clothing and then actually a few things I brought into my classroom too that I could use.

So you just never know what you're going to find.

Thrift shops.

Check them out.

Next thing.

Books, both fiction and non fiction, I'm so thankful for for books.

They they open up worlds and they give fresh perspective, perspectives.

Just love books.

And the third thing is my ability to problem solve.

It has saved me in the classroom and outside of the classroom more times than I can count.

Being able to work through and problem solve, try to figure things out.

There's some phrase that I've heard that goes something like this, everything is figureoutable and how true that is.

You can figure out anything and everything is kind of have to work through it and try to come up with possible solutions and be patient.

And I do have an ability to problem solve.

It might not be rapid, fast where I can give you a full blown answer on the spot if I have a problem but once I work through it and look at it from different perspectives.

I can work through a lot of problems.

All right, so let's get into the topic, the focus.

I had an opportunity in my beginning of the school year with being a new teacher here in, in the Winnebago school district to learn from an elder here in the community, a woman named Sarah Snake.

And she actually was.

She graduated and Sarah Snake, her name, that is Lightning Woman is kind of what the meaning behind her name.

Now, Sarah had gone through and had talked about her early childhood.

She talked about how she came to be in with.

Really, as someone who is very much.

I'm not quite sure if promoter is the right word.

She's almost a steward of the tribe in terms of promoting it, celebrating it, talking about the, the culture, the tribe, the.

The origins of how the tribe came about to be here on the reservation.

And it's interesting.

She.

Sarah Snake.

Here's one thing I want to say too, is as I'm reflecting on my notes and, and thinking about what Sarah Snake said, I'm probably going to get some stuff wrong.

I'm going to do the best I can to kind of reflect on my notes that I have.

And I know I'm not even going to do it justice because I am learning each day I'm learning more and more about the Winnebago tribe.

I am not an expert in the Winnebago tribe.

I'm just a teacher here in a district who wants to learn as much as I can to uplift and support, to embrace the tribe, the culture, the community, the heritage.

And that's what I'm aiming to do with this episode here, is to honor the tribe, the culture, just by giving a little bit of exposure to it, while still knowing that I'm probably not even beginning to do it justice.

So I asked for some grace if I do don't get it completely right.

Well, they had talked about they being.

Fort Thompson, South Dakota, the.

The.

And then getting on the Missouri river to where the Winnebago tribe is at now in Winnebago, Nebraska.

It's.

The Winnebago tribe is.

Is part of the Woodland Indians.

Sarah said it's.

Let's see.

Sarah had said that they lost 20,000 tribal members during the, the Trail of Tears.

Their Trail of Tears where they were forced to move.

And because they weren't used to the land, it's.

They were Woodland Indians and they were moving more into prairie type of land.

A very different type of environment.

And boy don't boy with fifth graders I've taught in the past, we've had that conversation where that was part of the injustice of what happened to Native Americans.

If they had their land stripped away and forced onto a reservation or forced into land that they were not familiar with.

It's not so easy to take hundreds and hundreds or even thousands of years of experience in one place and just all of a sudden here's a completely different type of environment.

Figure it out.

Type of.

Type of approach.

It's not that easy.

And you know, and Winnebago tribe was no.

Was not immune from that.

That fate, I guess, sadly.

Sarah Smith talked about the historical trauma that their people faced and still face.

She talked about anyone who's born a member of the Winnebago tribe.

It's that generational historical trauma that is part of who they are now because they had everything taken from them.

They were treated so badly.

And I mean they're shot, hung, abused.

So many things happened to them.

It.

Sarah Snake had had an interesting point that she made where.

Where she made a comment that she wondered why the Winnebago way of life was such a threat to white people of the time.

And Sarah thought it was the threat created misunderstanding.

Whatever the threat was, it created misunderstanding.

And as.

As a result, the.

The Winnebago tribe was very much marginalized, very much mistreated over the generations.

And so every child that's born as a Ho Chunk is.

Is a product of that historical trauma all the way from birth to the elders.

Sarah Snake talked about her grandmother's tongue being burned because she was speaking the Ho Chunk language when she.

