("Osiyo" is a Cherokee greeting. It means "hello," a good hello. The kind of hello that says things are going well with me, with you, and with others).
"It does not require many words to tell the truth." -Chief Joseph-Nez Perce
Teaching with Historic Places This program offers a series of award-winning lesson plans that use places listed in the National Register to enliven the study of history, social studies, and geography. TwHP has seven ready-to-use lesson plans, available for free downloading, that examine different aspects of American Indian history. Titles include:
Grandfather, Great Spirit you have been always, And before you nothing has been. There is no one to pray to but you. The star nations all over the heavens are yours, And yours are the grasses of the earth. Grandfather, Great Spirit, fill us with the light. Teach us to walk the soft earth as relatives to all that live. Help us, for without you we are nothing.
The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative, in collaboration with the Office of Indian Education, is pleased to announce another digital workshop in our series for the teachers of Native American and Alaska Native students. "As easy as Tléix', Déix, Nús'k: Tying Math to Culture" by Hans Chester from Alaska. This module focuses on numeration, number sense and place value for teachers of students in kindergarten through second grade (https://www.t2tweb.us/NativeAmerican/123.asp). Other sessions in this series include The Reading Circle (https://www.t2tweb.us/NativeAmerican/Circle.asp), Mirrors and Windows (https://www.t2tweb.us/NativeAmerican/Mirrors.asp), and The Wisdom of Words (https://www.t2tweb.us/NativeAmerican/Wisdom.asp).
These workshops support mastery of academic content and application by modeling strong teaching methods that have been effective in the classroom and provide classroom applications and additional resources. Additional digital resources are available at https://www.t2tweb.us/Digital/About.asp.
Web Links
Smithsonian Institution: American Indian History and Culture This website offers an extensive list of resources related to Native American heritage and culture. Teachers and students can find links to Internet resources, selected Smithsonian online exhibits, and recommended reading.
Blackfeet Skies - Some people look to the skies and see stars. The Blackfeet look at the sky and see the stories behind those stars. This workshop demonstrates ways to use Native culture and its stories to make the study of astronomy more memorable and inviting to students from all backgrounds. This is latest addition to our workshops designed for the teachers of Native American students
Wisdom of the Elders This radio series, available in audio and text, features elders, historians, storytellers, artists, and leaders from thirteen American Indian Nations along the Lewis and Clark trail. These elders share their history, stories, culture, and music in a series of hour-long radio broadcasts.
Children of the Sun This cuesheet, a performing arts study guide from ARTSEDGE, provides information about the Kiowa, Native Americans known as the Children of the Sun. The guide provides summaries of some of the sacred stories of this nation and information about how those stories were dramatized in a Kennedy Center performance.
American Indian Learning Styles
In a review of the literature on American Indian learning styles, Swisher and Deyhle (1987) conclude that Indian students "approach tasks visually, seem to prefer to learn by careful observation that precedes performance, and seem to learn in their natural settings experientially. . . . [They] come to learn about the world in ways that are different from mainstream students" (p. 350). Wauters et al. (1989) found that Alaskan students strongly prefer visual and tactile modes of learning. More (1989) warns against stereotyping native students through an overemphasis on learning style differences. Yet he recommends that teachers of native students "present new and difficult material in a visual/spatial/perceptual mode rather than a verbal mode" (p. 24). Rhodes (1990), in an investigation of the learning styles of Navajo and Hopi students, found dissonance between the learning styles of the students and the teaching styles of their teachers. The "watch me and do as I do" procedures used in traditional schooling appear to be less appropriate than a process of "watch me and try it when you feel comfortable with it." He asserts: "Once the teachers become more sensitive to the learning styles of the students, they can adapt . . . the implementation of the curriculum more to the student needs" (p. 37).
National American Indian Heritage Month features dozens of historic sites, lesson plans, and travel itineraries for learning about Native American history. Find out about Haida totem poles, village life in Hidatsa and Mandan tribes on the plains, sacred ceremonial sites for the Yoeme (Yaqui) people, daily life of the Pueblo Indians, mounds of Mississippi and the Ohio River Valley, and more. (NPS) http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/feature/indian/
This activity explores the role of the buffalo in the lives of the American Indians of the northern plains. An interactive activity, "You be the historian," encourages students to find out what stories the pictures on the buffalo hide tell. Informational sections include: More about buffalo hide painting, Meet the artist, Key to the buffalo hide painting, What did Indians make from the buffalo, Origin Stories of Plains Indians, Map of the Plains Indians, and a bibliography for further reading. The Activities for Teachers helps you make a hide painting, discover what you can make from a buffalo, and provides some worksheets. Fun with clean visual appeal.
