When Nicol Aubrey (Tolowa) was growing up, “everything we learned (in school about American Indians) was a stereotype,” she recalls. “I remember thinking: I’m not a savage and my family doesn’t live like that.” Now Aubrey teaches American Indian preschoolers about their heritage at the Smith River Rancheria Head Start Program in Howonquet Village, in Northern California.

It’s good for all young children to learn about American Indian cultures, says Shirley Guevara (Mono), a teacher at Oakland Hintil Kuu Ca preschool program, so that “children respect natives, their culture and their struggles.”

American Indian preschool teachers offer suggestions:

Counter stereotypes

“I don’t like to see children wearing feathered headdresses or doing the tomahawk chop,” says Guevara, “because it looks like it’s making fun of my culture. If we hear children talking about stereotypes, we address them head on.” She also uses The Indian in the Cupboard to talk about stereotypes, asking questions like “Why is he dressed in feathers?”

“We’re talking about Columbus in the classroom right now,” she adds, “and asking the children, ‘How could he have discovered us, when we were already here?’” When teaching about Thanksgiving, teachers can focus on what children are thankful for in their own lives rather than “the first Thanksgiving.”

Last year, the elementary school sent a worksheet to Guevara’s class to help children count to 10. There were 10 children in a boat, including one in a feathered headdress. She told the school administration that the worksheet “was inappropriate and perpetuated (stereotypes). We want our children to realize that native kids are just like non-native kids.”

Talk about how things have changed

“We are educators, political leaders, song writers, doctors,” says Pat Alexander (Cherokee/Comanche/Choctaw), a long-time family child care provider in Elk Grove. “We live in houses, not wigwams or teepees. We dress like everyone else, not buckskins and feathers. When we see Native Americans dressed like that today, it is for cultural events, like pow wows.”

Aubrey recalls a recent discussion about the baskets American Indians used to carry babies. “We explained that this was in the past, before there were car seats to carry children around.”

Focus on hands-on activities

Children at the Hoopa Head Start Program, also in Northern California, learn about their culture with traditional dances, foods, and songs in their native language, says Samala Maloney (Tsnungwe). Maloney also searches online for appropriate coloring activities, music, and books (see Resources below).

Children in Aubrey’s program “learn about the ocean, the rivers and streams nearby,” she says. “We take kids to the beach to make sandbread by cooking on gravel.” Her classroom has “birds’ nests, beehives, and models of how our houses used to look” as well as Tolowa objects and “lots of musical instruments for children to use,” she adds.

“We tell stories about the bear, coyote, mouse, cat, eagle (that) all have a moral to them,” says Guevara. “We do a lot of beading, making dream catchers, weaving, making key chains, cooking traditional foods. We have posters around so students can see people who look like them.”

Learn about and connect with local tribes

Guevara encourages teachers and providers to contact local tribes to get information—and to invite members to come talk and lead activities. She visits other preschools to give demonstrations on how California Indian tribes used acorns.

“We have elders come talk to children about what life was like in the past,” says Aubrey. Recently, children watched a tribe member clean and cook freshly caught eel.

“It’s great for children to go to (pow wows), to see people from the community,” adds Guevara. Her classroom also visits the California Indian exhibit at the Oakland Museum. “Many of the children are California Indian so they enjoy it,” she says—though they have “sometimes found mistakes.”

Read authentic children’s books

Children can also learn about traditional ways and modern life for American Indian tribes through books (see Tips for evaluating children’s books below). But “not every Native American book out there is good,” cautions Alexander. “Many do not tell the stories right or the history is wrong. Cartoon-like characters give children a false view of Native Americans.”

Tips for evaluating children’s books

DON'T USE books that reinforce stereotypes:

• No generic “Indians” with feathers and tomahawks
• No counting or alphabet books that include American Indians as though they were objects
• No stereotypic, one-dimensional characters
• No offensive vocabulary such as savage or squaw.

DO USE books that present American Indians respectfully, with pictures and stories that:

• Are authentic about time, place, and culture
• Show American Indians doing everyday tasks and as part of a community
• Include people with different physical features and roles
• Provide accurate facts about specific tribes.

Source: Young Children, NAEYC

Recommended books

• Bird Talk, by Lenore Keeshig-Tobias. When Polly is teased, her mother comforts her by reminding her of her heritage and large extended family.
  
  
• Firedancers, by Jan Bourdeau Waboose. A grandmother and grandchild visit the island where their Anishinawbe ancestors danced.
  
  
• Less Than Half, More Than Whole, by Kathleen Lacapa. Tony, who is part Native American and part white, explores his multicultural background with his grandfather.
  
  
• Red Is Beautiful (Chiih Nizhoni), by Roberta John. When Nashasha is teased about her skin, her grandmother teaches her about a traditional healing cream.
  
  
• Two Pairs of Shoes, by Esther Sanderson. A young Ojibway girl learns when to wear the patent-leather shoes from her mother and the moccasins from her grandmother.
  
  
• Abuela’s Weave, El tapiz de abuela, by Omar Castaneda. Esperanza’s Mayan grandmother teaches her to weave.
  
  
• Talking to mother earth: poems/ Hablando con madre tierra: poemas, by Jorge Argueta. A Pipil Nahua (El Salvador) boy’s connection to the earth helps heal the wounds of racism.
  
  
• Nessa’s story, El cuento de nessa, by Nancy Luenn. Nessa listens to her Inuit grandmother’s stories then tells her own story.
  

See also http://www.naeyc.org/yc/ and www.4children.org/news/1101bks.htm

Resources

• Contact information for California Indian tribes, www.hanksville.org/sand/contacts/tribal/
  states.php?whichstate=CA&title=California
• Native American Facts for Kids, www.native-languages.org/kids.htm
• Oyate, www.oyate.org
• Cradleboard Teaching Project, www.cradleboard.org/main.html
• Teaching Young Children about Native Americans, www.library.txstate.edu/swwc/
  cdv/further_study/teaching_children_na.pdf
• National Museum of the American Indian teaching guides, www.nmai.si.edu/subpage.cfm?
  ubpage=education&second=pub
• California State Indian Museum, www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=486

Extra resources from the Children’s Advocate bulletin

• Resources For Non-Native Classrooms, from Native Child, offers tips and resources for teaching children about Native Americans.
  
  
• Lessons from Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms, is a guide to exploring Native American issues with children. Includes reading, math, and science activities. $30. By Guy Jones and Sally Moomaw, available from Redleaf Press, (800) 423-8309.
  
  
• Focus on American Indian Children, from the Children's Advocate, offers advice from American Indian educators about positive ways to teach school-age children about Native Americans.
  
  
• American Indians in Children's Literature is a blog about American Indians in children's books, school curriculum, and popular culture.
  

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