Fall 2022 American Indian Act 31 Literacy Resources
Tara Tindall, Native American Teacher Leader
Madison Metropolitan School District Native American Program
June 2022
Teacher Manual: Rethinking Columbus by Bill Bigelow, Bob Peterson
This revised edition offers an alternative narrative of the myth about the voyages of Christopher Columbus traditionally taught in schools. The hope is to encourage a deeper understanding of the European invasion's consequences, to honor the rich legacy of resistance to the injustices it created, to convey the appreciation for the diverse indigenous cultures of the hemisphere, and to reflect on what this all means for individuals today. The book features essays and interviews, poetry, analysis, and stories to present multiple perspectives on what the European exploration meant to the "New World." Following an introduction, the book is divided into nine chapters with essays, poems, newspaper articles, and a variety of materials for use in the classroom. Sections of the book include: (1) "Introduction"; (2) "Beginnings"; (3) "Elementary School Issues"; (4) "Rethinking Thanksgiving"; (5) "The Trial (The People vs. Columbus, et al.)"; (6) "The Tainos"; (7) "Secondary School Issues"; (8) "Contemporary Struggles"; (9) "Environmental Issues"; and (10) "Final Words." The volume concludes with a resources section containing books for young readers and adults, curriculum materials, videos, websites, and organizations. (EH)
Source: Publisher
Teacher Manual: Lessons From Turtle Island Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms by Guy W. Jones and Sally Moomaw
How do you help young children learn more about Native Americans than the cultural stereotypes found in children's books and in the media?
Lessons from Turtle Island is the first complete guide to exploring Native American issues with children. The authors—one Native, one white, both educators—show ways to incorporate authentic learning experiences about Native Americans into your curriculum. This book is organized around five cross-cultural themes—Children, Home, Families, Community, and the Environment. The authors present activities, from children's books they recommend, to develop skills in reading and writing, science, math, make-believe, art, and more. The book provides helpful guidelines and resource lists for selecting appropriate toys, children's books, music, and art, and also includes a family heritage project.
"[A] marvelous tool that should be in every American school."—Joseph Bruchac, author of Heart of a Chief and The Winter People
Guy W. Jones, Hunkpapa Lakota, is a full-blood member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. He is a co-founder of the Miami Valley Council for Native Americans in Dayton, Ohio.
Sally Moomaw teaches at the University of Cincinnati. She is the co-author of the More Than . . . curriculum series published by Redleaf Press.
Kindergarten Quarter One: Hold Me Up by Monique Gray Smith
Encourage children to show love and support for each other and to consider each other’s well-being in their everyday actions.
Consultant, international speaker and award-winning author Monique Gray Smith wrote You Hold Me Up to prompt a dialogue among young people, their care providers and educators about reconciliation and the importance of the connections children make with others. With vibrant illustrations from celebrated artist Danielle Daniel, this is a foundational book about building relationships, fostering empathy and encouraging respect between peers, starting with our littlest citizens.
Orca Book Publishers is proud to offer this picture book as a dual-language (English and Plains Cree) edition.
Kindergarten, Quarter Two: I Sang You Down From the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner, Illustrated by Michaela Goade
This unique baby book sings with Native cultural detail, while striking a universal chord in its celebration of the blossoming of love that comes with expecting and welcoming a new baby—with art by New York Times bestselling illustrator and Caldecott Medalist Michaela Goade.
As she waits for the arrival of her new baby, a mother-to-be gathers gifts to create a sacred bundle. A white feather, cedar and sage, a stone from the river . . .
Each addition to the bundle will offer the new baby strength and connection to tradition, family, and community. As they grow together, mother and baby will each have gifts to offer each other.
Tasha Spillett-Sumner and Michaela Goade, two Indigenous creators, bring beautiful words and luminous art together in a resonant celebration of the bond between mother and child.
First Grade Quarter One: The Water Walker by Joanne Robertson (Author, Illustrator) 2017, Second Story Press
The determined story of an Ojibwe grandmother (nokomis), Josephine Mandamin, and her great love for nibi (water). Nokomis walks to raise awareness of our need to protect nibi for future generations and for all life on the planet. She, along with other women, men and youth, has walked around all the Great Lakes from the four salt waters, or oceans, to Lake Superior. The walks are full of challenges, and by her example she challenges us all to take up our responsibility to protect our water, the giver of life, and to protect our planet for all generations.
