Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground, brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Closed captioning is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport.

More information available at bemidjiairport.org Welcome to Common Ground.

I'm Producer/Director Scott Knudson.

In this two segment episode, Dr John Eggers discusses his book with the goal of a 100% graduation rate.

Then we visit the Gonvick Rodeo.

I'm John Eggers.

I've lived in Bemidji since 1986.

I came here in 1985 to be principal of Red Lake High School.

Before that I was a professor at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls and they needed someone to come to this area and be a principal of the school and they wanted somebody to do a few things differently so that's what I did.

And I was there for seven years and enjoyed it very much.

And my other experiences on Native American reservations was in the early 1970s.

I was a teacher at the Pine Point Experimental School in Ponsford, Minnesota.

And then I was also the first year charter school director at the Naytahwaush Community Charter School in Naytahwaush, Minnesota.

So my background in Native American education has extended really for almost 50 years.

I enjoyed education, but I especially enjoy education as it relates to trying to do things differently and to help those students that were not finding success in school and this not only includes Native American students but African-American students and Latinos and so on.

Well the book was a long time in coming, you know, and I probably should have written it maybe 10,15, 20 years ago.

And my book identifies some specific things that schools could do to help students find success and I'm not sure if they're the right answer, but at least it's getting at something that we need to try because what we're doing now is not working.

This is, for me this is what I can't understand in Native American education.

You know every year, as we see these low graduation rates and every year we keep saying that well, we're going to try to do something about it, but nothing is done.

You know, we keep repeating the same old thing year after year after year and decades after decades after decades and nothing has really been done to really change Native American education.

The history of Native American education goes way back.

I suppose we could start with the boarding schools.

And the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania was one of the first ones and the mission of that school, and I think it's even stated in their mission, was to take the take the Indianness out of the Indians, if you can believe that.

And it was supposed to be, you might say, a shining star of boarding boarding schools, Carlisle, and they enrolled several thousand people over the years that it existed, but only less than two or 300 graduated from that school.

Carlisle didn't work out very well and as well as other boarding schools that tried it and I think that as I think about that, that should have been an indication to education today as we try to find success for Native American students.

When you try to take the culture out of a particular group, you're really destroying that group.

It's almost as if we're trying not to realize that this group really exists.

I think that maybe they had their hearts in the right place, they're trying to help Native Americans, but still we should have taken a hint from the Carisle and Mission Schools and we should be doing things differently than what's being currently done in American education today.

And this doesn't mean that that our schools are not finding success for Native American students, but when you have graduation rates that range from 40% to 60% it's time to do things differently.

Well, most of my years in education has been involved in schools where students have come from minority groups and they're from a different culture and for some reason, I think perhaps was my Peace Corps experience, that made me believe that learning about another culture is something that everybody should have in their brain.

We all need to know about other cultures and not only relate to other cultures but show compassion towards kids, compassion towards people.

And so all through my education this was kind of what I tried to do whenever I taught teachers, worked with students, is just making sure the students knew that they were capable of learning and that they were wanted in the school and telling teachers that one of the most important things they can do as a teacher is show compassion to their students.

So why can't we graduate, why are Native American students not finding success like the white students are in our school, what is it about them?

Certainly intelligence is there, they're capable of graduating.

You know what is it about that?

So I thought we could, we need to, do something different.

Now one of the things that we could do differently was to create a whole new school, but it takes a lot of time and effort to create an entirely different school and it takes more money.

But one thing we had not done was we had not really involved the community as much as we could in helping schools with the graduation.

And so I went to the tribal council and I said, again doing my pitch about kids are capable of graduating, we need to do something different.

Why can't community help our educational system?

And so let's just have a 100% graduation rate for our students.

This will show the community and the students that we expect everybody to graduate.

And people might say well, John, why don't we, since our graduation rate right now is like in the 40s, why not just have a 60% or 70% graduation rate, just incremental stages.

I said, you know, if we do that then we're telling some kids that we don't expect them to graduate, so let's set our expectations high, let's keep it at 100% and that'll be our goal, but it'll be a community goal.

