Simon Ortiz's THE PEOPLE SHALL CONTINUE

"The People looked around them and they saw Black People, Chicano People, Asian People, many White People and others who were kept poor by American wealth and power.

The People saw that these People who were not rich and powerful shared a common life with them.

The People realized they must share their history with them."

What you've just read is an except from The People Shall Continue, a poem written by Simon Ortiz. His poem was published as a picture book in 1977. If you read American Indian poetry, you are likely familiar with his work. He is from Acquemeh (Acoma) Pueblo, and "The People" are the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Ortiz begins The People Shall Continue with Creation. Not Genesis, but Creation, as viewed by several different Indian tribes. From the opening pages of his book, children learn that there is more than one way to view Creation. And they learn about diversity in lifestyle, diversity that is dependent on place.

As the story continues, Ortiz tells us that "something unusual began to happen." That something is the arrival of what he calls "strange men" who came "seeking treasures and slaves." This happened to the People, everywhere. He tells us about resistance as he recounts the many ways in which the People persevered in the face of government efforts to stop us from being who we were and are.

His book, in short, offers a history of American Indians.

Here we are, nearly 30 years after the publication of his book, and the rich and powerful continue to cause suffering.

The title of Ortiz's book THE PEOPLE SHALL CONTINUE helps me when I read the news each day and learn of yet another incident in which the rich and powerful denigrate people of color. This morning I read about a parody of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" written by students at Tufts. The re-written song is "Oh Come All Ye Black Folk." It takes aim at affirmative action, but also, specifically, at 52 African American freshmen at Tufts, who, it is suggested, are there regardless of D's and F's. For more on this, Inside Higher Ed has the story I read.

As noted in an earlier post, racial tensions seem to be on the rise on college campuses across the country. A student told me last week that over Thanksgiving break, she overheard students at a bar talking about their "Trail of Beers" party.

A comment to my post about Philbrick's book suggested that on this blog, I "doth protest too much." That individual is not paying attention. The pile of ugliness is huge and it is everywhere.

And so I will protest, and, THE PEOPLE SHALL CONTINUE.

The People Shall Continue, written by Simon Ortiz, illustrated by Sharol Graves, was published in 1977 by Children's Book Press.

Josefina, An American Girl

Today in class, one of my students shared a book in the American Girl "Josefina" line. The book is Welcome to Josefina's World, 1824: Growing up on America's Southwest Frontier. From the American Girl website is this synopsis:

Inside this beautiful hardcover book you'll see what growing up was like during Josefina's times in 1824 New Mexico. Look inside a Pueblo Indian village, and welcome a trading caravan from Mexico. 

To her credit, the student is critically analyzing the ways in which the series portrays dolls of color, and is finding problems with those portrayals.

One page of Welcome to Josefina's World includes an old, black and white photograph of two Pueblo women. One woman is sitting in front of the other. The camera position is behind and to their left. The woman in back has her hands on the shoulders of the woman in front of her. It is not clear what they are doing, but the caption says that lice were a problem, and that these two women were likely removing lice from each other.

Were lice a problem? Yes. Are they a problem? Yes. Only for Native people past or present? NO. Lice don't care about race, ethnicity, or class. Yet, it is one of those things that is attributed to lower class people of color. I'd have to get a copy of the "Welcome to..." book for each of the American Girls, but I'm willing to bet that the white dolls don't have lice. (If you're in a library with these books, you could help me and readers with this question... Send me an email or post your findings in the comments section of the blog.)

Thanks, Fi, for bringing this book to class.

Update: One of the other "Welcome to..." books (about Felicity, a white character) shows a lice comb as an artifact. I'm glad it is there, but I think that the two images are vastly different in what they convey and what they invoke in the reader. See comments below.

Scieszka's ME OH MAYA and Gibson's APOCALYPTO

Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto is about to be released. The previews promise a lot of action, and it looks like it features a lot of stereotypes, too, which means it'll probably do well at the box office. If you are interested in a critical review of Gibson's process of getting this film done, The Nation has one: Mad Mel and the Maya.

NOT RECOMMENDED

In the midst of the media attention of this film, I learned of a children's book by acclaimed author Jon Scieszka. Titled Me Oh Maya, it is part of his Time Warp Trio series of books in which three boys time travel, mostly to the past, but occasionally to the future. Me Oh Maya was first published in 2003 by Viking.

In Me Oh Maya the boys find themselves in a Mayan ball court. A "short brown-skinned guy in a wild feathered headdress stood on top of the wall looking down" at the boys and says to them "Explain yourselves or your blood will be spilled in sacrifice."

This guy turns out to be an "evil high priest" stands over them. His name, they learn, is Kakapupahed.

The Time Warp Trio series is pitched to kids who are "reluctant readers." This sort of book provides readers with clever writing that functions as a hook to draw in a kid who might otherwise not read. In this series, that hook is puns, lots of action, and, as the reviewer at School Library Journal notes, "a little bathroom humor."

In Me Oh Maya, the boys hear the high priests name and think "Cacapoopoohead":

They struggle, unsuccessfully, to contain their laughter. This "evil priest" is corrupt, and with the help of one of his relatives and her son, they manage to trick him and remove him from his position.

Reviews of the book say that kids can learn a lot about Mayan culture by reading this book. I don't think so. What they really learn is that it is perfectly fine to denigrate Mayan names and hence, the people who carry them. They learn that the Mayan's are fools who can be easily tricked ("primitive Indians" you know).

Those are my initial observations. There is much more to say about flaws in Me Oh Maya.

For now, I consider the context. A children's book. A feature length film. Both deeply flawed, yet those flaws escape notice. Why is that?

EdNah New Rider Weber's RATTLESNAKE MESA: STORIES FROM A NATIVE AMERICAN CHILDHOOD

[Note: This review is used by permission of its author. It may not be published elsewhere without written permission.]

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New Rider Weber, EdNah (Pawnee), Rattlesnake Mesa: Stories from a Native American Childhood, photographs by Richela Renkun. Lee & Low, 2004, 132 pages, b/w photos; grades 3-up

Rattlesnake Mesa is EdNah New Rider Weber’s recollections of growing up in the early 1900s. After the death of her grandmother, young EdNah is sent to live with her father at Crown Point Indian Agency on the Navajo reservation, and attend the Crown Point Indian School as a day student. Just as she is starting to feel at home, her sense of herself and the world is shattered when she witnesses some children being whipped. “I carried mortal shame, fear, and hurt away with me….I was just eight years old,” she writes. At the end of the school year, EdNah is uprooted once more and sent to the government-run Phoenix Indian School. Here, she finds rigid military discipline and the attempted eradication of everything she is. Despite the loneliness, despite the arbitrary punishment, there is more than a little subversiveness and outright rebellion—mocking the teachers behind their backs, underground games and songs. The children “learned early—laughing was best."

