This story is the first in a two-part series by Lorna Thackeray of the Billings (Mont.) Gazette. It points out the shameful fact that the worst-performing high schools in Montana are on Indian reservations. And it talks about what’s being done to change that:

There is no glory for the five high schools on the bottom of Montana’s academic ladder — except perhaps on the basketball court.

It won’t come as a shock to most that the lowest-ranking schools in the state are in isolated communities on Indian reservations, that the students are among the most economically disadvantaged or that the schools have been failing students for years.

What may be a surprise is that they are all in Eastern Montana. From the bottom up, according to proficiency scores reported by the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI), they are Hays-Lodge Pole with 13.2 percent of its students at or above proficient levels; Lodge Grass High School, with 14.4 percent; Frazer High School with 15 percent; Plenty Coups High School in Pryor at 15.5 percent; and Lame Deer High School at 17.8 percent.

For comparison, Wolf Point High School was at 45.9 percent; Harlem High School was at 48 percent; Hardin High School was at 54.6 percent; and Billings Senior was at 71 percent. (Like the lowest-ranking schools, all are Title 1 schools.)

Graduation rates are equally abysmal. In 2009, the rate at Frazer was 61.5 percent. It was 60 percent at Hays-Lodge Pole; 39 percent at Lame Deer; 52.1 percent at Lodge Grass; and 74.1 percent at Plenty Coups.

Each school struggles in its own way, but there is one constant, said Denise Juneau, Montana superintendent of schools. Poverty.

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The head of Montana’s Office of Public Instruction traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to stand up for rural schools, especially schools on reservations.

Rural districts face challenges in complying with the methods set for improving results in their lowest-performing schools – action required as a condition for receiving billions of dollars in federal aid, Education Week’s Lesli Maxwell writes here.

But rural means something very different on the East Coast than it does in the far-flung reaches of the West, Juneau told the annual legislative conference of the Council of Chief State School Officers.

“The frontier is really where we are,” she says. “We are more rural than rural.”

Maxwell reports that:

Ms. Juneau emphasized that even the so-called transformation model, which is less drastic than the three other turnaround models that the U.S. Department of Education has said are acceptable, won’t work in her state because the approach requires the principals to be replaced. The five schools that Montana has identified as the lowest-performing are all located on isolated American Indian reservations she said.

Even if those districts could find strong principals to replace the existing ones, Ms. Juneau said, there are more fundamental challenges, such as where they would stay.

“We lack housing,” she told the secretary. “If we want to get a turnaround specialist in these places, we may not even be able to buy a double-wide trailer for them.”

Juneau, who is Mandan and Hidatsa, is the first Native woman elected to statewide office in Montana.

Gwen Florio

Big Sky High School in Missoula has found a particularly tasty way to serve up the state-mandated Indian Education for All program: by celebrating Native foods.

Yesterday, state school Superintendent Denise Juneau – the first Native American woman elected to statewide office – and Missoula Superintendent Alex Apostle, as well as Mayor John Engen, attended a feast at the school prepared by the food services staff.

How was it? Here’s how Missoulian reporter Jamie Kelly, who may want to consider becoming a restaurant critic, describes the school’s first Native American Foods Celebration:

The apple berry crisp with huckleberry syrup? To die for.

The seasoned roasted potatoes? Killer side dish.

And the entrée, the bison roast in raspberry sauce? It rocked.

“Food is an important part of the culture, because it brings people together,” said Kathy Sharbono, Indian education specialist at Willard and Big Sky high schools. “So I think it’s important to recognize Native foods in our curriculum.”

The feast was followed by a demonstration of grass and other traditional dances by by 10 Indian students from throughout the district. Buffalo tacos were served throughout Missoula’s schools yesterday.

“Everybody loves to eat,” Jessica Skinner tells Kelly. The Willard student is taking the school’s “Native Eats” class, the only Native cooking course offered in Missoula.

Gwen Floro

Henry Real Bird, a Crow tribal member who is a rancher and former rodeo cowboy, today was named Montana’s poet laureate by Gov. Brian Scwheitzer.

“It is an honor to appoint Henry Real Bird as poet laureate,” the governor said in a release accompanying the announcement. “Our heritage, our lives and our way of life in this great state are often expressed through poetry and the work of Henry Real Bird brings so much of Montana to life. This is a unique opportunity to bring poetry to the people of Montana.”