The community will get behind, reinforce it, help kids, tell kids they need to graduate all this kind of stuff.

It's like creating a whole new culture and that was in 2017.

And then I mentioned that, you know, we have Red Lake students that go to Bemidji, we have Red Lake students that go to Clearbrook, and we have Red Lake students go to Kelliher and Northome and Blackduck.

Why not try to make 100% graduation rate the goal of the whole county, let's do that.

We're the only county in the United States where every city has signed off on a 100% graduation rate.

After they passed the resolution I said well, John, it's a matter of mindset, you know.

And I said yeah that's what it is, that's a mindset to graduate, that's what we need.

A mindset to graduate, just like we have a mindset to winning.

Well I think one of the most important things is building relationships, building relationships with students and with their parents and it's so important to have those relationships in order to build trust.

You know I've used the saying many times in my life: Kids don't really care how much you know until they know how much you care.

And if students know that I care about them, respect them, like them, they'll more likely listen to me when I try to provide them with some guidance or some advice.

It's very important to get students to buy in first and that needs to start when they're very young.

In order to help students be successful, whether these are students who are A and B level students and on the honor role or students who struggle.

All students benefit when we have good partnerships and good relationships with families and parents.

The work that starts at home, that's the most important.

We need to be a team with parents and ask parents to support our work and we will support their work.

You know I'm not sure if in the moment students really get it when they graduate how important the moment is.

Of course they celebrate and they're proud of themselves, as they should be, and their families and parents are proud of them, but it may take a few years before students look back and realize that the fact that they graduated is a huge benefit to them and makes all the difference in the world.

The book was written because of the fact that I just wanted to put all this together, talk about my experiences in working with different cultures, talk about my experiences in working with the Native American, mention the boarding schools and the survival schools and then talk about some innovations that Native American schools could do to help kids find success and graduate.

I don't, just don't really see that's happening around Minnesota, which has a high population of Native Americans.

Around the United States I don't see schools being created that are so vastly different that they're creating, that they're graduating 100% of their students.

I don't see it happening and so I looked at the book and say well John what more could you do?

Well maybe if I wrote a book that gave educators some hints, some tips, some advice about some things, they could do this might spark a spirit of new discovery.

If we could get the governor of the state of Minnesota to state that we should have a goal of a 100% graduation rate and that every district would have the same goal and then we would ask ourselves well, if we have the goal of a 100% graduation rate, then what are we doing differently.

And so the book is aimed at districts that have a high population of Native American students, but they just aren't finding success.

And I don't know of any district in Minnesota or even in the United States that has a high population of Native American students that has a 100% graduation rate.

Now we can say the same thing of white schools, too.

Of course my response to that is that well why not?

Every student is capable of graduating, every Native American student is capable of graduating, so what are we doing to help these kids find more success in schools?

And so the book is aimed not only at the governor, Governor Waltz, it's not only aimed at the Minnesota Indian Education Association, it's not only aimed at school districts, teachers, school boards.

It's really aimed at anybody, really, where students are not finding success in education.

And that's a travesty because every student is capable of learning, every student is capable of graduating from high school, and if they don't it's really not the students fault, it's the fault of the educational system, it's the fault of our communities.

And in this van is the Disabled American Veterans.

Driver is Tom Birdahl.

All drivers are volunteers.

Van goes from Bemidji to Fargo VA Hospital 5 days a week.

If you need to ride just give him a call.

Here we have the Gonvick Lions Club president Kim Solberg.

They are hosting their 30th Rodeo.

Welcome home everyone.

These guys do a very good job for the community, give him a big round of applause.

I'm Kim Solberg.

I'm from Gonvick, Minnesota, born and raised, very proud to be.

I am a part of the Gonvick Lions Club.

I am the president of our group.

The Gonvick Lions Club is a huge organization.

Well, we're a small organization but huge in our community with all the events that we put on.

And our biggest event that we host is our Gonvick Rodeo Days.