EdNah New Rider Weber is an awesome storyteller; her words will bring young readers into her world.

But several things about Rattlesnake Mesa are very, well, odd. For one thing, the voice shifts throughout the book from Weber’s conversational storytelling cadence to a strange, detached, “objective” outsider rhythm. This happens too often not to be noticed. In a piece about boarding school, Weber recounts how a little girl the students nicknamed “Old Thunder” had an “unbelievable talent—a natural ability to pass her stomach gases as she pleased. Complete control!” And in another section, there is an odd, outsider overemphasis on what people are wearing: “The Zuni women were richly clad in black mantas and white buckskin-wrapped moccasins. Navajo ladies wore velvet shirts, studded with old coins from the 1800s, and exquisite turquoise jewelry.” And there is an—odd—description of a ceremony that wouldn’t have happened quite that way. 

Another oddity is the black-and-white photos that illustrate the book. The endnotes say that in 1998 “[Weber and Renkun] set out to revisit the landscape of Weber’s childhood in New Mexico—searching for old memories and creating new images to recapture them….They searched for faces of children and elders who were part of the land, faces that helped Weber remember the people she had known in her youth.” It’s an interesting project for a photographer to visualize an elderly person’s stories. But there seems to be an unstated assumption that Weber had no memories until she saw these “faces of children and elders who were part of the land.” Otherwise, why would Renkun pose unhappy-looking children dressed in ‘50s-style clothing, to represent the boarding school experience? And what relevance is there for a shawl dancer, wearing moccasins, dancing alone, on hard rocky ground?

Questions remain: Why was it seen as necessary for Weber’s evocative recollections of her childhood to be contaminated with Renkun’s new-agey photographs and perhaps someone else’s writing? Why does Renkun, her husband and her son have wannabe-sounding Lakota names? And why does Renkun dedicate the book to her “Uncle Pete Rock (Che Nodin) full-blood Obijwa [sic], naval commander, athlete, and alumnus of the Carlisle Indian School (1918-1990)”? Carlisle was in operation from 1879-1918. 

This is a very disquieting book. I would like to have seen EdNah New Rider Weber’s stories as she told them, without the “fixing up.”—Beverly Slapin

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.

Dartmouth, Mascots, and Civility (or lack thereof)

Some weeks ago I wrote about UIUC's "tacos and tequila" frat/sorority "exchange." In weeks following, we learned that across the country, institutions of higher ed have had similar parties, including Cowboys and Indians parties.

Dartmouth's recent experiences around racist activity and representation of American Indians is in today's NY Times. This latest incident is a cartoon in a conservative Dartmouth paper not affiliated with the campus. The cartoon shows an Indian holding a bloody scalp, and the caption reads "The Natives are getting restless." The NY Times article quotes the editorial:

In an editorial, Linsalata wrote: ''While the onus may fall partly on the student body to facilitate an environment more hospitable to Indians, nothing can be done until the Indians themselves lay out measurable goals and steps for how this harmony can be achieved. Patronizing advertisements and excessive use of the race card are antithetical to this goal.''

"...the Indians themselves"?!! Linsalata's remark is outrageous. Dartmouth's Native students speak up regarding negative representations of Native people, and Linsalata says THEY must lay out measurable goals and steps for harmony. Where, in Linsalata's view of the world, is his own responsibility for that harmony?

For more, go directly to Dartmouth's school paper, The Dartmouth.

THIS societal context is the one in which all of you---parents, teachers, librarians, professors, students---must work. THIS mindset is why your work towards helping children know who Native people are, and what US history has been, is crucial. We are all responsible for the views that children hold, the views that they take to heart, that they rely on when they are adults. We can intervene, and we must.

Montana's "Indian Education for All" program

I've been hearing good things about Montana's "Indian Education for All" program. Essentially, it is an initiative designed to provide students in Montana with knowledge about American Indians. As is the case with most schools, students learn world and U.S. and state history, but very little of worth is taught about American Indians. In Montana, the school is taking significant steps to remedy that situation.

The program has many components. If you are interested in learning what they're doing, and how you might use their work to modify your teaching, or your district's curriculum, visit the website:

Montana Office of Public Instruction, Indian Education
http://opi.mt.gov/programs/indianed/

Note: Today (Jan 22, 2013), I removed dead links to the articles referenced below.

The National Indian Education website has an article about it, posted in June of 2005: Montana's Public Schools to Teach about State's First People. Indian Country Today ran an article about the program in May of 2006: Montana prepares to implement unique 'Indian education for all' law.

And, the November 2006 issue of PDK features the program on its cover and has several articles about it.

If you are a teacher, parent, librarian, student, or professor in Montana and have first-hand information on the initiative, please share with us. Send me an email, and I'll post it to the blog. Or, use the comments option (below) if you prefer.

Tim Kessler's WHEN GOD MADE THE DAKOTAS

[Note: This review is used by permission of its authors. It may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the authors.]

_______________________________

Kessler, Tim, When God Made the Dakotas, illustrated by Paul Morin. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2006. Unpaginated, color illustrations, grades 2-4, Dakota

Published by a Christian book house and written and illustrated by cultural outsiders, When God Made the Dakotas is a mishmash of Christian creation mythology and invented Dakota cosmology, replete with misplaced Dakota symbols and words (some of which are misspelled).

According to the jacket copy, “Tim Kessler’s creation story, framed as a Native American legend, reminds readers to find beauty and joy in what surrounds them.” In order to create a picture book about the Dakota landscape, one wonders why it was seen as necessary to make up a creation story about the Dakota people, since we’ve already got our own.

After Wakantanka/Great Spirit/Creator has made the rest of the world, he arrives at the world’s edge, where he is greeted by a Dakota medicine man named Woksape (wisdom). After each request from Woksape about what kind of land he wishes for the Dakota people, Wakantanka answers that he has already given that land to someone else. Finally, Woksape says he will take what’s left and Wakantanka, pleased with the medicine man’s humility, fashions for the Dakota people the wondrous Dakota land.

