The Sandy Lake Tragedy

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The Treaty of 1837 signed between the United States Government and the Ojibwe Tribe called for annuity payments to be made at Madeline Island. This video features the movement of the annuity payment location from Madeline Island to Sandy Lake, Minnesota in 1850, the difficult travel of the Ojibwe and the death of 400 tribal members, the trip of Chief Buffalo to Washington, D.C., and the decision to move the payment location back to Madeline Island.

Material Type: Lesson

Authors: Lynn Aprill, Mike Mestelle

Sandy Lake Tragedy

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Material Type: Lesson

Author: Mike Mestelle

Keeper of the Culture Project

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I have used the Keeper of the Culture Project as a final assessment in Native American Literature. Students have the opportunity to follow up on a major theme in Mary Crow Dog's autobiography Lakota Woman: the importance of Native people embracing their identities and preserving traditions and culture. Students will interview and write about a person who is keeping the culture alive in some way and may invite the person to come in and speak or record an interview with that person.

Material Type: Assessment

Author: Martha Handrick

Native American Veterans Tribute

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The Native American Veterans Tribute is a slideshow project in Native American Literature class that corresponds with the Veterans Day Assembly at our high school. Veterans who are invited to the assembly are served breakfast and watch the slideshow in the Commons. Our class slideshow is incorporated into the presentation that day. It allows students to recognize relatives or or other Native military veterans and pay tribute to them.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Martha Handrick

What's New in Indian Country?

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This is a Monday assignment in my Native American Lit. Class. Students read articles on current topics in Indian Country and write about or present their findings to the class on Tuesdays to spark discussion. At the beginning of the year, I usually show a video or clip about a current hot topic to gain their interest. This year I showed the documentary AWAKE about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the protests there, which prompted debate and discussion, and ignited their interest in topics related to Native Americans.

Material Type: Formative Assessment, Lesson, Reading

Author: Martha Handrick

Native American Literature: The Evolution of Native American Representations in Film

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I include this assignment in my 11-12 Grade Native American Literature class. I usually introduce this unit after students have read the short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," by Sherman Alexie (Form his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven). The story (along with pieces of his other short stories) was the inspiration for the 1998 film Smoke Signals, one of the first authentic films to examine the humor, pain, loss and struggle of reservation life.After reading the story and watching the film, students write about what makes the film authentic and how forgiveness plays into the ability to move on.We then watch the documentary film Reel Injun (2009), chronicling the evolution of Native American portrayals in film. Next, students have the opportunity to discuss the attributes of authentic Native American depictions in film and what aspects of Native culture they would like to see in film.Finally, we finish the unit by looking at the impact of stereotypes in film, especially children's films, and students watch the Disney film Pocahantas (2005) through the lens of a movie critic and write a movie review based on the film, focusing on the authenticity of racial and cultural portrayals.Video Lesson: The Evolution of Native American Representations in Film

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Martha Handrick

Native American Cultural Children's Stories

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The cultural children's story project allows students to explore Native American culture through a new lens by authoring and illustrating children's stories that teach children between the ages of four and six a lesson or tale unique to Native cultural traditions. The exemplar stories are laminated, bound, and given as gifts to an area elementary school with a primarily Native student body. Student authors read the stories to the children, and the books become part of the children's classroom library. The children learn cultural traditions from a young age and see their mentors (often Native students as well) as role models and writers. The authors learn the skills to develop their stories from conception to publication to presentation.Cultural Children's Story Video Lesson

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Martha Handrick

Native American Resistance

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The freedom to resist authority and government in the United States has been a very important right throughout our history. Resistance of the government of Great Britain is what founded our country with the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the winning of the Revolutionary War. Native American people have resisted the U.S. government’s attempts to assimilate them into mainstream culture, the termination of reservations, and to exterminate them as a race of people. That isn’t a process that is confined only to history, it still occurs in many instances in today’s world. This lesson is meant to teach students several historical examples of Native American Resistance and then to investigate recent examples on their own through research and presentation.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson

Author: Mike Mestelle

Assimilation: The Native American Boarding Schools

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In the 1870’s, the United States Government began a system of education for Native Americans in the U.S. Richard Pratt, a military veteran of the Civil War, was chosen to lead a school intended to assimilate Native American children into white American culture. Students there would be forced to cut their hair, speak the English language, change their names to Christian names, and change from their traditional religious beliefs to Christianity. Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA in 1873. The boarding schools would have a profoundly negative impact upon generations of Native Americans and forced many to lose contact with their traditional culture. Several boarding schools were operated in Wisconsin, including one in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Mike Mestelle

Bias Activity

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Bias is defined as a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned. All people have bias in favor of some things and against some things. That is alright as long as it doesn’t lead to prejudice or discrimination against people that have different beliefs. Bias against Native American people in the United States has been a very harmful aspect of our history and has had a negative impact upon Native Americans. This lesson focuses on the concept of bias and helps students to analyze materials to look for examples of bias in today’s world.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Mike Mestelle

Native American Literature for Primary Grades

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Native American Literature for Primary Grades Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in primary grade classrooms. Carol Amour represents the Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.