Please Print This Page, Copy and Distribute Freely. for
your schools classroom use or send this web page to your school webmaster
asking them to set up a connecting link to this page.
Native American Holidays In Your School
YOU can make this happen! In our experience, most teachers are very
interested in the truth of the history of Native people in this country and are
anxious to receive appropriate material for their teaching experiences.
By delivering this letter to
your school or your children's teacher, you can set them on the course of
exploring Native Americans as Native Americans see themselves, rather than from
the point of view of most texts that explain the history of the US only from
the perspective of the victors of the wars that took place here. At the
same time, you will bring recognition of the extent of the work that has been
done towards making a Native American Holiday a reality and will perhaps
encourage them to taking those steps themselves.
Lets raise some awareness
out there! Do your bit and either copy and paste the letter below and
print it out for schools everywhere, or download a copy from the file
provided. Be a part of making change happen NOW!
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UNITED NATIVE AMERICA
1008 SE 10th Street
Muldrow, OK 74948
mikeuna1@aol.com
STAR
Students and Teachers Advocating
Respect
Fairfield, Ct
06430
ROSEPETL5@AOL.COM
To Whom It May Concern:
United Native America and Students and Teachers Advocating Respect would like
to encourage your school to participate in Native American Day and
November as Native American Heritage
Month, as first proclaimed in 1990 by the U.S. Senate and President George W.
Bush. While California has selected September 26 as Native American Day,
seventeen states have chosen to eliminate Columbus Day and South Dakota has
replaced it with Native American Day.
Across the country, several states have already taken the first steps in
developing legislation to make these holidays become a reality. Many
states already study Native Americans in the month of November as part of their
Thanksgiving preparation. However, much of the educational material that is
readily available has focused on stereotypes of Native people. STAR and
UNA have been working with Native educators nation-wide to provide you with
appropriate and culturally sensitive materials that will enhance the studies
that are currently taught.
Material is now available that makes the old methods of teaching about Native
people obsolete. Learn how Native people played a part in the development
of our democratic society, learn about heroes and famous Native American
people, learn how the advanced agricultural developments of Native people
introduced countless new medicines as well as many new foods to the European
diet, learn about games we still play that originated with Native people, and
for the upper grades, there are also lessons to be learned about the times our
country committed genocide on an innocent people.
All of these are important aspects of the development of our country that up
until now have been missing from traditional curriculum. Following are
some websites that will contain material that has been approved by the Native
American communities for teaching in the classroom. For the first time,
study about Native people that are alive and well and living in the USA rather
than only studying the past, learn why Native people continue to use feathers
in their ceremonies and how their heritage lives on, despite the fact that up
until now, it has only been studied from an archaic point of view.
We can help you contact people that can help you bring Native Studies alive in
your classroom and bring an end to stereotypes at the same time. The
benefits of expanding our understanding of the many Native cultures will result
in a deeper appreciation for Native people and their contributions to our
country. As a multi-cultural experience, the benefits of sponsoring
Native American Heritage Month or Native American Day will bring heightened
self esteem to Native children as they see themselves represented in a
meaningful manner relevant to the present rather than only in the past. It will
also bring the respect of the non-native students to the life ways of Native
people.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mike Graham founder of U. N. A.
Christine Rose founder of STAR
WEBSITES
http://eric-web.tc.columbia.edu/guides/pg6.html
Community Guide to Multicultural Education Programs
http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed394744.html
Teaching Young Children About Native Americans
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr040.shtml
Are You Teaching The Real Story of Thanksgiving
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson038.shtml
Exploring Native Americans Across the Curriculum
http://www.first-americans.net/
First American Education Project, a group of Native Educators reaching out to
the general public
http://www.theramp.net/kohr4/
The International Brotherhood Days, a website that offers the Native
perspective of American History and heroes, an important and fascinating site
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/FF.html#TOC
Forgotten Founders, by Bruce Johansen. A doctoral thesis on the
involvement of the Iroquois in the formation of democracy in America.
Intriguing
http://www.uvm.edu/~jloewen/
The homepage for James Loewen, the best selling author, Lies My Teacher
Told Me
http://www.gatheringofnations.com Native American non-profit org. founded in 1983 to promote Native American Indian culture & tradition, & dispel stereotypes created about indigenous people.
http://www.ilhawaii.net/~stony/quotes.html
Native American Quotes, great for understanding Native American
philosophy and perspective
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~ecubbins/webcrit.html
Native Web Site Evaluation, how to determine if the site you are using is a
Native American Site or a site operated by non-native people
http://www.gourmetgiftbaskets.com/Thanksgiving-Resources-For-Teachers-Children.asp Thanksgiving Resources for Teachers and Children
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson209.shtml Activities to Celebrate Native American Heritage!
http://www.night.net/thanksgiving/lesson-plan.html
Teaching About Thanksgiving, a true Native perspective with curriculum
http://www.turtletrack.org/Bios/CO_BioMain.htm
Canku Ota, an educational website about Native people and schools for all
teachers, go to the search box on the home page to find almost anything about
Native people.
http://www.alaskool.org/frmsetsitemap.htm
Alaska Native Studies Curriculum and Teacher Development
http://members.aol.com/bbbenge/page6.html
A wonderful site dedicated to the Lakota People
http://www.oyate.org/catalog/index.html
Oyate is a website that promotes the use of writings of Native people
when teaching about Native people. There are a list of books and
curriculum developed by Native people as well as a list of books that
perpetuate stereotypes and historical untruths that should be avoided.
You'll be surprised!!
http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues00/Co11042000/CO_11042000_Heritage_Month.htm
History Of Native American Heritage Month from Canku Ota
http://www.UnitedNativeAmerica.com/ United
Native America, a website dedicated to a Native American holiday. Many
links to other Native websites.
http://www.turtletrack.org/Links/CO_NAHistoryLinks.htm
Native American History Links from Canku Ota
http://members.tripod.com/~PHILKON/
On This Date in North American Indian History by Phil Konstantin
www.ratical.com/many_worlds/6Nations/NAPSnEoD92.html 1992: "Native American Political Systems and the Evolution of Democracy
http://www.nativetech.org/
Native Tech: a website that shows Eastern Native arts and crafts, games, foods,
and much more throughout history. An excellent teaching source.
www.indiancircle.com Indian Circle
Web Ring: Complete list of Indian Nations on line and other contacts to the
Indian community
www.hanksville.org/NAresources/ Virtual library - American Indians index of
Native American resources on the Internet.
For more educational websites or information, please contact Christine Rose
at the email address above. For more information about the progress of
the
holidays or to get involved in bringing the holidays to your state, please
contact Mike Graham at the email address above.
National Holiday For Native
Americans
From www.UnitedNativeAmerica.com
(1) I support a National
Holiday for Native Americans!
(2) I don't want my tax dollars paying for Columbus Day!
(3) I demand congressional hearings on the racial exclusion of Native Americans
in movies, TV, sports, advertising and music companies!!
(4) Truth in education in the classroom on Native Americans!
Contact your Congressperson on this issue - 202-225-3121
Name ___________________________________________________________
Address__________________________________________________________
City ________________________ State
____________ Zip Code __________
Send To:
Mike Graham
1008 SE 10th Street
Muldrow, OK 74948
mikeuna1@aol.com