The depiction of Wakantanka as an elderly Indian guy—with white hair, face paint, and three goose feathers stuck in his hair—is more reflective of the Judeo-Christian ethos than it is to ours. In the belief system to which the author apparently ascribes, God is said to have created man in his own image. In our belief system, however, the Creator’s presence is manifest in all things, and does not appear simply in human form.

Further, no informed Dakota would give the Creator a detailed description of what kind of land he’d like his people to inhabit; this would be an insult to the Creator. To us, all creation is beautiful and a great mystery. From the beginning, we have developed a complex, symbiotic and reverent relationship with the land. We are not above the earth but are a part of it and our belief in creation and by extension our Creator stresses this relationship.

There are many other troubling aspects to this book. Here, Dakota people have to settle for the prairies that pale in comparison to the abundant lands that have already been given away. (Kessler’s God acts much like the white men in this way). This seems to diminish both the austere beauty and abundance of the plains, and the importance of the Dakota people. And, by the way, the Dakota live mostly in the woodlands further east. It is the Lakota who inhabit the plains.

That one “medicine man” speaks for a nation is not reflective of the Native value for the collective participation of the group, and of the respected elders, men and women, within the tribe. Finally, a promise by God that the plains will be forever pristine and depopulated belies the white people’s past and present economic and environmental roles in dramatically altering the face of the land to make it uninhabitable for humans, the buffalo and other living beings.

And when in the scheme of creation is this story supposed to have taken place? It seems odd, for example, that the Creator would have created the Pendleton blankets upon which the two are sitting before “he” finished creating the world. “He” creates Tatanka, the buffalo, out of his medicine bag; he creates Maga, the goose, out of two goose feathers. Which came first, something made out of animal hide, or the animal itself? Which came first, the feathers or the geese? It would seem pretty strange in a Christian creation story for God to apologize to Adam for not having enough material to fashion Eden to Adam’s specifications. Why, then, is it seen as acceptable for Wakantanka/Creator/Great Spirit to continually apologize to Woksape?

That this may be “only a children’s book” is where the most damage lies. Who, if not the children, are we more responsible to for instilling honest representations of peoples, an informed respect for the land, and an understanding that man’s heavy hand has much to do with both? If Kessler wanted to extol the beauty of the plains, he could have written what he knows, perhaps about the plains ecosystems, for he certainly doesn’t know the people.

Since everything else of ours has already been stolen, we could at least be left our creation stories. The final page of When God Made the Dakotas closes with the summation, “And it was good.” Pity that from this indigenous perspective, I can close only with the simple conclusion, “No, it is bad.”

---Janeen Antoine (Sicangu Lakota), with Beverly Slapin, Oyate

Index of Books Reviewed (or otherwise referenced) in A BROKEN FLUTE: THE NATIVE EXPERIENCE IN BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

In 2005, one of the very best resources for critical reviews of book with American Indian content was published. The book is called A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children. Reviews in the book are by 58 different people, many of whom are American Indian.

Reviews in A Broken Flute look critically at the way that American Indians are presented. A good many children’s books with Native content receive rave reviews from mainstream journals whose primary concern is with the literary aspects of a story. Too often, little attention is paid to the accuracy of the story, or the underlying bias and ideology that casts American Indians in ways that suggest we are super- or sub-human creatures whose existence is confined to the remote past, or a mythological space and time. 

If you arrived at this webpage due to an Internet search on a specific title, I encourage you to locate a copy of A Broken Flute and read the review therein. If you already own the book, use the review to help children learn how to look critically at the ways that American Indians are presented in the book. A Broken Flute is available from Oyate.

1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving

Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet

Acorn Soup

Across the Wide River

Adaline Falling Star

Adopted by the Eagles

Adventure on Thunder Island

After and Before the Lightning

An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon

"Amazing Indian Children" Series:

• Amee-nah: Zuni Boy Runs the Race of His Life
• Doe Sia: Bannock Girl and the Handcart Pioneers
• Kunu: Winnebago Boy Escapes
• Moho Wat: Sheepeater Boy Attempts a Rescue
• Naya Nuki: Shoshoni Girl Who Ran
• Om-kas-toe: Blackfeet Twin Captures an Elkdog
• Pathki Nana: Kootenai Girl Solves a Mystery
• Soun Tetoken: Nez Perce Boy Tames a Stallion

American Indian Myths and Legends
American Indian Mythology, Kiowa Voices, Vol. II: Myths, Legends and Folktales

American Indian Stories

American Indian Trickster Tales

America's Fascinating Indian Heritage

Amikoonse (Little Beaver)

And Still the Turtle Watched

Angela Weaves a Dream: The Story of a Young Maya Artist

Anna's Athabaskan Summer

Antelope Woman

Apache Children and Elders Talk Together

Apache Rodeo

April Raintree

Ararapikva: Creation Stories other People

Arctic Hunter

Arrow Over the Door

Arrow to the Sun: A Pueblo Indian Tale

Ashkii and His Grandfather

As Long as the Rivers Flow

Atlas of the North American Indian

Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences

Back in the Beforetime: Tales of the California Indians

Bead on an Anthill: A Lakota Childhood

Bears Make Rock Soup and other stories

Behind Closed Doors: Stories from the Kamloops Indian Residential School

Beneath the Stone: A Mexican Zapotec Tale

Best Thanksgiving Book: ABC Adventures

Bighorse the Warrior

The Big Tree and the Little Tree

Bineshinnh Dibaajmowin/Bird Talk

The Birchbark House

The Bird who Cleans the World and the Mayan Fables

The Birth of Nanbosho

The Birthday Bear

Bison for Kids

Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux

Blackfoot Children and Elders Talk Together

Black Mountain Boy: A Story of the Boyoood of John Honie

The Blizzard’s Robe

The Blue Roses

Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940

Boat Ride with Lilian Two Blossom

Bone Dance

The Book of Medicines

Boozhoo, Come Play with us

The Boxcar Children: The Mytstery of the Lost Village

A Boy Becomes a Man at Wounded Knee

The Boy Who Loved Mourning

The Boy Who Made Dragonfly

A Braid of Lives: Native American Childhood

Brave Bear and the Ghosts: A Sioux Legend

Brave Eagle’s Account of the Fetterman Fight

The Bravest Flute: A Story of Courage in the Mayan Tradition

Bring Back the Deer

Brothers in Arms

Brother Eagle, Sister Sky

Buffalo: with Selections from Native American Song-Poems illustrated with original paintings

Buffalo Before Breakfast

Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians

Buffalo Days

Buffalo Dreams

Buffalo Hunt

The Buffalo Jump

Building an Igloo

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

Caddie Woodlawn

California Missions to Cut out: Book 1

California Missions: Projects and Layouts

Caribou Song/atihko nikamon

Cherokee Sister

Cheryl Bibalhats/Cheryl’s Potlach

Chester Bear, Where Are You?