Here’s what the release has to say about Real Bird:

He has been featured at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada and has published 12 children’s books, a poetry book, “Where Shadows are Born,” and has an audio compact disc, “Rivers of Horse.” Real Bird has won the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and was featured in the award-winning docu-mentary “Why the Cowboy Sings.” He has a bachelor’s degree from Montana State University and a master’s degree from Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University – Billings). He is the third Montana Poet Laureate and succeeds Greg Pape, whose term expired. Real Bird and his wife and children live on the O-W Ranch in Big Horn County.

The honor came as Montana celebrates American Indian Heritage Day, being celebrated for the first time after a law passed earlier this year.

The event, to be celebrated on the last Friday in September, will be marked in communities and especially in schools.

“American Indian Heritage Day presents a great opportunity not only for schools to highlight their Indian Education for All activities, but for all Montanans to celebrate the rich cultural history and contemporary issues of American Indian nations who were here long before this place was called Montana,” says state School Superintendent Denise Juneau, who is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe.

Gwen Florio

That’s because Denise Juneau, who heads the state Office of Public Instruction, is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe. And, for the start of the school year yesterday, she chose to visit Plenty Coups High School on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana, where she urged students toward academic success.

“You have to choose between being a passive victim of circumstance, or you can be the active hero of your own life,” Juneau told the students there, as reported here in today’s Billings Gazette.

Juneau’s visit made for an upbeat day for Plenty Coups, which has had its share of problems. As the Gazette also reports in this companion story, only half the high school students at Plenty Coups – which has 80 students in grades seven through 12 – showed up yesterday on the first day of school.

And, the Crow Tribe’s success in preserving its language means that many students live in homes where the adults speak Crow – so some of those students have a tough time with English vocabulary, says principal Sharon Stands.

Still, she says, most of last year’s seniors are enrolled at Montana State University-Billings or Little Bighorn College. And, much of the faculty, including district head Dr. Luke Enemy Hunter, are tribal members.

Juneau lauded those educators, saying, “It’s a calling that’s very noble, but when you do your job well, the rewards are tremendous.”

Gwen Florio

Good … afternoon. We’d like to say good morning, but when does Buffalo Post ever get moving before noon Sundays? That said, the long, leisurely and finally-sufficiently caffeinated morning gives us a good chance to collect all of today’s news. Here we go:

In South Dakota, a thunderous rumble
You might be thinking Sturgis – after all, the famous and infamous motorcycle rally was also going on – but we’re talking drums. It’s the 24th annual Oglala Lakota Nation Powwow in Pine Ridge, which this year features more than 30 drum groups. The area has more than doubled in size this year, the better to accommodate more than 370 dancers competing for upwards of $90,000 in prize money. This year’s theme is “Honoring the Four Circles.” They honored children on the first day to make them feel especially welcomed, then the elders were honored. Saturday’s honoring went to all of the women, and today’s welcomes men into the circle. Read about it here.

Congresswoman backs off from plan to restrict with Native firms
Indian Country Today has this story about Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. Remember, McCaskill held hearings recently on the system that awards certain federal contracts to Alaska Native Corporations. But now she’s withdrawn an amendment aimed at curtailing participation by Alaskan Native Corporations, Native Hawaiians and other tribes in the program. Also, here‘s the Anchorage Daily News’ coverage.

Likely settlement for Crow in 1800s water case
Gosh, and we thought the Indian trust funds case was taking forever to settle. In the case of a Crow water compact, the last stumbling block came in the form of Republican U.S. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, who had blocked the settlement for fear it would weaken Wyoming’s influence over its own water supply. Guess whose water supply it was first? Here’s the story.

No more Native dropouts

That’s the goal of a recent program sponsored by the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leader-ship Council. The idea is to figure out who and what makes for a positive influence on young people, and then to encourage them. “We need to pull together, and I guess that’s really where we’d like to move,” says Montana state schools Superintendent Denise Juneau, an enrolled Blackfeet. Former Montana legislator Norma Bixby, director of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Education Department and a former state legislator, says persistence is key. “The message is never give up,” she says, “no matter how tough things get.” Find out what motivates youngsters to stay in school here.

Tribal law and Dine fundamentals
This is a short but interesting piece from the Navajo Times about the Dine Fundamental Law, and whether it should remain as part of Tribal Code. We’ll leave that argument to lawmakers, but were charmed by the fact that as, writer Jason Begay notes, the Fundamental Law reads like poetry. He includes the English translation of the opening section, a lovely note on which to end the brunch:

“The Holy People ordained,
Through songs and prayers,
That
Earth and universe embody thinking,
Water and the sacred mountains embody life,
Fire, light, and offering sites of variegated sacred stones embody wisdom.
These are the Fundamental tenets established.”

Gwen Florio