Red Lake Nation College makes changes

Ojibwe Language Classes to be offered in January 2004

By Michael Barrett

Freelance Writer

            Since Renee Gurneau was hired by the Red Lake Tribe to take over the Red Lake College a month or so ago, some changes went into place almost immediately.

            One of the changes was the formation of the Red Lake Nation College Board of Directors. Those Board members consist of Eugene Stillday, Chair; Larry Stillday, Vice-Chair and Spiritual Advisor; Sandra King, Secretary/Treasurer; Judy Roy, Ex-Officio; Darren Defoe, Drum-keeper; and Board Members Stuart Desjarlait, Michelle Pacquin, Tom Barrett, Vicky Fineday and Giles Hart.

            Classes will be starting January 13, 2004, with Ojibwe Language I taught by Vivian Stately, Introduction to Anishinabe Studies with Renee Gurneau, College Writing Itaught by Mary Ringhand , Algebra I instructed by Ken McBride, Introduction to Computers, Ojibwe Art Moccasin Making with Vivian Stately, and a Drum Course coordinated by Darin Defoe.

            Red Lake Nation History, Ojibwe Language II, College Writing II, Algebra II, Intermediate Computers and Ojibwe Art will be offered in the fall semester of 2004.

            “We’ll have a full curriculum,” Gurneau said in an interview on Monday, September 22, 2003 at the college. “And we’re following the basic parameters of what’s called the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Agreement. That is that all of the Minnesota College and Universities (MNSCU) have basic parameters which is outcome based education. There’s this agreement that the line of education follows the same kind of basic outcomes.”

            This was what all the colleges and universities followed.

            “So we’re keeping our classes within those parameters while still offering classes that strengthen and empower Red Lake Anishanabe identity,” she said. “What that means then, and because we’re following this relationship–this mentoring agreement–which moves into articulation with BSU, that every class that we offer will be for full credits and transferable to any other institution of higher learning anywhere.”

            In talking about Red Lake Nation College becoming an accredited college, she said accreditation was a very long process. There were a lot of requirements. She said they were going to follow the guidelines that would lead them to accreditation. The mentoring agreement with BSU was one way of doing that.

            “To make sure our classes stay within those guidelines, and to follow what North Central–they have a lot of requirements,” she explained. “North Central accreditation requires that you have a full and active board–which we have now and it’s an excellent Board. Our Board is real active, real committed. We have Eugene Stillday as our Chairman and he really keeps us on track. He’s a wonderful Board Chair.”

            Leech Lake College has been in existence for thirteen years and have just achieved candidacy.

            They had the curriculum in place and were still looking for a computer instructor. They were hoping to find a Red Lake member to fill that position.

            “So we’re ready, we’ve been working really hard, and we hit the ground running,” she said. “We have two drums that came to us, one is a Traditional Drum that has to be treated a certain way, and we had ceremonies for those drums. Darin Defoe is our drum-keeper. We’re following those traditions very respectfully.”

            It wasn’t known at the time if any other colleges did anything like this. Gurneau said when she was first having discussions about moving into her new position, and she was asked by some Council members on what would be the absolute first thing that needed to happen.

            “I said, we need to have d rum,” she said. “A drum is the heart of the Anishinabe people, it pulls everyone together, it brings people in. So, within a couple of days, actually two drums came to us right away. It feels blessed–we feel like we’re blessed.”

            She said they worked hard every day and were trying to pull the financial aspect of the college together. They will be writing more grants in trying to get on top of the finances.

            “We opened up the space and people can come in and out (of the college),” she said. “But now people are coming in and out of here all day.”

            They did receive an award letter for the computer lab former President Michael Price spoke about, but haven’t ordered them just yet. They will do so once the details are worked out with Tribal officials in administering that grant.

            There was mention of a Website for the college, but so far no site could be found with basic searching techniques. There is the possibility it could exist within another site. Gurneau said she did not know if one existed at the time.

            No classes are currently being conducted right now at the college, for which Gurneau said the Board made the decision not to offer any more dead-end classes–classes that weren’t going anywhere, that couldn’t be transfered, there were no transferable credits involved.

            “So what they decided to do, was to not offer classes this semester, while we rebuilt the whole infrastructure of the college and we developed our transfer agreements,” she said. “And that to develop the A. A. degree program, so that it’s not just a bunch of disconnected classes, but that people could come in and actually start designing their degree.”

            Gurneau said all of the Chemical Dependency employees on this Reservation are required to have their A. A. degree. That was something new and a requirement now. They all would be coming through the college and she was working with that program.

            “On the second week in October the financial aid people from New Beginnings–Peggy Whitefeather and Tammy Beaulieu–will be coming here two days a week to have people come in and do their financial aid and registration.”

            She wasn’t sure the exact days, but they would post it when they knew them.

            “It takes about at least 3-6 years to achieve candidacy (in the accreditation process),” Gurneau. “There was so much you had to do. You have to really show that you are a viable institution of higher learning in order to achieve accreditation. It’s a long, long process. But we’re going to start out right. We’re going to start out fulfilling those requirements from the very beginning, rather than doing something and having to backtrack. We want to start out right so Red Lake people are not wasting their time, and they’re not wasting their money.”

