Official JAG competency wording: Apply the problem-solving process
Category: Life Survival
Source themes: critical thinking, strategic planning, solutions
Source: JAG Competencies Descriptions.docx.
Open this competency in the learning workspace
Reviewed OSEU and Wolakota interview connections
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · Productive Use of Reservation Land - Lydia Whirlwind Soldier - OSEU #7 · OSEU 7
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): The speaker describes weighing jobs, land impact, and community responsibilities in tribal decisions. That gives a specific decision-making case, with OSEU 7.2 emphasizing community actions; it does not supply a universal decision model.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: The revised standard retains the meaning supported by the cited interview passage. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
On our reservation, our Tribal Council is really struggling to bring jobs to the reservation, but we also have to think about the impact those companies have on our land. And with owning a million acres, we have to start thinking about the use of that land. How are we going to use it so it's productive, and how is it going to benefit our people? And we still have that tribal way of living that we are responsible for one another. And we have to make sure that everyone is taken care of, the children, the elders. And they come first. They always come first in all our decisions that the Tribal Council makes. They talk about the elders, what the elders need and what the children need. And the people in the middle are supposed to take care of business. So our tribe has a casino, and that casino supports the communities. They provide money for medical travel, for any kind of emergencies, funeral expenses, and all that. And they provide for children's or the community children's activities for entertainment and all of that. And so the casino has really helped our people. And also we have Tribal Land Enterprises. We're the only tribe in the whole United States that has Tribal Land Enterprises. And that is a collective ownership of land, and that's that million acres. And the tribe buys land as it becomes available, if they can afford it. And that land goes into TLA, Tribal Land Enterprises, and that benefits the entire tribe. So the lease that comes off of that land goes to the tribe. And also we as tribal members can apply for land to live on. And so the Tribal Land Enterprises, I think, are really beneficial to our people.
Learn About: What priorities does Lydia Whirlwind Soldier describe when the Tribal Council considers jobs and land use?
Learn From: In a fictional community decision, whose needs and what effects would you want to consider?
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0023; video iW4KLHeABw8; passage containing: we also have to think about the impact those companies have on our land.. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · The Solutions Are at Home - Jesse Taken Alive - OSEU 2 · OSEU 2
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): The speaker emphasizes practical, community-based solutions rather than endlessly studying problems. This adds a community-knowledge perspective to problem solving, without replacing an explicit problem-solving process.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: The passage supports identity and strength through adaptation and community knowledge; it does not explicitly examine the two-worlds continuum required by revised 2.3. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
Of course, I always say this…we’ve always had to know how. We always lack the resources…whether it’s housing… schools…resources to hire teachers…we’ve always had to know how. It’s just a lack of resources that are challenging out there for us. And I say this in a respectful way to our friends out there in Washington D.C….while they talk about and provide the assessments…and say we need to study the situation more…a lot of times it’s common sense. They don’t have the solutions. The solutions are at home. The solutions are in our communities. And we’re at the juncture right now where we are saying it is ok to question the need for us to continue to study. And I respect that in itself…to be studied…or to study a situation. But the focus we have right now is to look at solution-oriented issues, discussions, circles if you will. Let’s do those types of things. The practical way of doing things…practice-based if you will…of doing things. And they’ve been with us for centuries. And now to see us change with the times…and we’ve been able to do that as Lakota. You look at history itself…they described us as “nomadic.” Our minds were nomadic…to understand how we can live…and not only survive…but live in the challenging climates we have here in the Northern Plains. So, through that, we have a little teaching…real simple…we say “The only work that’s there, is we pray that these changes we are dealing with right now, are going to be good for the all.” That’s the only work. And the prayer part is the work…and whatever we’re changing to…let it be for the good of all.
Learn About: Where does Jesse Taken Alive locate solutions, and what kinds of discussion does he propose?
Learn From: Who might already have useful knowledge about a problem you want to understand?
