School mixes religion, native culture
At De La Salle Blackfeet School, Blackfeet culture and Catholicism collaborate every day.
The school, located in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation, fuses the three R's with religious instruction and historical and cultural information, creating a unique education for its middle school students.
Students don't have to be American Indians or Catholics to attend the school; children of all cultures and faiths are welcome. Currently, De La Salle Blackfeet School's 58 fifth- through eighth-grade students are American Indians, school president Brother Paul Ackerman said, and all but three are Catholics.
Many students come to the school because they weren't performing at grade level in math and reading and were struggling in the larger public school environment, Ackerman said.
"The goal [of De La Salle Blackfeet School] is education on a smaller scale for students on the reservation," he said.
The small-school environment gives students a chance to do better academically and allows them to learn more about their faith, he said. Students start each morning with a prayer, and each week a different grade is in charge of Mass.
Blackfeet culture also is important at the school, even though not all students are Blackfeet tribal members. Each morning, after prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance, students sing a Blackfeet flag song, and the school often brings in people from the community to talk to students.
"It's not the place of white people to teach Indians how to be Indians," Ackerman said.
Students have learned beading and have made moccasins and traditional games. The school also offers drumming and language classes.
"It's an add-on for us," Ackerman said of incorporating Blackfeet culture into the school. "It's important that students learn about their history and culture."
De La Salle Blackfeet School opened seven years ago with 18 students. But dreams for a Catholic school began nearly a decade earlier, when the Rev. Ed Kohler of Browning's Little Flower Parish asked the De La Salle Christian Brothers to consider opening a school on the reservation.
He had seen how a Christian Brothers school had benefited a small town in Guatemala, Ackerman said.
"It pulled everyone up by their bootstraps," he said.
Kohler thought a similar school in Browning might do the same thing for the Blackfeet Reservation. He began petitioning the Christian Brothers to start a school there.
He asked for years until the Christian Brothers finally visited the reservation and performed a feasibility study. They "came back very enthusiastic" about making Kohler's dream reality, Ackerman said.
"It took about 10 years - that's persistence," he said.
The school, then just for fifth-graders, opened in September 2001. For the next three years, the school added a grade each year. It graduated its first eighth-grade class in 2005.
For now, those are the only grades the school can afford to operate, Ackerman said.
De La Salle Blackfeet School is a private school, but it isn't tuition-driven, he said. It is nearly entirely funded by donations.
"Students pay $40 a month if their families can afford it," Ackerman said. "And quite a few can't."
To make up the difference, "we do quite a bit of asking," he said. The school has a list of faithful donors from 35 states, but finding funding is still a challenge.
"It's not easy," Ackerman said. "It's kind of a daily struggle. But we think it's worth it."
And sometimes help comes from unexpected places.
Longtime Flathead Valley musician Don Lawrence first heard about De La Salle Blackfeet School from the secretary at St. Richard's Catholic Church in Columbia Falls. Lawrence isn't Catholic, but he was considering holding a fundraiser for a Catholic school in Ashland.
"The secretary said, 'They've got something going there in Browning,'" Lawrence said.
Lawrence, who hopes to raise money for four Montana children's organizations this year, was excited about the opportunity to help kids closer to the Flathead Valley. Ackerman was just as excited.
"He just jumped right on that," Lawrence said.
The fundraiser, a concert by the Don Lawrence Orchestra featuring the Columbia Falls United Methodist Church Choir, takes place at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Richard's. Admission is free; all donations will go to De La Salle Blackfeet School.
The school doesn't yet know how it will use the money it receives, Ackerman said.
"There are so many needs," he said.
Some money may be used for the school's breakfast and hot lunch program. Since the school began, the Browning School District has been able to provide those meals, Ackerman said.
Next year, however, the district's budget is too tight to cover the cost of feeding more than its own students, so De La Salle Blackfeet School has to find a way to pay for its meals.
Money also could go toward the school's after-school programs, Ackerman said.
The school day ends at 3:30 p.m., but each day De La Salle Blackfeet School offers a variety of activities for students to participate in after school. In addition to sports teams, kids can take cooking, beading and wood-shop classes, join the chess club or play board games.
"It gives them an extra hour of being occupied, being safe and off the street," Ackerman said.
Some money may go toward future expansion.
"Father Ed would love to have kindergarten through high school," Ackerman said. For now, however, adding a high school "is still in the dream realm."
Ackerman and other representatives from the school will be at the concert to answer questions about the school and support the Don Lawrence Orchestra.
"We will have a contingent there to cheer them on," he said.
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Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.
What: The Gospel at St. Richard's, a concert featuring spirituals, hymns, gospel music, children's songs and more
Who: The Don Lawrence Orchestra, featuring the Columbia Falls United Methodist Church Choir
When: 3 p.m. Sunday
Where: St. Richard's Catholic Church, Columbia Falls
Why: To raise money for De La Salle Blackfeet School, a Catholic school in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation. There is no admission, but all money will go to the school.