Her grandmother was in.

They.

She talked about a boarding school that her grandmother was in here and on a reservation.

And her grandmother dared to speak Ho Chunk language to a cousin and the.

Some of the nuns burned her tongue as a result.

That ties into that.

Not to the trauma for her grandmother, but then that ties into that.

That historical trauma, that generational trauma that was almost baked into the what.

What the Winnebago tribe had to face.

I couldn't imagine having my tongue burned with hot coals because I speak another language.

It was.

It tied.

Was St. Augustine boarding school.

It was a K through 8 school here.

And you got to remember too that, you know, just.

Just the.

It just having to go to a Boarding school in that capacity was confusing enough just being almost forced to do that.

It couldn't have been a good situation.

Winnebago public school also kind of back there was a time when Winnebago public schools actually had a lot of non native kids.

Because this is a public school, so you don't have to be native to go here.

It's, it's a public school here, but it's.

I think you gotta live in the community.

I think so you don't have.

I'm not 100% sure how all of that aspect works.

I can't speak intelligently on that about living in a community or not living in a community.

If someone wanted, who was non native wanted to live in the community, I suppose you could, but I'm not sure about that.

But at one time the Winnebago school district had a lot of kids that were, were kids from the country that, that came here and went to school.

And then, but then they kind of.

In the 60s they had the, the boarding schools for the, the native kids.

Where, where we're sitting right now in the Winnebago, Nebraska, it's actually about three miles from the base of the Missouri River River.

And so like if you wanted to.

To, if you wanted to.

Once they moved here it was a little bit more hard.

It was more complicated.

If you wanted to travel via the like the Missouri river to the.

Travel somewhere.

Not that you couldn't.

Three miles, but it wasn't just like it was.

We're three miles still from the river.

Which, you know, three miles doesn't seem like much, but it's, it's not like we're on the river where you can just walk down and jump on it.

We're three miles from it.

I'm just kind of going through my notes here and Sarah Snake had talked about.

Oh, she talked a lot about how if, if you were a child and you spoke the Ho Chunk language, you, or if you wore any native jewelry or you dance powwow that you were told by the, by the people at the boarding school by, by the nuns that you would go straight to hell and that you would.

They even had a, A, a whipping stick for questions.

It's.

Sarah had talked about how there's 568 native tribes in the USA and they, they all believe in a crater.

I think the word is Mahona.

It's or a creator, a God.

They all believe in it and that in that.

Because we're on a reservation here, this Winnebago public Schools they do allow actually prayer in the Winnebago public schools, you get to pray to the Creator in Mahona.

And so that's kind of a, I found that to be kind of a unique thing in the, that's the unique thing in the Winnebago public so schools that they allow Frayer because of that fascinating to me.

And, and very very interesting.

And so Sarah when Sarah had mentioned that it wasn't back until it was.

It was kind of back in the 70s when while there was a, a white a lot of white farm kids were in Winnebago, the, the native kids that were here that were in the 70s then could kind of start practicing their culture.

So the 60s, not so much, but kind of once you got into the seventies, you, you could.

Sarah Snake talked about the, the Winnebago the Ho Chunk language is a hard language to learn.

She had talked about.

There's only really right here in, in the Winnebago community there's only two people who could who are fluent speakers in it.

And there's a younger person from my understanding, I think he's in his 20s and then there's an elderly woman and they're both fluent in the language.

There was another person, a third person, but that person had passed away.

I get from my understanding in Wisconsin there's a lot of fluent speakers in Ho Chunk because the, because well, the Winnebago tribe was moved.

There's still ties to Ho Chunk.

The, the, the tribe in Wisconsin is still kind of tied with Wisconsin.

I, I don't 100 know.

I 1 part of the the Ho Chunk was was moved.

I, I have to go back and, and look at that a little bit more as I, I'm not going to get all of the history right either.

That's something I'm still learning.

That's something I'm going to be still working on.

But there's still Ho Chunk who are in Wisconsin and they, they can speak Ho Chunk fluently.

But the Winnebago tribe, which is I think is part of the Ho Chunk is so who can still speak fluent Ho Chunk?

