Tuesday, November 2, 2021
While November is Native American Heritage Month, there are countless resources for teaching and learning about Indigenous cultures, experiences, histories, and voices all throughout the school year.
Here are some curated resources that may be helpful in teaching culturally:
- PBS Wisconsin Education’s Biographies webpage has a variety of free educational, online media resources with a goal of enriching social studies and literacy curriculum using the stories of famous people in Wisconsin history. One of the biographies in particular is of Walter Bresette, a member of the Red Cliff Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibe). Bresette worked to educate others on issues such as tribal sovereignty, American Indian treaty rights, and environmentalism.
- Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction American Indian Studies Consultant David O’Connor wrote an article highlighting the importance of educators not only teaching about cultures, but teaching culturally. In the article, available here on Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s blog, O’Connor talks about how educators seeking to teach culturally should use “The Three I’s”: Include, integrate, and infuse. Visit https://www.hmhco.com/blog/teaching-culture-vs-teaching-culturally to read his blog post.
- The National Museum of the American Indian has a collection consisting of a wide array of videos, digital collections, lessons, virtual tours, and much more. Check out these interactive materials at https://americanindian.si.edu/.
- The Wisconsin DPI’s School Nutrition team encourages the service of American Indian foods within USDA School Meals Programs. Visit the DPI’s website at https://dpi.wi.gov/school-nutrition/farm-to-school/traditional-foods to learn more and for a helpful toolkit.
- The Wisconsin First Nations website provides accurate and authentic educational resources for the teaching of the Native Nations of Wisconsin. Explore a rich collection of educational videos, teacher professional development resources, lesson plans for all grades, and learning tools for your classroom and library at https://wisconsinfirstnations.org/.
- There are no shortage of accurate and authentic books written by and about Native Americans and First Nations people. A few of these books are listed on the School Library Journal’s website at https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=native-perspectives-first-nations-indigenous-people-booklist-picture-books.