The
Philadelphia Inquirer
Thursday, April 30, 1998
tech.k12 / BY
Joyce Kasman Valenza
Net seeks to offer
accurate view
of Native American cultures
The Cradleboard
Teaching Project aims to involve mainstream students and increase Indian
children's self-esteem.
Yes, we've built models of longhouses and pueblos and teepees. Yes, we
have studied Native Americans' respect for the Earth. And yes, most of
the stereotypes have been "corrected" out of our texts. But
few mainstream students ever hear the real voices of Native Americans.
An important Internet project is allowing us to rethink how we approach
the study of Indian culture in our classrooms by connecting Native American
and mainstream schools as curricular partners. The Cradleboard Teaching
Project enlivens the study of Indian culture and history for students
and teachers while addressing the needs of children in both communities.
"The lack of accurate Native American teaching materials in mainstream
schools is not only bad for mainstream students, but also has a direct
negative bearing upon the lives of Indian children whose cultures are
being studied," writes Buffy Sainte-Marie on the Web pages of the
nonprofit Cradleboard Project she founded in 1996. "Confusion of
self-identity and lack of self-esteem in Indian communities has been shown
to contribute to depression and suicide, which are rampant in Indian country."
I remember Sainte-Marie as a '60s singer-songwriter and activist. My children
remember her from her five years on Sesame Street. Sainte-Marie, an adjunct
professor of digital art, Native studies and philosophy at several colleges,
is channeling her activist energies, as well as her devotion to children,
into the Cradleboard Project.
Sainte-Marie writes on the Web pages of her hopes that Cradleboard will "replace the old inaccuracies with reality delivered by teams of
experts to the benefit of Indian children, and that every mainstream child
will have access to an enriching Native studies unit provided by Indian
friends, including children their own age."
Cradleboard began in 1996 as an effort to develop and distribute accurate,
engaging materials for students from kindergarten through high school,
but it has been at least 10 years in the making. Sainte-Marie started
thinking about the need for improving instruction about Native American
cultures when her son's teacher came to her to say she could not teach
with the inadequate materials the school had provided. Sainte-Marie decided
it would be valuable to maximize the "excellent and scattered efforts"
of American Indian educators by gathering them.Cradleboard includes lessons
and a curriculum, prepared by experts -- including professors from several
Native American colleges. The project is also interactive. Mainstream
students are partnered with students in distant Indian classrooms as both
study Native American culture together, using e-mail, live chat and videoconferencing.
Customized FirstClass private conferencing site is provided for participants
to chat and share curriculum. Native sites include Mohawk in New York,
Ojibwe in Minnesota, Lakota in South Dakota, Salish in Washington state,
Menominee in Wisconsin, Coeur d’Alene in Idaho, Cree in Montana,
Quinault in Washington, ethnic Hawaiian in the Islands, and the multitribal
Native American Prep School in New Mexico.
Whenever we teach American history, we begin with Native Americans. "For
Philadelphia it makes perfect sense; this area was once packed with tribes," said Melissa Shein, a fourth-grade teacher at Chestnut Hill Academy. Shein,
who believes in ahands-on approach to learning, was already planning a
dig for Native American artifacts as part of her social-studies unit when
Pamela Livingston, Chestnut Hill Academy's director of technology, invited
her to participate in the Cradleboard project.
"What I like about Cradleboard is that it is being done by teachers,"
said Shein. "And things are being done right. History is certainly
an element of the Native American material we are studying, but part of
‘history’ exists today and the best way to start is with real
people."
Shein notes: "Stereotyping is hard to break. Unfortunately, many
of our students have a Disney sense of reality. A project like Cradleboard
takes something abstract and makes it concrete. Students need to develop
an understanding that there are Native Americans walking with them on
the street, participating in life the same way they are. They may be like
Jewish or Italian groups that live together in communities, but they are
not living in teepees."
Shein's class has focused on the issue of stereotype. Through the exchange
of "self-identity" videos, goodie boxes, and a CU See-Me videoconference
with a group of children in Hawaii, they were exposed to far more than
their texts could offer. "Having the video element allowed students
to talk to each other," said Shein. "It was very touching. Our
students wanted to know the other students better."
The students at Chestnut Hill and at its partner Menominee Tribal School
in Wisconsin will be jointly learning a curriculum written by the Menominee
teachers and professors from a Native American college.
"They work in groups to study Native American tribes and the materials
sent by the Menominee, as well as the excellent materials sent by the
Cradleboard Teaching Project, "said Livingston, who believes that
this strategy gives the students "an authentic edge not possible
before."
Livingston recently returned from the second annual Cradleboard conference
in Hawaii. "The conference was like none I've ever attended,"
she said. "The rooms were first blessed with prayers and incense,
and every session began with prayers in the speakers' native tongues.
Two hundred people attended from 31 states and four countries, including
two full-immersion schools: a Mohawk school in upstate New York and a
school in Hawaii, where all classes are conducted in the participants'
native tongues."
Katsitsionni Fox, the computer teacher at Akwesasne Freedom School, in
Raquette Point, N.Y., was the Mohawk teacher who brought three of her
students to the Hawaii conference. "I think the vision Buffy has
for the Cradleboard Teaching Project is an excellent idea," said
Fox, "given the outdated information that is taught to children (including
our own) about Native Americans. It gives mainstream children the opportunity
to see that Native American peoples still exist. We are not the Hollywood
Indians, living in teepees, and talking broken English."
Fox introduced her students to Cradleboard in February 1997. Akwesasne
is a Mohawk immersion school. All subjects are taught in Kaniekehaka,
a language most of the 70 students have had to learn. The school was established
in 1980 to preserve Mohawk culture and revive the language now spoken
almost exclusively by the elders. Through Cradleboard, Fox's students
are partnered with Boston Harbor (Washington) Elementary School. During
the last year, they have shared a curriculum and online chat. Akwesasne
students prepared a multimedia presentation for their partners, describing
their cycle of ceremonies and how their school is scheduled around Mohawk
holidays. Boston Harbor students were surprised that their partners had
time off for Thunder Ceremony.
Participating schools may organize chats with any other schools in the
Cradleboard circle. During a recent chat with a fellow immersion school
Ke Kulakaiapuni o Anuenue in Hawaii, the Mohawk students met Native counterparts
across the country, across the ocean.
"The students shared information on the meaning of their given names,"
Fox said. "And our students thought their names were long!"
"This is the only thing of its type being done," says Livingston.
"It is the best example I've come across of excellence in education
technology. It is such a superb answer to the question: 'What are you
doing with all that hardware?' and to the type of anti-computer backlash
happening right now. Instead of having kids do Math Blasters, our kids
are interacting in chats, live videoconferences, e-mail, and via regular
mail with children they would never encounter otherwise, while learning
authentic Native American history past and present."
Teachers who may not be able to incorporate an interactive project into
their curriculum should visit the Cradleboard Web site for its excellent
collection of links to the various Native American sites at http://www.cradleboard.org/2000/tribal_w.html
Through the President’s Initiative on Race, theWhite House now links
to the Cradleboard Teaching Project website.
Joyce Kasman Valenza is the librarian at Wissahickon High School. Her column appears each week in tech.life. E-mail: joyce.valenza@phillynews.com
This article appeared online at the following:
http://www.phillynews.com/inquirer
