<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\tBemidji State University students created snow snakes to contribute to Bemidji’s Snow Snake Community Potluck Feast and Giveaway, held Feb. 24 at Bemidji’s Rail River Folk School.<\/span> <\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Erika Bailey-Johnson, director of sustainability, brought this Ojibwe tradition to her People of the Environment class in collaboration with BSU’s School of Technology, Art & Design.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n The legend of snow snakes is centered around the Ojibwe’s cultural importance of caring for their families, communities and land. Snow snake is played as an Indigenous winter sport, traditionally by tribes around the Great Lakes. This game is a time for community and to honor tradition, where four teams try to throw their wooden snow snakes the farthest outside.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Bailey-Johnson said the idea originally came from her husband, Matt Johnson.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n “He created snow snakes with his students while teaching eighth-grade earth science at Cass Lake-Bena Middle School,” she said. “He has been coming to my classes throughout the process of making snow snakes, and it has been an amazing experience.”<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Bob Shimeck, member of the White Earth Nation and snow snake expert, has been an inspiration to Bailey-Johnson for years.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n “I talked to my students first before implementing this project,” she said. “As soon as they expressed their excitement, I knew I had to contact Bob Shimeck. I was so happy when he agreed to speak to my class about the Anishinaabe legend of the snow snake.”<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Bailey-Johnson’s students have been out of their classroom for this assignment. From the middle of the woods to the labs in the TAD school, creating the snow snakes has been a chance for students to have new, fun experiences.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n “It’s been really fun to collaborate with TAD on this project,” she said. “They have been generous with their space, knowledge and ideas to make this project happen.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n “I’m hoping this can be a tradition at Bemidji State for years to come,” Bailey-Johnson said. “This project connects to the land, culture and environment of the Bemidji community.”<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students in Erika Bailey-Johnson’s People of the Environment class recently explored the Ojibwe snow snake tradition. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":48742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[872,25,980,1048,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-people","category-strategic-plan","category-success-story","category-top-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48741"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48792,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48741\/revisions\/48792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}