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Native American Series 4 | Native Voices & Tribe-Approved Lesson Plans
Episode Keywords:
Native American pedagogy and the arts, indigenous pedagogy, Native American lesson plans, authentic voice, Artful Teaching podcast, Native American, intuition, classroom, artist, indigenous pedagogy in the classroom, lesson plans, Native American, tribe, NACI authentic experience, teachers, culture keepers, share, curriculum, lessons
Episode Resources:
BYU ARTS Partnership YouTube channel
Amplify Native Voices PD Course
I Love the Mountains–Damen Doiya lesson plan
The Great American Bison lesson plan
General Native American lesson plans
Native American Curriculum Initiative Website
www.advancingartsleadership.com/naci
Native American Lesson Plans
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons
About the BYU ARTS Partnership
https://advancingartsleadership.com/node/66
Episode Notes:
Building Partnerships With Native Groups & Distinguishing Among Authentic Native VoicesHeather Francis: Welcome back to the Artful Teaching podcast. This episode includes recording with Brenda Beyal from the end of 2022. These recordings document and archive some of her wonderful thoughts about Native American curriculum and indigenous pedagogy and their relationship to arts education. In our last episode, Brenda talked about what indigenous pedagogy is and how it's connected to the arts and arts education.
We asked her about the Native American Curriculum Initiative, who it benefits, and why teachers, administrators, parents, PTA members, and community leaders are interested in this work. We design arts-integrated lessons about Native American lived experiences and cultural practices and we do it with tribe approval. Brenda discusses why tribe approval is so important to all of the educational products that we develop.
We do a lot of partner-building with tribal members and cultural representatives. We build partnerships with Native artists and personal contacts who have Native heritage. We have learned that a broad spectrum of different voices represent the Native American experience. In this episode, Brenda distinguishes between authentic Native Voices—culture bearers or knowledge keepers, who are the keepers of native knowledge—and official voices. Official voices are those that can officially speak for a tribal nation or Native group.
“Who is NACI (or the Native American Curriculum Initiative) for?” Brenda invites Emily Soderborg, who is the NACI Project Coordinator, to answer this question. Emily is non-Native, and she speaks about her non-Native experience creating materials for the Native American Curriculum Initiative, and how the initiative has benefited her. Brenda adds her experience and how the vision of this initiative to amplify Native voices has benefited and impacted her in her own life.
Brenda Beyal: The Native American Curriculum Initiative, otherwise known as NACI, is for non-Native and Native people alike. Emily, how do you feel like NACI has helped you as a teacher and an educator?
Emily Soderborg: Working with NACI has opened my eyes to so many new ways of seeing things and doing things. I feel more self-confident. I feel like I've been able to immerse myself more in understanding and sharing things in appropriate and accurate ways. I'm not Native, and I grew up with a lot of stereotypes in the learning that I was given. I think it's changed how I approach things and how I teach others around me. It's made me more empathetic and more willing to try new things.
How NACI Amplifies Native Voices in SchoolsBrenda Beyal: I think NACI is for Native teachers and Native people, because we strive to amplify our Native voice. Having that feeling of being recognized and acknowledged is a way of reconciling some of the hard struggles in the past that have been invisible to so many people. We as a group–especially Native Americans–have been invisible because of other people's stereotypes, or overgeneralization of culture. I feel like NACI just helps to bring greater authenticity to Native people in general. I think what we're doing with lesson plans, curriculum building, and resources is that we are helping students to see themselves within the curriculum. They can see themselves in the books that teachers read; non-Native children can have a window into other perspectives and ways of living and knowing and doing other than what they were raised with.
Emily Soderborg: What I have loved is that as we have worked with the eight sovereign nations, the biggest thing they say is, “We are still here. We want to be seen.” NACI is amplifying those voices. Students, teachers, and Native artists’ voices all matter: everyone has a voice, everyone has a right to be heard. As we work together, we can create awareness of others without lessening our own culture. NACI is for us all, so that we can all recognize how we can learn from others and how we can share with others.
A Safe Place for Asking Questions about Native Culture
Heather Francis: I would like to add my own voice to theirs and talk about the impact NACI has had on me. I am also non-Native. I'm very interested in other cultures, and I want to understand people with different experiences better. NACI has been really enlightening for me, because I didn't know very much about the Native American experience before this initiative. I've spoken in past episodes about some misconceptions about Native American experience and Native American people that I had in the past, when I was an educator. I think I shared the story of a student that I had in my dance class: I taught middle school and she was quiet in class, she didn't really like to move, and she seemed a little resistant. At an assembly, she performed a jingle dance with the Native American students at our school. I had no idea about her cultural experience that had this rich embodied movement practice. I felt sad that I hadn't known that information yet. I'm loving being a part of this initiative and learning from Brenda, Emily, our designers and our native partners.
