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Ma’da Aru Caa’wauo Gaxee’ Adish
Woksape Oyate project goal is to strengthen academic programs and support increased student recruitment and retention. The college’s project, Ma’da Aru Caa’wauo Gaxee’ Adish, a Hidatsa phrase meaning “The Place Which Perpetuates Our Way of Living,” creates curriculum resources utilizing Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (MHA) cultural concepts for use across the school’s core curriculum.
As part of the program, FBCC also created a student honors program. To date 15 students have received a scholarship to participate in the program to retain the best and the brightest in school, and have conducted research on topics related to tribal history and culture. The new cultural honors program encourages academic excellence among the student body and a focus on cultural research. Research topics include the impact of smallpox on the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara, and the use of innovative methods such as Rosetta Stone software to preserve the Arikara language.
A new student publication titled, “The Student Journal of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Cultural Perspectives” provides a medium for students to publish research on the tribes to share their discoveries with the community, the wider public, and a broad academic audience. Work is in progress to design a website for online publication of the journal of student research.
Honors students are also taking a leadership role in the community and planned and executed cultural activities with 120 youth from the K-12 schools at a summer camp in 2009. Each student was responsible for several learning strands each day and evening.
Alyce Spotted Bear of FBCC said, “We have a cadre of new Native scholars coming out of (the Wisdom of the People Project) who know how to conduct research. Research and writing is critical in obtaining a master’s degree. The more they learn here, the more prepared they will be for a master’s program. We even have some students talking about getting a doctorate.”
Funding from the Woksape Oyate initiative is positioning FBCC to become the nation’s Center of Excellence in Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara cultural studies. In turn, the MHA cultural resources and curriculum supports the college’s mission of providing cultural-based education and serves as the foundation for FBCC’s goal of developing a four-year bachelor’s degree program in tribal studies.