Quite a few in Wisconsin, but here not, not so many.

The Winnebago the people of Winnebago they're known as El Guaco.

It's E, L and then G, U, A, N, C, O I think is how it's said and it's known as the, the stinky water people is what that that translate to from my how I understood it.

And, and that might be not quite the Right spelling or the right.

Quite the right wording of it.

But El Guanco, now, Sarah is.

Is an elder in the community.

She.

She did a lot of moving when, when she was younger.

She.

But she's tried to hang on as much as she can to the culture and, and she has a native person trying to take in as much as she can.

She did talk about the.

The clans that share.

There's 12 clans that make up the Ho Chunk tribe, but there's no pigeon clan in Winnebago.

So there's only 11 clans that are represented here in the Winnebago community.

But there's actually 12 clans that make up the tribe.

And so Sarah Snake said that she's part of the Snake clan, but she said also that just because she.

She goes by Sarah Snake, just because that last name Stink doesn't guarantee that you're in the state clan.

And so I'm not 100% sure why that is that.

So I'm wondering if there's other people who have the last name Snake who are part of other clans here in the community.

I don't know that that's something that I'd love to ask her, but she says just because you have that last name Snake does not guarantee you're in the Snake clan.

And they were kind of, historically, they were kind of the cleaners of the village, did sanitation.

But once again, she did want to stress that the last name does not guarantee the clan association.

She.

Sarah Stink talked about the identity crisis that the.

The tribe went through with some of the.

The gang colors and with some of the youth, with some even like.

Like the break dancing era and with some things that the.

The youth have been.

That had gotten interested in and how it impacted powwow over the.

The generations that they've kind of gone through an identity crisis.

She kind of talked about how that kind of impacted the.

The tribe.

Sarah Stink talked about how as educators, she says, well, no will be able to recognize the kids who are taught and brought up with the culture of the Winnebago tribe.

Things like you'll be able to pick up on how important it is for the kids to respect their elders.

And she said it is important to respect the elders because they've been through life and, and that that is kind of ingrained in them from a young age as that we'll be able to see families who teach it.

Let's see here, Sarah.

Oh, Sarah talked about there's four families that make up the Snake family.

So she's part of the Snake Clan.

And there's four families that make up the Snake Clan here in Winnebago.

And then.

Oh, she talked about the Thunder Clan, actually, as it was known as the Chief Clan.

And actually the.

She had.

There's.

I think she said there's.

There's.

So they're really big on praying for safety.

And there's something with.

Praying with using tobacco and doing a prayer at the four, you know, like, four points of your home outside and doing some sort of prayer for safety, like if there's a storm coming up.

And she says that that is still a practice that with individuals who are associated with the Thunder Clan still do.

Do a prayer for safety with tobacco and the four points of the home.

So I found that interesting.

Sarah Snake talked about the.

The spiritual world that's so connected to the tribe and how.

How important death is with how everything stops for four days and that you actually, the native people spend four days with the body after death and that you're not allowed to play.

Kids aren't allowed to play outside after dark.

When there's a body above ground.

There's no whistling at night because that can call some evil spirits.

They.

They say that you should cover mirrors because then you're able to see some, possibly some spirits.

I. I don't know if the whistling at night calls evil spirits or if it just disrupts the spirits in general.

I don't know about that.

But it.

It's the.

The whistling at night can call the spirits is what she said.

And that would be interesting to learn more about their.

Their thinking in that.

Sarah talked about how the spirits are always there watching us, and that when there's.

There, it's.

It's even more closer.

They're more closer to us when there is a death and a body above ground.

You know, Sahara Snake sounds like she's retired now, but she was an HR director doing a lot of cultural events that happened.

She.

She actually, it f. One of the funniest things happened and it's not funny because it.

Interesting.

That might be the word.

More of the most interesting things is our.

Our superintendent here in Winnebago.

He.

He was.

I think he was at some sort of meeting and there was.

There was a.

An individual named Louis LaRose.

Louis LaRose.

Louis LaRose is a member of the Winnebago tribe and had told his superintendent, hey, he had a.

