Native Americans: Education
Tribal Nations in North America / Turtle Island
Education Resources
- GVSU Office of Multicultural AffairsNative American Student resources: Leadership Camp, Orientation, Student Success Program, Mentorship Program, Graduation Feast, Native American Student Association (NASA), programs & resources. Talk to Lin Bardwell, 1240 Kirkhof Center or 137 North C. (616) 331-2177. bardwelb@gvsu.edu
- Michigan Indian Tuition WaiverStudents fill out the MITW form; it goes to the Tribe for confirmation; then it’s sent to MI Dept of Civil Rights, who sends it to GVSU. Contact Samantha Mulder in Financial Aid.
- Indigenous Education: MI Dept of EdInfo on Tribal Consultation, Indigenous Communities, Educator Resources, Indigenous Education Initiative, Partners, Funding, Research and Data
- American Indian College FundFinancial aid for Native American students.
- National Indian Education AssociationPrograms & resources to support American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students.
- Office of Indian Education (U.S.)Helps teachers, school leaders, & Indian students gain knowledge and understanding of Native communities, languages, Tribal histories, traditions, & cultures.
Native American Colleges & Universities
- Bay Mills Community CollegeLocated in Brimley, Michigan (eastern Upper Peninsula)
- Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community CollegeCampuses in Baraga and L'Anse, Michigan (western Upper Peninsula)
- Saginaw Chippewa Tribal CollegeCommunity college in Mount Pleasant, Michigan (Lower Peninsula)
- Tribal Colleges & UniversitiesList of colleges & universities from the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.
- Tribal Colleges, Native Studies programs, and Indian EducationLinks to organizations, schools, programs, and resources.
Residential Schools
- National Native American Boarding School Healing CoalitionExplore ways of healing inter-generational traumas that are a result of boarding school experiences passed down to Native American individuals, families, communities, and Tribal Nations.
- Residential Schools AtlasSites & Indigenous survivors’ stories; critical approaches to cartography, news stories, & more
Indigenous Ways of Teaching & Learning
Important aspects of teaching from an indigenous point of view are:
- creating relationship
- interconnection
- acknowledging that lived experience and wisdom are as important as scholarly knowledge
- making the context clear
- emphasizing practical outcomes of learning
- learners do not question elders/teachers
Teachers and learners should try to form a collaborative, empathetic rapport that fosters finding deep meaning and creating a transformation in self-understanding.
Summarized from the following sources:
Handbook of Indigenous Education by
Call Number: e-bookPublication Date: 2019Indigenous researchers write about and for themselves and others.- Native Presence and Sovereignty in College: Sustaining Indigenous Weapons to Defeat Systemic Monsters byCall Number: e-bookPublication Date: 2022Only 1 person may read this at a time.
Contemporary Studies in Environmental and Indigenous Pedagogies by Call Number: e-bookISBN: 9789462092914Publication Date: 2013Explores Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and relationships with natural environments.- “Education for Aboriginal Peoples in Canada: An Overview of Four Realms of Success.” byCall Number: Diaspora, Indigenous & Minority EducationPublication Date: vol. 10, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 14–27
- First Nations Holistic Lifelong Learning ModelCanadian Council on Learning: Aboriginal Learning Knowledge Centre
Braiding Sweetgrass by Call Number: e-bookPublication Date: 2013A member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and a professor with a PhD in Botany, Kimmerer weaves indigenous teachings and science to show us how other living beings teach and offer gifts in community.
- Office of Indian Education (U.S.)Helps teachers, school leaders, & Indian students gain knowledge and understanding of Native communities, languages, Tribal histories, traditions, & cultures.
- Littletree, Sandra, Nicola Andrews, & Jessie Loyer. (2023). Information as a relation: Defining Indigenous information literacy. Journal of Information Literacy, 17(2), pp. 4–23Article about working with Indigenous researchers, librarians, or topics
Resources for settlers*
- Ally Bill of Responsibilities by Dr. Lynn Gehl−Gii-Zhigaate-Mnidoo-Kwe, Ph.D., Algonquin Anishinaabe-kwe1. Do not act out of guilt, but rather out of a genuine interest in challenging the larger oppressive power structures;
2. Understand that they are secondary to the Indigenous people that they are working with and that they seek to serve. They and their needs must take a back seat;
*Those of us who are not from Tribal Nations in Turtle Island / the Americas. "The term 'settler' refers to members of dominant groups, predominantly European heritage, White cultural groups" (Williams, 2019).
Decolonization = recovering and cultivating the cultural, socio-economic, political, and/or spiritual knowledge and ways of being following the colonization; changing the “reality” imposed by colonizers.
Colonization = the terrorism of taking Indigenous nations and resources, annihilating their ways of knowing, assassinating, enslaving, and “reeducating” peoples.
Williams, H. (2019), Toward Being Inclusive: Intentionally Weaving Online Learning, Reconciliation, and Intercultural Development. Teaching and Learning, 2019: 59-76. DOI:10.1002/tl.20330
- Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Settler Privilege byPublication Date: November 08, 2018Essay on (white) settler privilege - excellent questions on "unearned settler privilege or complicity in settler colonialism."
Subjects: Anthropology, Social Work, Sociology
- Last Updated: Mar 19, 2024 11:40 AM
- URL: https://libguides.gvsu.edu/natamericans