Here we have the Mounted Honor Guard and Wojo's Rodeo carrying the flags for the US, Minnesota Alliance, Alliance International, Red Lake Nations, Wojo's and Canadian POW's.

We work with Wojo's Rodeo Company and they bring in all of their stock and they also bring in their riders and all their followers to Gonvick.

And so along with that, Gonvick hosts a Rodeo Parade.

We also had our All School Reunion.

So we had a lot of extra events going on as well, including a talent show, bouncy houses, a dunk tank.

We nominated a king and queen of Gonvick.

People were able to nominate someone and then we actually ended up drawing and our winners were Lonnie English and Devin Aakre and it was a great event and well-participated as well so.

Hi, I'm Lonnie English and I'm involved with a lot of the Clearbrook-Gonvick activities, mostly Gonvick.

Gonvick Rodeo Days is always the second week in July.

It's been going since, probably 1985 was the first big one, and we've had it every 5 years since.

Because of Covid we had it in 2021 instead of 2020.

It's always the parade, the rodeo, there's a fish fry at the legion every year, just a fun weekend in Gonvick.

It's pretty impressive.

Our Lions members really step up and like I said we also get volunteers that come just to help us out for that weekend because they know it is our busiest weekend that we do have.

Some people are taking time off of work just to come and help us and some they are there all weekend long or even all week prepping and setting up and it takes a lot of effort and due diligence to get all of it put together.

I'm Devin Aakre.

I'm chairman of actually the Gonvick Diamond Jubilee and we work hand in hand with the Lions Club to put on all the events that get put on every year in Gonvick.

It's kind of a partnership back and forth.

They have volunteers, we have volunteers, and we just basically work together to make sure we can keep things going in Gonvick every year.

Gonvick's one of those towns where you pretty much know everyone walking down the street, or who lived there or who used to live there 5,10 years ago.

It's pretty impressive and it's also brought people back home and that's even a better part about it.

Maybe they left for awhile and then they decide they want to be home again.

And but it also it's fun to see the ones that just come for the weekends as well.

We're really close-knit, we support each other, we help with events.

I mean just even as a person.

without even being a part of the Lions Club, everyone kind of joins together and we are a village and it's a good village for sure.

Kim is amazing.

She's go go go.

She can do everything and anything and she's willing to do anything and everything.

Kim Solberg, she is, basically she's my right hand, and I'm her right hand.

If there's something that we need to do in town she'll either call me or I'll call her.

I mean even when the All School Reunion, the ones that had ran it for years, there was nobody really set up to take over, to continue it, and I called her up and I said, you know, we have to keep this going, we can't just let the All School Reunion kind of become a thing of the past.

And so we both just laughed about it and said, well, we don't have enough on our plates, we might as well take this on too.

Okay here we got class of 76.

Class of 76 is still rocking after 45 years.

The All School Reunion is every second weekend in July.

It coordinates with the rodeo weekend.

And here we have Trails End, Les Watney the sheriff of Trail.

We have it every 5 years.

Because of Covid we had it in 2021 instead of 20, but we've had it every 5 years since 1985.

And it usually starts on Friday registration, get togethers with classes or teachers.

The parade brings people in from all over the area.

We get different businesses throughout northern Minnesota and some even farther away.

It's really fun to see how they get to advertise their business.

2021 FireFly Harvester.

The rodeo and the parade is a great opportunity for our local businesses to showcase their businesses to the community and it puts a light on our local people.

And knowing that they sponsor events like this and they help us make these events successful.

It really does well for the economy in town and it just brings people together again.

The friendships that they've had over the many years, they finally get to see people again.

Yeah it's fun to reconnect.

It's a great event for kids to come and they really enjoy it and getting all the candy and all the prizes.

It's all volunteers so we have a great amazing community where all these people take their time out to participate in these types of events and be on the Gonvick Fire Department and also ambulances and local fire departments.

Especially if it's somebody that's never been here before, you can just see them going up and talking to somebody and just the pride from somebody in town, you know, saying well, yeah, we, you know, we do this every year and on an All School we do this every five years and that because I've heard from other people say well I can't believe that Gonvick does all of this for just a little town.

