The little children all looked at me with excitement and obvious curiosity. "Are you are a real Indian?" they asked me over and over as I sat in front of their classroom, adorned in my regalia.
I proceeded to share with the children some basic Native American information that was relevant to their current history lesson: How many Tribes there are in Nebraska, their proximity to our community and then I shared a brief chapter of my own personal journey of being adopted into a Middle-Eastern family and finding my way back to my Native roots a short number of years ago.
I told their bright eager faces the story of how I got my Indian name after being a part of a sweat ceremony and how I received my eagle feather. How 27 lava-hot coals were brought into the sweat lodge as I listened to several men sing and chant in our traditional language over the course of several hours.
"How do you kill things?" they asked. "What do you do when it storms?"
"Do you make your own finger-nail polish?" "Have you really seen a real live buffalo?"
While their curiosity and honesty was precious and yet refreshing, the flood of questions was an obvious reality check of why I was there.
It was so apparent to me how most children know so little of a people who are our neighbors. A whole world of people and cultures; Winnebago, Macy, Santee and Niobrara, all Nebraska Tribal lands that are located within several hours of travel.
And now they know. And as I told them the names of the four tribes and where they are I also told them they know more than most state officials. It’s a fact and something I experienced first-hand during my tenure as director of Social Services for the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
Our conversations reinforced what I already knew and had experienced personally as a Fremont youth: Native American awareness and historic information within our education system is indeed book-bound and confined to a small section of a chapter written by a non-Indian educator.
In my crash course I told them about the sacred burial ground that a popular vacation spot in South Dakota is built upon, how my people don’t celebrate Columbus Day for obvious reasons and I told them the story about my tribe’s chief, Chief Standing Bear, and how he led the way in civil rights, changing law so that Indian people were finally recognized as human beings.
They were mesmerized by my traditional dress and beaded jewelry and question after question led me to believe they appreciated my sharing and were hungry for more.
With that, I look forward to future school visits and I am grateful for the wonderful learning opportunities I had while visiting classes at Milliken Park Elementary and Trinity Lutheran School.
Not only has this experience touched my heart, it has enriched my life and I feel truly blessed to have been a small but vital piece of the education process within our community.
Chris Legband lives in Fremont.
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