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0136; video U3MWOWmXtYs; passage containing: The solutions are in our communities.. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · What is Your Chapter Going to Say - Duane Hollow Horn Bear - Storytelling · OSEU 5
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Hollow Horn Bear describes learning step by step and his grandmother asking him to understand how the curtains were assembled before taking them down. This supports G55 by inviting students to study the structure of a problem before proposing a solution.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
To encourage. My relatives. Into homeland. After Homeland and even those that perhaps are incarcerated because of the lack of knowledge of their own history. History. That's the starting point. That's the starting point is to go back to the basics first and realize why I was born in this culture? Who am I? Begin with knowing your history first and taking it step by step by step. Learning. I believe you don't want to try to grab everything all at once and say, okay, I got it down. No, you got to begin to live it. You gotta start to practice it. Knowing your history. From the beginning. Where did Native people come from? The creation story. The creation story. The social system. The spiritual system. Slowly take these a little bit at a time. I think that's a starting point.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of reflective learning? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you study the structure of a problem before proposing a solution? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0002; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZzQwShp20A; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · Pick-Sloan Act & Loss of Honesty - Vernon Ashley - OSEU #6 · OSEU 6
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Vernon Ashley describes land losses, tribal leadership, government formation, and seeking legal expertise. This supports G55 by inviting students to recognize when a problem calls for professional assistance.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
While I was in the service from 1942 to 1946, in 1943, the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs went to me before Congress to explain to him what the Pick's long plan was to do, to harness the Missouri and build these earthen dams and inundate thousands of acres of land. But the general of the Corps of Engineers was Pick, and he was a stubborn guy, and so he said, we don't have to contact the tribes, we'll take their land by condemnation. That all these things I faced when I came back from, that was in 1943, so I was discharged in 1946, and then went into tribal leadership role, and faced all these big problems. And the first thing, we had to form a government.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of honesty and public responsibility? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you recognize when a problem calls for professional assistance? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0069; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOoTVjNEbf4; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · Navigating Two Cultures for Change - Lowell Amiotte - OSEU #6 · OSEU 7
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Lowell Amiotte describes navigating two cultures and working within policies and procedures to improve conditions for future generations. This supports G55 by inviting students to identify a feasible way to address a problem.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
I've been in education for a long time and I had to work with a lot of those policies and procedures. And a lot of people fight them. And the reason I was selected to start with at Black Hills was because I could navigate between two cultures. And I kind of knew the policies and procedures to go by. I always thought that aim played a really big role. You know, the radical people thought they were so radical. But they would come in and point out a lot of things that were wrong. And then less radical people like me could look at those things and say, How are we going to improve them? Through the system rather than attacking the system. So policies and procedures are very important too. I think if they're not followed, you can see what happens just right here in the state if people violate the policies and procedures and don't follow them.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of working for change? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you identify a feasible way to address a problem? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0075; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krWq0E2wIyc; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · Lakota Language Study in South Dakota - Lowell Amiotte - OSEU 3 · OSEU 3
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Lowell Amiotte recalls bilingual education work and asking a national office to include Native language programs. This supports G55 by inviting students to identify an institutional avenue for a problem.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
My parents spoke Lakota. They always used it around each other when they didn’t want us kids to know what they were talking about. My mother went to the Holy Rosary Mission which is now Red Cloud. She got the idea that you can’t make anything of yourself in this country unless you know English. So, they thought, our kids are going to know English…and we are not going to be so worried about them learning Lakota. However, down at Rocky Ford, a lot of people would come and visit our grandparents…and we had spent our summers there. And they would speak in Lakota to each other. And all of us kids would sit there and be like “What’s going on?” We saw it was important to them, very important. So, I’m kind of proud of this fact…when I was working at Black Hills State…in the Center of Indian Studies there…we wrote the first grant to bring bilingual into South Dakota…the bilingual programs.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of language advocacy? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you identify an institutional avenue for a problem? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0076; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o6nYJbuqxc; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
G55 — Apply the problem-solving process
Explore G55 · Dakota Language Revitalization - Dr. Sherry Johnson & Dr. Nadine Eastman - OSEU #3 · OSEU 3
Reviewed teaching connection (Supporting): Sherry Johnson and Nadine Eastman describe their sister’s work producing Dakota curriculum, cards, signs, and a language-based game. This supports G55 by inviting students to consider creative responses to language loss.
Updated for Proposed August 9, 2024: New connection to the overall current understanding. No specific OSEU standard alignment is claimed. Original JAG–interview approval retained.
Dr. Nadine Eastman: We want to talk about language because…I want you to know that I’m the youngest sister and she’s the oldest sister…and in between us is our middle sister, Tammy…and in our reservation, her job is…what’s her official title?...Lakota Language Director at Dakota Language Institute…she’s a director. And she has been trying to preserve our language. We’re all concerned about losing our language. So, for years and years now, she has been working on making curriculum materials in Dakota for the schools and individuals. She has a program through Transparent Languages, a UNKNOWN WORD program, just for assisting Dakota that we use in our schools.
Learn About: What details in this passage support the speaker’s account of language revitalization? What would you need to hear in the full interview before interpreting it?
Learn From: How could you consider creative responses to language loss? Use a fictional or classroom example if you prefer, and explain which part of the speaker’s account informed your approach.
05 Wolakota Project Video Transcripts and URLs.docx · WP-0087; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7mbNGrxqg; opening passage. Teaching interpretation is separate from official wording and the interviewee’s account.
Human Shaped Learning connection
Chapter 9: Creating a Culture of Curiosity
Reviewed teaching connection: Reviewed connections: G55. Invite students to generate questions and choose one to investigate using the interview evidence.
Human Shaped Learning with Front Matter.docx · Ch. 9, actual manuscript pp. 71–77; Why Curiosity Matters
Chapter 18: Trusting the Process: The Journey of Learning
Suggested teaching connection: Suggested teaching connection for learning process, based on G55 competency. Return to a learning goal after an attempt; reflect on progress and revise the next step.
Human Shaped Learning with Front Matter.docx · Ch. 18, actual manuscript pp. 134–140; The Role of Patience and Reflection
Chapter 19: The Role of Silence in Learning
Suggested teaching connection: Suggested teaching connection for quiet processing, based on G55 competency. Offer a quiet pause after the interview and before discussion; students may think, write, or draw privately.
Human Shaped Learning with Front Matter.docx · Chapter 19: The Role of Silence in Learning
Plan with these recommendations and select more HSL chapters.