Solheim students celebrate Native American Heritage month by learning Lakota

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - November is Native American Heritage Month and at Solheim Elementary, they’ve been celebrating in all kinds of ways.

They’ve got flags of different tribes hung in the hallway, and in gym class, they’re learning to speak Lakota.

The good news is they plan to continue studying the history of native tribes throughout the year.

Solheim Elementary teacher Mike Porter wears many hats; he’s a gym teacher, an assistant principal and the voice of the morning announcements. He’s also a language instructor of sorts.

This month, he’s been teaching his students to count to 10 in Lakota.

“They take everything in and they want to learn it,” Porter explained. “To them, it’s fun. So, if you can teach them to pronounce correctly, they’re going to learn it.”

As students stretch their muscles before their work out, they also stretch their brains counting off planks and laps in Lakota.

“It’s kind of hard and it’s kind of easy,” said third grader Lillian Rick.

“The first time it was kind of hard because you didn’t really know. Now it’s really easy,” added her classmate, Ben Ness.

“The toughest was nine and 10, they’re a bit longer and have more syllables. But as they keep practicing, they got better with it,” said Porter.

They’ve also gotten better at understanding a different culture, which is exactly the goal of the school’s culture committee.

“When they’re young, they don’t have biases. They’re just excited to learn and they want to understand each other,” said Solheim Library Media Specialist Lauren Ktytor.

An understanding that these students are counting on to make the world a little better.

Mr. Porter has been known to teach kids to count in other languages too, including Spanish, German, Korean and French.

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