The students – all entering fifth through ninth grades – gathered for meals, cleaned up and collaborated on life skills and fitness over their 10 days together. The summer session was led by mentors Steven Clarke and Paul Twoguns III and Amy Mohawk, Intervention Math & Reading teacher and MBK-NAP grant coordinator.

The group conceptualized and completed a large, meaningful mural under the guidance of high school art teacher Heather Rydzik. The motto is “We are brothers” and the group worked on it in shifts every morning.

“I asked them ‘What else do you want to see at the school?'” says Rydzik, noting that all of the boys are very interested in lacrosse, considered the creator’s game, so that motif and a snow snake figure prominently in the piece.

They also incorporated a large orange handprint to represent the Every Child Matters movement, which pays respect to the victims of residential boarding schools. They wanted to do something for the children who never got to play the game of lacrosse.

The 2024 summer session participants of the My Brother’s Keeper – Native American Program collaborated on a mural.

Rydzik also had them make a wampum bead bracelet on the first day, tying into the cultural piece of the program. A lacrosse stick stringing activity led by Mentor Twoguns was a favorite group activity.

“It was definitely a big hit!” says Amy Mohawk, Intervention Math & Reading teacher and MBK-NAP grant coordinator. “It was great to see the boys using their peer tutoring skills helping one another with this challenging yet rewarding and meaningful task.

Professional lacrosse player Zed Williams, a graduate of Silver Creek Central School District and an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation who grew up on the Cattaraugus Territory, worked with the boys for a day at the Seneca Nation Native Connections program clubhouse.

He is a National Lacrosse League champion with the Colorado Mammoth and Premier Lacrosse League with the Maryland Whipsnakes.

They engaged in icebreakers and a presentation on self-esteem. They had a discussion on lacrosse being a medicine game and being respectful of it, and also of wooden sticks. The talk included an overview of how using mind-changers affects spiritual and athletic performance, and a competition was created using intoxication goggles to simulate how it affects the skills of those under the influence.

Williams talked about working hard to fulfill goals and dreams and played a pick-up game, acting as the goalie.

Brennan Johns shared some of the responsibilities of being a singer in our community then sang social dance songs with the group, with a couple boys taking the lead with the drum. The day ended with swimming in the Saylor building pool.

The boys focused on life skills including cooking with health and nutrition in mind with Full Circle Nutrition (Whitney Brooks) and self-care with physical fitness routines in the weight room. A trip to Ganondagan, the Seneca historical site, provided the group with a variety of activities including screening an artist film version of the creation story and listening to Seneca history lessons while in the authentic longhouse full of artifacts. The boys enjoyed a good game of longball while there.

The group took field trips to see the movie “A Quiet Place” at the Historic Hollywood Theater in downtown Gowanda, Allegany State Park, the Seneca Nation Gakwi:yo:h Farms, and also had time to do some kayaking at Letchworth State Park.