Education | Opinion

Tally Monteau-Colombe: School shows border town mentality

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Tally Monteau-Colombe on the border town mentality in Chamberlain, South Dakota, where the school board voted 6-1 against an honor song at the high school graduation:

My husband and I made the choice to send all eight of our children to Chamberlain, until a few years ago there was an incident in which some non-Native students wore "White Pride, Worldwide" shirts to school and we pulled our four older daughters out of the middle school and high school. Our four younger children attend Chamberlain Elementary School. I send my children to Chamberlain because I want them to grow up appreciating the differences in people, that you may not look the same or have as much money, but you can still get along, to have compassion towards people even though you are different. But to me when the Chamberlain School Board made their decision, it was like they were unaccepting of my children, my children’s culture, and my children’s language.
Chamberlain is a border town and like all border towns in South Dakota, the race relations are not the best. I think that with some of the statements made at the school board meeting, they reflected the true colors of how this little town perceives us Native Americans. Furthermore, without us Native Americans, would this town “survive”? We bring hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars of economic stimulus to this town. We have two reservations that utilize the banks, the small business, the restaurants, and millions of dollars of Federal Impact Aid money that goes to the Chamberlain School District because of the Native American students. Yet they cannot take three to five minutes of time so that we may honor all the graduates at such a celebrated event in their lives?

Get the Story:
Tally Monteau-Colombe: Chamberlain School Board Denies Singing of a Lakota/ Dakota Honor Song (Indian Country Today 5/21)