Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
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BEMIDJI – Dressed in a traditional black commencement gown and topped with a hat and yellow tassel, Audra “Tina” Grogan smiled as she stood behind the podium at Bemidji High School. “What an incredible moment this is for me,” she told the April 17 audience of GED graduates, families and friends. “I’ve dreamed of this opportunity more times than I can even count.” The 38-year-old woman from Bemidji and mother of three is one of nearly 100 individuals who received a GED diploma this school year. Roughly 1,200 students from the area are still in t...
As a high school student, Arnold Thomas was recognized as one of Nevada’s elite football and basketball players. As schools began recruiting him, he was well on his way to achieving his goal of becoming a professional athlete. But in the spring of his sophomore year, his father committed suicide and Thomas’ life was thrown into a tail spin. Looking for ways to cope with his grief and sorry, he turned to alcohol and drugs. After Thomas turned 18, he stuck a hunting rifle under his chin and pul...
BEMIDJI – Eighth-graders at Bemidji Middle School are making a name for their school. After competing on March 7 in World Maths Day, an online math competition, two teams from the middle school placed first and second in the United States in the 11-13 age bracket. “Team 13” had 33,894 correct answers and finished 21st in the world in the 11-13 age category and was the highest placing team in America. “Team 14” had 22,573 correct answers and finished 46th in the world in the 14-18 age category...
A man who is being charged with felony criminal vehicular homicide or operation for a 2010 incident that left a woman with massive head injuries pleaded not guilty last month. James Robert Brown, 26, of Red Lake, pleaded not guilty Feb. 21. His next hearing is set for April 3. According to the criminal complaint: A Minnesota State Trooper responded to a report of a white Chevrolet Lumina striking a pedestrian on the side of Highway 89 near County Road 32 at around 11:20 p.m. March 5, 2010. The trooper arrived to find the pedestrian lying face...
Tim Ewert, a local trapper who also does historical reenactments of fur traders from the early 1800s, said he has been waiting 50 years for the chance to trap a wolf. Since he was 12 years old, the Bemidji man said he has trapped a variety of animals, but called the chance to get a gray wolf “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” “I’m 61 years old now, so I’ve waited 50 years for this,” he said. “I might make a special coat for my grandkid out of (a wolf pelt) and make a hood at the top.” Ewert was among the approximately 75 people who atte...
Some school districts in the area are feeling relief that they no longer need to meet the 2014 goal of 100 percent proficiency. President Barack Obama announced Thursday that Minnesota was among a list of states that are waived of the strict requirements of the No Child Left Behind law. For districts that receive Title I funding, dollars given based on the percentage of students who receive free- or reduced-priced meals, the waiver means they will be free of some of the consequences for not making Annual Yearly Progress. As part of the No...
Students in the Bemidji School District may soon notice a change to their classroom names. A sign for the health office will have “Aakoziiwigamigoons” next to it, the cafeteria will have “Wisiniiwigamig” and art room will include “Mazinibii’igewigamig.” Dozens of signs featuring words in Ojibwe are being made by five students at Bemidji High School and will placed throughout the school district. The project is being funded by Bemidji’s Ojibwe Language Project, a subcommittee of Shared Vision, a...
A man charged with assaulting his 3-month-old daughter told investigators three different accounts of events leading to her injuries, court papers filed Wednesday state. Court records state the man, Roger Darrin Warner of Laporte, initially told law enforcement the girl fell from a bed. Warner then said he dropped the girl in the shower and finally reported falling on top of the girl. The parents also reportedly waited several hours Jan. 2 before seeking medical care for the girl, who suffered...
Students in the Niigaane Ojibwemowin Immersion School, a K-6 school within the Bug O Nay Ge Shig School on the Leech Lake Reservation near Bena, know what it feels to be movie stars. They were featured on “First Speakers: Restoring the Ojibwe Language,” a documentary by Twin Cities Public Television that was recently honored with a Regional Emmy Award. “First Speakers” follows the efforts of a new generation of Ojibwe scholars and educators attempting to save one of Minnesota’s native languages...
