A few days ago my four-year old daughter informed me that one of her pre-school teachers is Native American. I asked her how she knew about this, to which she responded that her teacher told the class. Her teachers use a developmentally appropriate practice (DAP) framework (see more on this at http://www.naeyc.org/dap/faq) for teaching.
The topic of everyone being different and coming from different cultural backgrounds emerged after the class read The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRolf. Each family was asked to work on a family tree with their child and brought it in to share with their classmates.
(Check out the Global Grover Initiative for ideas on this – there are facilitator and caregiver guides).
My daughter kept bringing up the topic of Native Americans. She told me, “Pocahontas is Native American you know.” I started to think of what I could do to help her learn more about Native Americans…
As a child growing up, what I learned about Native Americans came from the history lessons in my school textbooks and Western movies – which was unfortunate because it made my perception of what American Indians should look like the stereotypical Native American wearing buckskin clothing and feather head dresses. Back then I lived in New York City, and as ethnically diverse as my elementary school was, I do not recall having any classmates that identified as Native American…or if they did, I was not aware.
How odd, since according to the U.S. Census, New York City is home to largest urban Indian (American Indians who don’t live on reservations) population in the United States!
Serendipitously, a couple of days later I found out about a winter pow-wow being sponsored by the University of Washington in Seattle. A pow-wow is a gathering to honor Native American culture. It’s a time for the Native American community to socialize with family and friends and to remember their tribal traditions through drumming, dancing, and singing.
There are usually also Native vendors who sell their crafts (art, jewelry, clothing) and food. I let my daughter’s teachers know about it, and they posted information about it on their bulletin board so that other families could participate if they wanted to.
In preparation for the event, I went with my daughter to the library, and we took out a couple of books, including Powwow’s Coming by Linda Boyden and Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith. As we read about the dancing, my daughter got very excited – she has loved dancing since she’s been about a year and half. The morning of the pow-wow my daughter was bouncing off the walls. We ended up meeting up with a few of her classmates at the pow-wow, which I think made it even more exciting.
The pow-wow was held in the gymnasium of a school. Bleachers and chairs were set up around the perimeter, leaving a big square in the middle for the dancers. The Master of Ceremonies (MC) and the drummers were set up against the east wall (the front stage, if you will), with room for visitors and spectators along the other walls. When we arrived ,we could see some elders and dancers lining up for the Grand Entry at the southwest corner of the gym. (A pow-wow begins with a Grand Entry.)
A drum started beating and the Grand Entry was led by an elder Native American veteran who carried in the Eagle Staff (a long hook shaped staff with eagle feathers hanging from the hook). He was followed by other elder Native American veterans who carried in the U.S. flag and a P.O.W. flag.
These men were followed by the lead dancers, then the men dancers, and then the women and children dancers. The regalia was beautiful! There were traditional dancers, grass dancers, jingle dress dancers, and fancy shawl dancers (you could tell by the type of regalia they were wearing). And the toddlers in their regalia were absolutely adorable! How wonderful to teach them about their traditional dance and music starting from such a young age.
All the dancers marched to the beat of the drum, in a straight line along the perimeter of the square space designated for dancing. Once they had all come into the gymnasium and walked around the square, the drumming stopped and the Eagle Staff and flags were placed at the front stage. The man who carried in the Eagle Staff gave an opening prayer blessing, or invocation in both English and his Native language.
After that, the lead dancers welcomed everyone to the pow-wow. They introduced themselves by their Native name, then their English name and stated which tribe they represented. (There are about 30 Indian tribes and nations in Washington State.)
After the introductions, the MC invited the dancers, and anyone else who wanted to join in, to dance as each of the drums took turns drumming for about five minutes each. The drums, which provide the music for the pow-wow, are large (about 2-3 feet tall and 4 feet wide) and have about 4-6 drummers each. My daughter and her friends were thrilled to have the opportunity to dance – they jumped right in! After about 45 minutes, they came to report that they were tired, thirsty, and a little hungry. We took that as our cue to head over to the vendors for some food…where we got some delicious fry bread with jam.
I think it is important for my kids to grow up with global awareness about different people and places. I am excited and grateful that my daughter and her classmates had the chance to learn about another culture through this “hands-on” exploration and hope to be able to facilitate many similar opportunities in the future.
What cultural learning experiences have you been able to share with your child(ren), and how were they received?
This is an original World Moms Blog post by Eva Fannon in Seattle, Washington. Eva can be found on Twitter @evafannon.
Photo credits to Eva Fannon.
Reading your article the first thing that struck me was surprise that you don’t know that much about the Native American culture, but then I was thinking… I don’t know much about the culture of the Native Norwegians, can’t remember if we really learned much about it in school either, all though I do know that some of my ancestors were in fact native!!
You have inspired me to try to understand a bit more about where I “come from” 🙂
(Sorry, didn’t answer the question though – as the wee lad in only one we haven’t really shared any cultural experiences with him – apart from the nice cuppa tea his father has to have every afternoon!)