Cheyenne Again

The Chichi Hoohoo Bogeyman

Children of Clay: A Family of Pueblo Potters

Children of the First People

Children of the Great Muskeg

Children of Guatemala

Children of the Indian Boarding Schools

Children of the Midnight Sun: Young Native Voices of Alaska

Children of the Maya: A Guatemalan Odyssey

Children of Native American Today

Children of the Sierra Madre

Children of the Tlingit

Children of the Longhouse

Children of Yucatan

The Choctaw Code

Chronicles of American Indian Protest

Clambake: A Wampanoag Tradition

Clamshell Boy: A Makah Legend

Cloud Eyes

Continuum

"Council for Indian Education" Series:

• Charlie Young Bear
• The Day of the Ogre Kachinas
• Fire Mate
• From the Ashes
• Heart of Naosaqua
• Navajo Long Walk (Armstrong)
• Nesuya's Basket
• Quest for Courage

The Courage of Sarah Noble

A Coyote Columbus Story

Coyote Fights the Sun: A Shasta Indian Tale

Coyote and the Fire Stick: A Pacific Northwest Indian Tale

Coyote and the Grasshoppers: A Pomo Legend

Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies

Coyote and Little Turtle

Coyote in Love

Coyote in Love with a Star

Coyote and the Magic Words

Coyote Makes Man

Coyote Places the Stars

The Coyote Rings the Wrong Bell

Coyote Sings to the Moon

Coyote Steals the Blanket: A Ute Tale

Coyote Stories

Coyote Stories for Children

Coyote Stories of the Montana Salish Indians

Coyote Stories of the Navajo People

Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest

Coyote the Trickster

Coyote and the Winnowing Birds

Crafts for Thanksgiving

Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas

Crazy Horse’s Vision

Crow Children and Elders Talk Together

The Crying Christmas Tree

Dakota Dreams

Dancing Drum: A Cherokee Legend

Dancing Rainbows

Dancing with the Indians

Dancing with the Wind: The ArtsReach Literary Magazine

Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Road

Daughter of Suqua

Day of the Dead: A Mexican- American Celebration

The Days of Augusta

The Day Sun Was Stolen

Death of the Iron Horse

Dezbah and the Dancing Tumbleweeds

The Diary of Anne Frank

Did You Hear Wind Sing Your Name? An Oneida Song of Spring

The Dirt is Red Here

Dirt Road Home

Discovering the Inca Ice Maiden

Doe Sia: Bannock Girl and the Handcart Pioneers

Doesn’t Fall Off His Horse

Don’t Know Much About Sitting Bull

Dragonfly Kites/pijihakanisa

Dragonfly’s Tale

Dreamcatcher (Maynard)

Dreamcatcher (Osofsky)

The Dreamcatcher: Keep your happy dreams-forever!

Drumbeat, Heartbeat: A Celebration of the PowWow

Durable Breathe

Eagle Feather

Eagle Feather—An Honor

Eagle Song

Earth Daughter: Alicia of Acoma Pueblo

Earth Maker’s Lodge: Native American Folklore, Activities, and Foods

Earthmaker’s Tales: North American Indian Stories About Earth Happenings

Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928

Elderberry Flute Song: Contemporary Coyote Tales

Emma and the Trees/Emma minwaah mtigooh

Enduring Wisdon: Sayings from Native Americans

Eskimo Boy: Life in an Inupiaq Eskimo Village

The Eye of the Needle

Eyes of Darkness

False Face

Feather in the Wind

A Few More Stories: Contemporary Seneca Indian Tales of the Supernatural

Firefly Night

Fire Race: A Karuk Coyote Tale

The First American Thanksgiving

First Came the Indians

First Nations Families

First Nations Technology

The First Thanksgiving (George)

The First Thanksgiving (Hayward)

The First Thanksgiving (Jackson)

The First Thanksgiving (Rogers)

First Woman and the Strawberry: A Cherokee Legend

Five Little Katchinas

The Flute Player

Follow the Stars: A Native American Woodlands Tale

Food and Recipes of the Native Americans

Forbidden Talent

Fort Chipewyan Homecoming: A Journey to Native Canada

Fox on the Ice/mahkesis miskwamihk e-cipatapit

Fox Song

Four Seasons of Corn: A Winnebago Tradition

From Abenaki to Zuni: A Dictionary of Native American Tribes

From the Belly of the Beast

From the Deep Woods to Civilization

From the Land of the White Birch

Frozen Land: Vanishing Cultures

The Gathering: Stories for the Medicine Wheel

The Gift of the Sacred Pipe

Ghost Dance (Seale)

The Ghost Dance (McLerran)

The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890

A Gift for Ampato

Gift Horse

The Girl Who Chased Away Sorrow: The Diary of Sarah Nita, a Navajo Girl, New Mexico, 1864

Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping with His Daughter: Coyote Builds North America

Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message

Gold Fever

Goodbird the Indian: His Story

The Good Luck Cat

Good News from New England: A True Relation of Things Very Remarkable at the Plantation of Plimoth in New England

The Grandchildren of the Incas

Grandchildren of the Lakota

Grandfather Drum

Grandfather Four Winds and Rising Moon

Grandmother’s Pigeon

Grandma’s Special Feeling

Grandmother Five Baskets

Grandmother’s Dreamcatcher

Grandmother’s Gift: Stories from the Anishinaabeg

The Great Buffalo Race

The Great Canoes: Revising a Northwest Coast Tradition

Green Grass, Running Water

Growing up Native American

Growing Up: Where the Partridge Drums Its Wings

Halfbreed

The Handbook of North American Indians, California

Headliner’s Island

Hands-on Latin American: Art Activities for All Ages

Hau Kola-Hello Friend

A Heart Full of Turquoise

Here Comes Tricky Rabbit!

