by Rick St. Germaine

East Lake, Minnesota (Akiing)

The little Ojibwe community of Minisinaakwaang, also known as East Lake, committed itself to “working together” to fulfill a dream they’ve envisioned for decades.

Community members, including dozens of children, gathered on a chilly evening at the site of a proposed $4 million school facility construction project planned in their village five miles south of McGregor where they ceremonially prayed, honored the occasion with tribal song, broke ground, and feasted together to bless the occasion.

Minisinaakwaang, an outlier community and District II of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, will start construction of a 24,172-square-foot K-12 charter school and early childhood education center in May 2006, following the annual lifting of a heavy equipment road ban.

Earlier in the year, funding for the new school construction was appropriated by the Mille Lacs Band government to ensure that each of its distant communities have the opportunity to operate their own school.

Lee Staples, Ojibwe spiritual advisor, urged the community in prayer to keep their children foremost in importance and use the school to preserve the Anishinaabe values and language of their ancestors for many generations to come.

Joycelyn Shingobe, Commissioner of Education for the Mille Lacs Band, characterized the occasion as historic in significance.

“This is a major step in tribal control of education for our entire band,” she stated, as she motioned for band leaders and community education leaders to step forward, grasp the golden shovel, and turn the first clump of soil to commemorate the start of construction.

According to Minisinaakwaang school leaders, the school will feature an Ojibwe culture-based approach to meet academic content standards, with a curriculum that will motivate students using team building and leadership skills to produce positive life changing behaviors. Special programs of teacher and staff professional development will promote improved instruction to ensure greater student performance.

Melanie Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Mille Lacs Band, congratulated the Minisinaakwaang community and pledged the band’s support in making this a school in keeping with the Band’s tradition of educational excellence and tribal self-governance.