LCO Flag Proudly Displayed at Bdote Learning Center

By Joe Morey

News Editor

The Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Flag was sent to the Bdote Learning Center in Minneapolis by the LCO Tribal Governing Board earlier in August. The Bdote Learning Center is a year-round K-8th grade Ojibwe and Dakota immersion public charter school.

Korissa Howes of the Bdote school said the students from LCO are very proud and excited their flag will be displayed.

"We are collecting tribal flags that represent the staff and students that come through the school and plan to hang them in our gym and use them in our Pow wows when we have the proper equipment," Howes said. "The flags make the kids very proud of their heritage and help build their identities which is something we strive to do as a school."

Currently, the Fond Du Lac, Iroquois flag, Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux flag, and the Grand Portage flag are displayed. The Red Lake Nations was received on August 22.

"We are looking to get flags from Sisseton, Rosebud, Leech Lake, White Earth, Red Cliff, Lac Du Flambeau, Bad River, Lower Sioux, Upper Sioux, Prairie Island, the Ho Chunk Nation, and the Seneca Nation," Howes noted.

According to the Bdote Learning Center Facebook page, "The founders of Bdote envisioned a language immersion and place-based charter school that would not only engage children, but their families, and other community members. We chose the name Bdote Learning Center because "Bdote" is the Dakota word for the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers (also called Pike Island at the Ft. Snelling state park) and believed to be the origin place of Minnesota's first peoples. We saw our name as a metaphor for the coming together of Native and Western knowledge."