Tag Archives: Native American Teachers

NM teacher and children’s book author Ann Nolan Clark

Posted on by

New Mexico teacher Ann Nolan Clark earned acclaim as an author of children’s books for Native American students. Photo credit: Alchetron

Throughout our country’s history, there have been many examples of dedicated educators who have worked with underprivileged student populations. One such teacher was Ann Nolan Clark.

Ann Clark was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on December 5, 1896. When she was 21, she graduated from New Mexico Normal School, known today as New Mexico Highlands University, located in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

After her college graduation, Ann inaugurated her teaching career as a professor of English at Highlands University. But the young educator wanted to work with younger students. In 1923,  she accepted a position teaching reading to Native American children in a one-room schoolhouse at the Black Rock School in Zuni. Later she taught in a school at Tesuque. Little did she know that this position would last 25 years.

While teaching in the Indian schools, Ann observed that the Native American children learned more easily when their primers were geared towards their own life experiences, so she began writing primers with characters and situations that honored the the Pueblo way of life. Many of these primers were later published by mainstream publishing companies. Eventually, Ann broadened her scope and wrote children’s books with Navajo, Sioux, Finnish, and Hispanic characters. In addition to these stories, the prolific teacher also published a number of professional articles under the pseudonym Marie Dunne.

Between 1940 and 1951, the US Bureau of Indian Affairs published fifteen of Ann’s books. Her book In My Mother’s House, illustrated by Pueblo artist Velino Herrera, earned a Caldecott Honor Book Award in 1942. During the 1940s, Ann also wrote multi-cultural books for the Haskell Foundation and the Haskell Indian Nations University at Lawrence, Kansas. One of them was The Slim Butte Raccoon, illustrated by Andrew Standing Soldier.

In 1945, the Institute for Inter-American Affairs funded an educational trip for Ann to travel to Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Her experiences on this trip led her to write such books as Magic Money, Looking-for-Something, and Secret of the Andes, which garnered her the 1953 Newberry Medal. Ann earned other awards as well. She was given the Distinguished Service Award by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1962, and the Regina Medial by the Catholic Library Association in 1963.

This remarkable educator passed away on December 13, 1995. During her lifetime, she published over forty books, 31 of them about Native American culture.

Teacher and musician Zitkala Sa was also a political activist

Posted on by

Teacher and musician Zitkala Sa, also known as Red Bird, was also a political activist. Photo Credit: National Park Service

It’s Women’s History Month, so today I would like to introduce you to one of the most amazing Chalkboard Champions and political activists in American history. She is Native American Zitkala Sa, whose Indian name translated means Red Bird.

This remarkable educator was born on February 22, 1876, on the Yankton Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Her father, an American of European descent, abandoned his family, leaving his young daughter to be raised alone by her Native American mother. Despite her father’s absence, Zitkala Sa described her childhood on the reservation as a time of freedom and joy spent in the loving care of her tribe.

In 1884, when she was just eight years old, missionaries visited the reservation and removed several of the Native American children, including Zitkala Sa, to Wabash, Indiana. There she was enrolled in White’s Manual Labor Institute, a school founded by Quaker Josiah White for the purpose of educating “poor children, white, colored, and Indian.” She attended the school for three years until 1887, later describing her life there in detail in her autobiography The School Days of an Indian Girl. In the book she described her despair over having been separated from her family, and having her heritage stripped from her as she was forced to give up her native language, clothing, and religious practices. She was also forced to cut her long hair, a symbolic act of shame among Native Americans. Her deep emotional pain, however, was somewhat brightened by the joy and exhilaration she felt in learning to read, write, and play the violin. During these years, Zitkala Sa became an accomplished musician.

After completing her secondary education in 1895, the young graduate enrolled at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, on a scholarship. The move was an unusual one, because at that time higher education for women was not common. In 1899, Zitkala Sa accepted a position as a music teacher at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Here she became an important role model for Native American children who, like herself, had been separated from their families and relocated far from their home reservations to attend an Indian boarding school. In 1900, the young teacher escorted some of her students to the Paris Exposition in France, where she played her violin in public performances by the school band. After she returned to the Carlisle School, Zitkala Sa became embroiled in a conflict with the Carlisle’s founder, Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, when she expressed resentment over the rigid program of assimilation into the dominant white culture that Pratt advocated, and the fact that the school’s curriculum did not encourage Native American children to aspire to anything beyond lives spent as manual laborers.

After that, as a political activist, Zitkala Sa devoted her energy and talent towards the improvement of the lives of her fellow Native Americans. The former teacher founded the National Council of American Indians in 1926 and served as its president until her death in 1938. She traveled around the country delivering speeches on controversial issues such as Native American enfranchisement, their full citizenship, Indian military service in World War I, corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the apportionment of tribal lands. In 1997 she was selected as a Women’s History Month Honoree by the National Women’s History Project.

Zitkala Sa: a national treasure and a genuine Chalkboard Champion.

You can read more about the Carlisle Indian School in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available from amazon.