But I also want to add that this initiative has provided an emotionally safe place, because some cultural questions are very sensitive, and I am not sure if I'm asking the cultural questions correctly. I don't know if I'm even allowed to ask. Brenda, Cally, and the whole NACI team has developed an environment where no question is a bad question and where curiosity is applauded: every time I have a question, it's like, “Thank you for asking, I would love to clear that up. I'd love to tell you more.” That just feels really good. This initiative has provided a really safe place to ask hard questions, questions that are hard for me. If you're a teacher who's interested in learning more about the Native Americans, in your classroom and in your community, come join us for a workshop, come look at our lesson plans, email us, talk to Brenda—this is a really great place to ask your questions. Another great place to ask your questions is our online course, Amplify Native Voices, a one-credit PD course on Canvas—feel free to sign up. The next question is, “Why is tribal approval on our educational materials so important?”
Brenda Beyal: From the very beginning, when we started writing lesson plans, we knew that we wanted to go right to the source. We asked the question, “What would you like the children of Utah to know?” We went to the tribes, and we asked them these questions, all of the tribes gave us something different. When we wrote the lesson plans, it was important to us that we captured authentic voices. So, we went back to the tribes. We worked with them. We read the lessons. Every word was approved by the Native tribes and the reason why, when a teacher is teaching Damen Doiya (which is from the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation), and they are teaching the song that has been approved to sing by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, they can feel confident. If someone comes in and says, “I don't think this is appropriate for you to be singing this song,” the teacher can say, “I am using this lesson from this lesson plan, and right here, it shares the tribal seal. It shows that this lesson was developed in partnership with and in collaboration with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. They reserve the right to be able to share this song with the children of Utah.” That says a lot: that shows that you are being sensitive, you are trying to be authentic and as accurate as possible, and you have given your due diligence to teaching indigenous content in such a way that you are creating an environment where you are being inclusive in an authentic manner.
Heather Francis: Like Brenda described, we spend a lot of time building relationships with our Native partners to make sure that they read every word of our educational products, that they approve, and that they confirm that it is the story they want shared about their tribe or their nation. As an educator, I love knowing that the tribes have approved this content—that approval does give me confidence. If you experience using one of these lesson plans and feel that confidence, we would love to hear about it! Please share your experience with us through email or social media.
Brenda Beyal: In our work, we have included authentic voices, culture bearers and knowledge keepers, and official voices. There are distinct differences between these three:
- An authentic voice is someone who has that lived experience. I'm going to share the example of my husband: my husband has the lived experience of going to a Native American boarding school at the age of five. His voice is authentic in that experience. I cannot speak to that; I do not have an authentic voice about boarding schools, other than that I live with a man who has experienced some historical trauma. Lived experiences are authentic voices.
- Knowledge keepers and culture bearers are those within a tribe who are usually an elder (not always), but are people who have the responsibility of being knowledge keepers and teaching cultural ways to people. We have met with culture bearers and knowledge keepers.
- Official voices are people within the tribal community who can speak for the whole tribe. Usually it's a tribal council, a cultural specialist, or an education director. They are the ones who make a decision where they speak for everyone.
In our lesson plans, we have all three voices. We have authentic voices, which are those who can speak to lived experiences. We have knowledge keepers and cultural bearers. And, we have official voices. The tribal seal that is on our lesson plans is evidence of official voices. We do have general lesson plans where the official voice possibly could overlap with the authentic voice. Take, for instance, our Great American Bison. We have gone to authentic voices, knowledge keepers, and accurate, authentic sources. Because there are 574 recognized tribes in our country, and so many experienced the transcontinental railroad and its effect on the bison, it would be really hard to get an official voice. We do have lesson plans where we don't have an official voice. We call those our general lesson plans and you can find them all on our website.
Heather Francis: Stay tuned for next time when we look at Brenda's answers to the questions about why it's important to ask questions with genuine intent and to listen attentively. This is one of our guiding principles of the Native American Curriculum Initiative. She'll also talk about the importance of looking at multiple perspectives when studying history. We hope you have an artful day.