How do you pull off all this stuff every year?

The parade is at 1:00 and the rodeo follows.

So after our amazing parade that we have and all the people that come and enjoy, we go over to the rodeo grounds and we have a rodeo and it starts at 6:00 and usually runs about 2 and a half to 3 hours.

It's amazing.

We have great riders.

Yes sir.

Come on!

Cowboys that come in that have never been to Gonvick before.

Cowgirls.

It's so fun to see all the smiling faces and get to meet new people, as well, but also introduce them to our small community and what we can offer.

So now we have actually done over 30 years of rodeos in Gonvick, which is really impressive to me because it's a big event to make something like this happen.

And we are already this year going on our 33rd year.

So very proud and very excited to be a part of such a great group.

WOJO's, Keith and Dana Wojciechowski, they took over doing their rodeo I believe in probably 2016, 2017, somewhere in there.

Prior to that we had Triple B Rodeo that ran the rodeo for a number of years.

And then before that, back I believe as long as I can remember the start, it was Buffington Rodeo out of South Dakota.

WOJO's brings in a variety of animals.

We got steers and bulls and broncos and we also bring in sheep for the little kids to ride.

They also do some junior bull riding.

There's some barrel racing.

There's the bareback.

There's the bull riding, which is very, very good.

Yes, sir.

That's what you want to see.

Folks let me hear you scream.

When you come to the rodeo you usually think of hamburgers and hot dogs, but we have one special thing that we also have, it's Lefse Dogs.

A lot of people don't know what that is, but it's more or less just a brat or a hot dog wrapped in our hometown lefse.

So Mrs Olson's is actually based out of Gonick and so we support them and we make Lefse Dogs at our rodeo, so it's kind of a little niche.

Lions Club organizes the entire weekend, from the initial days of figuring out, you know, your stock contractors which, you know, they've got WOJO's on the line for every year.

Getting the rodeo grounds prepped and fenced and getting their food stands set up and everything ordered.

Bleachers set, lining up workers, making sure you got enough supplies for everything, coordinating with their vendors that come in and set up and sell different things.

If anybody would ever be interested in wanting to help out with the Lions in any event that they take part in just reach out to one of our members or me especially, and we'll get you lined up.

We appreciate any help.

You don't even have to be a member, we welcome any help, anytime time.

An extra hand is always very helpful so.

It's huge.

It brings in so many people.

It's so fun to see people in town again.

It's one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Rodeo Days and Pumpkin Days.

At the rodeo it's quite impressive.

I always every year a couple of us when we just need a little break we kind of take a step back and it's pretty amazing to see what Gonvick pulls in and all the people that it takes to make something like this happen, and it's very heartwarming.

We're very lucky to have the community members that we do have to help us make this event succeed.

It's impressive.

I just want to see it continue to grow.

I mean every year we work to try and add a little bit more to get things growing bigger and bigger.

I'm technically not a Lion, I'm a volunteer in that I help out every year with the rodeo.

Every year it seems like our stuff that we plan between All School Reunion, Pumpkin Days, Rodeo Days.

Every year it seems like it gets just a little bit bigger and there gets to be a little more buy in from other people in the community to, you know, step in and help a little bit more, so it's not such a big task for putting everything on.

It gets to be a crazy weekend but so much fun, fun-filled event.

It takes a village to run something like this and we definitely have a great village for sure to make something happen.

Come on, help him!

Oh it's just everybody having fun.

It's full of people.

A lot of times you're running into people that you probably haven't seen since last year or at least it's been a while since you've seen them.

Everybody just having a good time.

I mean I don't think there's anybody that's going to the rodeo that's not having fun.

Oh yeah that's what I'm talking about.

If you want to come to Rodeo Days, just show up.

Thanks for watching.

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Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community.

Member FDIC.

Closed captioning is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport.

More information available at bemidjiairport.org.

Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money by the vote of the people, November 4th, 2008.

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