Indian Education for All Resources

Montana is home to 7 Indian reservations and 12 tribal groups. Each tribe has unique cultures, traditions and histories.  Six percent of the state’s total population, nearly 53,000 Montanans, are American Indians.
House Bill 528, the Montana Indian Education for All Act, states:
"Every Montanan...whether Indian or non-Indian, be encouraged to learn about the distinct and unique heritage of American Indians in a culturally responsive manner."



Essential Understanding  1

There is great diversity among the 12 tribal Nations of Montana in their languages, cultures, histories and governments.  Each Nation has a distinct and unique cultural heritage that contributes to modern Montana.
Essential Understanding  2
 There is great diversity among individual American Indians as identity is developed, defined and redefined by many entities, organizations and people. There is a continuum of Indian identity ranging from assimilated to traditional and is unique to each individual. There is no generic American Indian.
Essential Understanding  3
 The ideologies of Native traditional beliefs and spirituality persist into modern day life as tribal cultures, traditions and languages are still practiced by many American Indian people and are incorporated into how tribes govern and manage their affairs.  Additionally, each tribe has their own oral history beginning with their genesis that is as valid as written histories. These histories pre-date the “discovery” of North America.
Essential Understanding  4
 Reservations are land that have been reserved by the tribes for their own use through treaties and was not “given” to them. The principle that land should be acquired from the Indians only through their consent with treaties involved three assumptions:

    I. That both parties to treaties were sovereign powers.

    II. That Indian tribes had some form of transferable title to the land.

    III. That acquisition of Indian lands was solely a government matter not to be left to individual colonists.

Essential Understanding  5
 There were many federal policies put into place throughout American history that have impacted Indian people and shape who they are today. Much of Indian history can be related through several major federal policy periods.
Examples: Colonization Period, Treaty Period , Allotment Period, Boarding School Period, Tribal Reorganization, Termination, Self-determination

 

Essential Understanding  6
 History is a story and most often related through the subjective experience of the teller. Histories are being rediscovered and revised. History told from an Indian perspective conflicts with what most of mainstream history tells us.
Essential Understanding  7
 Under the American legal system, Indian tribes have sovereign powers separate and independent from the federal and state governments. However, the extent and breadth of tribal sovereignty is not the same for each tribe.


Excellent Web Resources

Billings K12 Educators Indian EducationWebSite
Look at Essential Understandings, lesson plans, reservations, and state standards and benchmarks.

  "This site was established to offer Billings K-12 educators Internet resources to provide instruction on the cultures,  heritage, and contemporary issues, of the Montana tribal nations.

      Teachers will find links to information that can assist them in learning and teaching the required state standards, benchmarks, and requirements established through "Indian Education for All."

Montana Indian Nations




Image from Billings site described at left.






The Flags of the Native Peoples of the United States

http://www.hometown.aol.com/Donh523/navapage/index.htm		 flags
Image from site described at left.

NATIVE AMERICAN NATIONS
http://www.nativeculturelinks.com/nations.html


 "This section contains links to pages that have either been set up by the nations themselves, or are pages devoted to a particular nation, and are ALPHABETICAL BY TRIBAL NAME. Pages maintained by Indian Nations or individuals are indicated with this symbol: drum . Pages without this symbol are primarily ABOUT specific nations, but not by them.
Included are both recognized and unrecognized tribes."



Montana Office of Public Instruction http://www.opi.mt.gov/IndianEd/index.html


Indian Education Ideas for Implementing Indian Education for all. http://www.opi.mt.gov/pdf/IndianEd/Resources/  		teepee OPI site image

Full Circle: A Journal for Teachers Implementing Indian Education for All.
http://fullcirclecm.org

The most incredible site!!!!!

http://www.firstpeople.us/
 First People

Native Languages of the Americas:
Preserving and promoting American Indian languages

http://www.native-languages.org/
 feather
Contemporary Indians
Online Magazine:  http://www.nativetimes.com/
Native Peoples Magazine: http://www.nativepeoples.com/
Indian Country Magazine:  http://www.indiancountry.com
College Fund:  http://www.collegefund.org


Updated June 22, 2007
joancook@montana.edu