Enough was enough. Wearing a turtle neck to cover the scratches and bruises on her neck and face, Irene Folstrom, then a fifth-grader living in Cass Lake, filled a paper bag with clothing and headed off to school, planning never to come back home. But after teachers took notice of her unusual clothing choice for such a warm day and the bruises she could not cover up, a social worker took Folstrom aside and eventually gave her a ride to the Evergreen House, a youth shelter in Bemidji. It was...
Keeping American Indian tribes at the forefront of the decision-making process was a plea heard frequently by five judges Monday evening. A public hearing was held in Bemidji in which a panel heard the opinions of 14 northern Minnesota residents about how new congressional and legislative district lines should be redrawn. Bemidji was one of eight cities chosen to host a public hearing on redistricting. Redrawing district lines is a federal requirement every 10 years to keep all districts’ population the same. The judges plan to release their de...
Each year officials with the Minnesota Department of Education put together a list that reveals how schools and school districts measure up. Schools and districts are measured in four areas – student participation in taking state standardized tests, test scores, attendance and graduation rates. The end result of this list is called Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP. AYP measures the ability levels of students within the following subgroups: all students; American Indian/Alaskan Native students; A...
Last spring, area elementary, middle school and high school students took a lineup of exams, one of which was the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment. The MCA-II exams measure students’ reading and math levels. For the first time, students in grades 3-8 took the new MCA-III math exam, a revamped test that was offered online and designed from a list of new math standards. Bemidji School District Director of Curriculum Kathy Palm said low MCA-III math exam scores are likely attributed to students taking the test online for the first time and t...
There was not much of a difference between the state test scores of last year and those of the previous year, according to information released last week from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. More than 170,000 students in grades 5, 8 and high school took the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment-II science tests, which measure student performance on state science standards. About 54 percent of high school students in the state were proficient, a slight increase in the percentage of proficient scores each year since 2008. Fewer than...
Students enrolled this fall in the Red Lake School District will be welcomed by a new superintendent. Steve Wymore, currently the superintendent of Lake of the Woods School District in Baudette, Minn., signed the new contract at a Red Lake School District Board of Education meeting Wednesday. Red Lake School District’s former superintendent, Brent Gish, announced his retirement earlier this summer. He had served as superintendent for the past four years. Red Lake School Board Chairman Arnold Pemberton said Wymore was a good choice because he ap...
Known for being a national spokesman for American Indian sovereignty, Roger Jourdain, Red Lake’s first tribal chairman, will now be visibly remembered on a yearly basis. Prior to the Bemidji City Council meeting Monday evening, Mayor Dave Larson signed a proclamation that designated July 27 as Roger A. Jourdain Day. In commemoration of Jourdain’s life achievements, the proclamation states the Red Lake Nation flag will be flown over the Bemidji City Hall every year on July 27, Jourdain’s birthday...
Four candidates are expected to interview next week for the position of Red Lake School District superintendent. The Minnesota School Boards Association’s Superintendent Search Service is conducting the search. The search is due to the retirement of Brent Gish, who has been superintendent for the past four years. Five finalists were selected for the superintendent vacancy. They were chosen from a pool of 13 applicants based on criteria established by the Red Lake School District’s Board of Education. The finalists are Kevin Abrahamson, cur...
A superintendent’s cry for help in an e-mail last weekend resulted in attention being drawn on the school district and its improvement methods. Anita Grace, Superintendent of Cass Lake-Bena School District since November 2010, sent an e-mail to several media outlets and state politicians stating she believed the Cass Lake-Bena Education Association was attempting to remove her as superintendent. Her e-mail states, “The teachers’ union is attempting to remove me as superintendent because they are protesting my school improvement effor...
John Eklund, a teacher at Red Lake Elementary School, has driven a spaceship to several planets. He has also encountered aliens and had to be saved a few times by students. If this sounds like a story, it is, but an award-winning one. A class of third-graders are celebrating a book they wrote titled “A Trip to the Planets,” which was selected as a winner in the Nationwide Learning National Book Challenge. As a class project, each student chose a planet and wrote facts about it such as its siz...