            In the past two years people that took previous Red Lake Nation College courses, none of those credits transfer anywhere. In January, when they start their spring semester, all of the credits will transfer anywhere.

            Twelve credits of classes were considered a full time student.

            Gurneau said they were going to offer refresher math and English in the summer months. A refresher course was not for credits, but it gave a person the opportunity to brush up on their skills so they could move their skills up to the college level.

            “Many of us, our skills–my math skills are the worst,” she said.

            In the Drum class, it dealt in singing, learning a lot about the different kinds of drum, and also learning about the history of the drum in Red Lake.

            “Darin will be coordinating it, but there will be a serious of speakers that are going to come in and share the information that they have about the history of the drum in Red Lake,” she said. “Because Red Lake has more drums than almost any Reservation. We have a powerful thing in history here. And even during the really dark days in the late 40s and 50s when everything was against the law, Red Lake still had powwows, we still had the drum. When other places didn’t have it, people would come over here from far away to listen, to be around that drum. The drum has always been a source of strength for us.”

            Many people didn’t think of it that way, or know the history of the drum–and even more so the history of the drum in Red Lake.

            Defoe was developing his curriculum now, but the other part of what he was going to be doing as a collaboration with the Prevention Program, is that he would be using the small drum to teach younger ones, singing, a couple nights a week–or anyone who wanted to learn.

            “Ojibwe Language, the Red Lake History and Anishinabe Studies are required for every full-time student,” Gurneau said. “The Introduction to Anishanabe Studies was a prerequisite to Red Lake History and would be offered in the Fall Semester of 2004.”

            She said she would probably be overseeing the Red Lake History class, but it was a collaboration with a lot of different people coming in and sharing what they knew.

            They wold probably be doing those types of classes on film, also.

            Gurneau said she has been invited to present in front of the Executive Board of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) in Greensboro, North Carolina, on October 31, 2003 regarding Red Lake Nation College, to eventually work towards membership. They were looking at membership in that organization in a year.

            AIHEC is a unique—and uniquely American Indian—organization, founded in 1972 by the presidents of the Nation’s first six Tribal Colleges, formed as an informal collaboration among member colleges. Today, AIHEC has grown to represent 34 colleges in the United States and one Canadian institution. Unlike most professional associations, it is governed jointly by each member institution.

            The mission of AIHEC is to support the work of these colleges and the national movement for tribal self-determination. Its mission statement, adopted in 1973, identifies four objectives: maintain commonly held standards of quality in American Indian education; support the development of new tribally controlled colleges; promote and assist in the development of legislation to support American Indian higher education; and encourage greater participation by American Indians in the development of higher education policy.

            To become a member of that organization there are many requirements also. But it will be the first step in presenting to them.

            “One of the really statistics about tribal colleges, is that when reservation members go to mainstream higher education, we have about a 15% success rate of completeion,” she said. “In tribal colleges here at home, we have an 85% rate. That’s a huge difference. People are strengthened and empowered by having things delivered to them right at home. It was a drive to go to Bemidji.”

            She said that a college in Red Lake would help to keep the education money on the reservation. Almost all of that funding paid to institutions of higher learning are off the reservation.

            “So now this is an opportunity for the education money to circulate within the community,” she said.

            They were anticipating a conservative estimate of about fifty people, but were thinking it would probably be more than that.

            Gurneau said that starting on Saturday, September 27, is the opening of the American Indian Resource Center in Bemidji. The Red Lake Nation College Drum was the host drum for the opening powwow, as well as the host drum for the whole conference. It was their first outside activity. Eugene Stillday was the MC for the powwow as well.

            On that following Monday on Education Day, right after Gerald Gipp, Executive Director of AIHEC, speaks at about noon, was when the Red Lake Nation College was signing their mentorship agreement with Bemidji State University.

            “Everything is happening quickly,” Gurneau said. “We are doing everything that we said we would do, and more. We are ahead of our projected timeline, but what we do need is more money.”

            It took a lot of money to run a college, she said. It was an ongoing thing. They would be looking for more grants. She was happy that they were currently covered financially at this point.

            Vivian Stately had been hired by the college to teach the new Ojibwe Language Classes at Red Lake Nation College. Her class is scheduled to begin January 13, 2004. The exact times haven’t been decided as of yet, and there is a possibility of day and evening classes.

            Stately, who taught the Ojibwe language at Red Lake Elementary School for seven years, said when she learned the language she didn’t do much reading, but rather learned by listening mainly to the sounds.

            It wasn’t until she went to college that she learned how to read and write the language. She works with the double-vowel system, a system which makes reading and writing of the language easier than before.

            As part of the language class they plan on developing a set of cassette tapes similar to the Pimsler tapes. She said she was currently developing that. She was also involved in the development of the Pimsler tapes when they were first made some years ago.

            “I’ve already had three come in that wanted me to let them know when they were going to start the classes,” Stately said.

            She wasn’t sure what the costs of the classes would be at the time, but she was excited to be able to teach at the college level.