With his Fund for Teachers grant, John will conduct research at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington DC to build two project based learning experiences that raise awareness of Indigenous experiences at American Indian boarding schools and enhance the physical and digital presence of one such site in Phoenix.

“So much of Indigenous history is understandably viewed under a dark shadow of colonialism, with all the violence and dispossession that comes along with it,” wrote John in this blog post. “It can be difficult, especially for young students, to work through a careful study of this history with any sense of optimism left. And yet, if we look closely at the words and actions of Indigenous people themselves, we still see it. We see not only a bare sense of resilience and survival but at times a true optimism and an infectious energy that comes from leaders’ ability to highlight and target shared opportunities for growth within struggle.”

The first phase of John’s fellowship will include documenting content and artifacts at the NMAI and taking advantage of the archival databases at the NMAI Cultural Resource Center in Suitland, MD and the National Archives. Afterwards, he will conduct additional research at Phoenix’s Heard Museum before heading to Fort Lewis College in nearby Durango, CO — a four-year college that once served as an American Indian boarding school.

“Using my catalog of observations, images, narratives from visitors, and archival documents in the subject area, I will curate a large collection of materials that will transform the capstone project experience for my students,” wrote John in his grant proposal. “Specifically, students during the final 5 to 6 weeks of the course will work in groups to develop proposals for action that use these public history sites as models, with the goal of improving the Phoenix Indian School Visitor Center, once an American Indian boarding school.”

While today’s news alert elevates once again the tragic experiences of Native American children and their families, John also sees a story of growth and resilience within struggle.

“A lot of the students who went through those schools went on to be leaders in their communities, and in fact in a wide range of American settings, both Native and non-Native spaces,” he said when we reached out to him today. “Often they did so while still maintaining tribal languages and cultural connections. I think the students I teach—and probably most American students—can really learn from those types of stories. I think those stories keep us tapped into what is best and most intriguing about our identity as Americans, without white-washing it or unnecessarily painting it through rose-colored glasses. And for our students here in Phoenix, I see the boarding school site as an often overlooked location that could be highlighted and enhanced as a public history site for students and the wider community.”

Top photograph courtesy of Colorado Public Radio News.

The post FFT Fellow To Research History of Native American Boarding Schools first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

The New York Times today reported that “remains of as many as 751 people, mainly Indigenous children, were discovered at the site of a former school in the province of Saskatchewan, a Canadian Indigenous group…jolting a nation grappling with generations of widespread and systematic abuse of Indigenous people.” FFT Fellow Lavie Raven (North Lawndale College Preparatory High School – Chicago) pursued this topic with his Fund for Teachers grant, researching the First Nations tribe ‘Namgis, which inhabited Northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia as early as 500 B.C. After learning about Canada’s colonization of Indigenous People, Lavie used his grant to document ‘Namgis restorative justice practices and historic folk artwork and collaborate with teens there to create hip-hop based murals, audio projects and performances that document cultural survival. His Chicago students, as well as students around the country with whom he collaborates on public art projects, continue to benefit from these experiences. Our thanks to Lavie for sharing more about his fellowship and its impact…

I teach World Studies, United States History, and Performative Policy Debate at my school. Our history department works intensely to develop interdisciplinary projects that involve another major discipline and the arts. This is reflected in much of the work I do at my school, as I also am an active hip-hop muralist and run the after-school hip-hop arts club. Through these programs I seek to provide students with opportunities to braid participatory research, social justice concerns, and the arts in creating ‘calls to action’ about issues they identify as relevant for social change.

Our social studies department makes an active effort to expose students to various cultural narratives in regards to European colonization. We prioritize indigenous North American and African narratives, as these have been historically marginalized in traditional history textbooks. We often have to collate a collection of readings from various sources to illustrate the class of cultures, and solidarity between cultures in resisting the violence of colonization. Many of these sources are incomplete or only offer a surface survey of the struggles and accomplishments of indigenous communities. And hardly any have a contemporary component, comparing communities’ histories and their methods of cultural survival.

