Lacrosse camp reaches partnership with university
University of Minnesota and Lake Superior Chippewa tribal officials signed an agreement saying the university will pay $10,000 a year for five years for housing for lacrosse camp held on the Fond du Lac Reservation.
By: Jana Hollingsworth, Duluth News Tribune
Organizer Bryan “Bear” Bosto has seen the effect a two-year-old lacrosse camp on the Fond du Lac Reservation has had on American Indian youth.
With kids practicing the sport alone at the Brookston Community Center and chiding adults for smoking, the lessons picked up through the week-long summer camp stick, he said.
“It’s not just ‘grab a stick and go out and have fun.’ We’re incorporating healthy decision-making,” Bosto said. “It’s about life lessons.”
That made it an easy choice for University of Minnesota Duluth Chancellor Lynn Black to seek housing money for the camp when approached by Bosto, manager of the Brookston Community Center on the Fond du Lac Reservation. Bosto helped create the camp that serves American Indian teens from several area tribes and bands, and was recently honored by the White House as a “Champion for Change” for his work on it.
On Friday, university and tribal officials signed an agreement saying the U of M will pay $10,000 a year for five years for housing for the camp. The money comes from the Office for Equity and Diversity and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, both on the Twin Cities campus.
The university liked the camp’s focus on not only the indigenous sport, but on education and nutrition, said Rickey Hall, assistant vice president of the University of Minnesota’s Office for Equity and Diversity.
“The University of Minnesota has a long history of engagement with the tribal nations of Minnesota,” he said. “We appreciate this opportunity and look forward to the partnership.”
The professional Minnesota Swarm lacrosse team coaches the boys. Last year, girls signed on and were coached by the Hamline University female lacrosse team. Aside from learning lacrosse, Fond du Lac’s health and human service workers teach kids about diabetes and obesity, nutrition and other wellness issues. The U.S. Marshals have pitched in, along with the Native American Law Enforcement Summit and several area bands and tribes. This year Minnesota’s Army National Guard is sponsoring the camp.
“We’re always interested in providing youth with positive activities,” said Karen Diver, chairwoman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “To give them access to other role models, to other professions and to build community … and their own personal strength and health.”
The game of lacrosse, Bosto said, comes from Indian Country. Although not necessarily an Anishinaabe sport, some elders recall parents and grandparents playing it, he said.
“Sharing those stories with kids gives them a sense of pride that there was a sport originally played by Native Americans,” Bosto said. “There’s a connection there.”
Students will be housed at the U of M’s Cloquet Forestry Center. Nearly 50 students took part in last year’s camp, and about 60 13-15 year olds are expected this summer. Bosto hopes that students who have aged out will come back and help run the camp. UMD’s lacrosse team plans to offer scholarships to older players to attend its summer development camp, said the team’s coach, Frank Clark.
Lacrosse “is an athletic outlet that encourages leadership and teamwork,” Black said, and the partnership is a way for UMD to connect with the larger American Indian community.
Campers have included kids from Fond du Lac, Red Lake Nation, Grand Portage, Blue Earth, Lac Courte Oreilles, Oneida, Mille Lacs and Prairie Island reservations.
Without the help of UMD and the U of M, Bosto said, camp costs probably couldn’t have been sustained.