Hiroshima No Pika

History of the Ojibway Nation

Home Country

Home to Medicine Mountain

Honour the sun

Horse Raid: An Arapaho Camp in the 1800s

House Made of Dawn

How the Birch Tree Got Its Stripes

How Chipmunk Got his Stripes

How to Draw Indian Arts and Crafts

How Eagle Got His Good Eyes

How the Indians Bought the Farm

How the Loon Lost Her Voice

How Magpie Got His Yellow Bill

How the Mouse Got Brown Teeth

How Raven Freed the Moon

How the Robin Got Its Red Breast: A Legend of the Sechelt People

How the Seasons Came: A North American Indian Folktale

How the Stars Fell Into the Sky

The Hunter and the Woodpecker

I Can’t Have Bannock but the Beaver Has a Dam

If You Were At…The First Thanksgiving

I Knew Two Metis Women

Iktomi and the Buzzard

Iktomi and the Coyote

Iktomi and the Ducks

Iktomi Loses His Eyes

I Heard the Owl Call My Name

I’ll sing ‘til the day I die: Conversations with Tyendinaga Elders

The Illustrated History of the Chippewas of Nawah

in a vast dreaming

Indian Boyhood

Indian Cartography

Indian Crafts and Activity Book

Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains

The Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

The Indians’ Book

The Indian in His Wigwam

The Indian School

Indian School Days

Indian School: Teaching the White Man’s Way

Indian Shoes

In the Fifth World: Portrait of the Navajo Nation

Ininatig’s Gift of Sugar: Traditional Native Sugarmaking

Initiation

Into the Moon: Heart, Mind, Body, Soul

In Two Words: A Yup’ik Eskimo Family

Iron Horses

Isaac’s Dreamcatcher

Ishi: America’s Last Stone Age Indian

Ishi Rediscovered

Ishi’s Journey, from the Center to the Edge of the World: A Historical Novel about the Last Wild Indian in North America

Ishi: The Last of His People

Ishi’s Tale of Lizard

Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America

Island of Los Luggage

Is My Friend at Home? Pueblo Fireside Tales

Itch Like Crazy

It Could Always Be Worse

It’s a Family Thanksgiving

Jack Pine Fish Camp

James Bay Memories

Jason and the Sea Otter

Jason’s New Dugout Canoe

Jingle Dancer

The Journal of Julia Singing Bear

Jumping Mouse and the Great Mountain: A Native American Tale

“Just Talking About Ourselves”: Voices of Our Youth

Ka-ha-si and the Loon: An Eskimo Legend

Karok Myths

"Kaya" Series:

• Changes for Kaya: A Story of Courage
• Kaya's Escape! A Survival Story
• Kaya's Hero: A Story of Giving
• Kaya and Lone Dog: A Friendship Story
• Kaya and the River Girl
• Kaya Shows the Way: A Sister Story
• Meet Kaya: An American Girl

Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children

Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children

Keepers of Life: Discovering Plants through Native American Stories and Earth Activities for Children

The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse: Three Eyewitness Views by the Indian, Chief He Dog, the Indian-White, William Garnett, and the White Doctor, Valentine McGillycuddy

Kinaalda: A Navajo Girl Grows Up

Kokopelli and the Butterfly

Kokopelli’s Gift

Kokopelli, Drum in Belly

Kumak’s House: A Tale of the Far North

Ktunaxa Legends

Kwulasulwut: Stories from the Coast Salish

Kwulasulwut II: More Stories from the Coast Salish

Kyle’s Bath

Lakota and Dakota Animal Wisdom Stories

Lacrosse: The National Game of the Iroquois

Ladder to the Sky: How the Gift of Healing Came to the Ojibway Nation

Lakota Sioux Children and Elders Talk Together

Land of the Spotted Eagle

The Landing of the Pilgrims

Last Leaf First Snowflake to Fall

The Last Warrior

The Last Yahi: A Novel About Ishi

The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle

The Legend of Jimmy Spoon

The Legend of Mexicatl

The Legend of the Lady Slipper

The Legend of Lady’s Slipper

The Legend of Leelanau

The Legend of the Loon

The Legend of Mackinac Island

The Legend of Sleeping Bear

The Legend of Spinoza, the Bear Who Speaks from the Heart

Legend of the White Buffalo Woman

Legends of the Iroquois

Lessons from Mother Earth

Lessons from Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms

Less than Half, More than Whole

Let’s Be Indians!

Let’s Celebrate Thanksgiving

Lies to Live By

The Life and Death of Crazy Horse

The Light on the Tent Wall

Listen to the Night: Poems for the Animal Spirits of Mother Earth

Little Bear’s Vision Quest

Little Coyote Runs Away

The Little Duck/Sikhpsis

Little Eagle Lots of Owls

Little Firefly: An Algonquian Legend

A Little History of My Forest Life: An Indian-White Autobiography by Eliza Morrison

Little House on the Prairie

Little Voice

Little White Cabin

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

The Long March

Longwalker’s Journey: A Novel of the Choctaw Trail of Tears

Lord of the Animals: A Miwok Indian Creation Myth

Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota

The Lost Boy and the Monster

Luminaries of the Humble

Maata’s Journal

Maybe I Will Do Something: Seven Coyote Tales

Maii and Cousin Horned Toad

Mali Npnaqs: The Story of a Mean Little Old Lady

Mama, Do You Love Me?

Mama’s Little One

Manabozho’s Gifts: Three Chippewa Tales

The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway

The Matchlock Gun

Mayers: A Yucatec Maya Family

Mayuk the Grizzly Bear

Meet Mindy: A Native Girl from the Southwest

Meet Naiche: A Native Boy from the Chesapeake bay Area

Meet Tricky Coyote!