I was fortunate to meet members of the ‘Namgis community several years ago, and found out about their intensive work on restorative justice in regards to demanding truth and reconciliation from the Canadian government and, in particular, in helping elders and adults heal from the wounds suffered in residential schools. I am actively involved in three organizations at my school: the Peace Warriors, the Performative Debate team, and the University of Hip-Hop (the last two of which I sponsor/coach). Students in our classes, and particularly in these organizations have often paralleled the struggles of African-American communities with those of indigenous peoples, and our students self-identify with those struggles, from the past into the present-day.

I designed my Fund for Teachers fellowship to visit the indigenous ‘Namgis community of Alert Bay, a small island north to Vancouver Island, to work with community activists, traditional artists, museum curators, and ‘Namgis youth to create art work and music that represents cultural survival. Every day, I observed successful resistance to colonialism and neo-colonialism, and discovered ways the local community addressed historical violence experienced in residential schools and discrimination in Canadian society (a primary reason many whom I meet refuse to celebrate Canada Day). The interviews I conducted and my critical inquiry into injustice through hip-hop arts seeded a student pen-pal program and widened my own skills in presenting examples and models of testimonial evidence for argumentation to our debate team. In addition, I:

• Met elders and artists in the community who arranged the hip-hop artwork and music schedule for me to have to engage ‘Namgis youth
• Painted mini-murals with ‘Namgis youth
• Observed the work of Culture Shock, the local cultural community space and store, and the Umista Cultural Society
• Studied the work accomplished by the Wi’la’mola Accord to create programs and activities that nurture cultural preservation.

I accumulated massive awesomeness…SEVEN murals painted with teens and elementary school kids, beautiful interviews and pictures with women making potlatch blankets for their families, an great interview with Barb Cranmer who just finished editing her film about the residential school here, a personal escort and tour through the Umista Cultural Center, a lunch session tomorrow with Connie Watts who designed the thunderbird at Vancouver airport, rapping cypher with youth in front of one of the murals we painted, intersections with two arts collectives doing hip-hop work, and a bunch more fun.

Personally, this fellowship bridged a huge gap in my own and my students’ knowledge of a powerfully resonant cultural society. I have tied the work of the ‘Namgis community center, museum and school to the work our students do with local centers and cultural institutions. I look forward to the new ideas our debate team, school artists and restorative justice clubs can enact while bearing witness to the survival and reconciliation practices of another community.

[minti_divider style=”3″ icon=”” margin=”20px 0px 20px 0px”]

The summer after his fellowship, Lavie continued his research with a Fulbright US Distinguished Award in Teaching to study the integration of Māori folkloric arts in New Zealand. As a mural artist he has worked with youth to create culturally conscious murals that have been displayed at museums, cultural centers, and community organizations. Raven believes in providing youth with a multi-disciplinary approach toward life that holistically engages their academic skills, celebrates their talents and artistic abilities, and empowers youth desires to bring positive change to society. Lavie also represented Fund for Teachers as a keynote speaker at the 2017 Extra Yard for Teachers Summit event hosted by the College Football Playoff Association.

The post FFT Fellow Researches Canada’s Attempts to Erase its Indigenous Past first appeared on Fund for Teachers.

We recently concluded a very successful case study of La Malinche planned as a result of our research during our fund for teachers fellowship and using resources gathered during our travels in Mexico.

The first part of this case study focused on the migration of the first humans to the Americas, and the many societies and American civilizations that formed since then. To supplement students’ learning of these various native American cultures, we conducted fieldwork at the Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Mexico and Central America, where students collected information about different indigenous American cultures and compared them to the Mexica, which eventually would become the Aztec Empire. We planned lessons in class based on exhibits we visited including the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, the Museo Nacional de Antropologia and the Museo de Templo Mayor in Mexico City.