I’ve inspired you to learn? Excellent! I don’t know much about Native Norwegians either, so I hope it becomes a post so I can learn too 🙂
Wow, what a great experience. I can just imagine the atmosphere with the drumming and everyone dancing. Our children have to learn two languages at their school, one being Maori – the language of the first people to arrive in New Zealand. Aspects of the culture are embedded in the school, with a big powhiri (welcome) for the new students and teachers at the start of the year.Only our Hare has had this experience so far, but sat in awe listening to people speak in fluent Maori. He and I also attended a tangi (funeral) last year and he really got to experience the emotional outpouring (from the gut, we found) compared to the more restrained European-kiwi funerals I’ve attended. We try to normalise different cultures as much as possible and it seems to work well. Great post, Eva.
Karyn – the experience was amazing! Here too we got to experience emotion…and pride. There was also such a sense of community and family. I just loved it! If the kiddos weren’t tired, I would have gone back to stay longer.
Hi
There is an important history pertaining to Native American hand drums. While plenty of changes have taken place throughout the years, the drumming circles of these proud people still resonate with pride.
The sound of drumming speaks to the soul. The Native American drum has a voice which is the middle of their distinctive culture and music. Music is mush enhanced by the percussion of the drum. Percussion is an essential element to call the music truly Native American.
Thanks..
There was definitely a great sense of pride…as their should be.
When one of the drums played, they had a woman singer accompany them and it gave me goose bumps to hear. It definitely speaks to the soul.
And without the drums, well, I dare say there would be no pow-wow! Thanks for stopping by to read 🙂
I loved this post for the depth of knowledge and information in it! The book title! The resources! The experience! Good for you for grasping at the teaching (and awe-inspiring) moment. I bet you will all remember the pow wow. Clearly. We have also gone to events like this around town (a Japanese lantern lighting ceremony was one of my favorites) and my kids still bring them up. It’s just the good stuff, isn;t it? Well done, Mama! 🙂
It IS the good stuff 🙂 Thanks Galit!
What a great retelling of a delightful day out with your litte one, combined with lots of useful information! Great post. And as I also live in WA, I am excited to look into this.
Tara there is usually a summer pow-wow at Daybreak Star Cultural Center, will keep you posted when I hear about details!
Eva,
I loved the cultural significance, and I want to high five you for listening to your daughter and taking her hand to run with her interest! The Pow-wow, the library books. That’s awesome!
And, I’m so happy to see some Native American culture on World Moms Blog!
Veronica Samuels 🙂
Thanks Veronica 🙂
Oh..and as for answering the question, I also have been lucky in having a preschool for my son that makes a point of discussing diversity and learning about other cultures. The entire fall-winter holiday season is especially fun as they celebrate everything from Diwali to Hanukkah to Christmas. They have made everythings from dream catchers to paper dreidels to diyas. And this past January they discussed Martin Luther King, Jr. by reading a story about his life and discussing his impact. My son told me, “Mom…did you know people used to have to use different water fountains based on the color of their skin? Isn’t that so silly? It just doesn’t make any sense!”, to which I whole heartedly agreed. While I have always tried to gather kid books discussing cross-cultural traditions from our local library, of which there are so many, I also really value his school’s efforts. But taking him to cultural events is the next step, and you have inspired me, Eva!
I facilitate a DrumBeat programme in the school I work in. Drumming is a very effective tool for learning about one self and others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J55qOmysC9E&feature=related
Wow – what an amazing program!
PS. A fabulous post. Worthy of Freshly Pressed!
Thank you 🙂
The most important thing I teach my children is not to subscribe to stereotypes. Our Indigenous people are as diverse as our continent. They cannot be clumped into one group. Many do not live a traditional life anymore, and their culture has adapted. Many live a modern life, but still follow cultural values about family and community. Also being Indigenous does not always mean that people have dark skin and dark hair, we have Indigenous people with fair skin and blonde hair.
I also teach them about the enormous disadvantage that white settlement and rule has imposed on them, and how they are still struggling with many issues related to displacement from family and Country, poor health and poverty.
The same is true here in the U.S. – American Indians are diverse and cannot be clumped into one group. Those that live in urban areas do not live much of a traditional life either. Among Native friends that I have made, family and community do continue to be important cultural values. And you are right, being Native does not mean that you always have dark hair and dark skin, we also have Native people who have fair skin and blonde hair.
It has only been in the last decade of my life that I have come to learn about about how white people tried to assimilate Native people here. I recently watched Rabbit Proof Fence and realized that the issues here are very similar to those the Indigenous people there faced. When my daughter gets old enough to understand, I will definitely be teaching her about this.
This is an amazing post. And very well written too. Its important to make children aware of the vast number of cultures present in this world and then learn and understand about them.
Nowadays, there is so much religious and cultural intolerance in this world almost to the point of war for ‘people’s principles’. Such experiences would make our children not just live in tolerance, but in harmony and interest/well being of his/her neighbour.
I really applaud your initiative to have introduced her to such various experiences. It a small step in going a long way towards world peace, though indirectly.
Thank you The Alchemist. As my kids’ tour guide on the trip of life, I will be trying my hardest to introduce and expose them to as many experiences as possible 🙂