Memory Songs

The Middle Five: Indian Schoolboys of the Omaha Tribe

Millie Cooper’s Ride: A True Story from History

Minik’s Story

Mink and Cloud

Mink and Grey Bird

Mink and Granny

Mink and Whale

Minuk: Ashes in the Pathway

The Mishomis Book: The Voice of the Ojibway

Missions of the Central Coast

Missions of the Inland Valleys

Missions of the Los Angeles Area

Missions of the Monterey Bay Area

Missions of the San Francisco Bay Area

Missions of the Southern Coast

Mohawk Trail

Montezuma and the Aztecs

Moon Mother: A Native American Creation Tale

Moonstick: The Seasons of the Sioux

The Moon, the Sun, and the Coyote

More Earthmaker’s Tales: North American Indian Stories About Earth Happenings

More Star Tales: North American Indian Stories about the Stars

Morning on the Lake

Morning Sun, Black Star: The Northern Cheyenne Indians and America’s Energy Crisis

The Morning the Sun Went Down

Mourt’s Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth

Murdo’s Story: A Legend from Northern Manitoba

“Mush-hole”: Memories of a Residential School

Muskrat Will Be Swimming

My Arctic 1, 2, 3

My Grandmother’s Cookie Jar

My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, a Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880

My Indian Boyhood

My Name is Seepeetza

My Navajo Sister

My People, the Sioux

Mystery of Coyote Canyon

Mystery of the Navajo Moon

Myths of the Cherokee

Myths and Legends of the Sioux

Nanabosho Dances

Nanabosho: How the Turtle Got Its Shell

Nanabosho, Soaring Eagle, and the Great Sturgeon

Nanobosho Steals Fire

Nanabosho and the Woodpecker

Native America: Portrait of the Peoples

Native American Culture Series: Arts and Crafts

Native American Culture Series: Child Reading

Native American Culture Series: Daily Life

Native American Culture Series: The European Invasion

Native American Culture Series: Spiritual Life

Native American Culture Series: Tribal Law

A Native American Feast

Native American Gardening: Stories, Projects, and Recipes for Families

Native American Picture Books of Change: The Art of Historic Children’s Editions

Native American Testimony

Native Americans

Native Americans in Children’s Literature

Native Americans: Projects, Games and Activities for Grades K-3

Native Americans: Projects, Games and Activities for Grades 4-6

Native North American Literature

The Naughty Little Rabbit and Old Man Coyote

Navajo ABC: A Dine Alphabet Book

Navajo Coyote Tales

Navajo Creation Myth: The Story of the Emergence

Navajo Long Walk (Armstrong)

Navajo Long Walk (Bruchac)

Navajo Stories of the Long Walk Period

Navajo: Visions and Voices Across the Mesa

Night Is Gone, Day Is Still Coming: Stories and Poems by American Indian Teens and Young Adults

The Night the White Deer Died

Nishnawbe: A Story of Indians in Michigan

No Borders

No Parole Today

Northern Lights: The Soccer Trails

Northwest Coast Indians

Northwoods Cradle Song: From a Menominee Lullaby

No Time to Say Goodbye: Children’s Stories of Kuper Island Residential School

Ocean Power: Poems from the Desert

Of Mother Earth and Father Sky: A Photographic Study of Navajo Cultures

Of Plymouth Plantation

Ojibwa Texts

The Ojibway Dream

Ojibway Family Life in Minnesota

Old Bag of Bones: A Coyote Tale

Old Enough

Old Father Storyteller

The Old Hogan

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims

One More Story: Contemporary Seneca Indian Tales of the Supernatural

On Mother’s Lap

On the Trail of Elder Brother: Gous’gap Stories of the Micmac Nation

On the Trail Made of Dawn: Native American Creation Stories

Orca’s Song

The Other Side of Nowhere

Our Journey

Outfoxing Coyote

Outlaws, Renegades and Saints: Diary of a Mixed-up Halfbreed

Pablo Remembers: The Fiesta of the Day of the Dead

Pah

Partial Recall: Photographs of Native North Americans

Pasquala: The Story of a California Indian Girl

The Path of the Quiet Elk

People of the Breaking Day

People of Salmon and Cedar

The People with Five Fingers

Photographs and Poems by Sioux Children

Pia Toya: A Goshute Indian Legend

The Pilgrims and Me

The Pilgrim’s First Thanksgiving

Pipaluk and the Whales

The Place at the Edge of the Earth

Plains Indians Diorama to Cut and Assemble

Pomo Basketmaking: A supreme art for the weaver

Popul Vuh

A Portrait of Spotted Deer’s Grandfather

Potlach: A Tsimshian Celebration

Power

Powwow

Powwow Summer: A Family Celebrates the Circle of Life

The Prince and the Salmon People

Protectors of the Land: An Environmental Journey to Understanding the Conservation Ethic

Pte Oyate: Buffalo Nations, Buffalo People

Pueblo Boy: Growing Up in Two Worlds

Pueblo Girls: Growing Up in Two Worlds

Pueblo Storyteller

Quest for the Eagle Feather

Questions and Swords: Folktales of the Zapatista Revolution

A Quick Brush of Wings

Quillworker: A Cheyenne Legend

Rachel’s Children

The Rainbow Bridge

The Rainbow Bridge: A Chumash Legend

Rainbow Crow

A Rainbow at Night: The World in Words and Pictures by Navajo Children

Rain Is Not My Indian Name

Rainy’s Powwow

The Range Eternal

Raven and the Moon and The Oystercatcher: Two Haida Legends

Raven Goes Berrypicking

Raven Returns the Water

Raven and Snipe

Raven’s Gift

Raven’s Light: A Myth from the People of the Northwest Coast

The Raven Steals the Light

Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest

A Really Good Brown Girl

Recovering the Word: Essays on Native American Literature

Red Hawk’s Account of Custer’s Last Battle

Red Hawk and the Sky Sisters: A Shawnee Legend

Red Flower Goes West

Red Indian Fair Book

Red Parka Mary

red woman with backward dyes

The Return of crazy horse

Rising Voices: Writings of Young Native Americans

A River Lost

Rolly’s Bear

The Rough-Face Girl

Runs With Horses

The Sacred Harvest: Ojibway Wild Rice Gathering

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Saanii Dahataal: The Women Are Singing

Salmon Boy

A Salmon for Simon

Salmon Summer

Sculpted Stones/Piedras Labradas

Seaman’s Journal: On the Trail with Lewis and Clark

The Sea Monster’s Secret

Searching for Chipeta: The Story of a Ute and Her People

The Second Bend in the River

The Secrets and Mysteries of the Cherokee Little People, Yunwi Tsunsdi

The Secret of the White Buffalo

Seeds of Struggle, Songs of Hope: Poetry of Emerging Youth y Sus Maestros del Movimeniento

Selu: Seeking the Corn Mother’s Wisdom

Seminole Children and Elders Talk Together

The Seven Fires: An Ojibway Prophecy

The Seven Visions of Bull Lodge as Told by His Daughter Garter Snake

Seya’s Song

Shannon: An Ojibway Dancer

Shingebiss: An Ojibwa Legend

Shooting Back from the Reservation: A Photographic View of Life by Native American Youth