The second part of the case study consisted of students learning about the rise and golden age of the Aztec empire. We supplemented this learning with various texts we picked up in Mexico, including a number of photos from our visit to Aztec ruins and several museums. We were able to bring many of our trip’s highlights to the classroom, including a replica ceremonial obsidian dagger which we were able to find at craftsman’s market in Guadalajara and a wooden toy we picked up which simulated the important ritual of the “flyers of papantla” that dates back to even before the Aztec empire. Learning about the Aztec empire and building students’ knowledge on indigenous cultures was a way for us combat the many eurocentric approaches to learning about the conquest. These traditional approaches make students familiar with European society and then are introduced briefly to Aztec society in a way that makes it seem jarring and “others” indigenous cultures. By teaching students about Aztec society, politics, and culture, they gained an important context they needed to learn about the conquest.

Our third and final part of the case study, was exploring the history of the conquest by closely analyzing La Malinche and her role in history. We learned using primary sources, secondary sources that looked at narratives of her life, and we posed the question whether she should be remembered as a hero, traitor, or victim. We supplemented this learning with the interviews we conducted in Mexico, the surveys, the texts, and the different perspectives that helped inform us of her current place in Mexican history. Students collected many pieces of evidence while thinking about source reliability and use this to write a persuasive essay to argue how she should be remembered. Here are some student quotes that highlight some of their learning and writing:

“After the conquest, the Spanish set up a very racist class system. In it, the more indigenous you are, the lower down in the chart you were. The darker your skin the more discrimination you received. This chart somehow found its way into our modern day Mexico. If La Malinche hadn’t helped Cortes defeat the Aztec, it probably wouldn’t have happened and this class chart wouldn’t have affected our modern day Mexico. Now her actions in the past are affecting Mexicans who are of indigenous blood – and they might not even know her. La Malinche shouldn’t be forgotten but remembered as a mistake to learn from. As a traitor she shouldn’t be forgotten, but kept in our memories as a mistake to grow from.” -Maia Mussalman

 

“Despite helping and protecting Cortes and his people, she was an unequal person who didn’t have that many rights, and despite saving the Spaniards, La Malinche wasn’t even respected, it was the opposite, she had to respect the Spanish, this shows that she was a victim. It is clear that La Malinche was a victim because, she helped Cortes conquer the Aztec Empire, but she was never honored as a hero. Also, she wasn’t even given partial credit for the conquest. La Malinche was never treated as a warrior, she was still a regular woman who had no rights and was a slave.” -Thommy Mendez Vazquez

 

“People have wondered if La Malinche is a hero, traitor, or victim. La Malinche is a hero because she had the bravery and courage to confront many leaders that were more powerful than her.”  -Ithamar Lucero Gallardo

Defending their positions of “hero, traitor or victim.”

Students presented their learning in roundtables and parents, teachers, high school students, and community members came and learned about the legacy of La Malinche from our students. We capped off the unit with a potluck of food that represented students’ own cultures and mock trial where students from each class represented each side of the debate and tried to convince a guest judge of their perspective. Their classmates cheered them on and huddled with them to give them advice, share notes and evidence, and strengthen their representative’s side.

Throughout the semester, we observed students’ ability to think about sources critically grow as they were shocked to see how many primary sources contradict each other and how the indigenous perspective of history was missing since the Spanish erased most of it. They also were able to see multiple perspectives of history since we did many readers theater activities which had students role play as different historical figures with different perspectives and they supplemented this with sources from varying points of view. La Malinche became a natural bridge between many sides of the conquest and students analyzed her choices in light of the different groups she impacted. We also noticed that students pay more attention to finding and using evidence in their writing since the students with strong evidence were very hard to defeat in the debates.

It was a really great success and we are already thinking about ways to modify and enrich this case study for next year, including translating many of the videos and interviews we recorded and adding subtitles to these videos so that students can see more of our research from Mexico in action.

For more information on this team’s fellowship, visit the blog they maintained for students to follow.

The post Hero, Victim or Traitor? Students Decide first appeared on Fund for Teachers.