Indian Education for All Resources and Opportunities

The January edition of the Indian Education For All Newsletter included a call for proposals to present at OPI’s Indian Education Division’s upcoming Best Practices conference in Billings, Feb. 27-28—if you have great lessons to share, consider submitting a proposal. (Be forewarned: The Jan 15 deadline is coming fast!)


Speaking of Indian Education for All, below are some articles and websites that have made me think, and other IEFA-related resources that seemed worth sharing.


Students Respond to ABC’s “Children of the Plains.” Kids on the Rosebud Reservation define themselves in a short YouTube video: "More Than That." 


Native Daughters is a site created by University of Nebraska-Lincoln professors and students that features stories, profiles, and multimedia projects about a diverse group of Native American women: healers, warriors, story tellers, lawmakers, leaders, environmentalists, and artists. 


The New York Times published an interesting article on Crow photographer Adam Sings In The Timber, whose work documents everyday life on the Crow reservation.  More on the idea that “"It often seems as if America has only two frames through which to view its Native culture: ceremony and pageantry or poverty and addiction" here. 


The Arlee School District has a number of really interesting lesson plans posted on its website, including Shawn Orr’s 1855 Hellgate Treaty lesson (described in earlier posts). 


The Gilder Lehrman Institute has posted an interesting high school lesson plan, “June 25, 1876: An Interpretation of an Historical Event,” by Bruce Lesh. Focused on the debate over naming the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the lesson plan asks students to analyze images, primary and secondary sources to consider how events from the Indian Wars be commemorated by the federal government. 


Primary Source Network offers another approach to teaching the battle, providing many links to primary sources while proposing that students “compare U.S. newspaper coverage of the Battle of Little Bighorn with eyewitness accounts from Native Americans who were there.” See “Comparing Reports: Battle of the Little Bighorn.”