Spirit Lake elder Oliver Gourd Sr. wants to keep his people's culture alive. He worries they will lose their native Dakota language, with younger generations speaking it only as a second language. He also wants people to understand the damage Native American boarding schools, which he attended himself, have done to generations of his people.

"Times have changed, and that's the reality of it," he said.

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Gourd believes when people show prejudice against Native American culture, it's because they don't know enough about it. His desire to increase education about his culture led him to participate in the Native American Essential Understandings Project, an effort spearheaded by the Department of Public Instruction.

Jeff Stotts, an instructional strategist for Devils Lake High School and a member of the project committee, said the project aims to help schools across North Dakota integrate education about Native American culture as part of their core curricula, rather than added on as extra lessons.

"There have been pockets where some schools have done some really cool things even prior to the Essential Understandings," Stotts said. He pointed to cultural awareness assemblies held by Central Middle School at which Native American elders sometimes speak.

"But that's kind of a pocket of something that's been added as an addendum," Stotts said. "It's kind of on the outside of what's normally going on."

The project began in the spring of 2015 with gatherings of elders from all four of North Dakota's Native American tribes. The elders told stories about their upbringings and what they want people to know about Native American culture for a video.

The project's committee next developed lesson plans for education about Native American culture for schools to use if they choose, as well as a resource document outlining seven essential understandings about Native American culture defined by the elders.

The project now is in the implementation phase. The Department of Public Instruction is holding a series of training sessions for educators throughout the state who wish to use the Essential Understandings Project's framework, with the next training to take place later in April.

Lucy Fredericks, director of Indian and multicultural education for the Department of Public Instruction, said the project includes more than 40 lesson plans and 95 interviews with tribal elders.

Stotts said he believes up until now, education about Native American culture has not sought enough involvement from tribal members.

"The voices of the elders, it really adds a sense of legitimacy to this project," he said. He said the stories Gourd and others shared about the cruel treatment endured at Native American boarding schools is a key part of understanding their people's plight today.

Stotts said he believes integrating education about Native American culture throughout primary and secondary-school core curricula is more effective than designating specific blocks of time for the subject, such as Native American History Month. He said it is too easy to forget about the cultural education once the unit is over.

"A culture's language, their history, is like a flashlight," Stotts said. "Every language group, every cultural group you can identify, you turn on another flashlight, and pretty soon that dark room is illuminated."

Fredericks said the Department of Public Instruction's goal is to secure funding to continue providing support and training to educators across the state who want to implement the Essential Understandings Project's framework.

"I think it's real important that we really try to get it out statewide and have teachers feel comfortable teaching the lesson plans along with the elder videos and the resources that are available."