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Sunday, December 03, 2006

Patrick Russell LeBeau's RETHINKING MICHIGAN INDIAN HISTORY

The audience for LeBeau's Rethinking Michigan Indian History is teachers. The material in the book will be helpful to teachers in grades 4-12 who seek to provide students with balanced instruction about Native peoples of Michigan.

LeBeau asks readers to consider these statements:
Stereotypical representations of Michigan's Indians are what most people of Michigan understand and recognize.
The U.S. Constitution protects and upholds Michigan Indian treaty rights.
Michigan's Indians are alive and well in the modern world and are not artifacts of the past.
Michigan's Indians change and adapt to circumstances and events; therefore, they are not frozen in any one image or time period.
Material in the book is teacher-friendly. "Objectives" are listed at the beginning of each lesson, followed by a narrative about the lesson topic, and then a set of Activities.

Some lessons are:
  • Defining Our Terms and Exploring Stereotypes: Building a Specific Context
  • Challenging the "Great Man" Theory of History
  • Indian Treaties and the U.S. Constitution
  • How Historical Maps Influence Thinking about Michigan's Indians
Each lesson includes color illustrations, maps, charts and examples of student drawings. All of this material is also available on the accompanying CD-ROM. Lessons can be used as stand-alone units, and have application in other states (not just Michigan).

LeBeau is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota and is the former director of Michigan State University's American Indian Studies Program.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMonday, December 4, 2006 at 8:36:00 AM CST

    Lebeau's thesis of:

    "Stereotypical representations of Michigan's Indians are what most people of Michigan understand and recognize."

    is based on what exactly?

    Sounds like conjecture to me.

    ReplyDelete


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