Lewis St. Cyr
Program Director

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Bear
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 10 years
  • Goals for company: Provide language resources to Tribal membership and all Hōcąk people.

Cela Payer
Language Apprentice Program Manager

  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Bear Clan
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 month
  • Goals for company: Revitalize the language and see more fluent speakers within the community.

Elaine Rice-Decorah
Curriculum Coordinator

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  • Hometown: Sioux City, IA
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 19 years
  • Goals for company: More immersion opportunities for the staff.

Maria Scott
Administrative Assistant

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE and Eufaula, OK
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 19 years
  • Goals for company: Be better organized.

Caprice Snow
Instruction Coordinator

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Buffalo
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 year
  • Goals for company: More opportunities for community members to learn Hōcąk.

Kathy LaRose
Language Instructor

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Bear
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 5 years
  • Goals for company: Become more fluent in Hōcąk.

Mary Merrick
Language Instructor

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Thunder
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 21 years
  • Goals for company: To help all the students that I teach learn as much as possible with the short time I have with them.

Corrine Gilpin
Language Instructor

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Eagle
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 6 years
  • Goals for company: Having more fluent speakers and teachers.

Craig “Tunny” Cleveland Jr.
Language Instructor

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Buffalo
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 year
  • Goals for company: To become fluent and teach others to become fluent.

Semia Snowball
Assessment Coordinator

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  • Hometown: Wisconsin Dells, WI
  • Clan: Bear
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 3 years
  • Goals for company: Department to grow in numbers. This way we will have more learning taking place which in turn means more outreach in our community. If we are all learning, we can share our knowledge and teachings, strengthening our community.

Emily Smith

Media & Design Specialist

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  • Hometown:Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Thunder
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 3 Months
  • Goals for company: To keep learning and help the program become strong within the community.

Pernell Blackfish, Jr.
Language Apprentice

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Fish
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 2 years
  • Goals for company: One of my goals is to be fluent, so I could pass the language onto the next generation.

Jacob Walker
ParaEducator

  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Eagle Clan
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 Year
  • Goals for company: To increase my familiarity with my tribal language and culture, and as that fluency increases, I’d like to assist in continuing and teaching the language as well as our traditions and beliefs. I’d like to help my tribe in this way. 

John Rave
Language Apprentice

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  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Bear
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 year
  • Goals for company: Revitalize the language (fluency) to go further than the Winnebago boundaries. Instill Hōcąk woska ra (The Hōcąk ways).

Darian Rave
Language Apprentice

  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Bear
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 month
  • Goals for company: My goal is to be fluent and a teacher/instructor of the Hōcąk language.

Summer Snow
Language Apprentice

  • Hometown: Winnebago, NE
  • Clan: Water Spirit
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 1 month
  • Goals for company: Being the change I want to see in my community by learning and revitalizing the Hōcąk language.

My Soul Earth Kearnes
Community Outreach Coordinator

  • Hometown:Omah, NE & Denver,CO
  • Clan: Thunder
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 6 months
  • Goals for company: To bring awareness to the community on the language.

Gabriel Aldrich
Media Production Manager

  • Hometown:Walthill, NE & Winnebago, NE
  • Clan:Deer
  • How long with HoChunk Renaissance: 7 months
  • Goals for company: To improve engagement and awareness of our language and culture within our community.