South Dakota’s largest high school hires American Indian principal
RAPID CITY, S.D. – Mike Talley, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will become the next principal of Rapid City Central High School, the state’s largest high school.
Central has a large American Indian student population, which draws from the north side of Rapid City, where the majority of American Indians reside. Rapid City is said to have an American Indian population of between 15,000 and 16,000, who come from various reservations around the region.
Talley is currently the principal at Standing Rock Community Grant High School in Fort Yates, N.D., where he has taught for the past seven years.
Jackie Maxon-Talley, Tally’s wife, was also offered the position of assistant principal at Southwest Middle School. Maxon-Talley is also a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
The large American Indian population at Central was an attraction for Talley. The Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education will act on Superintendent Peter Wharton’s recommendation June 7.
Talley told the news media that teaching was all about the kids and that the size of Central compared to his current school wasn’t relevant: the job is the same.
Mother charged with murder of baby
BISMARCK, N.D. – After eight years of mystery over the death of an infant who was called ”Baby Moses,” the mother of the child, Dana Deegan, 34, has been charged with his murder.
A suitcase containing the body of the infant child was found on the Fort Berthold Reservation in 1999 near Mandaree.
The mother of three other children told authorities that she gave birth to her fourth child and knew she couldn’t take care of one more. She left the child in a room without food for about two weeks.
Deegan was arrested by federal agents May 17, bringing to close the mystery over the ”Baby Moses,” identity.
Deegan was released into the custody of her family and will be allowed to return to work at the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s early childhood program while she is under release.
Deegan’s other children are under the care of her mother, Donna, who said her daughter was a ”good mother.” Deegan’s common-law husband, Shannon Hale of New Town, also supervises the children.
”The sacredness of our children is beyond measure. Yesterday’s revelation of events surrounding the mystery of a child’s death shocked our community to its core.
”Notwithstanding, we are beginning to see a possible resolution to a mystery that has haunted our community for the past eight years,” said MHA Nation Chairman Marcus Wells Jr.
Students’ achievement needs improvement
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Dropout rates and low achievement scores for American Indian students in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska are a major concern of education officials in each state.
Bill Demmert, an Alaska Native and former federal education official told educators in Minnesota recently that it is important to develop a strong language base in American Indian languages and in English to mitigate other academic problems.
”It helps to tell Native students that their cultural base is important, that traditional knowledge, their histories, their legends are all worthwhile,” he said.
Minnesota requires beginning teachers to have a working knowledge of American Indian history and culture. South Dakota just passed legislation that requires public schools to include American Indian history, culture and language in the curricula.
Minnesota, however, doesn’t require schools to teach American Indian culture, and very few schools include the language, according to Yvonne Novack, a White Earth member, and the state’s Indian education supervisor.
Black Hills uranium exploration to continue
RAPID CITY, S.D. – A South Dakota judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order against a Canadian company that is drilling test holes in known uranium fields in the southern Black Hills.
An appeal hearing will be held June 4.
The company, Powertech, began drilling test holes before a hearing could be held, but attorneys for the company said it was within the company’s right to begin drilling.
Cindy Gillis, lead counsel for the Defenders of the Black Hills, said that ”Powertech has jumped over the judicial process by drilling the test wells.”
The concern for the opposition is that all the test holes will be drilled before the hearing.
The company has permits to drill 155 more holes to a depth of 500 to 600 feet. That number would add to the already 4,000 uncapped holes previously drilled.
The plans are to use the in situ recovery process, in which a solution is injected into the holes to dissolve the uranium, which is dissolved and then brought to the surface.
Defenders of the Black Hills is concerned not just over the sacredness of the Black Hills, but is concerned for the aquifers that lie underneath the drilling area and for surface contamination.
Anti-veteran comments could bring recall for tribal councilman
PINE RIDGE, S.D. – Oglala Sioux tribal councilman Jason ”Jake” Little recently stepped into the fire when he opposed a resolution to fund a veterans pow wow and, as he said, put the money into youth programs instead.
The Oglala Sioux Tribal Council meeting became a forum for anti-war and pro-veterans discussions that has stirred the emotions of all veterans and supporters on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Little said during the meeting that he was against all war and that innocent children were killed as the result of war. Minutes of the meeting would indicate a heated debate between many council members who have or have had family members who served in Iraq and are also veterans. Little is also a veteran.
Veterans groups and many tribal members have called for Little’s recall. Little also allegedly made the comment that veterans who return from combat are deranged, which raised the ire of many veterans.
Little also burned an American flag on the reservation, which led to the passing of a tribal resolution outlawing flag burning on Pine Ridge.
Meetings to discuss the issue are being held across the reservation.
