Teaching kids about Indians
My daughter's kindergarten class has a field trip planned to a nature center to go through a 90 min program called "Native Americans in Delaware: Young Lenape"
The blurb on the website says, "Explore the culture and customs of the early inhabitants of Delaware. Walk the land these people once inhabited, visit a replica lodge and investigate tools, clothing, hunting methods, games, stories and plants that Native Americans used. Learn about Delaware's Lenni Lenape tribe and their dependence on nature."
I think that I will call the nature center to ask questions about this program. But right now, I'm leaning toward just not sending my daughter on the field trip. Or, let her go on it, and also come along as a chaperone, so I know what she's being taught, and I can talk about it more with her at home. She's six, but six year olds can understand a lot of things. I mean, I bet that six year old Lenape (Delaware) kids know about the genocidal history and policy of whites and their governments against their people.
I think I also need to talk to her teacher about why this field trip is scheduled, and what the school is trying to teach the kids about Indians and history. Cause, "three sisters" agriculture and some old artifacts have near zero importance compared to the near eradication and forced displacement of the Lenape (Delaware) people and a whole continent full of other indigenous people.
"Their dependence on nature." As if the whites circa the 1600s were not dependent on nature.
And no mention that the Delawares still exist. In Oklahoma, their home since the United States displaced them forcibly to it. And today's Delawares are modern people, who wear contemporary clothes, have modern jobs, and have quite a nice website.
http://www.delawaretribe.org/home.htm
What would you folks teach your youngsters about Indians? What do you think I should ask/say to the nature center people and my daughter's teacher?
The blurb on the website says, "Explore the culture and customs of the early inhabitants of Delaware. Walk the land these people once inhabited, visit a replica lodge and investigate tools, clothing, hunting methods, games, stories and plants that Native Americans used. Learn about Delaware's Lenni Lenape tribe and their dependence on nature."
I think that I will call the nature center to ask questions about this program. But right now, I'm leaning toward just not sending my daughter on the field trip. Or, let her go on it, and also come along as a chaperone, so I know what she's being taught, and I can talk about it more with her at home. She's six, but six year olds can understand a lot of things. I mean, I bet that six year old Lenape (Delaware) kids know about the genocidal history and policy of whites and their governments against their people.
I think I also need to talk to her teacher about why this field trip is scheduled, and what the school is trying to teach the kids about Indians and history. Cause, "three sisters" agriculture and some old artifacts have near zero importance compared to the near eradication and forced displacement of the Lenape (Delaware) people and a whole continent full of other indigenous people.
"Their dependence on nature." As if the whites circa the 1600s were not dependent on nature.
And no mention that the Delawares still exist. In Oklahoma, their home since the United States displaced them forcibly to it. And today's Delawares are modern people, who wear contemporary clothes, have modern jobs, and have quite a nice website.
http://www.delawaretribe.org/home.htm
What would you folks teach your youngsters about Indians? What do you think I should ask/say to the nature center people and my daughter's teacher?