photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Ron Brave, a member of the Oglala Sioux Nation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, plays an Indigenous instrument for the students of Cordley Elementary on Monday, which was Indigenous Peoples Day.

Students at Cordley Elementary School on Monday took part in an assembly in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day.

Ron Brave, a member of the Oglala Sioux Nation of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, paid Cordley a visit and played Indigenous instruments for the students. Brave is a former Cordley parent himself; his daughter is now a senior at Lawrence High School.

Brave played and sang a handful of songs, and he also taught students the Oglala Sioux translations for words like “friend” and “all the animals that live on the earth.”

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Cordley Elementary students play a drum with Ron Brave during an assembly Monday in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day.

Before Brave played and spoke to the group, ESL teacher Christina Kelly read a land acknowledgement noting that Douglas County occupies the traditional lands of the Osage, Kaw and Kickapoo people. Cordley principal Becky Reaver also named a list of about a dozen Native American nations represented among the student body, including the Potawatomi, Kickapoo, Navajo and Cherokee nations.