Students have combined assembly to learn about Dakota 38

Posted

Flandreau Indian School hosted juniors and seniors from Flandreau High School for a joint assembly Friday to hear about the Dakota 38 riders.

The event is a rare chance for students from both schools to connect, and the interaction is a benefit, administrators say. It also was a chance for kids of many cultures to hear local history, too.

Flandreau is one community with two high schools and it is important to come together, said Elisabetta James, Native American education coordinator at the Flandreau public schools. It was her idea to hold one assembly for both schools. Healing and unity are much needed, she said.

“We hear a lot of racial things in our community,” James said. “I think this is showing we are all wanting a better community.”

Assembly speakers who ride in honor of the men who died in the Dakota 38 hangings at 10 a.m. Dec. 26, 1862, told that the killings were the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The message needed is healing and reconciliation as a result, they said.

They also talked about life on the 330-mile journey, which includes watching the weather to make sure it is not too harsh on the horses.

Mason Redwing, who is from the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe and has done the ride for several years, said riders are going home when they make the trip because Mankato is the homeland for the Dakotas. “All of us are descendants from the 38 that were hanged there.”

Gabe James, a 17-year-old member of the Santee Sioux Nation in Nebraska, graduated Thursday after attending the boarding school for more than three years. The event was an unusual chance to communicate among students and cultures.

“The only interaction we get is when we play basketball games,” he said of the guest students.

Students were excited to host peers from the public school, said Gretchen Wendell, special education coordinator for the Flandreau Indian School. “I think it’s very important that we build community because community is a huge part of the Native American culture.”

Students from the two schools’ student councils have met together in the past but have not joined together other times except for athletic competitions, said public school Superintendent Rick Weber. “This would be the first time we’ve gone up there for an assembly,” he said.