Native American Curriculum Initiative Website
www.advancingartsleadership.com/naci
Native American Lesson Plans
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons
About the BYU ARTS Partnership
https://advancingartsleadership.com/node/66
Follow Us:
- Native American Curriculum Initiative Mailing List
- BYU ARTS Partnership Newsletter
- AdvancingArtsLeadership.com
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe on Spotify
- Subscribe on Amazon Music
Don’t forget to peruse the bank of lesson plans produced by the BYU ARTS Partnership in dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts, and more. Search by grade level, art form or subject area at
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons
View all episodes
By Heather Francis, Cally Flox
5
44 ratings
Episode Keywords:
Native American pedagogy and the arts, indigenous pedagogy, Native American lesson plans, authentic voice, Artful Teaching podcast, Native American, intuition, classroom, artist, indigenous pedagogy in the classroom, lesson plans, Native American, tribe, NACI authentic experience, teachers, culture keepers, share, curriculum, lessons
Episode Resources:
BYU ARTS Partnership YouTube channel
Amplify Native Voices PD Course
I Love the Mountains–Damen Doiya lesson plan
The Great American Bison lesson plan
General Native American lesson plans
Native American Curriculum Initiative Website
www.advancingartsleadership.com/naci
Native American Lesson Plans
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons
About the BYU ARTS Partnership
https://advancingartsleadership.com/node/66
Episode Notes:
Building Partnerships With Native Groups & Distinguishing Among Authentic Native VoicesHeather Francis: Welcome back to the Artful Teaching podcast. This episode includes recording with Brenda Beyal from the end of 2022. These recordings document and archive some of her wonderful thoughts about Native American curriculum and indigenous pedagogy and their relationship to arts education. In our last episode, Brenda talked about what indigenous pedagogy is and how it's connected to the arts and arts education.
We asked her about the Native American Curriculum Initiative, who it benefits, and why teachers, administrators, parents, PTA members, and community leaders are interested in this work. We design arts-integrated lessons about Native American lived experiences and cultural practices and we do it with tribe approval. Brenda discusses why tribe approval is so important to all of the educational products that we develop.
We do a lot of partner-building with tribal members and cultural representatives. We build partnerships with Native artists and personal contacts who have Native heritage. We have learned that a broad spectrum of different voices represent the Native American experience. In this episode, Brenda distinguishes between authentic Native Voices—culture bearers or knowledge keepers, who are the keepers of native knowledge—and official voices. Official voices are those that can officially speak for a tribal nation or Native group.
“Who is NACI (or the Native American Curriculum Initiative) for?” Brenda invites Emily Soderborg, who is the NACI Project Coordinator, to answer this question. Emily is non-Native, and she speaks about her non-Native experience creating materials for the Native American Curriculum Initiative, and how the initiative has benefited her. Brenda adds her experience and how the vision of this initiative to amplify Native voices has benefited and impacted her in her own life.
Brenda Beyal: The Native American Curriculum Initiative, otherwise known as NACI, is for non-Native and Native people alike. Emily, how do you feel like NACI has helped you as a teacher and an educator?
Emily Soderborg: Working with NACI has opened my eyes to so many new ways of seeing things and doing things. I feel more self-confident. I feel like I've been able to immerse myself more in understanding and sharing things in appropriate and accurate ways. I'm not Native, and I grew up with a lot of stereotypes in the learning that I was given. I think it's changed how I approach things and how I teach others around me. It's made me more empathetic and more willing to try new things.
How NACI Amplifies Native Voices in SchoolsBrenda Beyal: I think NACI is for Native teachers and Native people, because we strive to amplify our Native voice. Having that feeling of being recognized and acknowledged is a way of reconciling some of the hard struggles in the past that have been invisible to so many people. We as a group–especially Native Americans–have been invisible because of other people's stereotypes, or overgeneralization of culture. I feel like NACI just helps to bring greater authenticity to Native people in general. I think what we're doing with lesson plans, curriculum building, and resources is that we are helping students to see themselves within the curriculum. They can see themselves in the books that teachers read; non-Native children can have a window into other perspectives and ways of living and knowing and doing other than what they were raised with.
Emily Soderborg: What I have loved is that as we have worked with the eight sovereign nations, the biggest thing they say is, “We are still here. We want to be seen.” NACI is amplifying those voices. Students, teachers, and Native artists’ voices all matter: everyone has a voice, everyone has a right to be heard. As we work together, we can create awareness of others without lessening our own culture. NACI is for us all, so that we can all recognize how we can learn from others and how we can share with others.
A Safe Place for Asking Questions about Native Culture
Heather Francis: I would like to add my own voice to theirs and talk about the impact NACI has had on me. I am also non-Native. I'm very interested in other cultures, and I want to understand people with different experiences better. NACI has been really enlightening for me, because I didn't know very much about the Native American experience before this initiative. I've spoken in past episodes about some misconceptions about Native American experience and Native American people that I had in the past, when I was an educator. I think I shared the story of a student that I had in my dance class: I taught middle school and she was quiet in class, she didn't really like to move, and she seemed a little resistant. At an assembly, she performed a jingle dance with the Native American students at our school. I had no idea about her cultural experience that had this rich embodied movement practice. I felt sad that I hadn't known that information yet. I'm loving being a part of this initiative and learning from Brenda, Emily, our designers and our native partners.