The superintendent had a really nice colorful shirt on.

And Louis LaRose said, Hey, I really like the shirt you have on.

And the superintendent didn't think anything of it Mr. Turner didn't think anything of it.

And then, and then this individual named Louis Laro said again later on during the meeting, hey, I really like that shirt.

That's, that's really nice looking shirt.

And so Sarah Snake at a break had pulled our superintendent aside and said, hey, do you have another shirt here or like, like a sweater or something you can put on?

Yeah, give him your shirt.

And, and, and, and, and, and the superintendent is like, what?

Give him a, he's like, yeah, that's, that's a thing in our culture is if someone is very complimentary of a piece of clothing that you're wearing.

You.

Should give it to him.

Now the only exception is like if it was a gift, if it was a special gift to you or it, it has ver is extremely sentimental to.

And, and so the, the superintendent went, I just bought this shirt because I, I like the colors of it.

And she says, well, give it to him then.

If it wasn't a gift or it wasn't very extremely sentimental, give it to him then.

And, and he did, he went and swapped up his shirt, put a shirt on that wasn't, didn't quit fit quite right, I guess, and, and gave him this colorful shirt to Louis LaRose.

So in that, and so Sarah Snake shared that story with us about the superintendent starting to learn about the culture.

Because our superintendent here in the district, he's not native either.

And so he's been learning a lot about the culture as well in the years that he has been here.

And so I, I did not know that.

I actually shared that with my wife.

My wife has done a lot of work here in the community in the past, not so much anymore.

She's.

My wife is a pediatric physical therapist, so she's, she does a lot of work in a neighboring school district, one that I taught in for quite a 22 years, but she did do a lot of work here in, in prior years and, and didn't actually know that that that was kind of part of the culture.

So you know, that's a little different.

And, and that's, but that's, that's a part of the culture Sarah Snake had.

Looking here, going through some notes here.

Sarah Snake had talked about how family is so important.

She says how she's got hundreds of kids call her grandma or auntie or Chewy.

She, she talked about she's got 26 biological grandchildren, but hundreds of children call her grandma or anti or Chewy and a term of endearment and that it's really family works Together.

If, let's say, if there's a parent or parents that aren't able to raise their children, let's say if they're facing some sort of challenge of some sort, aunts, grandparents step in to really help with the children.

That's something that's very important here in a tribe.

Sarah also talked about hair, like hair being so important, especially for young men, because that holds like, the power of the young men and that cutting of hair is kind of ties back to that historical trauma because that's what they did in boarding schools, cutting the hair of the young men.

From my understanding, I don't think the, the, the.

The power in the hair doesn't lie as much in women's hair, I don't think.

But in men, like men's hair, that's like they, like she said that, that men gain strength from their hair.

It's kind of believed in their culture.

And even.

I don't know if that.

I, I think it's.

That's mostly men, but I, I don't.

I'd almost have to ask.

Ask Sarah if it's all.

If, if, if women.

I.

Because it almost made she.

It almost made it seem like women believe that you gain strength from here too.

I'll have, I'll have to ask Sarah.

I'll have to ask someone else here who knows a lot about the culture here if they can kind of clarify that for me.

But I know for.

I, I know it's for the men for sure, but I think it actually might be for the women too, that there's.

You gain strength from the hair.

Because she, she gave an example of a person who was fighting cancer and the, The.

The person was losing their hair and at the, at the.

Getting a haircut because of all the hair falling out.

They collected the hair and kept it.

The, the individual fighting cancer because having that hair is like holding under your power.

And so Sarah said, don't touch hair of kids.

Just you.

You need permission to touch hair.

It, it.

If it needs to be combed.

You need permission from like the mother.

Even amongst the tribe, like Sarah talked about an example of.

There was a young man who wanted Sarah to help fix her.

This young man's hair.

Someone she knew.

And she says, no, I need.

Need permission.

And she ended up having to get permission from the young man.

Like he's in his 20s, but he had to get permission.

She had to get Sarah Snake had to get permission from the, the young man's mother.

