Representative Shawn Bordeaux joined SDPB's Lori Walsh via Zoom for an update into how the session is going. They talk about the debate over the Oceti Sakowin (oh-CHE-tee shaw-KOH-we) Essential Understandings.
But first, here's a little about the work that's happening in Pierre today as Representative Bordeaux was just leaving a committee meeting where a bill he supported was defeated.
Lori Walsh:
All right. Good morning, thanks for joining us today, Representative Bordeaux, from Pier.
Shawn Bordeaux:
Good morning, happy to be here.
Lori Walsh:
You just came out of a committee meeting. What was the bill you were discussing this morning?
Shawn Bordeaux:
House Bill 1116 would have made an appropriation for the Lake Andes dam that flooded in 2019. So we had members from the Yankton Sioux tribe come before the State-Tribal Relations Committee over this past summer. And they brought us drone videos showing how so many families, I think it's like 43 houses were displaced. There's a mile long or 5,000 foot pipe that drains and goes through tribal land. And it's about 100 year old culver that has just been inundated in swamped with flooding. And it's just been too much on the infrastructure.
So at first they raised the road a good three foot and still had flooding. And so they came before the committee in December again. And we had heard from the governor how we had all this extra money and we had a list of dams that we were going to fix. And so the committee voted unanimously to place Lake Andes dam on that list and try to see if we can get some help while we have this one-time money. So I took it before the committee and we had a lot of good support. We had a lot of good discussion. Representative Fink from the area, from the district, he helped work with us to say, "If nothing happens this year due to whatever, government is a little slow at times and being able to move all the pieces like engineers and having some of this work scoped out."
So he's going to make sure if things don't get fixed this year, that he brings the bill back next year. So we're happy to see some progress. And I don't mind the bill failing in this regard because there's kind of the promise that we have some people on record saying that they're going to continue to do this good work and hopefully get this done for the people of Lake Andes community. And the other thing that came out was that it is the state's covert and their infrastructure. And if we had the tribe sue against the state, the Feds would join them and it'd be expensive. And we don't like lawsuits. We all heard a big deal about lawsuits and how they're going on to the Supreme Court. We don't want this to be another litigation that we have to backfill from the budget every year. So just hoping to seeing government moving forward and working together between the Yankton Sioux tribe and the state of South Dakota.
Lori Walsh:
You also brought legislation this year that did not move forward, that was hoping to educate lawmakers about tribal law. Tell me a little bit about the opportunity to bring that kind knowledge and education to legislators and why that bill was defeated. What was some of the opposition to it?
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, my mother's been a paralegal for about 45 years and works with Dakota Plains Legal Services. I too had sat on the board for the past eight years, and it gave me a chance to learn a lot about some of the differences in laws between the tribes and the state. And then when you're looking at a tribe like Rosebud, where we have lands in seven different counties, six of which have trust lands, and so even though it looks like Todd County on the map is the only one that has the sovereign or protections of the tribe, those lands that are in Molet and Lyman and Tripp and Gregory and whatnot, they also have those protections. So one of the things we started out with was I had asked to have subpoena powers given to the state tribal relations committee.
And during the questioning, the speaker, the new speaker, Gosh, had asked about whether the subpoenas would be valid on reservations. And so I thought, "Well, that's a unique situation here." And it kind of shows that a lot of the committee members maybe need a little bit of a brushing up on some of the legalese or some of the jurisdiction or sovereignty issues that are posed across the state with the nine tribes. And so I mentioned that subpoena powers wouldn't be effective on any of the trust lands across the states. And I saw some confused looks by people, and I thought "That's very evident that we need this training." And we offered, I had spoken with folks from Dakota Plains Legal Services. They have judges and lawyers that sit on their board, and they offered to help me do this at no cost to the legislative research council.
Another thing that brought it to bear was that about the third meeting that I had this year, I had one of my secretary from LRC had quit and moved to Nebraska and we had a new guy who came in. And it had to be a little bit of a difficult job to take on when we got the checkpoints issues, and we got litigation between the tribes and the states and the Feds, and all of a sudden this young lawyer gets to step into the fray. And it really was very telling to say he too and others at LRC probably need this training. So the offer was to have two hours of training for any new legislators. I didn't think the current legislators would really want to do that. So I said what we would do is make supplemental training material available for them, but any new legislators would have the opportunity, as well as LRC staff, to learn about Indian law and some of the differences between state law.
Lori Walsh:
And they were not interested in that, that did not pass either? Did you hear anything-
Shawn Bordeaux:
Nine to four.
Lori Walsh:
Nine to four. Did you hear any compelling reason? They didn't feel that that was something they wanted to take you up on?
Shawn Bordeaux:
No, I never really feel there's compelling reason. The fact that I got four folks to listen, I felt that was a little bit of a win. But I always feel like there's some great resistance to some of the works that I'm doing. And I think it just still kind of tells the state of the day, how here's this Native American from the reservation. And my views are maybe considered a little more radical, even though we're talking about free legislative training in some area that I feel like I could really offer to the group. So it's sad to see when even something like that, as small is that is, it still is met with resistance.
