How Do I Find Native American Resources for My Classroom?

Knowing Where to Look for Native American Resources

Finding authentic, Native American-themed learning materials for the classroom can be difficult, but is critical to encouraging cultural responsibility in students. In the Native American Curriculum Initiative (NACI), we strive to provide appropriate materials for teachers to use confidently in the classroom. We are continually discovering partnerships within the community who provide additional resources that enrich Native American curriculum and help us to better reach our vision for students and teachers. The resources you’re looking for might just be closer than you think.

Native American Teaching Kits: Alpine School District

Recently, members of our NACI team had the privilege to visit the Instructional Media Center in Utah’s Alpine School District. There, Lisa Tuaitanu oversees the creation, collection, and distribution of hands-on resources available for Alpine District teachers.

Upon our visit, I ignorantly expected to find a handful of small teaching kits in Ziploc bags available for checkout. Instead, I discovered an entire room organized with boxes, bins, and suitcases that had been carefully filled with a large array of books, DVDs, cultural artifacts, posters, and activities for teachers to use in the classroom. Included in these resources is a wonderful collection of Native American teaching kits.

Arrowheads, flutes, beaded belts, grinding stones, maps, and storybooks have been carefully gathered into kits for lessons on Native customs, regalia, storytelling, weaving, and music. Every kit has been cataloged and photographed for teachers to easily view and reserve online. Each item has been meticulously selected to ensure authentic learning. And the kits are growing! 

Lisa is enhancing these resources through research and networking so that the students in Alpine School District can experience Native American culture on the frontlines of hands-on learning. A discussion with her about this ongoing project revealed her passion for giving students the chance to touch and study and think, rather than passively observing a picture on a screen and never interacting with it. Learning about Native subjects up close with genuine teaching resources incites feelings of reverence, respect, and realism in students. 

Native Resources Available to All Utah Teachers

Although the Native American teaching kits at Alpine School District are fairly expansive and detailed, many teachers in the district don’t know what is available to them in the media center.

You might be wondering, “How is this helpful for me? I’m not in the Alpine School District.” But as we work to spread the word about what Lisa Tuaitanu is doing, you may discover resources in your own district and community that you didn’t know about previously. Perhaps the person to initiate a project like this one is you!

The BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures offers another local example of hands-on Native American resources. Their culture cases have actually been accessible to all Utah educators at no cost for over 25 years, starting in the mid-90’s. As cultural knowledge grew and curriculum changed, these culture cases were adapted and updated to meet new demands. Museum educator staff are still creating more! NACI is currently collaborating with the museum on a new culture case, while BYU graduate students also work to add to the collection. 

Bring Native Stories to Your Classroom

You may not have access to the Alpine School District Instructional Media Center or the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures, but there are resources around you to help you amplify Native voices in your classroom. 

Bringing resources into your classroom that students can hold and interact with makes learning deeper through tangible connections. Finding and selecting accurate and authentic resources gives students more opportunities to learn from and through Native culture and not just about Native culture.

More exposure to authentic artifacts, stories, and environments impacts the quality of a student's cultural learning. It fosters connection and empathy, leading to deeper cultural responsibility. Here are some actions you can take to find the resources nearest you!

• Search your district directory for a Title VI coordinator
• Explore your district's media library 
• Invite a Native artist to visit your school or classroom
• Make connections with Native students and their families 

Once you have your eye on a resource, you can use our guides for evaluating resources to help you determine whether you will choose to use it in your classroom:

• Find our cheat sheet for evaluating multicultural classroom resources in this blog post
• Follow our decision-based model for selecting appropriate Native American content for the classroom

You might also participate in our online course “Amplifying Native Resources in the Classroom” to gain a better understanding of Native history and perspectives in the Utah area that will inform your application of authentic resources in the classroom.