{"id":51778,"date":"2020-09-03T19:56:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-04T01:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-ute-tribe-student-gives-powerful-argument-for-school-on-reservation\/"},"modified":"2020-09-04T01:56:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-04T01:56:06","slug":"ute-mountain-ute-tribe-student-gives-powerful-argument-for-school-on-reservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-ute-tribe-student-gives-powerful-argument-for-school-on-reservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute Mountain Ute Tribe student gives powerful argument for school on reservation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Courtesy
Courtesy of Kwiyagat Community Academy<br><br>The Kwiyagat Community Academy logo and mascot, chosen by youth from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Fort Lewis College student from Towaoc gave a heartfelt explanation of the need for a charter school on the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe reservation during a virtual community meeting with tribal members on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n

Dyllon Mills, who is studying public health and business administration at FLC, said he is grateful for the education opportunities he was given. But the opportunities came \u201cat the cost of my culture,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n

Despite his success in school, he was \u201cstill missing a big chunk\u201d of himself, Mills said during the meeting. The Montezuma-Cortez public schools \u201cdidn\u2019t make me understand how to value my culture,\u201d which created \u201cdoubt in my success,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n

Operating and running a charter school, the Kwiyagat (Bear) Community Academy, that focuses on Ute and Nuchiu language and culture is an \u201copportunity for us to become better,\u201d Mills said.<\/p>\n

Mills\u2019s generation is not the first to feel this way about Anglo-run schools.<\/p>\n

Betty Howe, an Elder in the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said it is a challenge to be a minority in a public school. Native American students feel \u201cnot too confident in themselves,\u201d and that\u2019s why \u201cwe sit in the back,\u201d Howe said during the Zoom meeting on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But a school with teachers that are Native, and peers that are Native, is \u201cvery important to us, to the children, to the future,\u201d Howe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our Elders\u2026 we\u2019re dying, and we\u2019re taking our language and culture with us,\u201d Howe said.<\/p>\n

The Kwiyagat Community Academy will have a learning process in which families, Elders and other community members can pass on knowledge to a new generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will keep the children proud of who they are,\u201d Howe said.<\/p>\n

The meeting on Thursday was held to answer questions and receive feedback from community members, though much of the development process for the school has been community-led through various informational gatherings.<\/p>\n

The core values of the school, such as Ute culture and language and healthy minds and bodies, came from surveys of the community, said Sherrell Lang, a fellow with the Native American Community Academy and a member of the Kwiyagat Community Academy design team.<\/p>\n

The NACA-Inspired Schools Network is also partnering with the academy to provide access to resources and best practices, as well as create a safety plan for the students.<\/p>\n

Representatives from the Charter School Institute also sat in on the meeting. The design team for Kwiyagat Community Academy submitted their application to the Institute last month, and is waiting to find out whether the academy will be credentialed by the organization to ensure it is meeting the proper academic and operational standards.<\/p>\n

While there are about 30 charter schools on reservations across the nation, the Kwiyagat Community Academy is the first charter school to apply to the Colorado Charter School Institute for support and accreditation.<\/p>\n

Janet Dinnen, Chief of Staff at CSI, said the review team for the charter school\u2019s application will include someone with a background in Native American culture and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur practices give schools autonomy while holding them to the same standards,\u201d Dinnen said.<\/p>\n

The Kwiyagat Community Academy aims to open in the fall of 2021 with a kindergarten class and a first grade class. The school will add a new grade each year until it has the K-5 grade levels.<\/p>\n

FLC is also interested in partnering with the academy in whatever way it can. Already, Native student teachers from FLC are going to Towaoc to assist students with their online learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope they stay and become teachers for the school,\u201d Tina King-Washington, education director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said in the meeting.<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kwiyagat Community Academy holds community meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,13,28,561],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-native-american"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51778"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}