He wasn't married yet, so if he had, he been married, Sarah Snake would have had to get permission from the man's wife to touch his hair if she wanted to do anything with it, with, with styling it or putting it in a certain way.

But since he hadn't been married yet, he got permission from.

Sarah Snake had got permission from.

From the mom or grandma.

I can't remember which it was.

So Sarah Snake said don't touch kids's hair or, you know, or, and, and.

And playing the safe side or if you do, you have to get permission.

She even said there, there something with nail clippings.

Keeping nail clippings with the hair too.

And, and that I, I'd like to.

I'd like to get some more information than that because I don't fully understand that if that's something that is.

Is a very common practice too or not.

But it sounds like with all Native tribes that the hair is something that is very taken very serious with, with power with young men.

I think it's with.

With women too, but I'm not sure.

Sarah talked about some different movie.

Like one movie she talked about that, that she said be careful about, like watching movies that represent Native people in where it's not factual information.

She said one movie she referenced that does a pretty good job with it is Dancing with Wolves.

Sarah actually did.

It was kind of an interesting thing too during the.

She did a prayer and a smudging where you can use cedar or like a sage stick instead of like a cedar coals, but you use an eagle feather and you bless four directions.

And when you use a sage stick, it's sometimes mistaken as marijuana where it'll smell like marijuana, but it's.

It's not it and it's a smudging and it's a.

And so Sarah actually during this where she was talking to the.

The new teachers of the district did a prayer for us there, for all new teachers, for understanding, for helping us to work with students who are coming to us with tough home lives and just success, working with the children.

And so I, that was really.

I thought that was nice that we got to see her do a smudging there.

I'd like to learn more about that too, because that was.

That was just really neat that I don't feel like I know enough about the smudging and how that works.

But it was tied with the prayer and in a way of.

Of just.

It's just like a ceremony, like a, like a mini ceremony.

I, I really, I really thought it was neat.

Sarah Snake talked about.

Let me see here.

Oh, she Talked about tribal enrollment cards to, to show association to the tribes.

And let's see.

I'm.

Oh, to go back to the smudging, she says it's really important when.

During the smudging, it's really important to smell the stuff being burnt, the sage being burnt.

And that's how you're.

You're.

When you smell it, you're receiving the.

The.

The.

The prayer and it's.

And because if we can smell it, then they said, like God or the Creator is able to.

To smell it.

So it, it's kind of.

Kind of the background there.

Sarah talked about.

Oh, Sarah talked about the clan.

You're associated with it.

Because if you're.

If there's like inner tribal parents or inner clan parents, you are.

You are associated with the clan that your father is.

Sarah also talked about as.

As educators here, if we encounter some.

Some teasing or someone's joking with us, that means that they like us.

Not bullying.

But she says if they're.

If people in.

In who are Native in.

In Winnebago are like, joking with us or kind of friendly teasing us.

Yeah, that means they like us.

If they're not teasing us or joking with us, then she says, be worried.

So Sarah Snake, what an.

What a fascinating human being.

I hope to get to talk with her much more.

I was fascinated to learn about.

Not only is Sara Snake a respected community voice in the Winnebago tribe, getting to hear her talk about that historical trauma and historical trauma in the community, the historical trauma in education, its impact on the Native American community here and how it even shows up in schools today, and talking about the generational experiences tied to historical trauma, I found that extremely valuable.

I. I guess some key things from Sarah Snake talking to us is the importance of learning the history of the community that promotes trust.

As I continue to learn and grow in the community and what I know about the.

And the, The Native culture here, the Winnebago culture, that helps build trust between me and.

And the tribe and the.

The members of the tribe.

It's also important.

Another key lesson for me to take away here is understanding how trauma can be passed through the generations and through even children who aren't even born yet.

And that there's so many classroom practices that I can bring in that can honor and uplift Native voices.

You know, that, That, I think was what Sarah Snake was really trying to get at with her, with what she was sharing.

And then I. I'm thinking about, you know, what are some practical tips for teachers working with Native American Students, you know, what, what are something that.

Now I, I don't know if, if you're listening to this and you work with native students or if you work with a, a marginalized group, which, which you might.

