Indian Education Summit. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)
(North Dakota Monitor) – How do you get students to remember what they learn? According to Gladys Hawk, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, you tell them a story.
Hawk is one of dozens of tribal elders featured on the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction’s Teachings of Our Elders website, which now boasts more than 350 videos.
In an interview played for educators at the Department of Public Instruction’s annual Indian Education Summit in Bismarck on Friday, Hawk spoke of the bedtime stories her grandmother would tell her in Lakota growing up. Hawk said at the end of each tale, her grandmother would tie in an important life lesson.
“She would say, ‘And that’s why I want you to be good — don’t be like this one in the story,’” said Hawk. “We have to listen to what our elders have to say, because usually they’re teaching us something important.”