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Contact: Bruce Conley
Associate Director of College Relations
Phone: (605) 274-5526
Fax: (605) 274-4903
www.augie.edu
February 21, 2006
SIOUX FALLS – Augustana College’s Education Department is collaborating with the Multi-Cultural Center in Sioux Falls in a pilot program called Native Reads.
A Smudging Ceremony to launch the program will be held Friday, March 3, beginning at 4:45 p.m. in the Coliseum of the Multi-Cultural Center at 515 N. Main Avenue in downtown Sioux Falls. The ceremony is open to the public.
Native Reads is a literacy program for Native American elementary students. The Multi-Cultural Center, Augustana College, and the Native Reads Task Force have modeled Native Reads after the Augustana Reads program for children that began in 1999 at the Multi-Cultural Center. Dr. Sharon Andrews, who chairs Augustana Education Department, is a member of the Native Reads Task Force.
Twenty Native American students will participate in the program beginning this spring.
Traditional Native American stories will be included in portions of the program. Augustana students in Dr. Bill Swart’s Native American Studies class will serve as tutors during the eight-week pilot. Swart is an associate professor of sociology.
Following an evaluation of this initial phase, the Multi-Cultural Center plans to continue Native Reads as an ongoing literacy program and hopes to expand the number of Native American students served.
The Smudging Ceremony is a cleansing or purification ceremony. Perry Bobtail Bear is the spiritual advisor and will emcee the ceremony on March 3. A brief reception and tour of the Native Reads classroom follows the Smudging Ceremony.