About the Author: Joanne Robertson is AnishinaabeKwe and a member of Atikameksheng Anishnawbek. She received her fine arts degree at Algoma University and Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig. She founded the Empty Glass for Water campaign to bring attention to the drinking-water crisis in Indigenous communities. She works as a research assistant at the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre and continues to support the water walks. Joanne lives near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
First Grade Quarter Two: Frybread by Kevin Noble Mailand, Illustrated by Juana Martinez Neal
Told in lively and powerful verse by debut author Kevin Noble Maillard, Fry Bread is an evocative depiction of a modern Native American family, vibrantly illustrated by Pura Belpre Award winner and Caldecott Honoree Juana Martinez-Neal.
Fry bread is food.
It is warm and delicious, piled high on a plate.
Fry bread is time.
It brings families together for meals and new memories.
Fry bread is nation.
It is shared by many, from coast to coast and beyond.
Fry bread is us.
It is a celebration of old and new, traditional and modern, similarity and difference.
Winner of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
A 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Winner
“A wonderful and sweet book . . . Lovely stuff.” ―The New York Times Book Review
Second Grade Quarter One: Bowwow Powwow by Brenda Child, Illustrated by Jonathan Thunder, 2018, Minnesota Historical Society Press
Windy Girl is blessed with a vivid imagination. From Uncle she gathers stories of long-ago traditions, about dances and sharing and gratitude. Windy can tell such stories herself–about her dog, Itchy Boy, and the way he dances to request a treat and how he wriggles with joy in response to, well, just about everything.��When Uncle and Windy Girl and Itchy Boy attend a powwow, Windy watches the dancers in their jingle dresses and listens to the singers. She eats tasty food and joins family and friends around the campfire. Later, Windy falls asleep under the stars. Now Uncle's stories inspire other visions in her head: a bowwow powwow, where all the dancers are dogs. In these magical scenes, Windy sees veterans in a Grand Entry, and a visiting drum group, and traditional dancers, grass dancers, and jingle-dress dancers–all with telltale ears and paws and tails. All celebrating in song and dance. All attesting to the wonder of the powwow.��This playful story by Brenda Child is accompanied by a companion retelling in Ojibwe by Gordon Jourdain and brought to life by Jonathan Thunder's vibrant dreamscapes. The result is a powwow tale for the ages.
ALA Notable Children's Books, Younger Readers Award
Second Grade Quarter Two: The Forever Sky by Martin Peacock, Illustrated by Annette S. Lee
"Nooko's spirit is there in the stars," says Niigaanii to his younger brother, Bineshiinh, as they sprawl in a meadow, gazing skyward. "Uncle said when Nooko's spirit left this world it went there." Nooko was their grandmother, and they miss her. But Uncle helps them find comfort in the night sky, where all the stars have stories.
Indeed, there are so many stars and so many stories that the boys spend night after night observing and sharing, making sense of patterns and wisdom in "the forever sky." They see a moose, a loon, a crane, the Path of Souls, and so much more.
One night, a beautiful show of lights fills the sky. Niigaanii explains that the northern lights are the spirits of the relatives who have passed on. The boys imagine different relatives dancing, lighting up the sky with their graceful movements. And then they see her: Nooko is one of the elders leading the dance. She has a message for them. One they can share with their parents and their uncle and everyone else who remembers her. One that lends power to the skies and brings smiles to the stargazers' faces.
Third Grade Quarter One: We Are Grateful by Traci Sorell, Illustrated by Frane’ Lessac
The Cherokee community is grateful for blessings and challenges that each season brings. This is modern Native American life as told by an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
The word otsaliheliga (oh-jah-LEE-hay-lee-gah) is used by members of the Cherokee Nation to express gratitude. Beginning in the fall with the new year and ending in summer, follow a full Cherokee year of celebrations and experiences. Written by a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, this look at one group of Native Americans is appended with a glossary and the complete Cherokee syllabary, originally created by Sequoyah.
"A gracious, warm, and loving celebration of community and gratitude"— Kirkus Reviews
"This informative and authentic introduction to a thriving ancestral and ceremonial way of life is perfect for holiday and family sharing"— School Library Journal
Third Grade Quarter Two: Unstoppable by Art Coulson, Illustrated by Nick Hardcastle
In the autumn of 1912, the football team from Carlisle Indian Industrial School took the field at the U.S. Military Academy, home to the bigger, stronger, and better-equipped West Points Cadets. Sportswriters billed the game as a sort of rematch, pitting against each other the descendants of U.S. soldiers and American Indians who fought on the battlefield only 20 years earlier. But for lightning-fast Jim Thorpe and the other Carlisle players, that day's game was about skill, strategy, and determination. Known for unusual formations and innovative plays, the Carlisle squad was out to prove just one thing — that it was the best football team in all the land.