One thing that, there's several things I'm going to do that you might find useful.

One thing is I'm going to approach every student interaction with empathy and curiosity.

I'm going to avoid assumptions about home life or experiences.

I have to be really careful to not stereotype in my head or to bring in assumptions.

Now, you know, we could get into a whole discussion about bias, unconscious bias versus conscious bias.

I need to.

Everybody has a degree of unconscious bias, but I do need to work really hard on being careful around my bias and being careful around making assumptions and stereotypes as I'm continuing to learn and grow in my understanding about the tribe.

And then I, I want to work really hard to integrate culturally relevant material into lessons.

I already have some items hanging up in my classroom that relate to the windbag tribe specifically.

And I, and there's, there's something that, that I'm working on that I really want to bring into my classroom that I think will be beneficial for like a daily thing or a daily and weekly thing where it brings in information about the Winnebago tribe to help me learn and to help my, my fifth graders learn as well.

So I'm excited about that and maybe I'll have to talk about that in a future episode and then I'm going to continue to.

I've just started this work, but I'm going to work really hard in engaging with families as partners in education.

And if I come at them in a way where I'm hey, we're partners.

Not me as an educator and you just kind of off here to the side.

But I approach it as, hey, we're partners in this together.

I think there's going to be a lot of, I'm going to be a lot more successful as an educator there.

You know, Sarah Snakes, just reflecting personally on Sarah Snake and what she said here.

The biggest thing that stood out is about the historical trauma and just remembering that historical trauma is burnt into the, into the, the, the tribe's existence here in Winnebago, Nebraska.

I mean, and it's, it's not that, but, but also it's, it's not that it's part of the story of the Winnebago tribe.

It's not.

But it's not also like a self fulfilling prophecy where it's like that will that that.

That mean that's, that's an excuse for not thriving?

No.

And there's so many members of the tribe here who are experiencing so much success, whether they're living right here in a community or they moved away from the reservation and are doing great things.

There's a lot of Ho Chunk Native people from the Winnebago tribe here in Winnebago, Nebraska, who are inspiring greatness in the world, who are changing the world and doing really impactful things.

And so while the historical trauma, the historical mistreatment of the Native people here, the Winnebago tribe is part of their story, it's not part of their.

It's not a part of what's going to determine if they're.

They're successful or not.

And I think they know that just listening to Sarah Snake talk.

But it is, but it is part of their story that they tell and that they share and is important for them to.

To have remembered about how it impacted them and, and that they've had to have resilience through that mistreatment.

And, you know, if someone would say, just get over it, you know, that, that, that's a disrespect to, to them and what they had to endure and experience.

I'm also gonna really, just my personal reflection here.

I enjoyed the smudging.

I want to learn more about the smudging because that's something I, I still feel like I could learn more about.

And, and because I think that could be a powerful thing to even have some individuals from the tribe do some smudgings for our fifth grade class.

And so I'm excited to explore that more.

And just having this knowledge, this information from Sarah Snake and the other information that I will continue to get that's going to just help me to build relationships with students because my ultimate goal is to help set students up for success so they can impact the future.

But I can't do that if I don't build relationships with them.

And I can't build relationships with them if I don't take into consideration how important the culture is to the tribe and how important it is to.

Going back to the.

The war chief 150 years ago to educate our children, because they're the.

They are the future.

And you know, that.

That, that proclamation, that decree that, that order of, hey, educate our children and just getting to be a part of that is, is building those relationships in order we.

To get to the, to the academic stuff, that is also very important.

We've.

We've got to get to some of those soft skills, too.

And.

And to get to the.

Addressing the mental health and the emotional health, to get to the other things.

Well, I. Sarah Snake's message was a reminder that teaching is about more than lesson plans.

It's about understanding the whole child in a community they come from.

When we teach with cultural respect and awareness, we not only educate, we help heal and strengthen.

So with that being said, remember to inspire greatness in young people.

And don't forget to be a funky teacher.

Bye now.

He's Mr. Funky teacher, yeah he's Mr. Funky teacher,.

Yeah.