DOC.UMENT RESUME ED 031 331 RC 003 525 "There's an Indian in Your Classroom." A Guide for Teachers. Idaho State Dept. of Education, Boise. Pub Date Jul 68 Note-129p. EDRS Price MF-$0.75 HC-$6.55 Descriptors-American Indian Languages, *American Indians, Annotated Bibliographies, Classroom Techniques, *Cultural Differences,CulturalEducation, *Educational Problems, GeographicLocation, *Instructional Materials, Language Handicaps, Parent Participation, Rea lia, Self Concept, *Teaching Techniques Requests from teachers,interestedindividuals,organizations, and schools brought about the compilation of this general guide designed for teachers and non-educators concerned withIndian students.Itisthe result of numerous workshops conducted on the campus of Idaho State University. The document presents general information about geographic location of Indian reservationsand groups, maior problems ofIndian education (language and cultural), and various instructional techniques designed to aid the students intheir adiustment to the classroom and to cultural shock. A unit on the American Indian includes maps,Indian literature, a list of famous Indians (past and present), and a bibliography forfurther reading for students and teacher. (DK) I .1 .411. D. F. ENGELKING OF PUBLICINSTRUCTION STATE SUPERINTENDENT STATE OF IDAHO DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATION WISE, IDAHO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,EDUCATION 8. WELFARE OFFICE Of EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCEDEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE POINTS Of VIEW OR OPINIONS PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATINGIT. STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTOFFICIAL OFFICE Of EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. State ofIdaho DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATION "THERE'S AN INDIAN IN YOUR CLASSROOM" A GUIDE FOR TEACHERS OF INDIAN CHILDREN Revised July 1968 D. F. ENGELKING State Superintendent of Public Instruction Statehouse Boise, Idaho FOREWORD "There's An Indian In Your Classroom" is aresult of workshops conducted on campusat Idaho State University. Many requests from teachers, interested individuals,organizations, and schools, both from Idaho and other states, for writtenmaterial that might be useful in the instruction of Indianstudents, brought about the need for this publication. We hope this booklet will serve as aguide for teachers and non-educators who are concerned about theeducation of Indian children. If a better understanding ofIndian students and Indian adults by our teachers results from this booklet, allof us who contributed to it will feel that our efforts have beenworthwhile. IDAHO STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION INDIAN EDUCATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Special appreciation is extended to Mr.Wayne Pratt, Special Field Representative of theCommissioner of Indian Affairsand to Dr. Orpha McPherson,Education Specialist (B.I.A.)retired, who led the workshop during the first twoweeks of the original writing of the booklet. Also to Mr. Ed Wight, Bureau ofIndian Affairs who directed the organization and writingof the material and to Mr. Gordon Gunderson,Regional Office in Portland forhis suggestions and help. For this, the revisededition, special thanks again to Dr. Orpha McPherson, and toNorma Runyan, EducationSpecialist (B.I.A.) retired, for presenting the materialcontained in this edition. For the art work foundin "There's An Indian In YourClassroom" a grateful acknowledgement to Mrs.Barbara Pyle of the Idaho State Department of Education. MAX SNOW Director of Indian Education and Public Law 874-815 Printed By IDAHO STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 1969 THERE'S AN INDIAN IN YOURCLASSROCM Indian Children A TentativeGuide for Teaching Edgar L. Wight Under directionof: School Relations Assistant Chief,Branch of Public D. C. Bureau of IndianAffairs, Washington, Max Snow Law 874-815 Director of IndianEducation & Public Statehouse, Boise,Idaho Compiled and preparedJuly 1967 by: Blackfoot SchoolDistrict #55 Joan Blamires Pocatello SchoolDistrict #25 Geneya Borrowman Blackfoot SchoolDistrict #55 Franklin Briscoe Blackfoot SchoolDistrict #55 Bonnie Fisher Blackfoot SchoolDistrict #55 Orlena Hall American FallsSchool Dist.#381 Katherine Kramer Jessie Olson Not Teaching American FallsSchool Dist.#381 Claudia Raymond Blackfoot SchoolDistrict #55 Lillian Ross Pocatello SchoolDistrict #25 Barbara Sorenson Pocatello SchoolDistrict #25 Norman Gene VanHouten July 1968 by: Revised Editioncompiled and prepared District #25 Imogene Harden Pocatello School District #25 Joan Kisling Pocatello School District #25 Fae Nielson Pocatello School District #25 Elizabeth Hayes Pocatello School Idaho P.T.A. Afton Falter Past President, School Dist.