NCFL & Family Literacy
Sarah Wunderlich and Yenikhulhaka’ nyese (Leida Rodriguez)
In April 2010, Sarah Wunderlich was studying at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to become a high school history teacher. She planned to return home after graduation in December to the Oneida Reservation to work with the youth in her community. Central in her life are the lessons, values and the identity she has been given as a woman of the On^yote’aka — the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. In the longhouse of her people, she is known as Kaluh’yako — She Takes the Clouds From the Sky. Sarah passes on the knowledge and culture of her nation as she raises her 8-year-old niece, Leida.
Leida Rodriguez is called Yenikhulhaka’ nyese (She Persuades Them) in the Longhouse of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. In April 2010, she was 8 years old and going into the third grade at Hartford University Elementary in Milwaukee. In the summer of 2010, Leida planned to be involved in the Southeastern Oneida Tribal Services Kids Club, where the kids learn about their cultures through stories. She loves traveling, drawing, reading, spending time with her family and attending traditional ceremonies. She is learning her native Oneida language. She is musically inclined, had been playing the piano for a year and had started taking guitar lessons.
A natural communicator, Leida likes to teach kids her own age about her native culture through storytelling and dance and periodically makes cultural public presentations in the Milwaukee area schools. Leida is energetic, outgoing and friendly with people of all ages. She respects and cares for the people in her life and for those that she meets along the way. When Leida grows up, she would like to be an actress. If that does not happen, then she would like to help all of the creator’s little animals and be a veterinarian.