Educational and Cultural History and Policy

Articles

American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving

This poster and document, designed for teachers in grades 4 - 8, provides a nuanced look into the actual origins of the Thanksgiving holiday, with bridges to current realities. It provides stories, quotes and specific culturally appropriate classroom activity suggestions. This resource explains the truth behind the First Thanksgiving and looks at several specific Native American communities through three main themes; environment, community, and encounters. These themes shed light onto the innovations and contributions of American Indian peoples. It was put together by a collection of people across different tribal communities under the auspices of the National Museum of the American Indian.

Indigenous Peoples and Boarding Schools

This article explains boarding school policies that were directed towards Indigenous peoples globally. It begins with a historical overview of boarding schools, moving into boarding schools specifically in the US, Canada, Central/South American and Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Russian Federation, China, Africa, Middle East, and so on.

Kumeyaay Curriculum: Learning Landscapes

The Kumeyaay curriculum is an invaluable resource about the Kumeyaay people, created by community members Michael Connolly Miskwish, Stan Rodriguez, and Martha Rodriguez. The curriculum is organized into ten modules that introduce the Kumeyaay people and the plants and animals of the Sycuan Reservation Habitat Conservation and surrounding ecosystems. It also includes information about Kumeyaay culture, contemporary environmental concepts, and traditional land management practices. This is a great resource to help with understanding Kumeyaay people and helps scholars become more knowledgeable of the context and stories specific to Kumeyaay education.

Historical Realities and Local Knowledge

Mike Connolly (2019) focuses on the history of Kumeyaay culture and the considerations of epigenetic inheritance, intergenerational trauma and other topics that may contribute to the understanding obstacles to the Kumeyaay peoples receiving full educational opportunities. Connolly's perceptions are based on his twenty years of teaching Indian and non-Indian students. Scholars describe this article as being helpful with understanding colonization throughout the US to the effects of colonization to a local context for Kumeyaay people.

Mixtec Ethnicity

Nagengast and Kearney (1990) address how social consciousness is generated in different contexts across Mexico, specifically how Indigenous consciousness of imposed ethnicity is transformed into social protest and resistance to exploitation and repression. Ethnicity is a social construction formed from the interface of material conditions, history, political economy structure and social practice. Scholars found this article helpful with understanding the cultural history of Mixtec ethnicity, social identity, political consciousness, and political activism.

Native Nations and American Schools: The History of Natives in the American School System

The National Indian Education Association (NIEA) created this guide that includes Native education terminology, historical background, maps, practices of Native education, culture-based education, and Native education legislation and executive orders. Scholars describe this flipbook as helpful when pinpointing dates and events related to Native education.

Parent Voices: American Indian Relationships with Schools

Robinson-Zanartu and Majel-Dixon (1996) conduct a survey of 234 American Indian parents and community members across fifty-five tribes or bands to document their attitudes about education, satisfaction with schools, the degree to which schools value Indian culture, involvement with schools, and school expectations with their children. Scholars described this resource as valuable due to the information regarding educational and cultural history and policy with Indian families and communities.

Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP) Commentary on APA Ethical Principles of Conduct

In response to cultural and worldview differences, the Society of Indian Psychologists (SIP) produced this compendium of commentary on the American Psychological Association's Code of Ethics. The commentary highlights Indigenous cultural perspectives on many ethical principles, in many cases usies tribal examples. It is extremely informative in gaining cultural perspective. Scholars noted that the SIP Commentary helped with learning the critical role the society has in advocating for the mental health and well-being of Native American youth in addition to highlighting differences between Euro-American and Indigenous approaches to research in psychology.

Toward a Tribal Critical Race Theory in Education

McKinley and Brayboy (2005) describe nine tenets that address issues of Indigenous peoples in the US. This framework addresses the relationship between American Indians and the US federal government, exploring the liminality between groups and individuals racially and legally/politically. Scholars find this framework useful in understanding the ecological differences impacting youth in schools and the importance of storytelling and experience as data.

Using the Indigenous Conceptual Framework in Assessment - Part 1 and Part 2

Dauphinais et al. (2018) describe a framework for practicing school psychology with Indigenous youth, family, and communities using an eight-star model parallelled with NASP practices. These two articles use the framework during an assessment process from the perspective of a Native American school psychologist. Scholars describe this resource as helpful for conceptualizing the framework with placing value in the community and traditional knowledge of Indigenous students.

Kumeyaay Curriculum Resources

Shahook (which means 10) - Dice Game

Directions for how to set up Shahook (Kumeyaay specific game) and different materials needed for the game which promotes use of Kumeyaay language and mathematical thinking.

Kumeyaay E'waa (House) Lesson and Math of the E'waa

Two lessons that show the most common type of Native American dwelling in California before 1850, called an e'waa among the Kumeyaay community. It uses e’waa construction to support mathematical thinking.

PowerPoint Presentations

Maay Uuyow: Kumeyaay Astronomy

Connolly (n.d.) created a powerpoint that discusses the importance of astronomy in the Kumeyaay culture. He focuses on the timing for moving villages, harvesting resources, burning, ceremony, hunting, navigation, and predicting life expectancy and success or failure. He introduces sandpainting, alignments, and different important markers of solstices as well.