Lori Walsh:
Let's talk about education, because that has been another topic of conversation. This legislative session, as it was last legislative session, you have been working on this for a long time. The Oceti Sakuwin schools did not pass. Help me understand. The essential understandings, the curriculum, has already been adopted by the state department of education. But yet, is it in use? Is it not in use? Help people understand exactly what's happening with that curriculum and those core standards?
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, I brought this bill in the past. And in fact, it's coming up again that Oceti Sakuwin essential understandings would be required for all school districts in the state. And in the past, when I brought it up, they said, "Well, it's supposed to be mandated by 2020. It's just getting implemented in 2017. So give us time." And now at 2020, it's an option. You can substitute some other social studies and not have to worry about learning Native American heritage, history, culture, government, those things that are very relevant to the work we do here in the Capitol, as we just talked about.
So a little bit frustrating that here, we had an effort that goes all the way back to when the Governor Daugaard was here and we had the Native American Student Achievement group that came together and talked about putting together certain schools. And these schools, Todd County had two of them. My child attends the middle school where one of those models was being implemented, where they basically do a whole lot more with working with curriculum related to culture. And when these kids start feeling better about who they are, all of a sudden their scores shot up.
And so it was really exciting to see that we had some success in one of the areas where we struggled the most. My school district maybe has some of the worst scores in the state. And so myself, I went K through 12 at Todd County. I got a master's degree from University of Nebraska. And I know it can be done. One of my first cousins just graduated recently at MIT with a chemistry degree and has a PhD. So again, Todd County students can do this, but when we have generations of difficulty where some of the folks weren't really coming from an environment like I have where my father is president of the tribal college locally.
So I had somebody pushing me out the door and telling me to get the homework done. Some of these other kids don't have that support system. And so it's no surprise that 54% of the native students are graduating, and what happens to the other 46% of the students? That's just something that ends up becoming costly to the state with whether it's welfare or prisons or jails courts. We don't want that. And it all starts with education. So if we can allow these kids to get educated in a way like the Oceti Sakuwin understandings, they're not required right now. And we're trying to have these four schools that would be probably three of them would go on a reservation. We were hoping one might be done in Rapid City or somewhere where they're having close to 400 kids drop out every year. It's very sad for us. And we feel like something has to be done right away on this.
Lori Walsh:
Tell me about your son and the education he was getting at that time. Was he coming home from school with things that he had learned that you were talking about? Talk to me as a father. You have many kids. And so you've seen the education system really up close and personal. What was this implementation like from a parent's point of view?
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, coming from a household where I learned that Columbus discovered America just like you did. And so to go home and talk with my parents after school. And they're like, "No, no, no, no, no, no. We're going to have to educate you in the home." And so the same thing's happening with my son. One of the frustrations is I live like five miles out of town. And having so many kids, they can't all Zoom in at once. And so maybe somebody's Zooming in a little while and then somebody else is getting bumped off of the broadband. We lack the capacity to really be doing what we should be right now. So I kind of feel like I'm failing because I'm doing all this work outside of the home and I'm not there to necessarily help and provide that education for my son, or that tutor, or that backup that he needs.
So it's been a real struggle for us during this time, but it's still exciting to see when they bring... I think our schools were really struggling over the first two quarters. And right around the 1st of December, they started sending home packets related to native American stuff, like culture, and history, and content that the kids could make some different art activities. They would talk about different chiefs or different people within the tribe. And it seemed like the interest went up a lot more. And so I'm happy to see that it is effective when it's utilized in the right way.
I think that schools, this year, I'm going to give them a free pass in the sense that the struggle is so difficult. I'm from a blended family. We have two households. I haul kids back and forth on a daily. I can't really see who's getting the homework done. I'm just kind of counting on the other household to make it all work. And it's very frustrating because from my end, I feel like I'm failing them by not providing enough support to make sure they're getting everything done on a timely manner.
Lori Walsh:
Are you hearing that from other parents? Because that really resonates with me as a parent. And I have one child and you constantly feel like I can't. She's in college, but she's doing her college work at home. And often, I just feel like we just haven't done enough. It's been a really tough pandemic for parents.
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, one other thing that I hear is that our communities are really lacking the broadband and the internet and whatnot. So they say, "Okay, what we're going to do is we're going to make the community building," which our tribe has 20 community spread out over five counties. So regionally, there's a community center that everybody can go to. But after hearing parents say, "I had to sit there for six hours, and it's cold, and I couldn't keep my car running that whole time. So while my kids are trying to do their work, it was really a struggle in that cold car, trying to figure out how to make this all happen in a way that everybody's not uncomfortable and freezing and just miserable in the experience."