The Sign of the Beaver

Sika and the Raven

Sing Down the Moon

Sing Down the Rain

The Sioux: Facts, Stories, Activities

Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux

Sitting Bull and His World

Skeleton Man

The Sketchbook of Thomas Blue Eagle

Skunny Wundy and other Indian Tales

SkySisters

The Snake that Lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Other Ohlone Stories

Soaring Spirits: Conversations with Native American Teens

Solar Storms

Soloman’s Tree

Son of Raven, Son of Deer: Fables of the Tse-Shaht People

Song of the Hermit Thrust: An Iroquois Legend

Song of Sedna

Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave

Songs of Shiprock Fair

The Song Within My Heart

The Sound of Flutes

Speak to Me Words: Essays on Contemporary American Indian Poetry

Spider Spins a Story: Fourteen Legends from Native America

Spider Woman

The Spirit Line

Spirit of the Maya: A Boy Explores His People’s Mysterious Past

Spirit of the White Bison

Spirit Transformed: A Journey from Tree to Totem

Spirit Voices of Bones

Spotted Eagle and Black Crow: A Lakota Legend

Spotted Tail’s Folk: A History of the Brule Sioux

The Spring Celebration

Squanto and the First Thanksgiving

The Star Maiden

Star Tales: North American Indian Stories about the Stars

Stories of the Road Allowance People

The Story of Blue Elk

The Story of Colors/La Historia de los Colores

A Story of the Dreamcatcher

The Story of the First Thanksgiving

The Story of Jumping Mouse: A Native American Legend

The Story of the Pilgrims

A Story to Tell: Traditions of a Tlingit Community

The Storyteller’s Sourcebook

The Story of Thanksgiving (Bartlett)

The Story of Thanksgiving (Skarmeas)

Strong Hearts: Native American Visions and Voices

The Sugar Bush

Sunflower’s Promise: A Zuni Legend

Sunpainters: Eclipse of the Navajo Sun

Supper for Crow: A Northwest Coast Indian Tale

A Symphony of Whales

T’aal: The One who Takes Bad Children

The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote

Ten Little Rabbits

Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village

The Thanksgiving Beast Feast

Thanksgiving Fun Activity Book

Thanksgiving Day (Gibbons)

Thanksgiving Day (Rockwell)

Thanksgiving: A Native Perspective

The Thanksgiving Story

That Tricky Coyote!

Thunderwoman: A Mythic Novel of the Pueblos

The Truth about Sacajawea

There Still are Buffalo

They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths

They Were Strong and Good

This Land is My Land

Those Tiny Bits of Beans

Thunder Bear and Ko: The Buffalo Nation and Nambe Pueblo

Time Among the Navajos: Traditional Lifeways on the Reservation

Tjatjakiymatchan (Coyote): A Legend from Carmel Valley

To Kill an Indian: Indian Views on the Last Days of Crazy Horse

To Live in Two Worlds: American Indian Youth Today

Tonweya and the Eagles and Other Lakota Tales

Totem Pole

Totem Pole Carving: Bringing a Log to Life

Truth and Bright Water

The Turkey Girl: A Zuni Cinderella Story

Turkey’s, Pilgrims, and Indian Corn

Turquoise Boy: A Navajo Legend

Turtle Island: Tales of the Algonquian Nation

Turtle Lung Woman’s Granddaughter

Turtle Meat and other Stories

Turtle’s Race with Beaver

Two Bad Boys: A Very Old Cherokee Tale

Two Bear Cubs: A Miwok Legend from California’s Yosemite Valley

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival

Two Pairs of Shoes

Urban Voices: The Bay Area Indian Community

The Upstairs room

The Vanishing Race and Other Illusions: Photographs of Indians by Edward S. Curtis

Vatos

The Very First Americans

The Very First Thanksgiving Day

Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature 1900-1970

Waboseg (An Ojibwe story about Rabbits’ ears)

Waheenee: An Indian Girl’s Story

Wait for Me!

Walking the Choctaw Road

Walks in Beauty

Walk Two Moons

Waleye Warriors: An Effective Alliance Against Racism and for the Earth

War of the Eagles

Waterlily

Watership Down

We Are All Related: A Celebration of Our Cultural Heritage

We Are the Many: A Picture Book of American Indians

Weaving a California Tradition: A Native American Basketweaver

Weave Little Stars Into My Sleep: Native American Lullabies

Whale Brother

Whale Girl

When Beaver Was Very Great

When the Chenoo Howls: Native American Tales of Terror

When the Moon is Full: A Lunar Year

When the Rain Sings: Poems by Young Native Americans

When the World Ended, How Hummingbird Got Fire, How People Were Made

Where Courage Is Like a Wild Horse

Where Did You Get Your Moccasins

Where Only the Elders Go—Moon Lake Loon Lake

Where There Is No Name for Art: The Art of Tewa Pueblo Children

Where the Rivers Meet

Whispers Among the Mission Trail

Whispers from the First Californians: A Story of California’s First People

White Buffalo Woman: A Storybook Based on Indian Legend

White Wolf

who will tell my brother?

Why Buffalo Roam

Wild Rice and the Ojibway People

The Winter People

Winter Thunder: Retold Tales

Wisahkecahk Flies to the Moon

The Wish Wind

WolfStar

Women of the Struggle: Portraits and Testimony of Native American Women

Word Up! Hope for Youth Poetry

The World of Manabozho: Tales of the Chippewa Indians

The Worry Stone

Wounded Knee

Writing as Witness

The Year of Miss Agnes

Yonder Mountains: A Cherokee Legend

Yudonsi: A Tale from the Canyons

A Zuni Artist Looks at Frank Hamilton Cushing

Zuni Breadstuff

Zuni Children and Elders Talk Together

The Zunis: Self-Portrayals

Search terms

Nothing substantive today, just offering you a glimpse of search terms by which people found the blog as of 11:30 today. The software that generates the list doesn't use upper case letters.

