Matt Forgues was a champion racewalker at Boothbay Region High School. He went on to be a national champion and participate in Olympic Trials in that event. Now he is helping young Native American children on a reservation in South Dakota gain the self respect that may lead them to be champions.

In August, Forgues will return to the isolated reservation of the Standing Rock Nation of Sioux. He will be in his second year teaching as part of the Teacher for America program, which places young teachers in deprived school districts throughout the country.

"It is very, very tough," said Forgues, who is home in Boothbay for the summer.

As he describes it, the town of 600 has few amenities.

"It is the fourth poorest county in the United States. The food is limited,” he said.

Forgues has to drive great distances to purchase fresh vegetables.

"The reservation was only given to them because the United States government deemed the land to be unusable,” he said.

His school has limited facilities. The track is dirt.

Forgues said that psychologically the children are still influenced by the effects of their great-grandparents being shipped off to the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania in the late 19th century. The boarding school motto was: “Kill the Indian, save the man.”

“It took the Indian out of them. They don’t know how to be parents,” he said. Since they did not experience normal family relations in their childhood, they came back unable to be good parents.

“Depression is a real thing,” he said.

When he ran across a student in his classes who was having a hard time, he understood it probably came from issues from the student’s family environment.

At such times he remembered some of the skills that his own teachers had used when he was growing up in Boothbay. Upon his return he presented symbolic arrows to some of his favorite teachers, including Hildy Johnson.

"I wanted to bring them something to show my gratitude," he said.

It was from those teachers that he learned that using techniques such as strategic “time outs” and individual talks could turn a bad day into a passable day for a child.

“Just 30 seconds can make a difference,” he said.

Last year was not the first time that Forgues had been part of a repressed Native American population. He has also spent time in Guatemala and Chile living with poor families there.

"No matter where I am, I will fight for indigenous rights,” he said.