Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Camp teacher Kalʌna Niko Lee Daniels asked the MPS students with her in a circle a question: “With our dance steps, we are trying to look like what?” “A robin!” the students answered.
A group of MPS Native students were in a classroom with Daniels at Mequon Nature Preserve for the First Nations Studies Seeds of Culture Camp. The 4th through 8th graders had just had a lunch of wild-rice chili and blanket dogs (a hot dog wrapped in fry bread), plus fresh cucumber spears, and more. The mother of Daniels’ fellow camp teacher, Audra Two Thunders, prepared lunch for the children.
Seeds of Culture Camp, with its many activities and lessons, is organized by the First Nations Studies program at MPS. The main purpose of the camp is to put Native culture at the forefront for a week of learning, but it also gives Native students — usually scattered at schools throughout MPS — an opportunity to gather. The camp is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Indian Education.
Camp began on Monday, June 24, and by Wednesday, the students were well into learning the Oneida/Haudenosaunee robin dance from Daniels, a teacher from Indian Community School in Franklin.
An oral tradition
She learned the dance herself 45 years ago, when she attended Oneida tribal school, she said, noting that the lessons were all oral, not written, and passed down through generations. The Oneida Nation is one of the Six Nations, or Iroquois Confederacy, that make up the Haudenosaunee.
The dance’s sideways steps, to the backdrop of Daniels’ shaking of a traditional rattle, mimicked the robin’s steps as the bird hunts for food. Periodically, the students stamped their feet in unison, signifying the robin’s finding a worm or other morsel.
After practicing indoors, they were ready to perform the dance outdoors. Daniels told them as they filed out the door, “We need to be mindful of who’s living out there” —that is, to be respectful of the birds, animals, and insects.
“We’re going to sing to the robins and all the birds,” she told the children. Daniels’ strong, clear voice rang out the traditional lyrics for the robin dance. At one point, she noted nearby robins and other birds were singing, too. “Did you hear that?” she asked the students. “Isn’t it pretty?”
As she continued singing, she noticed that the students were singing along for the first time during the camp. Afterward, Daniels observed, “That’s pretty good! They’re getting comfortable with it.”
“It’s inside them,” noted Richanda Kaquatosh, Supervisor of MPS First Nations Studies. The lesson drew out students’ innate connection to their culture, she said. 
Hannah Perez Edwards, a 4th grader from Humboldt Park School, enjoyed learning the robin dance for two reasons. “I get to know our culture,” she said, adding, “And I love the movement.”
All about culture
The one-week camp at Mequon Nature Preserve immerses 17 students in lessons on Native culture and cultural practices. Even the foods served at lunch resonate culturally, such as the wild rice in the chili and the fry bread.
“Knowing their Native culture is grounding for our children," Kaquatosh said, stressing its importance in their education.
In addition to Daniels and Two Thunders, who led Ojibwe teachings and taught students how to make leather medicine pouches, other teachers and cultural consultants visited the camp to instruct the students.
For instance, Christina Ramirez of Indian Community School taught printmaking around traditional medicines, and other art projects; Amy Tromp, of the Oneida Nation, led lessons about the First Nations in Wisconsin; Paul Ninham, who also is Oneida, taught the students Indigenous games, including lacrosse; and John Teller Sr, a Menominee elder, gave lessons on Menominee culture.
Lessons in nature
Staff from the nature preserve also led students in outdoor activities daily, at the preserve’s small forest, wetlands, and prairie, allowing them to engage with nature. First Nations Studies has an ongoing partnership with Mequon Nature Preserve, and the preserve was a partner in Seeds of Culture Camp.
Having the camp at the preserve, with the great outdoors at the children’s doorstep, was key, Kaquatosh said. With the preserve providing a vast outdoor classroom, students learned about plants native to the area, about traditional ecological knowledge, and how their ancestors lived and nurtured the land.
“First Nations Studies students are learning to be stewards of nature,” another bond to their culture and heritage, Kaquatosh said. “In Native cultures, everyone and everything is connected.”
“What we are doing here with this cultural camp and with the MPS First Nations Studies program is nurturing our future leaders,” Kaquatosh said.