Red Lake High School robotics teams wins Rookie Inspiration Award
(By Michael Meuers, Photo by Allan Olson/Cass Lake Times) The Red Lake Senior High School (Red Lake Ogichidaag Team #7235), participated in their first robotics event March 2nd and 3rd at the Great Northern Regional Robotics Event held in Grand Forks, ND.
The Ogichidaag Team were awarded the Rookie Inspiration Award which “Celebrates a rookie team’s outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as in their community.” The Ogichidaag Team includes Quentin Chaboyea, Diamond Cloud, and Calista Nichols. Red Lake Teacher Tami Liberty is the advisor. Red Lake High School sponsored the team. There were 47 teams and 3 rookie teams, including Red Lake, that participated. The Cass Lake/Bena girls Team #3134 was the recipients of the Gracious Professionalism Award.
Bemidji police add Ojibwe words to cars
(By Michael Meuers) The Bemidji Police have added the words, “To Protect and Serve” written in the Ojibwe language to all City of Bemidji police cars. Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin said, “We added a decal that affirms our purpose in the Bemidji community. The decal simply states “To Protect and Serve” but then also has it printed in Ojibwemowin “Ganawenjigeng miinawaa Naadamaageng.”
The move is part of the Bemidji’s Ojibwe Language Project, which has over 200 businesses and organizations that have agreed to post some kind of Ojibwe/English signage at their place of business. The City of Bemidji was one of the first to participate posting signage at City Hall, the Sanford Center, and the Chamber Building. Every school in the Bemidji School District including charter schools, BSU and the Vo-Tec post Ojibwe signage. Sanford Health and Beltrami County also are participants along with scores of small businesses.
Dream Big attendance awards
Dream Big presents the winners of the Quarterly 95% (and above) Attendance Raffle for 4 Best Practice Sites in Minneapolis Public Schools. The 2nd quarter winners each received a book donated by Birchbark Books. The winners are: Skye Yellow Wolf, 4th grade at Anishinabe Academy; Dion White, 10th grade at South High All Nations; Lariah Marcil, 12th grade at Takoda Prep and; Brandon Szmiot, 10th grade at Nawayee Center School. Dream Big Minneapolis: Attendance is the first step is an ongoing campaign supported by the Phillips Indian Educators (PIE) Attendance Workgroup subcommittee, a community-based organization whose function is to encourage good attendance and school success for the American Indian students of the Minneapolis Public School District.
QUITPLAN services launches American Indian Quitline
A new phone coaching program from QUITPLAN Services was recently launched to provide free and specially designed support to help Minnesota’s American Indians quit commercial tobacco. The American Indian Quitline from QUITPLAN Services was developed with guidance from the community and features enhanced services and an American Indian coaching team.
According to the Tribal Tobacco Use Project (TTUP) survey, the rate of commercial tobacco use among the urban American Indian population in Minnesota is 59 percent. This compares to the smoking rate of 14 percent among all Minnesota adults. The new program will include the following specific tools to help participants quit: 7 coaching calls to provide additional support; 12-week regimen of nicotine replacement therapy; A team of trained coaches. People who want to find out more about the new program can call 1-888-7AI-QUIT or visit online at aiquit.com.