Fourth Grade Quarter One: The People Shall Continue, by Simon J Ortiz (Author), Sharol Graves (Illustrator)
Told in the rhythms of traditional oral narrative, this powerful telling of the history of the Native/Indigenous peoples of North America recounts their story from Creation to the invasion and usurpation of Native lands. As more and more people arrived, The People saw that the new men did not respect the land. The People witnessed the destruction of their Nations and the enslavement of their people. The People fought hard, but eventually agreed to stop fighting and signed treaties.
Many things changed and became more difficult, but The People continued to farm and create crafts. They remembered and told their children, "You are Shawnee. You are Lakota. You are Pima. You Acoma. . . . You are all these Nations of the People." The People held onto their beliefs and customs and found solidarity with other oppressed people. And despite struggles against greed, destruction of their lands, and oppression, The People persisted.
"The times call on all of us to share The People Shall Continue. Ortiz reminds us that we must come together to save our planet." --Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo), PhD and publisher, American Indians in Children's Literature
Fourth Grade Quarter Two: We Are Still Here by Traci Sorell, Illustrated by Frane’ Lessac
Native Nations say: We are still here!
Too often, Native American history is treated as a finished chapter instead of an ongoing story. This companion book to the award-winning We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga offers readers everything they never learned in school about Native American people's past, present, and future.
Twelve Native American kids present historical and contemporary laws, policies, struggles, and victories in Native life, each with a powerful refrain: We are still here! Precise, lyrical writing presents topics including forced assimilation, land allotment and Native tribal reorganization, termination, relocation, self-determination, Native civil rights, the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), religious freedom, economic development, Native language revival efforts, cultural persistence, and nationhood.
Fifth Grade Quarter One: Mountain Wolf Woman: A Ho-Chunk Girlhood, by Diane Holliday, 2007, Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Central to the story is the movement of Mountain Wolf Woman and her family in and around Wisconsin. Like many Ho-Chunk people in the mid-1800s, Mountain Wolf Woman's family was displaced to Nebraska by the U.S. Government. They later returned to Wisconsin but continued to relocate throughout the state as the seasons changed to gather and hunt food.��Based on her own autobiography as told to anthropologist Nancy Lurie, Mountain Wolf Woman's words are used throughout the book to capture her feelings and memories during childhood. Author Holliday draws young readers into this Badger Biographies series book by asking them to think about how the lives of their ancestors and how their lives today compare to the way Mountain Wolf Woman lived over a hundred years ago.
Fifth & Sixth Grade Quarter One &Two: The Mishomis Book - The Voice of the Ojibwe, by Eddie Benton-Banai
The Ojibway is one of the largest groups of Native Americans, belonging to the Anishinabe people of what is today the northern United States and Canada. The Mishomis Book documents the history, traditions, and culture of the Ojibway people through stories and myths passed down through generations. Written by Ojibway educator and spiritual leader Edward Benton-Banai, and first published in 1988, The Mishomis Book draws from the traditional teachings of tribal elders to instruct young readers about Ojibway creation stories and legends, the origin and importance of the Ojibway family structure and clan system, the Midewiwin religion, the construction and use of the water drum and sweat lodge, and modern Ojibway history.
Written for readers from all cultures-but especially for Ojibway and Native youth-The Mishomis Book provides an introduction to Ojibway culture and an understanding of the sacred Midewiwin teachings, aiming to protect this knowledge by instilling its importance in a new generation. Encouraging the preservation of a way of life that is centered on respect for all living things, these vibrant stories about life, self, community, and relationship to nature are just as relevant to the modern reader as they were hundreds of years ago.
Eight Grade on Up: An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People (ReVisioning American History for Young People), Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Adapted by Jean Mendoza & Debbie Reese
2019 Best-Of Lists: Best YA Nonfiction of 2019 (Kirkus Reviews) · Best Nonfiction of 2019 (School Library Journal) · Best Books for Teens (New York Public Library) · Best Informational Books for Older Readers (Chicago Public Library)��Spanning more than 400 years, this classic bottom-up history examines the legacy of Indigenous peoples’ resistance, resilience, and steadfast fight against imperialism.��Going beyond the story of America as a country “discovered” by a few brave men in the “New World,” Indigenous human rights advocate Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz reveals the roles that settler colonialism and policies of American Indian genocide played in forming our national identity.��The original academic text is fully adapted by renowned curriculum experts Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza, for middle-grade and young adult readers to include discussion topics, archival images, original maps, recommendations for further reading, and other materials to encourage students, teachers, and general readers to think critically about their own place in history.