Indigenous Issues in Education & Society

A special edition of The Eye, NHTI’s campus journal,
Editors-in-Chief
Melissa Sprague, VP of The Eye, Spring 2021 Campus Reads coordinator, and
Brian Melendy, President of The Eye, Fall 2020 Campus Reads coordinator

Land Acknowledgment

This journal and the events described here are sponsored by a public community college located on N’dakinna, which is the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Pennacook, and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude the land and waterways and the alnobak (people) who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.

Indigenous residents of New Hampshire and members of Indigenous NH explored the issues facing Native people and how those of us in higher education can increase our understanding, awareness, and support for indigenous people in N.H. and across the U.S.
Panelists included:
• Denise Pouliot, head female speaker of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People, headquartered in Alton NH
• Paul Pouliot, head male speaker/grand chief of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People, headquartered in Alton NH
• Liz Charlebois, an NHTI alumna, a Missisquoi Abenaki, and former chair of the NH Commission on Native American Affairs
• Andy Bullock, director of the Kearsarge Indian Museum in Warner, NH, who is of Wampanoag ancestry
• Elizabeth Schwaner, a graduate student at UNH, and member of Indigenous NH
• Emily Olivier, a graduate student at UNH, and member of Indigenous NH
This event was part of the NHTI Campus Reads series, sponsored by The Eye, NHTI’s student journal. NHTI students selected An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo as the spring Campus Reads title to delve more deeply into indigenous studies. Harjo is serving her second term as the poet laureate of the U.S. and is the first Native American U.S. poet laureate. NHTI currently has about a dozen students who have identified themselves as Native American, Alaskan Native, or Native Hawaiian.

RESOURCES

NHTI Campus Reads:
• Campus Reads—Spring 2021: Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise: Poems (Norton, 2019): See our past titles and suggest a title for Fall 2021!

NHTI Resources:
• “Diversity is a core value at NHTI. Our commitment to diversity enriches everyone by exposing us to a range of ways to understand and engage with the world, develop respect, identify challenges, and to discover, define and deliver solutions. NHTI actively works to eliminate barriers created by systemic discrimination. Diversity may include, but is not limited to: race, ethnicity, culture, religion, language, socioeconomic status, citizenship, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, and disabilities.”
— Statement adopted by NHTI’s College Council in February 2021
• Interview with Liz Charlebois, NHTI graduate and former chair of the NH Commission on Native American Affairs, discusses her Missiquoi Abenaki heritage and her work on behalf of the approximately 4,000 Native people and others in her home state of New Hampshire.
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at NHTI: The president of NHTI summarizes recent work on these issues at NHTI.
• Cultural Exchange Club: is a diverse group of people with the goal of understanding and appreciating each other’s diverse cultural values and traditions. We promote the value of students and faculty of diverse ethnic backgrounds and share cultural traditions though events and activities.

Indigenous People of NH:
• Who are We? The Indigenous People of NH (Indigenous New Hampshire): Find a wealth of resources and videos about the indigenous people of NH and issues ranging from storytelling to sustainability.

Native Literature:
Poetry:
• Living Nations, Living Words: Joy Harjo’s project, housed on the Library of Congress website, introduces readers to the many Native poets who live in these lands. Harjo says, “Our communities innately shared and share poetry from before the founding of the United States to the present. We understand poetry to be a living language—whether it is in our tribal languages, or in English, or another language.”
• Poetry Foundation: Native American Poetry & Culture: Explore this selection of poets, poems, and articles exploring the Native American experience.
• Ancestors: A Mapping of Indigenous Poetry and Poets: The Poets.org website provides the Blaney Lecture from October 9, 2015, at Poets Forum in New York City, introducing the audience to many Native poets and poems.
• A Poetry Portfolio: Featuring Five of Our Country’s Finest Native Poets: Explore the works of poets who write in languages from the Diné bizaad of Sherwin Bitsui to the O’odham of Ofelia Zepeda.

Fiction and Nonfiction:
• Open Educational Resource on Native American Authors: Explore resources on authors, including Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, and N. Scott Momaday.

Some Educational Resources:
• Indigenous New Hampshire’s Educational Resources: This rich website from this generous organization includes the Thirteen Moons curriculum, Indigenous Tour of Lake Winnipesaukee, Indigenous Peoples’ Day Fact Sheet, Map of N’Dakinna.
• Abenaki Arts & Education Center—Study Guides & Activity Sheets: This Vermont organization provides ready-to-use study guides and activities that meet ELA Common Core Standards, regional standards for Global Citizenship, and Flexible Pathways, while exploring indigenous heritage, history, land, traditions, culture, storytelling, music, and community.
• Educational Resources of Joseph Bruchac: Joseph Bruchac is a proud Nulhegan Abenaki citizen. He is the author of more than 120 books for children and adults, including the bestselling Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children. This series, “with its remarkable integration of science and folklore, continue to receive critical acclaim and to be used in classrooms throughout the country.”
• Interview with Nulhegan Abenaki writer Joseph Bruchac: Joseph Bruchac reflects on his mixed ancestry and his heritage and traditions. Transcript is also provided.
• Lesson Plans for Joseph Bruchac’s Books: Scholastic Press includes discussion guides, articles, book talks, and lesson plans for grades 3-9 on topics ranging from hidden roots to Code Talkers. Interview transcript is provided.
• Lesson Plans from TpT to Accompany Books by Joseph Bruchac: Teachers have developed lesson plans for grades 1-12 for these texts as part of the Teachers Pay Teachers Easel guide.
• Abenaki Language: Find grammar guides, language classes, and learn about efforts to cultivate the next generation of speakers.
• Preserve Native Languages: Scholars report the following disturbing statistics: 245 indigenous languages exist in the United States; however, 65 are already extinct and 75 near extinction. The Native American Languages Act and the Esther Martinez Act are important in preservation efforts and grants to help this effort.
• Learning for Justice—Teaching America’s Interwoven Histories: Dr. Tiya Miles, professor of history and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University, spent time at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire as a recipient of the Dartmouth College Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellowship. While there she co-organized the first national conference on Native American and African American relations with Stephanie Morgan and Dr. Celia Naylor. She continues to explore these interwoven histories.
• Open Educational Resource on Native American Authors: Explore resources on authors, including Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, and N. Scott Momaday.

