UPDATE, 9/16. 2021:
The march and other objections to the SDDOE standards appear to have prompted a change/ For Keloland, Bob Mercer reports in Social studies hearing to get larger venue, new date:
The South Dakota Department of Education announced Tuesday night a five-week delay and a move to a larger venue in Aberdeen for the first public hearing on controversial proposed content standards for social studies.
The hearing before the state Board of Education Standards was supposed to be Monday, September 20, at Holgate Middle School theater. The new plan sets it for October 25 at the Ramkota Convention Center in Aberdeen.
A state law requires at least four public hearings over the course of six months on changes to content standards. The law, first passed in 2012 and amended in 2014 and 2017, requires hearings in Aberdeen, Pierre, Rapid City, and Sioux Falls.
An accompanying law passed in 2014 requires at least 30 days of public notice for a hearing on content standards.
The changes for the social studies standards came one day after a protest march in Pierre against the department’s removal of dozens of references to Native American culture from a draft version that a team of teachers, historians and others had assembled at the department’s invitation. . . . [end update]
In mid-August, we posted South Dakota's cancel culture triumphs in state DOE social studies standards revision about the removal of nearly all references to the Oceti Sakowin Oyate [Seven Council Fires] and other indigenous groups in the state from a working group's social studies teaching standards.
Now, South Dakota's Lakota high school students are organizing against the erasure of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate [Seven Council Fires] from the state's teaching standards--and marched yesterday in the rain to voice their objections.
There's the Lakota Empowerment Club at Central High in Pierre. At KEVN/Black Hills Fox, Miranda O'Bryan reports in Central High School students stage walkout to support teaching Native American history:
As the South Dakota Department of Education prepares to make a decision on public school social studies standards, people across South Dakota raised their voices, hoping to express their opinion on the potential removal of Native American history from schools.
Students of all races gathered outside of Central High School, voicing their opinion on the South Dakota Department of Education’s proposed removal of Native American history from social studies standards.
“It’s important that we know where we come from and it’s especially important for the students who don’t necessarily have a traditional background, don’t have a traditional household that they can turn to and ask questions to so at school that’s really all that they get,” said student and member of Lakota Empowerment Club, Adriana Young.
“Our school is very diverse and I think to take away one part of that diversity is crazy,” said students and club members Keera Taylor and Star Sharp Fish. “We all want to learn about each other. I want to know everything about my peers. So if a part of that was taken from me, it doesn’t make sense to me at all. The option just being gone is unthinkable.”
“When I heard about what they were doing to basically what happened to us, all the genocide, the residential schools, and everything they’ve done, it hurt my hear to hear it because it’s part of who we are, it goes back generations and whenever they said we were going to get together, and do something, I was all for it,” added Niyah Dukes, CHS student and Lakota Empowerment Club member.
Lakota Empowerment Club, a new group at CHS, staged the walkout with the help of NDN Collective, who were in Pierre speaking out as well.
Young said it’s important to stand up for what you believe in and Dejarae Little Bull agreed.
“Don’t be afraid to use your voice,” continued Young. “Don’t be scared of what other people think. When you do something that may seem small to you, it can mean a lot to a lot of people. Stand up for what you believe in.”
“I remember, Kristi Noem said she wanted to broaden what we learn in history and I just think that removing the standards in contradictory to what she said because we have a large and plentiful culture here in South Dakota,” said Dejarae Little Bull, CHS student and club member. “We have all of our tribes and the reservations and learning about that, not just to Native kids, kids of other ethnicities, it’s important for them to learn that.”
Rapid City Area Schools superintendent Dr. Lori Simon put out a statement saying, in part, “I have concerns about the recent revisions to the social studies content standards.”
And about the group that took part in and drafting the standards for review, Dr. Simon said, “In discussions with some of the educators on the committee, I have heard that many felt their expertise and work was discounted. Perhaps most importantly, the group felt key references and facts about Native American history were omitted.”
Here's the NDN Collective's livestream of the march and rally, narrated by Sarah Sunshine Manning:
On a day in which the heavy rain caused our satellite to blink off and on here in Summit, we're impressed by the resolve of these young people and their "allies and accomplices."
At the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, Morgan Matzen reports in Oceti Sakowin March for Our Children demands Indigenous history education for all of South Dakota:
The South Dakota Education Equity Coalition is calling on Gov. Kristi Noem, South Dakota Department of Education Secretary Tiffany Sanderson and other government officials to resign after the DOE removed more than a dozen references to the Oceti Sakowin before releasing proposed social studies standards a month ago.
More than 200 marchers walked, drummed and rode horses Monday across Pierre as part of the Oceti Sakowin March for our Children, demanding Indigenous history education for all ahead of multiple public hearings expected for the proposed standards, which start next week in Aberdeen, before they're finalized.
Sarah White, the coalition's director, said the demands are listed as follows:
- Make Oceti Sakowin Essential Understanding standards mandatory
- Move the office of Indian Education back to the DOE
- Honor laws with tribal consultation on education
- Study session to enable opportunities for school choice
- Demand for resignation of Noem; Sanderson; Secretary David Flute, from Department of Tribal Relations; and Fred Osborn, the director of the Office of Indian Education
Several students also spoke during the protest, including Ochankowin Chasing Hawk from Dupree High School. She said she had to teach her own classmates about the Dakota 38, the 38 men who hanged in the nation's largest mass execution in 1862 as part of convictions tied to the aftermath of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. It wasn’t taught in her school, she said. . . .
Read the rest at the Argus Leader.
At the Capital Journal, Michael Woodel reports in Protesters march through Pierre to oppose Oceti Sakowin removal from social studies standards:
After the Pierre Police Department escort and mounted horse riders passed by, at least 100 marchers on foot made their way through Pierre on Monday. They let the children lead the way.
The march winding its way from Steamboat Park to Hilger’s Gulch was led by the children of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate, otherwise known as the People of Seven Council Fires or the Sioux Nation.
The children at the head of Monday’s march carried a banner that read “Oceti Sakowin Past. Present. Future.” They also waved signs that called on South Dakota’s leadership to “Honor Indigenous Leadership In State Decision Making,” something many Native Americans in South Dakota have voiced as lacking in 2021.
Afternoon rain dampened the route for Monday’s protesters, who marched down Dakota Avenue and up Highland Avenue across Pierre’s main stretch of Sioux Avenue to Hilger’s Gulch, not far from the South Dakota Department of Education building on Governors Drive.
The march, organized by Rapid City-based groups South Dakota Education Equity Coalition and NDN Collective, protested the South Dakota Department of Education’s draft social studies content standards published for public feedback on Aug. 6, which removed almost all mentions of the Oceti Sakowin Oyate included in the July 26 draft. . . .
There's more at the Capital Journal.
Let's hope all South Dakota children gain the opportunity to learn a robust version of South Dakota social studies, rather than the thin gruel the Department of Education drained out of the working group's rich stew.
Photo: NDN Collective leads the march through the rainy streets of Pierre, South Dakota. Erin Bormett/Argus Leader.
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