American Indian Educators Maintaining Traditions in Digital Era

Monica Whitepigeon in Native Currents. Discussion »

OKLAHOMA CITY – This year is the 43rd annual National Indian Education Association convention at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The convention focuses on American Indian educational programs throughout the country in hopes to bring new ideas and programs to other tribal organizations and departments. Workshops, seminars and a trade show are held with the theme "Maintaining Traditions in a Digital Era."

Georgiana Lee, Navajo and Carol Rempp, Oglala Lakota

Last Friday, Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) and Nebraska Department of Education presented the workshop "Standing Bear's Footsteps: Utilizing Interactive Learning Tools to Teach Our Past Today." "Standing Bear's Footsteps" is a PBS documentary about Chief Standing Bear, a Ponca chief who was a part of the Trail of Tears in 1877. The documentary will continue to air throughout the rest of October on PBS and can be found on their website.

The presenters Georgiana Lee, Navajo, and Carol Rempp, Oglala Lakota, showed a trailer for the documentary and a curriculum around it for summer programs. There have been two summer programs, one in Northern Ponca Nebraska and the other in Southern Ponca Oklahoma, that explore the idea of the "Meaning of Home." At the end of the presentation, two student videos (one from each summer program) were shown that correlated to the theme.

The team provided several options for materials and ideas to the audience to become involved or start their own summer programs or just be more knowledgeable of Native culture. Such materials included a Native Language Mobile App sponsored by NAPT that features four Native languages (Diné, Lakota, Mvskoke and Ponca) with pictures of words. As in all the workshops, their goal was to share their success and address incorporating their work with fellow Native and non-Natives educators.

The National Indian Education Association concluded on Sunday with a closing ceremony that included dances and remarks.

updated 10:50 am edt; posted October 23, 2012 7:50 am edt