U & D

not to purchase Richard Peck’s new book, A Season of Gifts.  Why?  Read this review from American Indians in Children’s Literature.
I know that all over the country adults will buy the book because kids will love it. As I wrote to an upset director of a children’s game program last week, just because kids love [...]

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One of the media resources identified for middle and high school Native studies in Maine’s Wabanaki Studies – Suggested Curriculum Integration is a DVD (or video) called Homeland – Four Portraits of Native Action.  It was a new resource to me (how I did I miss it?), so I have checked it out – and [...]

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“One way to remain an indigenous person within a rapidly changing world is to uphold the philosophy, or spirit, of the teachings of our elders and ancestors. The ancestors provided a moral code, a way of living, and ways of interpreting and relating to the rest of the universe. This philosophy was not just [...]

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It’s time to remind Maine’s teachers, at all levels, of Joseph Carnley’s invaluable resource, Wabanaki Connections.
You will find here announcements of upcoming events that support LD291 implementation and Native Studies.  But you can also use the archive of postings to create your own network of digital and face-to-face resources.
We are lucky to have Joseph. Support [...]

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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 [...]

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Think for a moment about governments in distress, globally. There are contested elections, civil wars, usurpations of power, repressed and unrepresented populations, revolutions, invasions, rampant fraud, tyrannical leaders, cartels and pirates.  Within Maine itself, tribal-state relations have, over the last year, come unraveled, a situation  documented in MITSC’s archive of News.
The turmoil of nationhood [...]

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I like the phrase “original free and independent existence.” It comes from a lucid essay by Steven Newcomb, appearing in the May 1, 2009, Indian Country Today (On Non-Indian, Anti-Indian Law).
Newcomb does not discuss specific laws, such as the one I looked at in my last post. He does not propose new laws or suggest [...]

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Resources come in surprising places. I would not have thought that the federal government and an independent Native organization could come together smoothly in providing quality, and needed, resources.
Then today I received my free copy of Lessons of Our Land, the k-college curriculum created by the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and the Tribal Education Departments [...]

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Middle School teachers seeking an avenue into Worldview might consider the contemporary Slow Food movement – championed by Indian Country – as a point of discussion. Sustainability is certainly an element in this movement, as is environmental preservation. Begun as part of an Italian protest against MacDonalds, the movement has grown in this [...]

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Last week’s meeting of the Department of Education’ Committee for the Development of a Recommended Wabanaki Studies Curriculum Profile (I am calling this CDRWSCP), which will support the implementation of LS 291 while at the same time support the 2007 Social Studies learning results, started with the Big One – Worldview. When that and Culture [...]

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