Episode Summary

In this episode, I, Mr. Funky Teacher, Nicholas Kleve, reflect on what I am learning about historical trauma and the Winnebago Tribe through the stories and wisdom of elder Sarah Snake. I begin with three things I am thankful for—thrift shops, books, and problem solving—and connect them to my larger journey of noticing, learning, and figuring things out alongside my students and their community.

I share what I learned as a new teacher in the Winnebago school district when Sarah spoke to us about her life, the tribe’s history, and the harm caused by forced relocation and boarding schools. I retell parts of her story about the Winnebago Trail of Tears, the loss of thousands of tribal members, being moved from woodland homelands into unfamiliar prairie land, and how abuse in boarding schools—including her grandmother’s tongue being burned for speaking Ho Chunk—created layers of historical and generational trauma that are still felt today.

I also highlight powerful cultural teachings Sarah shared with us: the importance of clans and elders, the spiritual world and practices around death, the significance of hair, smudging and prayer, gifting and teasing, and the struggle to preserve the Ho Chunk language with only a few fluent speakers left in Winnebago. I am honest that I am still learning, will get things wrong, and need grace as I grow in understanding.

I close by reflecting on what this means for my teaching. I talk about approaching Native students with empathy and curiosity, avoiding assumptions and stereotypes, integrating culturally relevant materials into my classroom, and viewing families as partners. I recognize that historical trauma is part of the story but not the ceiling on what students can become. When we teach with cultural respect and awareness, we not only support academic growth, we help heal, honor resilience, and strengthen the community we serve.

Show Notes

• I start by sharing three things I am thankful for: thrift shops where I find classroom treasures, books that open new worlds, and my ability to problem solve inside and outside the classroom.

• I introduce the focus of the episode as understanding historical trauma and sharing reflections from elder Sarah Snake as a lens for how teachers can work with Winnebago students.

• I describe Sarah Snake’s background as a Winnebago graduate and cultural steward and explain how she spoke about the Trail of Tears, forced relocations, and the loss of thousands of tribal members.

• I reflect on her stories about boarding schools, including her grandmother’s tongue being burned for speaking Ho Chunk and the punishment for Native language, jewelry, and powwow dancing.

• I share what she taught about Ho Chunk language loss and preservation, the limited number of fluent speakers in Winnebago, and the continued efforts to keep the language alive.

• I highlight cultural teachings about clans, respect for elders, family stepping in to raise children, and how friendly teasing often means you are accepted and liked in the community.

• I talk about the spiritual practices she described, including the importance of hair, smudging and prayer, four days of honoring a body after death, and beliefs about spirits, whistling at night, and covering mirrors.

• I connect these lessons back to my own teaching by emphasizing empathy, curiosity, reducing bias, integrating Winnebago culture into my classroom, and building true partnerships with Native families.

Key Takeaways

• I am learning that every Winnebago child carries some part of the tribe’s historical trauma, and I must keep that reality in mind while also seeing their strength, gifts, and potential.

• Listening to elders like Sarah Snake helps me better understand how forced relocation, boarding schools, language loss, and spiritual harm still affect the students and families I serve today.

• Cultural practices around language, hair, family, death, prayer, gifting, and teasing are central to identity, belonging, and relationship building with Native students.

• As a teacher, I need to approach Native students and families with empathy and cultural humility, avoid assumptions, and continually examine my own unconscious bias.

• When I integrate Winnebago history and culture into my classroom and engage families as partners, I move closer to teaching in a way that honors both historical trauma and the powerful resilience of the community.

This is Mr. Funky Teacher with BeAFunkyTeacher.com. I'm coming to you with another Be a Funky Teacher podcast.

This episode is going to be focusing on understanding historical trauma, lessons for teachers from the Winnebago Tribe. 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. It is sometimes hard for me to pay full price for stuff anymore. I work hard for my money, and if you can find some deals at a thrift shop, that is a win. My wife and I enjoy going to thrift shops sometimes to find treasures.

Last weekend we were able to find a couple of pieces of clothing and a few things I brought into my classroom to use. You just never know what you're going to find. Thrift shops—check them out.

Next thing: books, both fiction and nonfiction. I'm so thankful for books. They open up worlds and give fresh perspectives. I just love books.

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, to try to figure things out, is huge.

There’s a phrase that goes something like this: “Everything is figureoutable.” I find that to be true. You can figure out anything if you work through it, try possible solutions, and stay patient. I do have an ability to problem solve. It might not be rapid or instant, but once I work through a problem and look at it from different perspectives, I can figure out quite a bit.

All right, so let's get into the focus of this episode.

Sarah talked about her early childhood, her journey, and how she came to be someone who is deeply involved in sharing, promoting, and protecting the culture and history of the Winnebago Tribe. She is a steward of the tribe in many ways, celebrating the culture and talking about how the tribe came to be here on the reservation.

As I reflect on my notes and think about what she shared, I know I'm going to get some things wrong or incomplete. I’m going to do the best I can, but I’m not an expert on the Winnebago Tribe. I’m a teacher here who wants to learn as much as I can so I can uplift and support the tribe, the culture, the community, and the heritage. That’s what I’m aiming to do with this episode: to honor the tribe and culture by giving a little bit of exposure to it, while knowing I’m not doing it full justice. I ask for some grace if I don’t get everything exactly right.

She said they lost around 20,000 tribal members during their Trail of Tears, where they were forced to move. Because they were woodland people being moved into more prairie-type land, it was a very different environment. They weren’t used to the land, the food sources, the climate. That alone was deeply traumatic.

With my fifth graders in the past, I’ve talked about how that was part of the injustice of what happened to Native Americans: land stripped away and people forced onto reservations or into land they were not familiar with. You can’t take hundreds or thousands of years of knowledge of one place and then suddenly say, “Here’s a completely different place. Figure it out.” It is not that easy, and the Winnebago Tribe was not spared from that fate.

Sarah talked about historical trauma—the trauma their people faced and still face. She said anyone who is born a member of the Winnebago Tribe carries that generational, historical trauma as part of who they are. Their ancestors had everything taken from them. They were treated horribly: shot, hung, abused, stripped of language and culture.

She made a point that really stuck with me. She wondered why the Winnebago way of life was such a threat to the white people of the time. Whatever that perceived threat was, it created misunderstanding, fear, and hatred. As a result, the Winnebago Tribe was heavily marginalized and mistreated over generations. Every child born as Ho Chunk—every child born into the tribe—is shaped in some way by that historical trauma, from birth all the way to the elders.

Sarah told a story about her grandmother. Her grandmother’s tongue was literally burned because she spoke the Ho Chunk language in a boarding school here on the reservation. Her grandmother spoke Ho Chunk to a cousin, and some of the nuns burned her tongue as punishment. That is trauma, and it becomes part of the generational story.

The boarding school she referenced was St. Augustine Boarding School, a K–8 school here. Just being forced to attend a boarding school like that was confusing and traumatic, especially when it came with harsh punishment for practicing your own culture and language.

She also talked about how Winnebago Public Schools, at one time, had a lot of non-Native kids, particularly white farm kids from the country. Because it’s a public school, you don’t have to be Native to attend. Over time, there were boarding schools for Native children, and public schools that included both Native and non-Native kids. That shift created more layers of complexity and confusion for Native children trying to navigate identity and schooling.