Mounds View Middle School students meet ultra-rare Ojibwe Pony
NORTH OAKS, Minn. – Seventh Grade students from Chippewa Middle School in North Oaks got a face-to-face visit with history on Friday.
In part with new state standards to require understanding and awareness of other cultural perspectives, the district turned a science lesson into a chance to learn a bit of history as well.
The school partnered with The Humble Horse, a Wisconsin based non-profit aimed to preserve, reconnect with and advocate for the Ojibwe Pony. Once, the horse's population surpassed the thousands. By the 1970s, there were just a handful left in the United States.
Now, thanks in part to careful breeding efforts, that number has increased slightly. On Friday, the organization's founder brought two of the horses to show the students.
"You can't talk about these horses without talking about Ojibwe people," said The Humble Horse founder Em Loerzel. "When you're talking about these horses, you also have to talk about history that happened here, and I hope it builds better cultural understanding, connection and allyship."
Loerzel talked with students about how selective breeding gave the horses a competitive advantage in nature, but also how through forced assimilation, their population dwindled.
"I think it builds better understanding. It's not to make anyone feel guilty and to blame anyone, it's more so to not repeat the past," she said.
Jill Spencer, the district's American Indian Equity and Integration Liaison says events like Friday's help to bridge a cultural gap.
"That they really start to learn the history of our state and our people, our original people here," Spencer said. "Teaching the truth and the history is just so important in an age appropriate way."
