Collective Leadership Principle Learned: How to create Gracious Space where Native Americans and Whites can have difficult conversations and develop mutually respectful relationships.
Outcome: Founded Nkusm Salish Language Revitalization Institute, a language immersion school, to promote culture and heritage as source of future success of Salish youth and their community.
Collective Leadership Principle Learned: How to create Gracious Space where Native Americans and Whites can have difficult conversations and develop mutually respectful relationships.
Salish Kootenai College serves the tribal community of the Flathead Indian Nation in Pablo, Montana. Tribal lands were opened to homesteading by White settlers in the early 1900s leading to present day reality of two cultures living side-by-side in the same region. This affects student and family experiences in the public school systems shared by Native Americans and Whites.
The college provides opportunities for quality education and individual self-improvement. It also helps maintain the cultures of the Confederated Tribes of the Flathead Indian Nation.
How are they improving opportunities for Native Americans?
They engage Native American youth in completing their education and giving back to the community through their leadership. Youth are encouraged to stretch into opportunities where they can use their voice and perspective as Native Americans in ways that benefit the whole community.
Chaney Bell, a young Salish man, became inspired to preserve the Salish language as a foundation for strengthening the Salish community in the future. He co-founded Nkusm Salish Language Revitalization Institute, a language immersion school, to promote culture and heritage as a source of future success of Salish youth and their community.
Mariah Friedlander, a Native American high school student, was appointed to the Montana Indian Education Association as its first ever high school representative. She used this opportunity to share current realities of Native American youth with this statewide group and to reflect on her own role in school (see bridge article below).
Creating collective leadership capacity.
To improve the culture of public schools in ways that support Native American student success, Salish Kootenai College invited a wide-ranging cross section of the community to work together. They gathered tribal members and White neighbors, teachers, parents, students, administrators, and business leaders. They had to learn how to have challenging conversations about the deep pain that discrimination has created in their community. As they learned to respect each other, they could then develop strategies to support the success of all their children.
Outcome: Founded Nkusm Salish Language Revitalization Institute, a language immersion school, to promote culture and heritage as source of future success of Salish youth and their community.
Collective Leadership Principle Learned: How to create Gracious Space where Native Americans and Whites can have difficult conversations and develop mutually respectful relationships.
Salish Kootenai College serves the tribal community of the Flathead Indian Nation in Pablo, Montana. Tribal lands were opened to homesteading by White settlers in the early 1900s leading to present day reality of two cultures living side-by-side in the same region. This affects student and family experiences in the public school systems shared by Native Americans and Whites.
The college provides opportunities for quality education and individual self-improvement. It also helps maintain the cultures of the Confederated Tribes of the Flathead Indian Nation.
How are they improving opportunities for Native Americans?
They engage Native American youth in completing their education and giving back to the community through their leadership. Youth are encouraged to stretch into opportunities where they can use their voice and perspective as Native Americans in ways that benefit the whole community.
Chaney Bell, a young Salish man, became inspired to preserve the Salish language as a foundation for strengthening the Salish community in the future. He co-founded Nkusm Salish Language Revitalization Institute, a language immersion school, to promote culture and heritage as a source of future success of Salish youth and their community.
Mariah Friedlander, a Native American high school student, was appointed to the Montana Indian Education Association as its first ever high school representative. She used this opportunity to share current realities of Native American youth with this statewide group and to reflect on her own role in school (see bridge article below).
Creating collective leadership capacity.
To improve the culture of public schools in ways that support Native American student success, Salish Kootenai College invited a wide-ranging cross section of the community to work together. They gathered tribal members and White neighbors, teachers, parents, students, administrators, and business leaders. They had to learn how to have challenging conversations about the deep pain that discrimination has created in their community. As they learned to respect each other, they could then develop strategies to support the success of all their children.