Nevadans learning to teach American Indian culture

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – Teachers from across Nevada converged in the capital earlier in June to develop a system for teaching local American Indian culture in schools.

“Nevada history is incomplete without the Native American experience,” said Stacey Montooth, a member of the core team established through the Nevada Department of Education to create the curriculum.

While some teachers take the initiative to incorporate American Indian history into their lesson plans, experts say it is often incomplete and misinformed.

As a teacher in Clark County, Lynn Manning said she saw that first-hand.

“The teachers there knew nothing of the tribes of Nevada,” Manning said. “When they taught about Native people, much of it was outdated and stereotypical. It was totem poles and teepees in the same discussion.”

Now the Indian education coordinator for the Washoe County School District, Manning said she is excited about the curriculum being developed so teachers will be armed with the knowledge that can be nearly impossible to find in textbooks.

“Unless we provide it for them, they don't even know where to find it,” Manning said. “This area is just full of living resources.”

Spearheaded by Fredina Drye-Romero, Indian education coordinator for the Nevada Department of Education, the curriculum will teach both the history and contemporary lifestyles of Nevada's four main tribes: Northern Paiute, Southern Paiute, Washoe and Western Shoshone.

“We didn't want to focus on just the history because we're not gone,” Romero said. “We're still here.”

That is one of the challenges in teaching the Native culture, Manning said, calling it the “unicorn concept.”

“People are inherently interested in Native people because we're so romanticized on television, but our story often ends at about 1890,” she said. “What this will do, we hope, is bring us into the 21st Century and show that we continue to exist.”

About 25 teachers spent three days reviewing the history and culture of Nevada's tribes, which were characterized as hunters and gatherers who followed food sources seasonally.

Teachers also visited displays at the Nevada State Museum and spent much of the day Thursday immersed in the culture at Stewart Indian School. In addition to learning the history of the Indian boarding school, they listened to historical accounts of local tribes, reviewed past and present federal Indian policy, and saw traditional arts and crafts.

“We've just bombarded our participants with as much information as they can take in about American Indians,” Montooth said. “Now, we're using their expertise to figure out how to teach it to the standards.”

Romero said the curriculum should be available to Nevada's teachers by next school year to be used as a resource. In the future, she said, she'd like to see it become a requirement.

“I would love to have this mandated,” she said, noting she didn't learn about her own Paiute history until college.

The Carson High School graduate said it would have made a difference to have learned it earlier.

“I think I would have had more pride in where I came from,” she said. “I would have had a better understanding of why education was so important.”

Participants met with local tribal leaders during a traditional dinner consisting of beans and venison stew.

Wanda Batchelor, chairwoman of the Washoe Tribe, gave her blessing to the endeavor.

“We're revisiting how we're going to tell our story,” Batchelor said. “And it's going to be from us. It's going to be from our elders. We're awakening our language, our song and our dance.”

Montooth said it will not only fill in historical gaps, but will also pique the students' interest.

“It's the greatest story on Earth,” she said.

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Information from: Nevada Appeal, http://www.nevadaappeal.com