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In Utah, a group of educators at Brigham Young University is working with the eight sovereign nations in the state to create lessons that reflect what tribes want taught about them.
KUER’s Martha Harris went to a classroom to see one of these lessons in action.
Brenda Beyal is visiting a third grade class at Spanish Oaks Elementary in Spanish Fork.
She’s teaching the students how to say words in Navajo, her Native language.
Beyal is Diné, a member of the Navajo Nation.
The students are learning the song “Shí naashá.”
What makes this lesson unique is it has the Navajo Nation stamp of approval. It’s a part of BYU’s Native American Curriculum Initiative.
The project started because of what Beyal heard from teachers.
Educators wanted help knowing what’s appropriate to teach about Indigenous people. So Beyal and her colleagues started creating lesson plans.
“It was important that we actually go to the sovereign nations and we asked them, what would you like the children of Utah to know about your ways?”
Beyal says every single tribe wanted kids to know that they are still here. They’re not historical figures.
“But then after that, every one of them has a different topic or content that they want children to know.”
Beyal says many lessons treat Indigenous people as having one singular viewpoint.
“Within Utah, there are eight sovereign nations with eight different ways of viewing things, different cultural ways, different arts.”
In these lessons, students are not just learning about the sovereign nations and their history. They’re learning from them and through their perspectives.
Bascom Hall on the UW Madison campus.
Students who are enrolled members of Wisconsin’s eleven federally-recognized tribes will get free tuition, housing, and other educational needs at the state’s largest university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Chuck Quirmbach from station WUWM has more.
University officials say their aim is, starting next fall, to cover the full cost of pursuing an undergraduate degree for Native students who live in Wisconsin and meet tribal enrollment criteria.
Tribal leaders helped develop the program and announced it at a Madison news conference.
Shannon Holsey is president of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians and is chairwoman of the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council.
She noted that the UW campus sits on ancestral land of the Ho-Chunk Nation.
“Embedded in the land that we stand on today lies the legacy of the Ho-Chunk people. Today is historic and cycle-breaking”
Only about 650 of the UW-Madison’s roughly 50,000 students identify to the school as American Indian or Alaska Native.
Ho-Chunk President Jon Greendeer praises the tuition program, but says he has some work to do to get Native students to consider higher education.
“Many of us are in the generation, where if you went to college, you stopped learning about your ways, and you stopped learning your language, and it was frowned upon. Now, it’s very much supported, very much needed.”
Lac Courts Oreilles tribal member Kalista Cadotte is a third-year student at the UW-Madison.
She encourages Native students to apply to the campus.
“And to be able to achieve your goals. It’s not something that comes easy. But it’s definitely doable.”
Campus officials say donors and institutional funds will pay for the program.
A pilot effort will cover in-state tuition and fees for enrolled tribal members pursuing a law or medical degree at UW-Madison.
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