How Leech Lake Schools Support Students Through Pandemic’s Constant Change

How Leech Lake Schools Support Students Through
Pandemic’s Constant Change 


 


Host Leah Lemm (Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe) explores how Indian
Country in MN is responding and adapting to the current pandemic
health crisis.


 


Today on the show, Host Leah Lemm looks at how schools are
supporting their students under seemingly constantly changing
conditions, especially given how internet access has been crucial
for distance education for learners and educators of all
ages. 


 


Leah checks in Kim Dickson (Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe) the
Learning Center Director at the Leech Lake Tribal College. Kim
shares how schools on Leech Lake are supporting their students,
especially when it comes to internet connectivity and distance
learning.


 


Reporter Melissa Townsend talks with Dan McKeon, the School
Director at the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School in Bena, MN, on Leech
Lake as well. Dan shares how the Leech Lake reservation school is
meeting the challenge for its 220 students from 115 households in
an area of rural northern Minnesota where there are spots with
absolutely no internet access.


 


Plus, the 2020 National Tribal Broadband Summit took place in
late September. We hear from summit speaker Joni Buffalohead of
Indigenous Pact, who highlighted the inequities in internet
access and the wide-reaching effect that has in Indian
Country.  You can hear all the National Tribal Broadband
Summit speakers on the in U.S. Indian Affairs’ YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/bia4432.