But I also want to add that this initiative has provided an emotionally safe place, because some cultural questions are very sensitive, and I am not sure if I'm asking the cultural questions correctly. I don't know if I'm even allowed to ask. Brenda, Cally, and the whole NACI team has developed an environment where no question is a bad question and where curiosity is applauded: every time I have a question, it's like, “Thank you for asking, I would love to clear that up. I'd love to tell you more.” That just feels really good. This initiative has provided a really safe place to ask hard questions, questions that are hard for me. If you're a teacher who's interested in learning more about the Native Americans, in your classroom and in your community, come join us for a workshop, come look at our lesson plans, email us, talk to Brenda—this is a really great place to ask your questions. Another great place to ask your questions is our online course, Amplify Native Voices, a one-credit PD course on Canvas—feel free to sign up. The next question is, “Why is tribal approval on our educational materials so important?”
Brenda Beyal: From the very beginning, when we started writing lesson plans, we knew that we wanted to go right to the source. We asked the question, “What would you like the children of Utah to know?” We went to the tribes, and we asked them these questions, all of the tribes gave us something different. When we wrote the lesson plans, it was important to us that we captured authentic voices. So, we went back to the tribes. We worked with them. We read the lessons. Every word was approved by the Native tribes and the reason why, when a teacher is teaching Damen Doiya (which is from the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation), and they are teaching the song that has been approved to sing by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, they can feel confident. If someone comes in and says, “I don't think this is appropriate for you to be singing this song,” the teacher can say, “I am using this lesson from this lesson plan, and right here, it shares the tribal seal. It shows that this lesson was developed in partnership with and in collaboration with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. They reserve the right to be able to share this song with the children of Utah.” That says a lot: that shows that you are being sensitive, you are trying to be authentic and as accurate as possible, and you have given your due diligence to teaching indigenous content in such a way that you are creating an environment where you are being inclusive in an authentic manner.
Heather Francis: Like Brenda described, we spend a lot of time building relationships with our Native partners to make sure that they read every word of our educational products, that they approve, and that they confirm that it is the story they want shared about their tribe or their nation. As an educator, I love knowing that the tribes have approved this content—that approval does give me confidence. If you experience using one of these lesson plans and feel that confidence, we would love to hear about it! Please share your experience with us through email or social media.
Brenda Beyal: In our work, we have included authentic voices, culture bearers and knowledge keepers, and official voices. There are distinct differences between these three:
- An authentic voice is someone who has that lived experience. I'm going to share the example of my husband: my husband has the lived experience of going to a Native American boarding school at the age of five. His voice is authentic in that experience. I cannot speak to that; I do not have an authentic voice about boarding schools, other than that I live with a man who has experienced some historical trauma. Lived experiences are authentic voices.
- Knowledge keepers and culture bearers are those within a tribe who are usually an elder (not always), but are people who have the responsibility of being knowledge keepers and teaching cultural ways to people. We have met with culture bearers and knowledge keepers.
- Official voices are people within the tribal community who can speak for the whole tribe. Usually it's a tribal council, a cultural specialist, or an education director. They are the ones who make a decision where they speak for everyone.
In our lesson plans, we have all three voices. We have authentic voices, which are those who can speak to lived experiences. We have knowledge keepers and cultural bearers. And, we have official voices. The tribal seal that is on our lesson plans is evidence of official voices. We do have general lesson plans where the official voice possibly could overlap with the authentic voice. Take, for instance, our Great American Bison. We have gone to authentic voices, knowledge keepers, and accurate, authentic sources. Because there are 574 recognized tribes in our country, and so many experienced the transcontinental railroad and its effect on the bison, it would be really hard to get an official voice. We do have lesson plans where we don't have an official voice. We call those our general lesson plans and you can find them all on our website.
Heather Francis: Stay tuned for next time when we look at Brenda's answers to the questions about why it's important to ask questions with genuine intent and to listen attentively. This is one of our guiding principles of the Native American Curriculum Initiative. She'll also talk about the importance of looking at multiple perspectives when studying history. We hope you have an artful day.
Native American Curriculum Initiative Website
www.advancingartsleadership.com/naci
Native American Lesson Plans
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons
About the BYU ARTS Partnership
https://advancingartsleadership.com/node/66
Follow Us:
- Native American Curriculum Initiative Mailing List
- BYU ARTS Partnership Newsletter
- AdvancingArtsLeadership.com
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe on Spotify
- Subscribe on Amazon Music
Don’t forget to peruse the bank of lesson plans produced by the BYU ARTS Partnership in dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts, and more. Search by grade level, art form or subject area at
www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons