Tag Archives: Native American Teachers

The amazing story of teacher and WWII Seminole Indian Code Talker Edmond Harjho

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Edmond Harjho

Teacher and WWII Seminole Indian Code Talker Edmond Harjho

I love to share stories about hardworking teachers who have also served our country in the military. One of these stories is about the amazing Edmond Andrew Harjho, an elementary school teacher who served as a Seminole Code Talker during World War II.

Edmond was born in Maud, Seminole County, Oklahoma, on November 24, 1917. He spent his boyhood in Maud, eventually graduating from Seminole High School. He earned his Bachelor’s degree and his Master’s degree from Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma.

During World War II, Edmond and his brothers enlisted in the US Army. The men served in Battery A of the 195th Field Artillery Battalion, and participated during the landings at Normandy in 1944 and the Battle of the Bulge in 1945. The story goes that one day in 1944, Edmond was talking with his brother in their native language. The pair were overheard by their Army captain, who quickly recognized that the men could communicate with each other in their native tongue on the army radio and not easily be understood by soldiers from the opposing army. That’s how Edmond became a Seminole Code Talker.

For his military service, Edmond was recognized in 2013 with the Congressional Gold Medal. He was also awarded the Eastern African Middle Eastern Campaign Service Ribbon, a Silver Service Star, and a Good Conduct Medal.

After the war, Edmond taught elementary school, first in Maud Public Schools, then in the Justice Public School in Wewoka, Oklahoma, and lastly in the Pickett Center School located in Ada, Oklahoma.

Sadly, Edmond Harjho passed away from a heart attack in Ada, Oklahoma, on March 31, 2014. He was 96 years old. When he died, he was the last surviving Seminole Code Talker. He was buried at the Seminole Nation Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Seminole, Oklahoma.

Teacher Loren Spears: Working towards appreciation for Native Americans

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Loren Spears

Teacher Loren Spears: Working towards appreciation for Native Americans

I enjoy sharing stories about talented and dedicated educators who work diligently to foster an appreciation for the cultures of under-represented ethnic groups. One such educator is Loren Spears, a teacher, essayist, artist, and tribal council woman of the Narragansett Tribe in Rhode Island.

As a young girl, Loren attended Chariho Regional High School in her home town of Charleston, a rural village in southern Rhode Island. After she earned her high school diploma, she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and Teaching at the University of Rhode Island, graduating in 1988. She earned her Master’s degree in Education at the University of New England in 2002.

Once she earned her degrees, Loren accepted a position as an elementary school teacher in the Newport Public School System. Her teaching career spanned two decades and included twelve years as a first grade and fourth grade teacher working with at-risk children. Throughout her professional career, Loren has always been a strong advocate for integrating more Native American history and experiential learning into the school curriculum. Loren says she remembers, “being in a history class during my elementary days and actually reading that I supposedly didn’t exist, that my family didn’t exist, that my people didn’t exist.” She has spent much of her adult life correcting that misrepresentation.

In addition to her professional accomplishments as a teacher, Loren works as the executive director and curator of the Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island. The museum was the site of a private, state-certified school, the Nuweetooun School, which this talented educator directed from 2003 to 2010. Nuweetooun, which translates as “Our Home” in the Narragansett language, was founded by Loren with the help of the Narragansett community and generous donations, including monies from a local charity, the Narragansett Tribe, and the Rhode Island Foundation. Though Loren is Narragansett, the school is not connected to any specific tribe. As the school’s director, Loren made sure that the Nuweetooun School provided Native American children from kindergarten through the eighth grade an experiential, collaborative curriculum based on Native American traditions and culture, as well as standard academic subjects including mathematics, language arts, social studies, science, and health.

In June, 2005, Loren received the Feinstein Salute to Teachers, Teacher of the Month. In 2006, she earned the Native Heritage Gathering Award, and in 2010, Loren was chosen as one of eleven educators who were name Extraordinary Women honorees for Rhode Island. Today, this chalkboard champion lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and uses her vast energy to focus on educating the public on indigenous issues, arts, culture, and history through cultural arts programming, lectures, art classes, inter-generational programming, grant writing, exhibit development and design, curriculum development, school design, Native American education, and educational consulting.

Ann Clark: Teacher and author of books for Native American children

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Ann Clark

Ann Clark: Classroom teacher and acclaimed author of books for Native American children.

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 twenty-five 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 William G. Thompson, the first football coach at Carlisle Indian School

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In our nation’s history, there are many examples of outstanding educators who have also served as athletic coaches. One such teacher was William G. Thompson, an educator at Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Not much is known about this early teacher. We do know that he was born in 1866, and that as a young man he attended Yale University.

Following his college graduation, William accepted a position at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, first founded in 1879 by Colonel Richard Henry Pratt, an American US Cavalry officer who served in the Civil War and then the Indian Wars. Pratt brought Native American children taken from their families on the reservation to the Carlisle School for the purpose of assimilating them into mainstream society. At Carlisle, William was hired as a business teacher and as the executive director in charge of discipline. He served in this capacity for 15 years. In 1893, William also became the school’s first head football coach. That was the first year the school’s team was recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) The Carlisle Indians played only three games that season, but the neophyte coach led his boys to a 2-1 record. In the seasons that followed, the Indians consistently faced opposing teams comprised of larger players. They learned to rely on their speed and guile to remain competitive, and the Carlisle’s playbook gave rise to many trick plays and other innovations that are now commonly seen in American football games. For example, the overhand spiral throw and the hand-off fake were both innovations created by Carlisle players. To read more about this amazing team, click on the link Carlisle Indians Football. In addition to football, William Thompson coached baseball, track, and basketball for five years. From 1897 to 1907, William served as the school’s athletic director.

In 1907, William left Carlisle to teach business courses for the boys-only section of Reading High School, a public high school in Reading, Pennsylvania. He was employed there for three years. In 1940, this chalkboard champion passed away at the age of 74.

Chalkboard Champion and Arizona math educator Joaquin Bustoz, Jr.

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There are many examples of brilliant educators who have offered their talents to improve high school instruction. One such educator was Joaquin Bustoz, Jr., a university math professor from Arizona who established an advanced placement program for high school students.

Joaquin was born on December 30, 1939, in Tempe, Arizona, one of five children born to parents Joaquin, Sr., and Ramona. His parents, who were farm workers, also worked for their local schools, and were so revered that the Tempe Unified School District even named one of their elementary school after the couple.

In 1962, Joaquin earned his bachelor’s degree in math from Arizona State University. Continuing his education at that institution, he earned his master’s degree the following year, and in 1967 he completed the requirements for his doctorate degree. After earning his doctorate, Joaquin became a professor of mathematics at the University of Cincinatti, where he taught from 1969 to 1976.

In 1985, Joaquin founded the Summer Math-Science Honors program for high school students under the auspices of the University of Arizona. Still in place today, the curriculum offers an advanced placement program that provides opportunities for under-represented students to study university mathematics and science while still enrolled in high school. He also devoted many hours to Native American students on the nearby Navajo and Pima Reservations. For his outstanding work Joaquin has garnered numerous awards. For example, President Bill Clinton awarded Joaquin the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math, Engineering in 1996.

Sadly, this talented and dedicated educator was killed on August 13, 2003, in an auto accident. He is interred at Double Butte Cemetery in Tempe.

You can learn more about this outstanding chalkboard champion on the website of the Mathematical Association of America by clicking MAA. You can also learn more about the advanced placement program he founded at ASU Summer Math Program.