1. creation story myths children's literature
2. touching spirit bear by ben mikaelsen
3. native blogs
4. pre-school indians themes
5. thanksgiving indian plays
6. pattern for native american moccasins
7. thanksgiving truth for kids
8. thanksgiving offensive?
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10. "pourquoi tales" kids
11. pourquoi stories about wolves
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17. thanksgiving images with native indians
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20. interior salish culture websites for kids
21. cherokee indian lessons
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30. "jimmy durham" "columbus day"
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32. kindergarten math lesson plans for thanksgiving
33. touching spirit bear ben mikaelsen essay
34. pilgrims and indians; similarities and differences
35. children of the longhouse summary
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38. how did indians affect the little house on the prairie
39. coyote columbus
40. "a coyote columbus story" criticism
41. indian in the cupboard lesson plans
42. american tribes for kid study
43. children of the longhouse summary

Those Thanksgiving Lesson Plans

Newspapers everywhere carry articles about Thanksgiving and how it is taught in local schools. To protect the students who played roles in the specific article I'm referring to, I will not identify the school or the newspaper in which this particular article appeared.

As said many times on this blog, I respect teachers for the work they do. I do not mean to embarrass or humiliate them for that work, but I do mean to encourage them to think carefully about the ways they teach their students about "The First Thanksgiving" and American Indians.

--------------------
(1) A boy is selected to portray "Chief Sun Slayer" for the school's "Thanksgiving feast." He wears a headdress of multicolored paper feathers.

• "Sun Slayer": To me, this is obviously a made-up name intended to convey power, but why would ANYONE want to slay the sun? The headdress of multicolored paper feathers is probably the Plains style, not one that the Powhatan people would have used. Instead of providing students with substantive information, these children's stereotypical views of Indians as monolithic people who all wore Plains style attire, are affirmed.
  

(2) The kids in the class dressed as Indians, and then the girls voted for the boy who would be their chief. The teacher says "That's how it's really done." and "The women choose the chief."

• Later in the article, the teacher notes they have been studying the Powhatan tribe. According to Helen Rountree, a scholar of the Powhatan Indians of Virginia, women do not vote in tribal matters. And, chief's inherited their positions through the mother's line. In some tribal nations, women play an important role in selection of leaders, but not the Powhatans.
  

(3) The children made their costumes out of construction paper, and chose an Indian-style name for themselves. The name they chose is "Powhatan Pee Wees."

• Choosing Indian names is a popular activity, whether it is for a "tribe" or for oneself. People try to be clever in choosing these names. You may want to read "A Brief Digression about Naming" in the review of Ann Rinaldi's book at the Oyate website. Scroll down to get to that part of the review.

(4) This classroom study included information about wampum, which the article says is "a prized string of beads." The kids dressed as Pilgrims make wampum; the Indians make maps, and they trade.

• People commonly think wampum was used as legal tender. According to George R. Hammell of the New York State Museum (excerpts from Encyclopedia of North American Indians, edited by Frederick E. Hoxie, page 662-664),
  

"...wampum's use as legal tender was its least culturally significant fucntion; for them wampum was and still is both the medium and the message of social communications."

Hammel goes on to say:

"The most culturally significant function of wampum among the northeastern woodlands Indians has been its use, in the forms of strings and belts, in rituals of kindship affirmation and rituals of condolence."

(5) This classroom study emphasizes "when the European settlers traded wampum (a prized strong of beads) for land, the American Indians thought the Europeans understood that the land was not theirs alone, but for both peoples to share."

• Native peoples were intellectuals (not naive, simple-minded or primitive savages) who engaged in diplomatic relations with the English and the French. I will see if I can find a book to recommend, one that can be used in elementary school classrooms, that portrays these relationships with honesty to all involved.
  

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This lesson is only one of the many being taught this month. I urge teachers to revisit their Thanksgiving lessons, and change them. Start doing it now, so you'll have a year to work on changing the lessons, lest your students end up in a college class where they read Lies my Teacher Told Me and remember the instruction they had in elementary school. Come to think of it, every teacher should get the book, read it, and use it to create lesson plans for next year.

I'm adding a few images to the site. See, for example, the covers of Jingle Dancer and Where Did You Get Your Moccasins.

Addition to my post on November 18th: I have added a link to Waller Hasting's page about Where Did You Get Your Moccasins? Hastings is a professor at Northern State University in South Dakota.

Muscogee (Creek) author, Cynthia Leitich Smith

One of my favorite authors of children's books with Native characters is Cynthia Leitich Smith. I've written about her books here before. Whenever I do a workshop for teachers, her Jingle Dancer is one I highlight.

Her website is terrific, and you can read an interview of Cyn at downhomebooks.com.

If you're someone who gives children books during the holiday season, order several copies and give them to teachers and children, and teenagers and librarians, and grandparents whose grandkids visit them...

Bernelda Wheeler's WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR MOCCASINS

Early childhood classrooms generally have a "Show and Tell" segment of the day during which one child talks about a special item he or she has brought from home. Bernelda Wheeler's Where Did You Get Your Moccasins? captures one of those moments.

Colorized cover of the 2019 e-book version

The book is meant for reading aloud in an early childhood classroom. Here's an excerpt:

"Hi, Jody! Where did you get your moccasins?"

"My Kookum made my moccasins for me."

"Who is your Kookum?"

"My Kookum is my Grandmother. She made my moccasins for me."

This pattern continues throughout the book. With each page turn, Jody provides a little more information about his Native culture. The illustrations, by Herman Bekkering, depict a modern day elementary school classroom with low bookshelves. The children, Jody included, are shown wearing jeans and t-shirts. These pictures convey something a lot of children need to know: Native people are part of today's society.

Published in Canada, please order it from an independent bookstore! Or---order two copies. One for yourself, and one to give to a teacher!

[11/20/06 Note: For more information about the book, visit Waller Hasting's webpage.]

Marlinda White-Kaulaity's article in ALAN REVIEW

Thanks to Cynsations (Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog), I learned of an article I want to highlight today. The article is in ALAN Review and is written by a Dine (Navajo) woman in the PhD program in Curriculum and Instruction at Arizona State University.

Here's the first paragraph from "The Voices of Power and the Power of Voices: Teaching with Native American Literature":

"The weight and thickness of Mike's new literature book in English class intimidated him. He opened the book searching for Native American writers whose work he loved to read. Sherman Alexie was his favorite. As he fingered through the table of contents, all he found was a poem about Hiawatha, two stories in the mythology chapter, and one short story in the "Other Literatures" chapter in the back of the book. Sighing heavily, he gazed out the classroom window feeling bored and knowing that this English class would be more of the same. He closed his eyes and his mind, questioning the system and wondering to himself, 'Why can't we read the good stuff in English class?'"

Fortunately, the article is on-line in pdf. A sidebar features comments from Simon Ortiz, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and Laura Tohe, all of whom give us outstanding literature about American Indians.