#381 JoAnn Richards American Falls School Dist. #381 Lucy Harsley American Falls Georgia Pauline Persing University of District #331 Dianne Samsen Minidoka School Max Snow Under Directionuf: Law 874-815 Director of IndianEducation & Public Statehouse, Boise,Idaho Norman Gene VanHouten Counselor of IndianStudents Pocatello SchoolDistrict #25 INDEX Foreword Acknowledgement Credit Page Index 1 Introduction 4 Map of IndianReservations in Idaho 8-9 United States Mapof IndianReservations 13 Who is an Indian?Introduction 14 Understanding IndianPeople. Questionnaire 17 Who is an Indian? 21 Self Image 24 Contributions ofIndians 27 Major Problemsin Indian Education 38 Teaching IndianChildren 41 Speech and LanguageProblems 44 Building Pride inIndian Heritage 45 The Indian Studentand his Classmates 49 Involving IndianParents in SchoolAffairs 51 Classroom Techniques 53 Learning Activitiesfor Summer Vacation 55 Concepts to Remember 59 A Unit on theAmerican Indian 84 Map of CultureAreas 86 Map of BioticProvinces 89 Map of MajorLanguage Families 91 Indian Poetry 100 Famous Indians 110 For FurtherReading INTRODUCTION One of the basic issuesunderlying the problems of IndianEducation is a lack of understandingof who the American Indians areand what they are facing intheir adjustment to life in thetwentieth century. The American Indians are not asingle people with a single way of life or a single kind of educationalneed. Each group has its own unique history, its own unique wayof life and its own problems. Any instructional program, to beworthwhile, must meet the specificneeds of the group where it is to beused. No one curriculum can dothis for the American Indian as a whole any morethan one teaching method isbest for every child. The people we call American Indians, aremade up of groups of people who speak languages asdifferent from one another asChinese, English and Swahili. There were more than threehundred very different American Indian languages in North Americaalone. A surprisingly large number of these languages still existtoday. Many of these languageshave been studied by linguists who have beenable to group them intofamiles of related languages. The languages spoken by theEskimo in northern Canada and Alaska are grouped into onelanguage family, Eskimo-Alute,along with the languages spoken by the nativepeoples of Greenland. Many of the Indians of western Canada speakAthabaskan languages. The Navaho and Apache, who live mostly in New Mexicoand Arizona, also speakAthabaskan languages. Uto-Aztecan is the greatlanguage family to which theShoshoni and Bannock belong. Paiute, Uta and Nahuati thelanguage of the Aztecs also belongs to this great linguisticgrouping. Some linguists believe there are three more majorlinguistic divisions:Algonquian, existing in northeastern Canada and the UnitedStates but stretching acrosssouthern Canada and dipping into northernUnited States clear to thePacific Coast; Penutian, occuring in theCalifotnia valley and then in alarge part of the states of Washington andOregon; and finally Hokan-Siuxan,existing in the southeastern part ofthe United States, the greatplains, southern California and parts of Arizona. To appreciate how verydifferent from one another theselanguages and large linguistic families are,remember that most of thelanguages in Europe, like German, French,Italian, Armenian, Russian andSpanish are grouped into one linguisticfamily that also includes mostof the languages child spoken in northernIndia: Think of the way a Spanish-American pronounces English. How different is his accentfrom a child whose mother will best help tongue is French or German. A program of instruction that one of these children tospeak better English willsurely not be the best answer for the other two. The same is true for AmericanIndians. Still, in this case, all of thesechildren have a common problemin the broadest sense. They all need to .be helped tospeak better English. 1 Language diversity is not the only area where American Indian groups differ from one another. Some American Indians, like the Hopi and other Pueblo Groups in the southwestern United States lived in relatively large settled villages and towns with elaborate political organizations, highly structured religious institutions and a wealth of material possessions. Until construction of the Empire State Building in New York, the largest building in the United States was an apartment building constructed by the Pueblo Indians before the time of Spanish contact. For people to live in settled communities of any size, it is neces- sary to develop technical specialists and a successful system ofland utilization including farming, fishing, hunting and gathering. The people who settled along the northwest coast of Canada and the United States were master woodworkers and fishermen. They lived in large communal wooden structures in settled cammunities. The people in the American southeast, became known as the civilized tribes. They included the Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw,