Honoring Resilience: Learning from the Holocaust, Dakota Exile, and Minnesota’s Tribal Nations

Date: July 16-20, 2024

Location: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota

Photo: Oheyawahi, a sacred Dakota site, attempts to balance the colonizing narrative with a greater indigenous perspective.

Sponsored by The Olga Lengyel Institute (TOLI), Honoring Resilience: Learning from the Holocaust, Dakota Exile, and Minnesota’s Tribal Nations explores the traumatic events of the Holocaust and Federal Indian Policy, specifically the Dakota Exile and the Indian Boarding Schools, with a focus on the resilience of Jewish people and Indigenous Minnesotans and their contemporary presence and achievements. In the week-long seminar, educators will gain confidence to teach about the Holocaust and Minnesota’s Tribal Nations and will learn best practices for teaching difficult topics.

Our community of educators uses survivor testimonies, experiential learning, primary source materials, speakers, reflective writing, and discussion.  Our field experiences feature site visits to Mt. Zion Temple, St. Paul including Holocaust family testimony and participation in a Shabbat service and to the Dakota sites of Bdote, Oheyawahe (Pilot Knob), and Hoċokata Ti. 

Educators will leave with numerous resources and a viable action plan for implementing study of the Holocaust, genocide, the Dakota & Ojibwe, and human rights in their classrooms–areas of study that are included in Minnesota’s revised social studies and English/Language Arts standards. Attendees can use this training to meet Minnesota’s new American Indian History and Culture licensure renewal requirement.

Further details:

  • Books and materials are provided
  • Two meals are provided each day
  • Professional development credit: 60 PD hours at no cost

Click here to view our flyer.

Thank you to the following sponsors and local partners:

  • Mount Zion Temple, Saint Paul
  • St. Cloud State University Multicultural Resource Center

Leaders

  • Kathy Robinson

    Kathy has been an educator at both St Cloud Technical and Community College and St Cloud State University since 2012. She teaches Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Sociology and classes in the Human Relations and Multicultural Departments. In recognition of her excellence, Kathy was awarded the Outstanding Impact Award at St. Cloud Technical and Community College in 2022.  Kathy received her Master’s Degree in Social Responsibility from St Cloud State University.  Before becoming an educator, she worked with homeless teens in Minneapolis and juvenile felons in a corrections/treatment facility. Kathy attended TOLI’s Minnesota Regional Seminar in 2017, the 2018 TOLI Summer Seminar in New York City, and TOLI’s Leadership Institute in 2019.

  • Anne McCarney

    Anne McCarney has over 15 years of experience as a high school teacher.  Anne began teaching through the PLACE Corps teacher service program in Los Angeles where she taught at Verbum Dei, a Cristo Rey Network school, and earned her Masters in Secondary Education at Loyola Marymount University. She then taught English for grades 10-12 in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and St. Cloud with a focus on social justice issues and educational equity. To support her work as a Holocaust and social justice educator, Anne completed the TOLI  Summer Seminar in 2018 and TOLI leadership institute in 2019 as well as the Bearing Witness teacher education programs in Washington DC in 2014 and Israel in 2016. Anne is currently a Learning Specialist with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe’s Mille Lacs Corporate Ventures.