LPS students celebrate achievements at American Indian Promotion Ceremony

April 29, 2025

Moore Middle School eighth grader Quincey beamed a thousand-watt smile as she received a commemorative coin celebrating her upcoming journey to high school.
 
Dozens of other Lincoln Public Schools students and families shared those same energetic feelings this spring at the inaugural American Indian Student Promotion Ceremony. Organizers recognized kindergarteners, fifth graders and eighth graders for their progression along the grades K-12 pathway. Every student received a special gift at the beginning of the event featuring speeches, fellowship and a round dance.

 
Quincey said she was grateful to take part in the ceremony. She walked to an eighth grade table in Standing Bear High School’s west hallway and accepted a challenge coin shaped like a Medicine Wheel. The Medicine Wheel represents health dimensions and life cycles in American Indian cultures.
 
“It made me really happy,” Quincey said. “I don’t normally get a lot of gifts from my elders, so I’m very honored.”
 
Joe Rousseau coordinates the American Indian Education Demonstration Grant at LPS and helped organize the event. He delivered a commencement address that focused on the importance of honoring the four hills of K-12 education. The first hill represents kindergarteners moving to first grade, and the next two hills mark the transition into middle school and high school for fifth and eighth graders. Seniors reach the summit of the fourth and final hill when they graduate from high school.
 
“These hills of your education leave you with knowledge and an understanding that no one can take from you,” Rousseau told students in the audience. “Once you gain that understanding, it is yours.”

 
Renee Sans Souci welcomed everyone with a traditional blessing from a copper cup filled with water and medicine. She felt it was essential to celebrate and preserve American Indian heritage and customs for future generations.
 
“I really appreciate this time, because what’s it all about?” Sans Souci said. “It’s about our future. It’s about our youth. It’s about our children.”
 
Rousseau said members of the LPS Native American Advisory Committee (NAAC) created the idea for a promotion ceremony last year. They wanted to honor students in the three milestone grades with a traditional American Indian format. They also felt having the ceremony at a school named for a civil rights hero would make the evening even more impactful.
 
“It is especially meaningful, I feel, that we are gathered in a school named after Chief Standing Bear,” Rousseau said. “Just think of what he did not only for his Native nation, but for all of us.”
 
The names of 23 kindergarteners, 49 fifth graders and 66 eighth graders were listed in the evening’s program. Kindergarteners accepted blankets made in a variety of colors and traditional native designs. Rousseau told the audience that each blanket represents the comfort and protection students will receive from their family, teachers and community.
 
Volunteers presented each fifth grader with a medicine bundle that contained sweetgrass, sage and cedar. American Indians use many medicines to promote overall health. Medicine bundles hold significant meaning for each tribe and are treated with great reverence in the community.

 
Eighth graders such as Quincey received Medicine Wheel coins when they arrived for the ceremony. They later joined kindergarteners, fifth graders and their families for a round dance on the gym floor. They gathered in a circle and moved around a group of drummers in the center of the gym. American Indian tribes perform round dances to connect, celebrate and acknowledge each other at important times for the community.
 
Quincey held hands with her sister as she and other dancers moved clockwise with the song. She said it was exciting to share the experience with family, friends and classmates.
 
“I got to dance with my sister,” Quincey said. “It was fun to see everyone get the hang of the dance.”

 
Rousseau said the support from LPS leadership was a primary factor in making the event possible. Standing Bear High School Principal Sue Cassata has organized many educational activities about the history and importance of Chief Standing Bear, who led the Ponca Tribe for many years. American Indian seniors can wear eagle feathers and plumes and can bead their mortarboards when they accept their diplomas, and LPS teachers have encouraged many students in their classrooms throughout the city.
 
“I’m so thankful that Lincoln Public Schools honors our educational sovereignty by providing us a space such as this for all of us to get together and celebrate with each other,” Rousseau said.
 
Rousseau said he was proud to join other strong community members at the ceremony. He said unity and cooperation were why students like Quincey could experience thousand-watt feelings of joy.
 
“I would like to thank, most importantly, our parents and our scholars that are here today,” Rousseau said. “This is a very special moment, because when will all of us be together again, except for right now, to honor our youth?”

Visit https://home.lps.org/federal/indian-education/ to learn more about how the American Indian Education Program supports LPS students.
 
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