Students Gather Native Summer Learning Camp Banquet

On Thursday, July 27, at Watchetaker Hall, Native Summer Learning Camp held a student banquet to close out the camp.

Caddo Nation Child Care Director Lauryn French said the camp idea came around COVID when she said many people needed summer care.

“And our child care facilities were in a need and we just didn't have spaces,” she said. “Our families really didn't have space. And we ourselves, child care programs, didn't have additional spaces for our influx of summer attendants. So it was, ‘What could we do to meet the need of our families in several different locations?’ And then we wanted a unique way to provide that experience.”

She and Carolyn Codopony, the Child Care Director at Comanche Nation, wanted children to engage with culture and language.

“We started having a lot of conversations about if we could piece together a summer camp that had Native inclusion but we were still meeting the needs of our families and the children where they were kind of lacking in-person opportunities to learn about core subjects in school,” French said.

She said there were several modules for students to become involved with, including art and mental health.

“This year we operated a five-traveling module camp,” French said. “So, it was to meet the needs for STEM, art, literature, culture and language, and healthy lifestyles with a huge Native focus and the interactions that the children were experiencing.”

She said planning for this year’s camp began in December 2022. COVID restrictions were lifted in May 2023. This was the first time family could be involved.

“We had missed the opportunity of family inclusion the first two years,” French said. “And outside of kind of having small conversations with family members, of telling them kind of what your child was doing, and how they were experiencing and interacting with the five core areas, we've never got to showcase or have a presentation that kind of commemorates what their children have been learning over the summer or the kind of information they've engaged in.”

She said parents also wanted to be involved with the student's learning. Booths were set up to give demonstrations on the various modules.

According to French, 130 campers were a part of the five-tribe camp, including Comanche Nation, Caddo Nation, Delaware Nation, Kiowa Tribe and Apache Tribe; held locations from Binger, Oklahoma, to Lawton, Oklahoma.

Some of her highlights included being entirely natively funded, having an all-native staff and giving access to information for students.

“They are getting to experience things that their families might not be able to economically make happen for them at home. So, it is something that the kids really get to like,” French said. “They get to enjoy going to like different places and seeing different things.”

She said having multiple tribal sponsorships for the camp meant better relationships.

“If we're utilizing our funds correctly, look at what can happen when we can sit at a table and we can put our federal dollars together and then we can build programming that is outside of this world and we're still servicing the areas, we are still servicing our children and we are still servicing our members,” French said.