A milestone. And a dance.

I went to my first parent teacher conference today. 

My girl is getting so big!

It made me feel...

old

happy

and

grateful.

********

The previous post. 

It was a dance!

And that is exactly how they dance at the pow wows!

So, everybody won!

Marley goes to a school that was once run fully by the Sault Ste. Marie band of the Chippewa Indians. 

It is now a Public Academy, chartered through Northern Michigan University and also funded by grants from the Bureau of Indian Education. 

She has a language/culture class and she is learning Ojibwe along with various cultural things including dance. She also learns Ojibwe in her classroom but it's nothing close to a language immersion class. 

At the dance they taught about the drum or dewe'igan and it not only means drum but also heart beat. 

To show respect you always walk and dance around the drum clockwise.

They also taught about the shawl dance (now Marley really wants a shawl, I think we can do that).

And they taught about the jingle dress (now Marley REALLY REALLY wants a jingle dress, I don't know about that!) 

It was awesome!

Though Isi hid behind my chair for a little bit (not only was the drum loud the boys were singing/yelling too!) she did want to go out and dance, so we did. She tried real hard and sometimes Marley and her friends would slow down and dance with her for a little while.  If Isi saw them up ahead or pass us she would spread her hand wide in front of her and reach for them and yell. Of course, they couldn't hear her. 

She wasn't using the ear muffs so much to block out the drums as to play and be cute.