Native American Heritage Month
There are 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington. How can students respectfully and effectively learn more about Native American heritage, identify and correct misperceptions, broaden their perspective, learn from Indigenous ways of knowing, and move forward more knowledgeably and empathetically? In 2015 the state of Washington began requiring teaching about Washington’s tribal history, culture, and government.
Usually, this blog highlights a particular lesson plan developed for judges to present to classrooms as part of the Judges in the Classroom program. This blog, instead, in honor of Native American Heritage month, and in recognition of the excellence of the resources, highlights the entire Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State | OSPI (STI) curriculum, which has been endorsed by all 29 federally recognized tribes in Washington. The curriculum uses an inquiry-based, place-based, and integrated approach.
Essential Questions:
How does physical geography affect the distribution, culture, and economic life of local tribes?
What is the legal status of tribes who “negotiated” or who did not “negotiate” settlement for compensation for the loss of their sovereign homelands?
What were the political, economic, and cultural forces consequential to the treaties that led to the movement of tribes from long-established homelands to reservations?
What are ways in which Tribes respond to the threats and outside pressure to extinguish their cultures and independence?
What do local Tribes do to meet the challenges of reservation life; and as sovereign nations, what do local Tribes do to meet the economic and cultural needs of their Tribal communities.
Jerad Koepp (Wukchumni), a Native Student Program Specialist, and Washington State Teacher of the Year in 2022, said:
My advice to new teachers was the theme of my graduate cohort: teach the child in front of you. This involves adapting pedagogy, materials, relationships, supports, everything to each child and each class. Each new student is a new relationship and culture to learn from and use that knowledge to inform instruction, content, and inspire critical evaluation of curricula. Learning from and adapting to students makes us better teachers.
All students want and deserve an education that is relevant to, and inclusive of, their heritage.
The STI curriculum contains a wide range of lessons for all ages, in many subjects, with multiple hands-on learning opportunities, supports, activities, teaching tool kits, texts, and videos.
Opportunities to partner with tribal neighbors is encouraged, and information on partnering is found here.
Civic Knowledge, Skills, and Dispositions:
Civic education starts with understanding the basics of our government’s organization and founding principles. As with most learning, applying that knowledge to real life through civic engagement sparks more interest, more questions, and enhances the development of core civics skills such as critical thinking, problem analysis, and the ability to argue effectively from evidence. By participating and serving, practicing disagreeing while also respecting the rights of others, and deepening their understanding of the rule of law, students will strengthen their sense of agency and “voice,” in their schools, communities and government.
The reference staff at the Washington State Law Library has written a blog post for Native American Heritage month as well. It provides resources for researching Native American law.
