These Lawrence students are reconnecting with Native culture using the art of thatching

Some of the very first homes in Kansas were built by members of the Wichita Tribe with cut bundles of native bluestem grass. A new generation of students at Haskell Indian Nations University are learning the skill, and reconnecting with a Great Plains tradition.
As a late fall wind rustles through a field of tall marsh plants, students from Haskell Indian Nations University, in Lawrence, Kansas, harvest cattails. In the wetlands behind the school, MK Kerron is teaching the art of traditional thatching.

Kerron, a member of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes and a master's-degree student in geography at the University of Kansas, learned how to work with grass from her grandfather.

“His artist name is Wayneokchat,” Kerron says. “It means 'yellow bird' in our language."

Kerron’s grandfather is well-known for the replicas of grass houses he creates for arts and crafts shows in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.