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The All Nations program has been collecting syrup from maple trees around South. “It’s engagement from cultural learning, understanding biology, it’s interdisciplinary… Also the nutritional power helps power kids, helps get them going in the morning,” said teacher Vincent Patton.

All Nations program engages in hands on learning with tree tapping

Grace Bischoff, Arts and Entertainment Editor
April 11, 2022
All Nations sophomore Ogi Moose receives a shell containing burning sage from Ojibwe teacher Bezh Butler. Students can take part in smudging every school-day morning during first hour.

Smudging grounds students as they begin their day

Oliver Hall, Staff Writer
April 15, 2019
Above is Mr. Aponte with his favorite mural that has gone up in his time as Principal at South. “I’m hoping that we can continue working on a lot of the things that he was responsible for in his time at South… I’m hoping that some of the visibility for particular groups of students and some of the work that we’ve been doing to try to improve things for them will continue to happen,” said history teacher Joshua Fisher. Aponte considers South the “pinnacle of his career” and is proud of improvements made, including South’s various murals.

Beloved Principal Ray Aponte will leave South on a high note

Kinsley Wilcox-McBride, Staff Writer
March 28, 2019
So far the skull has been decorated, the hide removed, some of the meat prepared and turned into chili, tacos, and jerky, and the teeth and bones removed for later decorative use. When spring comes, students will continue learning traditional practices and techniques such as tanning the buffalo hide.

All Nations students connect with culture in buffalo hunt

Talula Cedar-James, Staff Writer
February 12, 2019
Pictured above is Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Principle Ray Aponte listening to a students question. Said Frey, “I already met a few [South students] during the march just like a week ago,” referencing the student led gun control protest at city hall last thursday. He said at the senior class meeting that the students at the protest, ““you are the NRA’s worst nightmare.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey sits down with students at breakfast meet and greet

Izzy Willette, Features editor
February 27, 2018
Security Guard Doug Herman waves to a student as he walks down the hall. The Vietnam veteran and AIM member has become a fixture at South.

The storied past of security guard Doug Herman

Gabe Chang-Deutsch, Staff Writer
January 9, 2018
Students (far right) Minnewa Burris, Clifton Hallow, Joe Sciece, Destin Capers, Daymin Perze-LaRoque, Tyler Bonnete (far left) stand on an outlook of the The Windows hiking trail located in the Badlands on their first day in South Dakota. Photo courtesy of Ray Aponte

Black Hills trip brings a new outlook to the students of All Nations

Kinsley Wilcox-McBride, Staff Writer
October 9, 2017
Pictured above the Red Lake flag in the middle of the commons is one of the seven new flags put up to represent tribal nations within minnesota. Photo: Oliver Hall

South recognizes nations close to home

Oliver Hall, Staff Writer
June 14, 2017
The graph demonstrates the percentages of students who graduated with a normal high school degree organized by their race during the 2013 through 2014 school year. Native students have some of the lowest attendance and graduation rates in comparison to other races of students. The “Dream Big Attendance Raffle” is giving away a 250 gift card to Native students in the Minneapolis school district every quarter to encourage attendance.

Giveaway for Native students shows attendance pays off

Samara Adam, Staff Writer
April 25, 2017
South High School has been around for a long time. We hear about actors like Josh Hartnett, and athletes like Hassan Mead, an Olympic long distance runner, who have all graduated from South. However, South’s history is much more complex than famous alumni. Whole communities shape and have been shaped by South. For example, South sits on original Native land and now with the All Nations program serves the Native community. What happened in between? David “Bezh” Butler, the coordinator for All Nations, explained that South High is directly on the ancestral land of the Dakota people. Dakota people are the original people who lived on the land that is now Minnesota and they consider it as the site of the creation of their people. “When Ojibwe people came to this area in particular, we came from Northern Canada,” Butler said. The Ojibwe people were looking for “the food that grows on water,” or wild rice. Throughout the history of Minnesota as a state and as a territory, treaties between the U.S. government and Native groups such as the Dakota and Ojibwe have been controversial. After the U.S. forced the Dakota onto a tiny slice of land, the U.S.-Dakota war broke out and the Dakota were banished from Minnesota. Treaties also forced the Ojibwe onto small reservations, with no means of gathering food or farming. Native groups would have to depend on the government for welfare and commodity goods, which often came late if they arrived at all. “[The reservations] made us depend on welfare.” said Herman “and we started eating that food [that the government provided] that was just reeking of lard and oil.” Reservations also struggled with unemployment and as decades passed many families started leaving the reservations and heading to big cities.“Minneapolis and Saint Paul were being flooded, just flooded with Native Americans looking for work,” explained Herman. He continued and said that this started a domino effect on all the events that led up to the creation of the All Nations program. “My ancestors had meetings with their chiefs and the chiefs would say ‘Ok, you’re a young warrior you take your family out to this reservation and go find jobs,” said Herman. “You need to learn from the white man, because he took all of this because he didn’t understand nothing of what he was doing. Learn from him so he doesn’t take from us again.” Herman explained that when Native people went to go to college, they protested against the Vietnam War at the U of M in 1972, occupied Wounded Knee in 1973 and “on and on and on.” Wounded Knee was the site of a massacre of over 150 Native American people in 1890 on what is now the Pine Ridge Reservation. In 1973, the American Indian Movement (AIM) launched a 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee to call world attention to mistreatment from federal and local agencies towards the Native people. The occupation is seen as one of AIM’s greatest successes. Butler also explained the importance of knowing this Native history. “Well it’s a law.” Butler said with a laugh. And it is! There is a state educational standard that all Minnesota public schools must have some Native American history taught. “I would like to see a lot of different people’s history being told, and not just the Western version of it, or the American version of it.” Butler said “There’s plenty of other histories to be told; Chinese or Japanese, even various European histories... like how difficult it was for Irish people when they came here.” Butler explained that many people’s histories have not been historically taught and are assumed to be not important. “We know it’s important,” Butler explained “[Native American people] have a strong sense of who we are because we remember who we are.” “If you need to know who you are you just kinda have to look at your history.” Butler said “I think that a lot of people kind of missed that opportunity.” Herman went on to say “We graduated…. to become teachers, professors, knowledgeable. At this school we have at least eight professional staff who are Native.” Herman said that South High School recognized they had Native people in their community and wanted to do something about it. They contacted Herman, 29 years ago, and told him to “go out into the community and figure out what these people want.” “You got a school in Saint Paul, Red School House, and you got a place called Heart of the Earth. You got several different smaller schools, we want to take from what you’re teaching there, we want a school within a school.” explained Herman. “So we established the All Nations Program and that’s a whole other story.”

South history sits on native land, now serves native community

Luca Raffo-Simoes, Staff Writer
February 10, 2017
South students walking out of school in protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. On December 4th the Army Corps. of Engineers denied easement of the pipeline, and is exploring other possible routes. Photo: Lil Crawford

DAPL easement denied, students contribute to fight

Tannen Holt, Staff Writer, with some reporting by Lil Crawford
December 22, 2016
Coordinator Alex Endeshaw showing “Incident at Oglala”, a film that chronicles the conviction of AIM activist Leonard Peltier.

New ‘Native American Film Club’ offers a fresh perspective on entertainment

Eli Shimanski, Photos and Graphics Editor
November 6, 2016
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