Leech Lake's 'Bug' school finally gets its new building

A host of federal officials attended the dedication of a new building at the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig tribal school on the Leech Lake Reservation Monday.

Three U.S. representatives, two senators — via video conference — and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke all turned out to see the new high school building.

Former Sen. Al Franken also attended — in what's believed to be one of his first appearances in Minnesota since resigning from the U.S. Senate.

Franken is one of a handful of politicians who worked to get funding for the project. From a stage in the new gymnasium, he spoke of the lengthy bureaucratic struggle.

He said he first heard about the Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig school nearly a decade ago when a student testified before an Indian Affairs committee meeting.

"Her testimony was disturbing," he said. "She testified about the appalling conditions in which they were expected to learn."

High school students went to class in an old pole barn. It was so poorly insulated, they wore their winter coats indoors, and could often see their own breath. When storms came through, they had to run to the middle school because they were afraid the whole building might crumble in high winds.

After that, Franken said he started pestering then-Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell to help rebuild the school.

"Every time I saw her around the capitol," he said. "I used it as an opportunity to talk about the Bug School."

Jewell eventually toured the school in 2014, and pledged to help raise money for the new facility. It took two more years to secure about $12 million in federal funds, and two more after that to finish the building.

"This is long overdue progress," Franken said. "I can't say it was easy. I can't say we never got discouraged. But I can say the work is worth doing. And I can say that I miss doing it."

Many politicians toured Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig over the last decade. Social studies teacher Mike Schmid says he lost count.

"I often said that if Washington had just spent the money to build a new school," he said, "instead of spending it to send all these entourages out to tour the school, they could have saved a lot of time and effort."

For a long time, he said, it seemed like all those politicians weren't doing anything.

Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig is one of 183 schools funded by the Bureau of Indian Education — nearly one-third of which are in disrepair. Schmid worried funding for a small tribal high school in northern Minnesota would never come.

But it did come. Now Schmid has a classroom with fully insulated walls and the latest in technology. He said it's a big step up from the pole barn.