Native American Information

Native American Educational Materials

Information on Native organizations in your area, contact Kwenitewk Native Resource, Network of Ndakinna, P.O. box 382, Meriden, NH 037700.

Information on Pocahontas, see the video "Biography of Pocahontas", A&E Biography Series, 1-800-423-1212.

Information on the true history of America, start with "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" by Dee Brown.

Dover Publications Coloring Books, including "Pocahontas Coloring Book", "Indian Tribes of North America" and other titles.

"A Coloring Book of American Indians" and other titles, Bellerophon Books, 36 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara, CA 93101

"North American Native Author’s Distribution Project", a catalog of children’s literature. 1-518-584-1728. Greenfield, N.Y.

Activities

Attend a local POW-WOW

Share with your child the beat of the drum, the taste of fry bread and honey and the sight of dancers and friendly faces.

Anti Native American books include

Word usage like savage, blood thirsty, heathen, cultural threat, kill and/or subdue white man, Indians won the massacres and lost the battles.

Descriptions as pitied or praised, the noble red man (Last of The Mohicans and Hiawatha) or lack of clothing or being naked in a derogatory manner. Idea that all lived in tipi (not spelled teepee).

Actions like giving beads, wigs, stereotypical treatment of Thanksgiving celebration, inclusion of senseless violence, inaccurate accounts or illustrations (Navajo dressed as central plains Indians, wear a Sioux war bonnet, and carry an Apache blanket).

Glorified in Buffalo Bill show in mock battle scenes, but always defeated. Scalping which originated with European settlers as a form of genocide. Scalps were required to have the ears attached to insure death and qualify for a bounty.

Relationships of the nature of Lone Ranger and Tonto master and slave. Tonto - means silly and foolish.

Native Information

Reservations Dropout rate is 50%, 40% below national poverty line. Average lifespan is 43 years. Teen suicide rate is 100 times white.

Native American literature is folk literature passed on in voice, song or stories by a curator who passes it on from generation to generation usually within the family. It is hard to translate and even harder to write down from languages which have never been written.

Creation Stories myth or religion? - Bible mythology?

Understanding of time is different 12-13 moons related to seasons 6 months related to agriculture. Sioux 6 moons. Kept track of time by tying knots in rope.

Different ways to describe life after death. Several describe the land of the sun similar to the Egyptians. Some Eastern tribes embalmed bodies. Navaho believed the body has a soul that leaves the body at death. Others believed the body must cross a stream some by snake.

Corn is Maze the gift of the Indians: tiny ears in Mexico, Introduced to Columbus with other types of foods - tomatoes, chocolate


Dr. Robert Sweetland's Notes ©