ABERDEEN, S.D. – For more than 30 years, the Aberdeen Central High School Native American Student Association has been providing students with a sense of community.
“Even back when I was in NASA, that’s what it felt like,” said Gordon Tree Top, Central’s Indian Education Program Coordinator. “And I can remember that feeling: This is my space. This is my place to be. I can be myself around this group of kids.”
Now, Tree Top gets to help provide that same sense of community for current CHS students.
“It goes back to the thought of becoming the person you might have needed back then,” he said.
NASA has grown significantly since Tree Top was a member in the 1990s, when there were about five students involved. Today, approximately 25 students typically attend each NASA meeting, held every other Thursday during advocate at CHS.
For those students involved today, NASA still provides a strong sense of community and belonging.
“I can come to school knowing that I have someone I can talk to at anytime about anything,” said CHS ninth-grader Kyler Hopkins.
Central senior Dominick Eagle Star said the best thing about being part of NASA is getting to know the people he has met through his involvement.
“The best of my friends, I’ve met through NASA,” he said. “I’ve been in it for all four years of high school. It’s a very welcoming environment.”
Isabella Archambault, a junior at CHS, said, “I just like that we get to learn about and embrace our culture and it brings us together.”
Ninth-grader Nevaeh Diserly added, “I just like being involved with my type of people.”
Very Supportive of Students
Hopkins said Tree Top and all of NASA is very supportive of students.
“We do a lot of activities, which brings us all together,” Hopkins said.
Those activities include community events such as the Winter Coat Drive and the recent Project Red, a period poverty event that donated items to a Sisseton domestic violence shelter. Tree Top said they also hope to do a project with Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides beds for families in the community.
A lot of NASA students are also involved with the Upward Bound program, where students get to spend six weeks in the summer staying on the Northern State University campus and visiting colleges in other states. Eagle Star said he has visited Chicago, Minnesota and Colorado through this program, which is free to participants.
Another important NASA event is an annual trip to the Black Hills for the Welcoming Back the Thunders springtime ceremony. Archambault and Eagle Star have gone on the trip, which includes a seven-mile hike to the top of Black Elk Peak.
“Physically it can be pretty hard,” Archambault said. “But spiritually and mentally, it helped with remembering my people and saying prayers and stuff. It’s really good.”
AIPAC Assists with Events
NASA also has the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee (AIPAC), a group of parents who have children within the school district. This group meets every six weeks to help advise Tree Top on how to spend funding and assists with planning some of the bigger events.
While NASA is for high school students, in the past they have had chapters at the middle schools, which is something they’d like to get going again. They also hope to do more events with elementary school students—like their recent pumpkin patch event—in order to get more younger students involved.
For Central students wanting to get involved, Tree Top said NASA is open to anyone, and he encourages them just to show up—whether that’s at a meeting, or at his office in CHS Student Services.
Diserly, who is serving as NASA’s secretary/treasurer this year, said being part of NASA has made her more involved.
“I just like being part of something that can help my culture, especially,” she said.
To learn more about Central’s Native American Student Association, visit the CHS Indian Education webpage: aberdeen.k12.sd.us/page/indian-education.
About the Aberdeen Public School District
The Aberdeen Public School District provides a comprehensive educational program to approximately 4,200 students in grades K-12, with a mission of empowering all students to succeed in a changing world. Our students receive the knowledge and skills necessary to reach their potential in a global community through high expectations of academic achievement; diverse educational opportunities; and community involvement in a safe, supportive environment. Learn more at aberdeen.k12.sd.us.