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    Title VII Indian Education Grant

    Annual Goals 

    1.  To increase the achievement levels of Native American students at specified grade levels from 50% to 90% in mathematics. Student achievement will be measured by standardized test scores and student grades. 

    2.     To provide Native American students with opportunities to participate in classroom lessons and school activities related to tribal heritage and Native American history, customs and traditions. Students will participate in a minimum of one activity per year.

    1. To provide Native American high school students with individual support in the development of a “High School Plus” plan that includes plans for at least 1 year beyond high school graduation. Students will participate with the Indian Education Coordinator to develop and monitor progress toward goals included in the plan.

     

    Resources for Native Education
    • The National Museum of the American Indian has wonderful exhibits and information of past and present cultures of Native Americans of North America. Their website has numerous resources that align with our social studies curriculum in grades 3-8 at: http://nmai.si.edu/explore/foreducatorsstudents/

    As a starting place on the NMAI website, you might find these links useful too:
     Teaching about Tribal Sovereignty: http://www.indian-ed.org/curriculum/
     
     

    Overview

     “Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State”

    Online Curriculum (www.indian-ed.org)

     

    Teaching about Tribal sovereignty has been challenging until now.

     

    OSPI’s new web-based Washington State Tribal Sovereignty Curriculum is:

    ·         Locally-based so you can connect student learning to the Tribes in your area

    ·         Accurate and reliable so you can feel confident about what you are teaching

    ·         Endorsed by OSPI and Washington’s federally recognized Tribes

    ·         Easy to access so you don’t have to wait for materials—they are just a click away

    ·         Free (mostly)

    ·         Easy to integrate within your existing units so you don’t have to feel like you have to throw out your own lessons to “make room” for these materials

     

    When House Bill 1495 was passed by the Washington State Legislature in 2005 officially recommending the inclusion of Tribal history in all common schools, a powerful opportunity for educators and Tribes arose. “Since Time Immemorial (STI): Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State” is an on-line curriculum developed through the OSPI Office of Native Education and Title I Office. STI, pilot tested for the past five years in up to 14 schools throughout our state, has a menu of Tribal sovereignty information, short lessons, and even entire units for every U.S. History, Washington State History, and Contemporary World Problems unit that OSPI recommends.  During the summer of 2011, the STI curriculum was also aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Within each unit, teachers choose from there levels of instruction based on curricular needs and time constraints. So YOU get to choose how much you wish to include in your units.

     

    Essential Questions and Grade Level Goals

     

    Essential Questions:

    1.     How does the physical geography affect Northwest Tribes’ culture, economy, and where they choose to settle and trade?

    2.    What is the legal status of the Tribes who negotiated or who did not enter into United States treaties?

    3.    What were the political, economic, and cultural forces that led to the treaties?

    4.    What are the ways in which Tribes responded to the threats and outside pressure to extinguish their cultures and independence?

    5.    What have local Tribes done to meet the challenges of reservation life? What have these Tribes, as sovereign nations, done to meet the economic and cultural needs of their Tribal communities?

     

    The Big Five:


    By the time Washington State students leave elementary school, they will understand:

    - understand that over 500 independent tribal nations exist within the United States today, and that they interact with the United States, as well as each other, on a government-to-government basis;

    - understand tribal sovereignty is “a way that tribes govern themselves in order to keep and support their ways of life;”

    - understand that tribal sovereignty predates treaty times;

    - understand how the treaties that tribal nations entered into with the United States government limited their sovereignty; and

    - identify the names and locations of tribes in their area.


    By the time Washington State students leave middle school

    - that according to the US Constitution, treaties are “the supreme law of the land”; consequently treaty rights supersede most state laws;

    - that tribal sovereignty has cultural, political, and economic bases;

    - that tribes are subject to federal law and taxes, as well as some state regulations;

    - that tribal sovereignty is ever-evolving and therefore levels of sovereignty and status vary from tribe to tribe; and

    - that there were and are frequent and continued threats to tribal sovereignty that are mostly addressed through the courts.


    By the time Washington State students leave high school

    - recognize landmark court decisions and legislation that affected and continue to affect tribal sovereignty;

    - understand that tribal sovereignty protects tribes’ ways of life and the development of their nations;

    - understand that tribal, state, and federal agencies often work together toward the same goal;

    - explain the governmental structure of at least one tribe in their community; and

    - distinguish between federally and non-federally recognized tribes.

     

    Washington State Tribal Museums