Land and Geography:
• Land Acknowledgement: Organizations wishing to acknowledge the indigenous land on which they work, study, and hold events as a sign of honor and respect can learn more about such acknowledgment and wording from Indigenous New Hampshire.
• Place Names: Learn more about place names established by indigenous people and by colonial settlers, as well as the move to change Alaska’s Mount McKinley to Denali. NH’s state geographer said he knows of no geographic features in NH that have had indigenous names restored. restore indigenous place names and the origins of such names, from Alaska to New Hampshire.
• Native American Place Names in NH: Learn more about indigenous names of places, such as the Amonoosuc River, Western Abenaki for “fishing place,” and Lake Winnipesaukee, Abenaki for “the lake between or around land or islands.”

Historical Monument Changes:
• Unity Park N’dakinna proposal for Hannah Duston site in Boscawen: Indigenous individuals are revisiting contested histories, sharing perspectives, and working to tell a “fuller, more complex, and more accurate histories” while dispelling myths and broadening knowledge of indigenous cultures.
• Abenaki Additions Proposed for Historic Site: Denise and Paul Pouliot, lead speakers of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki, based in Alton, discuss their involvement with the proposed revisions and plans for the Unity Park N’dakinna site.
• NH Public Radio on Assessing the Legend of Hannah Duston: Efforts underway to expand the story to include Abenaki history are discussed by the Pouliots, UNH’s Anthropology Dept. chairperson, and a history professor from Williams College.

Current Events:
Health and Governance:
• Deb Haaland Confirmed as First Native American Interior Secretary: Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo, made history when she became the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. in March 2021.
• NH Commission on Native American Affairs: Find contact and meeting information for this organization, which “recognizes the historic and cultural contributions of Native Americans to New Hampshire, promotes and strengthens Native American heritage and furthers the needs of New Hampshire’s Native American community through state policy and programs.”
• The Impact of COVID on Native people: Examine the public health and economic impacts of the pandemic on Native people.
• Body Bag Provided to Native People Turned into Ribbon Dress: Abigail Echo-Hawk, a Pawnee woman made a ribbon dress that “would comment on the ways the pandemic has disproportionately impacted Native communities and honor the women whose lives have been put in danger …”
• Vaccination and Native People: The Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota worked to get people vaccinated quickly, despite poor hospital conditions and statistics showing Native Americans dying at twice the rate of white Americans.
• Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women: The National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 cases of missing Native American and Alaskan Native women and girls, as of 2016. Learn more about the statistics, policy initiatives, and the #MMIW campaign.
• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: This declaration, adopted in 2007, “establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of indigenous peoples.”

Indigenous Peoples’ Day:
• Policy Paper on Indigenous Peoples’ Day: This policy paper by Libby Schwaner, MPP Student at the UNH Carsey School of Public Policy, will help those wishing to participate in efforts to have their town, city, or state declare Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
• NH Fails to Replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day: The bill was amended in a way that upset NH’s indigenous leaders, and it was ultimately tabled in 2021.
• Keene Marks First Official Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Keene marked the day, along with Durham, Hopkinton, Dover, and other communities. Vermont and Maine are among 14 states that have adopted Indigenous Peoples Day.
• Manchester approves Indigenous Peoples’ Day: This NH city approved recognition of a Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day, but it’s not on Columbus Day, as some Native Americans had hoped.
• Portsmouth Recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ Day: This Seacoast city recognized October 12, 2020, alongside Columbus Day. High-school students participated in the effort to have the day declared Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Indigneous Food Resources:
• Indigenous NH’s Indigenous Food Educational Resources: Find information on harvest calendars, plants, recipes, Native maple syrup use, and more.
• Abenaki Heritage Garden at Intervale in Burlington, Vermont: This .pdf pamphlet discusses crops grown at the garden, which was established in solidarity with the Abenaki Heritage Garden at Missisquoi, located at the Abenaki Tribal Headquarters in Swanton.

———

We would like to thank Denise Pouliot, Paul Pouliot, Liz Charlebois, Andy Bullock, Libby Schwaner, and Emily Olivier for participating in our panel discussion. Thanks to the NHTI Student Senate for their generous support of The Eye and Campus Reads. Thanks to our Faculty Advisor, Dr. Paula DelBonis-Platt, Chair of Liberal Arts, General Studies, Social Sciences, and ESOL, at NHTI—Concord’s Community College. Thanks to Will Platt for video editing assistance.

The full 90-minute VIDEO of the Indigenous Issues in Society and Education Today panel discussion at NHTI can also be viewed.

Certain materials that are part of this special edition of The Eye are used under the fair use exemption of the U.S. Copyright Law and have been prepared under the multimedia fair use guidelines and are restricted from further use.