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Learn more about Divine Savior Holy Angels High School. 

Native American student shoots for new opportunities

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At just 15 years old, Casey Gott  is starting a new phase in life without many of the familiar comforts of which she’s grown accustomed.

Having been surrounded by her Native American peers since kindergarten at Indian Community School, she entered a new world as a freshman – the only Native American student in an all-girls Catholic High School.

“I just loved it at (ICS),” Gott said. “Everybody was a big family. It was a small school, only about 350 students, and in my class we got really close with each other. We just understood each other and why we did the stupid things we did.”

Not so at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School in Milwaukee where Gott now attends school. There, no one quite knows what to make of the new student, much less inherently understand her.

 “I have to explain the whole Native American thing,” said Gott, who is Cree. “They ask me ‘Oh my God, do you live on a reservation?

“It’s not their fault they don’t know, but I get tired of it.”

It was Gott who made the decision to attend Divine Savior, and she doesn’t regret it for a minute.

“I felt that if I went to school where my friends went, I would be following the other people,” Gott said. “I just felt that I needed to do this one thing that was for me.”

Gott applies that can-do attitude to all aspects of her life, whether it’s building a relationship with her estrainged father and half-brother or deciding on a future career. She’s taking advantage of a minority journalism camp to help determine if a career in journalism is for her.

Once thing’s for certain, if she does opt for journalism, she will use her gift to help other Native Americans.

“I want to raise awareness that native people are still here,” Gott said. “We don’t all live on reservations. I live in a city, I go to school. Yeah, I go to the occasional powwow, but it’s not like I’m living the powwow trail.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with those who do, she quickly adds. Like Gott herself, she is adamant that everyone has the right to determine their own course. As for Gott, she’ll face whatever life hands her head on.

“I just find it easier to be a happy-go-lucky person than be down all the time,” Gott said.  Yes, there’s  issues, but I find it easier just to laugh.”

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