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How do you get students to remember what they learn? According to Gladys Hawk, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, you tell them a story.

Hawk is one of dozens of tribal elders featured on the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction鈥檚 website, which now boasts more than 350 videos.

In an played for educators at the Department of Public Instruction鈥檚 annual Indian Education Summit in Bismarck on Friday, Hawk spoke of the bedtime stories her grandmother would tell her in Lakota growing up.

Hawk said at the end of each tale, her grandmother would tie in an important life lesson.

鈥淪he would say, 鈥楢nd that鈥檚 why I want you to be good 鈥� don鈥檛 be like this one in the story,鈥欌�� said Hawk. 鈥淲e have to listen to what our elders have to say, because usually they鈥檙e teaching us something important.鈥�

Sharla Steever and Scott Simpson, who worked on the videos for North Dakota鈥檚 Native American Essential Understandings project, shared Hawk鈥檚 interview as one example of how attendees can integrate Native culture and history into the classroom.

鈥淵ou can pull those stories in any time you want, if you want to focus in on a concept or a theme or something historical that the elder is speaking about,鈥� Steever said of the Teaching of Our Elders videos.

Steever said in her experience, storytelling helps to create a sense of community in the classroom. Kids tend to retain information if they have a personal anecdote to connect it to, she said.

Under a law adopted by the state Legislature in 2021, K-12 schools in North Dakota are required to teach Native history. The website is one of a number of resources the Department of Public Instruction鈥檚 Office of Indian and Multicultural Education has developed that can support schools in this area, Steever said.

She said the Department of Public Instruction is still doing interviews with elders from time to time. However, it can be difficult to arrange.

While the agency likes to give elders who participate a stipend, there鈥檚 not a ton of funding available, Steever said.

鈥淭here鈥檚 never really been a budget for that,鈥� she said. The department also has to squeeze in time for the interviews around its other work, she added.

Steever said she鈥檚 working on an additional set of video interviews with Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate elders.

Haiden Person, a recent graduate from Bismarck High School and the conference鈥檚 youth speaker, said Friday that teaching more Native American culture and history in schools is key to combatting anti-Indigenous racism.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 know it鈥檚 wrong, you鈥檝e just got to teach them,鈥� said Person, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Person recently graduated from Bismarck High School and plans to attend United Tribes Technical College in the fall. Person said mental health is an issue close to his heart, and that he plans to become a psychiatrist.

The summit also welcomed Daniel Kish, an expert in human echolocation 鈥� using sound to locate objects 鈥� and president of World Access for the Blind, for a keynote address.

Kish has been blind since he was a year old. He said he gained the ability to echolocate because his parents wanted him to be self-sufficient despite his disability. He now helps teach the skill to other blind people.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an ability that provides you with awareness of the environment that鈥檚 way out beyond the length of your cane,鈥� he said.

He said a broader goal of his is studying how people develop a sense of personal identity and agency. Kish said he appreciated hearing Person talk about mental health and the importance of leaning on others in your community.

鈥淗aiden had it right, don鈥檛 be afraid to ask for help,鈥� Kish said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. North Dakota Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Amy Dalrymple for questions: [email protected].

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