The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative, in collaboration with Office of Indian Education, is proud to announce the launch of the Digital Teacher Workshops for Teachers of Native American students. The workshops are designed to provide professional development opportunities for teachers of American Indians and Alaska Natives in all grade levels and content areas. The workshops support mastery of academic content and application by modeling strong teaching methods that have been successful in the classroom and providing a classroom application component, and additional resources.
These workshops are available FREE on the Internet at www.t2tweb.us/nativeamerican. Our first workshops focus on literature, community outreach, and reading.
Microsoft lesson plan: Tell your family story through a totem pole http://www.microsoft.com/education/totempole.aspx Summary: This Microsoft lesson plan shows students to tell their family story through a totem pole
National American Indian Heritage: See 4,000 photos of 80 Indian tribes, including 2,000 of tribes of the Pacific Northwest. Take a virtual journey to meet Native Americans of the 1830s. Learn about the importance of the buffalo to northern plains Indians. Discover what daily life was like for Native American women. Read about the Wounded Knee Massacre, Custer's Last Stand, the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the Sioux Treaty of 1868, and the Trail of Tears. Hear recordings of Native American music. Locate tribes by geographic area.
Not 'Indians,' Many Tribes: Native American Diversity http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?ID=324 "What comes to mind for your students when they think of "Indians" or "Native Americans"? In this unit, students will heighten their awareness of Native American diversity as they learn about three vastly different Native groups in a game-like activity using archival documents such as vintage photographs, traditional stories, photos of artifacts, and recipes. One factor influencing Native American diversity is environment..."
First People http://www.firstpeople.us/ "Welcome to our web site, dedicated to all First People of the America's, and Canada, better known as Turtle Island. This is a child friendly, educational site about American and Canadian Indians. Click on my kachina friend below to show you what has been added recently."
Native Networks http://www.nativenetworks.si.edu/nn.htm "Created by the Film and Video Center of the National Museum of the American Indian, this site contains information about upcoming Native American film festivals and "close-up" profiles of people actively working in the field. Some of these features include material on the indigenous video makers in Mexico and an in-depth look at the film "House Made of Dawn," which deals with a young Pueblo man in crisis. The site is available in both Spanish and English versions."
"Baskets accompanied Indian people throughout their lives. Babies were carried in baskets, meals were prepared and cooked in them, worldly goods were stored in them, and people were buried in them. Today, baskets serve as markers of cultural pride and inheritance. Basketry is a living art. To help illustrate continuity from past to present, each weaver chose four baskets from the Smithsonian collections and paired them with baskets from their own or other Native basket-makers’ contemporary works. These juxtapositions and the weavers’ thoughts on what they tell us, are presented in “The Weavers’ View.” Links on the top navigation bar and side navigation bars lead to a wealth of information and lots of images of baskets. From the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian."
"The People ... Native Americans" offers more than 30 collections of photos, essays, & other resources for learning about American Indians. Topics include daily life for Native American women in the late 1800s, the Wounded Knee Massacre, Custer's Last Stand, & Pocahontas. Resources include a tribe locator, recordings of Native American music, & an exhibit of flutes. (LOC) http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/cc_nativeamerican.php
Activities across the curriculum (K-12) to celebrate American Indian Heritage Month
Did You Know?
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Native American Legends, Folk Stories and Tales
by Dee Ann Hill
Every human culture in the world seems to create stories (narratives) as a way of making sense of the world.
"Once upon a time, a long time ago, and many moons ago…”she/he began
The story explains a cause, origin, or reason for something…
The story can dramatize a moral or a lesson learned as a result of something that happened to the character(s).
TLW write an Indian tale explaining a natural event, an animal characteristic,
a belief, a theme or a moral.
Some possible subjects for your tale:
How would Native American Indians describe:
A thunderstorm?
A hurricane?
A tornado?
Why a turtle has a shell?
Why a porcupine has quills?
Why an animal or insect is a particular color?
Night and day?
An eclipse?
Fire?
Ice?
Snow?
Mountains?
Earthquakes?
Why a bear hibernates during the winter?
The creation of men and women?
Earth's creation?
The sun?
The moon?
A dream?
A nightmare?
Birth?
Death?
Disease?
A human characteristic?
A plant characteristic?
Format of the Indian Tale:
oThe tale must be a "story within a story". For example: A grandfather is telling the story to his grandson to explain some of the topics above. You must include dialogue in your story. For example: The grandson asked the grandfather, "Grandfather, where did the porcupine get his quills?" The grandfather answered, "Grandson, it happened a long time ago."
oThe tale must be at least 100 words or more long.
oYou must use black ink or type your tale.
oYou must have a rough draft, edited draft and a polished draft to hand in when required.