Teacher Elaine Goodall Eastman: the “Sister to the Sioux”

Posted on by

Teacher Elaine Goodall Eastman, who described herself as a Sister to the Sioux, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Photo Credit: Boston University

Many talented and dedicated educators have devoted themselves to working for disenfranchised groups of students. One of these was Elaine Goodale Eastman, who often described herself as a “Sister to the Sioux.”

When she was just a young woman, Elaine, originally from Massachusetts, established a day school on a Sioux Indian reservation in the territory of South Dakota. Contrary to prevailing opinion of her day, she believed very strongly that it was best to keep Native American children at home rather than transport them far away from their families to Indian boarding schools. She hadn’t taught on the reservation very long when she was promoted to the position of Superintendent of Indian Education for the Two Dakotas. In this capacity, she travelled throughout the five Dakota reservations, visiting the more than 60 government and missionary schools within her jurisdiction, and writing detailed evaluation reports on each school she visited.

It was because of her work that Elaine just happened to be visiting the Pine Ridge Reservation when the tragic Wounded Knee Massacre took place. As a result of this tragedy, more than 200 men, women, and children from the Lakota tribe were killed, and another 51 were wounded. In addition, 25 government soldiers were also killed, most by “friendly fire,” and another 39 were wounded. Following the massacre, Elaine and her fiance,  physician Charles Eastman of the Santee Sioux tribe, cared for the survivors and wrote detailed government reports to accurately describe what happened.

In her later years, when America was experiencing a back-to-nature revival, Elaine and her husband operated Indian-themed summer camps in New Hampshire. Read more of the life story of this fascinating educator in Theodore D. Sargent’s biography The Life of Elaine Goodale Eastman, or an encapsulated version in my book,  Chalkboard Champions: Twelve Remarkable Teachers Who Educated America’s Disenfranchised Students, both available on amazon.

Deanne Moyle-Hicks named Nevada’s 2022 Teacher of the Year

Posted on by

Elementary School teacher Deanne Moyle-Hicks of the Washoe County School District has been named Nevada’s 2022 Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: LinkedIn.com

It is always my pleasure to share the story of an exceptional teacher who has earned recognition for their work in the classroom. Deanne Moyle-Hicks, an elementary school teacher in the Washoe County School District in northern Nevada, is one of these. She has been named her state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.

Deanne teaches fourth grade at Natchez Elementary School, a Title 1 school located on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Reservation. Teaching at this school presents a plethora of challenges, says Natchez Principal Jake Chapin. Most of the students live in poverty. A higher percentage of students than average have been diagnosed with a learning disability. And, because Native Americans have been hard hit by COVID-19, one in 20 students has faced the death of a parent, Chapin reports.

As a professional, Deanne is passionate about her students. She believes they deserve relevant and rigorous learning experiences. To provide her kids with consistency, she has looped with her current students since they were in the first grade. She believes in cultivating family partnerships, and she works diligently to build trust in her relationships with students and parents. This work has yielded a significant impact on student success and achievement.

Deanne’s service as Nevada’s 2022 Teacher of the Year is not the only work outside of the classroom the honored educator performs. She has collaborated with Opportunity 180, the Nevada PTA, and Nevada Succeeds. She also works with the Teachers and Leaders Council and the National Teach Plus Teacher Cabinet. In addition, she is a Teach Plus Nevada Policy Fellow; a National Understood Fellow; and a member of the Nevada National Board Professional Learning Network.

Deanne earned her Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She earned her Master’s in Literacy from Lesley University. She is also National Board certified. Her career as an educator spans 28 years.

 

Jerad Koepp of Washington named his state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year

Posted on by

Congratulations are due to History and Social Studies teacher Jerad Koepp of Washington, who has been named his state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.  Photo Credit: North Thurston Public Schools

Congratulations are due to History and Social Studies teacher Jerad Koepp of Washington, who has been named his state’s 2022 Teacher of the Year.

Jerad, a Native American who is also known by the name of Wukchumni, has been a teacher of Native American education for over 12 years. Since 2013 he has served as the Native student program specialist for North Thurston Public Schools in Lacey, Washington. In this role, he provides cultural and academic support for approximately 230 Native American students from more than 50 tribes, nations, bands, and villages enrolled in the 22 schools within the district. His students can be found at all grade levels from kindergarten to high school seniors, and in schools throughout the district. “My classroom is indoors, outdoors, in a commons or cafeteria, sometimes a library,” Jerad says. “My classroom is wherever learning is happening.”

In addition to his work in the classroom, Jerad serves as the district’s tribal liaison. He also provides training and support for colleagues, designing, leading, and presenting numerous workshops to help create culturally-responsive programs for school districts, state agencies, organizations, and institutions of higher education. He obviously takes the work he does for area Native Americans very seriously. “Public education still has a long ways to go, but in Washington state we’ve been making steady progress,” declares Jerad. “Especially with the implementation of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum, which is a statewide mandate to teach tribal history and sovereignty in our education system,” he explained. “It’s a great resource that’s been approved by all 29 tribes.”

Jerad earned his Bachelor’s degree in 2004 in Native Education in 2004 and his Master’s degree specializing in Native Education in 2008, both from Evergreen State College located in Olympia, Washington.