ICT is working to shape the future of journalism and stay connected with readers like you. A crucial part of that effort is understanding our audience. Share your perspective in a brief survey for a chance to win prizes
Dan Ninham
Special to ICT
PROCTOR, Minn. — It was the first powwow ever for many of the students at Pike Lake Elementary in the Proctor school district.
After a week of learning about drum, dance and regalia from Indigenous knowledge keeper Jerry Morgan, however, they were ready for the grand finale.
SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. CONTRIBUTE TODAY.
Students from grades K-5 joined with faculty, staff, and community members for the mini-powwow, emceed by Morgan in full regalia as he led everyone around the gym to the chorus of drums and singers.
For Morgan, a longtime cultural teacher, the event brought him full circle, having started with Indigenous language studies and moving on to drums, dance and lacrosse before sharing his knowledge now with others.
“As a cultural presenter, it is a great honor to work with students of all ages,” Morgan told ICT. “With the gift of song, it makes it all worthwhile.”
His presentation likewise had an impact on students, Pike Lake Elementary Principal Mark Hughes told ICT.
“Jerry reached out to his community and pulled together an event unlike anything Pike Lake has previously experienced,” Hughes said. “Students were not shy asking Jerry questions. Working with kindergarten through 5th grade students, Jerry was on the receiving end of all kinds of curiosities. Taking everything in his very measured way, Jerry responded to each and every question.”
In late October, he also spoke to a circle of people gathered to learn about the long Indigenous history with stickball, and he sang songs with a hand drum before the start of a stickball game at Ball Club, Minnesota, on the Leech Lake reservation.
Continuing the ways of baaga’adowewin
A citizen of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Morgan’s experiences with drum and dance go back decades.
As a young student, Morgan attended schools in the Minneapolis area and in Cass Lake, and became part of the Ojibwemowin teacher training programs at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
“In the early 1980s, the double vowel system wasn’t taught to us students,” Morgan said. “We had worksheets and conversational talk with each other, and study groups were important.”
He said he was inspired by a medicine man who was brought to campus to help students learn Anishinaabe spiritual values and beliefs, and other leaders who taught them about ceremonial drum.
Morgan then became part of the East Red Lake Singers, a drum group in the late 1980s and early 1990s that traveled through Canadian provinces and the Great Lakes region.
The group featured the late Bill May as lead singer, and other singers included Herb May, Corey May, Don Kingbird, Floyd Buck Jourdain, Orville Councilor, and Naabek, Adrian Liberty.
During the fall of 1992, Morgan joined the Northern Minnesota Lacrosse Club in Bemidji, an adult program for the contemporary lacrosse game. He then secured funding for a youth team that was active from 1998-2006, and self-published a storybook, “Baaga’dowe: Play Lacrosse,” in 2004 that helped subsidize his youth lacrosse program.
Morgan said the game has a long history in the area. More than 100 years ago, wooden stick game leaders would draw Ojibwe band members from great distances to play the game on the shores of Ball Club Lake on the Leech Lake reservation.
The wooden stick game is now making a comeback, he said, with events held in October in 2022 and 2023 on the southern end of Ball Club Lake. The owners of the property, who are not tribal members, offered up their land for the games.
“The baaga’adowewin wooden stick game is gaining a renewal in the Upper Midwest,” said Morgan.
Drum, dance and stickball
Morgan now works to share his cultural knowledge with others.
At Pike Lake, he worked to give students an introduction to drum, music and dance with a variety of instruments and regalia.
“Jerry spent time working with students during their scheduled music class providing instruction about the importance of drumming in the Native community,” Hughes said. “Jerry shared personal stories with students and demonstrated for them how and why drumming and singing guides ceremonies.”
The stories helped students understand the importance that drum and dance can have for tribal members.
“Jerry shared his deep knowledge of Ojibwe culture through music and dance,” said Judi Vitito, director of curriculum and learning for the Proctor Public Schools. “His patience and humor engaged students and staff in the learning and left a lasting impact.”
The program was a continuation of his teachings on cultural ways, which he had presented previously in the Proctor school district. He also presented drum and dance programming from 2001-2008 at St. Cloud Public Schools in Minnesota as part of the February Cultural Diversity Week, in addition to other presentations.
He also teaches the importance to Indigenous communities of stickball and its modern iteration, lacrosse.
Grand finale
A mini-powwow was suggested as a culminating event to the instruction Morgan provided to the Pike Lake students.
Morgan invited the Nishomis Singers with Julian Kitto and boys to be at the mini-powwow, which began with a traditional grand entry. He then had students from each grade, from kindergarten to 5th grade, dance and move to their own song.
There was also an all-staff special dance in which teachers and administrators came together to dance.
Ryli Murray, Bayview and Pike Lake Elementary long-term music teacher substitute, said the everyone involved gained valuable new knowledge.
“I thought that Jerry did an amazing job at giving the students an experience that they may not have otherwise,” Murray said. “Jerry gave a unique experience to many students in the classroom with drumming, with multiple different kinds of instruments, discussions about regalia and what each piece means to him, and dancing.”
Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute $5 or $10 today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT’s free newsletter.