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. I'm trying to get my mind, Representative Bordeaux, around the essential understandings being adopted and they're part of the standards, but yet they're optional. Can you help me understand how they could still be optional at this point?
Shawn Bordeaux:
That's a good question. And that's why I have a bill up again this year that changes that so that they would be required for everybody across the state. I don't know exactly when it happened that they were no longer required, because like I said, I had brought a bill sometime ago and they said, "This isn't necessary," that by the year 2020, they'll be fully implemented. And then I have teachers in my school saying "It's not being done." And that now it's back to being an option. So some change was made and I'm not sure exactly who or where. I'm still having a hard time figuring out how to get the Office of Indian Ed back over to the Department of Education. So I don't totally know how some of these changes have happened. And seemingly, they're kind of chaotic at least to the folks that I talk to, they're not totally happy with how things are going.
Lori Walsh:
All right. So House Bill 1187 is the one to the schools to provide that education. And then the transfer to the Office of Indian Education, that was defeated already, right?
Shawn Bordeaux:
That was 1104, that was defeated right away. And that was very frustrating because as the communities from the nine tribes called in to the State-Tribal Relations Committee, we gave them time on the agenda. We gave them probably better than an hour. And so we had various PhDs from Pine Ridge and Sisseton and all the different communities calling in saying, "Here's our issues. Here's what we want. We want this move back. And here's all the various other South Dakota Indian Education Advisory Council." All these groups were weighing in, maybe not 100% were saying that they wanted it changed back, but their group was on board saying that they wanted a change. So it was very frustrating to hear a bunch of PhDs saying "This has been nothing but chaos to have this office moved out of Education Department."
And we had even a communication with Dr. Ben Jones at the time who couldn't come to the meeting, but he fielded questions through the email and we had some good dialogue going back and forth. But in the end to see the folks at the committee there last week kill the bill and basically say, "We don't really care what all these other folks are saying. We have the good secretary from Tribal Relations who said he is the education subject matter expert." And he mentioned his experience was chairman of the tribe. And before that, he was a bus driver for the school. And I thought, "How can these folks sit here and down party lines vote to basically ignore all these PhDs that are also Native Americans who are the Tribal Education directors?" And they represent K through 12 or K through post-secondary education in their communities.
Lori Walsh:
We have a new Secretary of Education in Tiffany Sanderson and a new Director of Curriculum, I think, coming in as well. Do you see any relationship building opportunities there? Are you hearing more of the same, or I should say, a consistency, in that transfer or do you think that there's something new on the horizon?
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, I'm hopeful with everybody that comes along, most of these folks are educators and they've been in the area of education for quite a while. So their hearts are in the right place. I certainly would like to reach out and communicate with them, but I think it's more important that these tribal education directors who represent. In my community, you have White River School, you have Todd County, you have St. Francis Indian School owned by the tribe. And then the Todd County and White River Schools as have their own school boards.
It's very difficult making all these entities come under one roof and making them all be one. And so these folks are going to have to be very savvy in understanding the nuances of dealing with tribal governments, dealing with the Bureau of Indian Education, under the Bureau of BIA, and all these are things that are probably new to them. And so when we add layers of curriculum, and mascots, and how we're doing with COVID, and are we protecting our teachers and our students enough? These are going to be some very difficult trying times for those new folks. And I want to give them as much leeway as they need to start in a good way and be effective in their jobs.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit, if you can tell us. So we've had a hard time getting any solid information about how vaccination is going through IHS. What is your experience as far as how that rollout has been going?
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, my left arm still hurts because I had the second Moderna now shot myself. And I'm proud to say that IHS, in this case, is leading the charge. And it's kind of interesting because on the radio at home, they're saying if you're an essential employee, which you have a certain badge that says you're required or whatever, I think we're all essential. But nonetheless, the commercial said, "Come in. And if you're essential, we'll give you this vaccination." And some of the Todd County school district teachers who weren't considered essential workers within the tribe, they came over anyway and they got the vaccination. And I think 600, 700 people were served in the day that I was there.
So I was very impressed, very pleased that, especially since I'm up here in the Capitol where hardly any of us are wearing masks, I thought it was important for me to go ahead and get the vaccination while I could. So I'm happy with IHS and the work that they're doing. And they seem like they had volunteers. The guy who gave me a shot was from Corsica right over there by plat. And we had a good little conversation about growing up in South Dakota and kind of the rural areas. And it was a fun five minutes of just who knew vaccination would be a good conversation, and that people would really appreciate the dialogue we have and just sharing with neighbors.
Lori Walsh:
Yeah. You've been generous with your time. I know you have a lot of work ahead of you today. Is there anything else you wanted to bring up that should be on our radar in the days ahead?
Shawn Bordeaux:
Well, I just appreciate the good work that you guys do. I know I'd like to get more of the native community in touch with the Capitol and the work that we're doing here in Pier. And I think you guys are essential to making that happen. So I want to thank you.
