Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School is a K-12 tribal school in unincorporated Cass County, Minnesota, near Bena. It is affiliated with the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Located on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, it serves the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. It is nicknamed the "Bug School".
History
The school first opened in 1975. A new facility opened around 1985. It was built as a bus barn and school for automobile mechanics, and it got the name "pole barn". This facility served as the high school, while K-8 classes were in a separate facility that, by November 2014, was in a better condition.
Circa the 2000s the school community began advocating for a new school. In winter 2014, due to snow, a section of the roof collapsed. By 2015 the editorial board of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune advocated for an urgent replacement of the school. The editorial board cited a sewer system that fails during periods of extreme cold and periods of rodents causing infestations. Jill Burcum, the writer of the editorials, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize due to these stories.
In 2016 the United States Department of the Interior got a $12 million grant for a new school for Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig. The current $14,500,000 44,000-square-foot (4,100 m) facility opened in 2018.
Student body
The high school building had about 100 students, and there were 200 students total for all of K-12, both in 2015.
Curriculum
In addition to traditional subjects, Native culture is heavily integrated into the school's programs, while school district-operated public schools mostly follow dominant Euro-American curriculum with some Native cultural units.
References
- "Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig School". Bureau of Indian Education. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
15353 Silver Eagle Drive NW, Bena, MN, 56626
- Despite the "Bena, MN" postal address, it is outside of the Bena city limis. - ^ "'We're going to school in a tin can'". Minneapolis Star Tribune. April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- ^ "A welcome end to classes in a Leech Lake Reservation pole barn". Minneapolis Star Tribune. April 6, 2016. Archived from the original on April 13, 2016. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- "'Enigok. Nimisiwendaamin ji ayaamaangiban Oshki gikinoo-amaadiwigamig.' ('We really need a new school.')" (PDF). Minneapolis Star-Tribune. November 30, 2014. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- ^ "Separate and unequal: Indian schools, a nation's neglect". Minneapolis Star Tribune. April 2, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- "Finalist: Jill Burcum of Star-Tribune, Minneapolis". Pulitzer Prize. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
- "New Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig school is complete but Bureau of Indian Education system is still crumbling". Minneapolis Star Tribune. July 31, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2021.
External links
| Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and predecessor agencies | |||||
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| This list is incomplete: It includes schools directly operated by the BIE and those in association with the BIE along with those of predecessor agencies Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute are BIE-operated universities. | |||||
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| Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Alaska was formerly a Bureau of Indian Affairs school but is now directly overseen by the State of Alaska Eight Mile School District (Trenton, ND) was BIE/OIE-funded from 1987 to 2008 | |||||
47°21′41″N 94°18′27″W / 47.3613°N 94.3074°W / 47.3613; -94.3074
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