Ed. Sec.: 'We've got to invest in paths to hope'

U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr.'s visit to Pine Ridge Thursday shows that he cares about the issues facing Native American students, according to local school administrators.

King spent Thursday morning at Red Cloud Indian School, where he met with students from several schools on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

"I was struck by the scope of the challenges, but I was also struck by the resilience of the educators," King said in an interview Thursday with Argus Leader Media.

King also stopped at Wolf Creek Elementary School, where he sat in on classes and heard from students and teachers about what it's like to be a student on the reservation.

"A priority for me is to ensure that we help strengthen Indian country educational opportunities," King said, adding that Pine Ridge is the first reservation he's visited since becoming Secretary of Education.

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While he saw the challenges, King was impressed to see the academic successes.

One student King met Thursday shared plans to go to Yale, according to Red Cloud President Rev. George Winzenburg. Another aspires to go to MIT, and others say they want to come back home.

"One of the students said that on the reservation and in our communities, poverty is only one part of the story," Winzenburg said. "The student who said that added, 'We see beauty here, and we want to change life on the reservation for the better.'"

Wolf Creek Principal Jeannine Metzger said King's visit was a significant honor for the school, especially since Native Americans are a small percentage of the general population nationwide.

"This is a huge thing," Metzger said. "Because it means that even though we don't have a big population ... he is still caring about the Native children and their education."

Metzger hopes King's visit showed him a flavor of Lakota culture, but she also hopes he sees the need for help in supporting students in a tribe that has struggled with a high number of student suicides.

"What are those ways that we can build and support our students? (To show them) that there's hope, hope for the future, hope that they can create a community the way they want it to be and live their life in a way that they feel best," Metzger said.

King recalled a story he heard Thursday from an eighth-grade student who lost two friends to suicide.

"We've got to do more as a country to make sure that our Native youth have hope," King said. "I've talked with students about their friends, their peers who have lost hope whether it's committing suicide or getting involved in drugs or violence ... We've got to invest in hope."