U & D

As Maine teachers, we sometimes struggles to find powerful ways to lead students to an understanding of the place of the Wabanakis in recent and contemporary Maine history and culture. Yet another opportunity has just appeared.

If we are really teaching Argument and Persuasion in language arts and history, why not tackle this:

In case you missed today’s NPR story or any one of the multiple news reports (NY Times, Boston Globe, and more because the story was carried on the AP network), the Penobscot athletes Louis and Andrew Sockalexis have been formally recognized and honored by the Maine Legislature in separate joint resolutions:

• HP1046
• HP1045

Moreover, the Penobscot Nation has brought the stereotyping embedded in the Cleveland Indians’ “mascot” (the offensive Chief Wahoo, so popular that he has a MySpace page) to the nations attention yet again. And they have asked that Sports Illustrated revisit its published list of Maine’s all-time top athletes with an eye toward correcting the exclusion of the Sockalexis brothers.

This is an opportunity for Maine’s teachers to jump aboard a good campaign and educate at the same time. This is something our students can be involved in – letters, digital posters sent en masse, Twitter messages, online polls, e-mails to thank legislators are all standard action steps in a persuasive campaign.

But first, you will need to educate the students about Louis and Andrew Sockalexis. There is some good information online via a Google; even Wikipedia has a pretty good article. I will have my students read the above resolutions and Penobscot commentaries, and also these non-native/non-Maine blog posts: DuetsBlog and its follow up.

Any investigation into the Sockalexis brothers will have to tackle the thorny issues of anti-Native racism and the rationales for it that continue to exist (read through this discussion of Wahoosim, for example). This would be a good time to introduce readings about reservation life in the 1st half of the 20th century, including racism, from An Upriver Passamaquoddy and The Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes. I have a short clip of Wayne Newell speaking frankly about stereotyping – good stuff. If I taught high school, I would have students read Blue Corn Comics on Chief Wahoo and watch Invisible. And don’t overlook Maine’s own “native” team logos (Husson Braves, and 7 high schools – which might change finally due to consolidation – read a middle level article here).  Read and discuss the text of the American Indians are not Mascots petition and the comments of some of the signers – use Web 2.0 to advantage by engaging some of those signers in further dialogue.

I am sure that even more resources will turn up as I hunt. Know any? Help would be welcome.