We’ll be here to support each and every one of you and everything that you do in the school district.”

Johnny Johnson, Education Director at the Prairie Island Indian Community

On Friday, Feb. 28, ISD 200 and the Native American Parent Advisory Committee (NAPAC) hosted a Tribal Flag Ceremony at Hastings High School, adding the 11 Tribal flags alongside the Minnesota State flag, the Minnesota Chippewa flag and the United States flag to the high school commons.
Red Wing American Indian Education Program Director Keenan Humphrey welcomed the crowd of community members, tribal elders, students and district officials. “I cannot stress enough how much it means to see everyone here today.”
Dakota Language and Cultural Manager from Prairie Island Jim Thunder Hawk spoke to the connection of all people bleeding the same color, that differences are often only skin-deep: “We gotta go deeper to look at the blood of humanity.”
While Thunder Hawk spoke, Education Director at the Prairie Island Indian Community Johnny Johnson burnt sage in a smudging for the event.
“Sage purifies everything: your mind, heart, body and soul,” said Thunder Hawk before providing the prayer in the Dakota language.
Johnson then praised Superintendent Dr. Tammy Champa “for getting this done,” because “this is much needed in our school districts across the state.” Johnson spoke to how—despite required by law—many school districts haven’t incorporated “Native American culture, language and history into their school system,” but that the ceremony was an opportunity for further cooperation.
“I’ll be here very often, whenever you need speakers, dancers, arts and crafts. We’ll be here to support each and every one of you and everything that you do in the school district,” said Johnson.
The Prairie Island Singers played the drum and sang the grand entry song, a song to present the flags, followed by the flag song, a song in honor of the flags, according Arthur Lockwood, a member of the Prairie Island Singers who sang at the event.
High School Principal Scott Doran hung the 11 flags in the commons, describing the event, not as a no-brainer, but as “a big brainer. We thought and you have thought and the community has thought about this for a very long time, and to be able to approve that, to honor that, and the fact that you had me hang the flags: thank you.”
“Hastings, this has been a long time coming,” said Director of Education at Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe Laurie Harper. Harper spoke to the difficulty in navigating the educational system for Native Americans: “We are expected to navigate systems and include our children and grandchildren and relatives into systems that were not designed by us, were not designed for us […] doing that, they have to see themselves as valued citizens and members of communities.”
“We are very fortunate to have such a close working relationship with some of the school districts and tribes nearby us,” said Humphrey.
The event came only days after Humphrey presented before the ISD 200 School Board on a resolution of non-concurrence for the district.
According to the resolution, NAPAC voted and determined that Hastings Public Schools “is not meeting the needs of American Indian students.”
NAPAC found the district non-concurrent due to completing only half of NAPAC’s six resolutions and continued achievement gaps ranging from math to reading to attendance.
“For the sake of my family and every other American Indian family in the communities that I represent, we cannot afford to accept the status quo as it stands. When American Indian students do better, all students do better,” said Humphrey at the school board meeting.