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Kristine Maveus-Evenson
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For Immediate Release
NEW PRINTABLE LESSON PLAN FEATURES AUDIO RECORDING FROM AWARD-WINNINGNATIVE AMERICAN STORYTELLER DOVIE THOMASON
Chicago, IL (October 15, 2008) -- Just in time for National American
Indian Heritage Month (November) and Thanksgiving, RaceBridges For Schools, a nonprofit initiative that offers free resources to help teachers and students explore and promote inclusion and diversity, recently released a new lesson plan and audio recording that offers a personal perspective on the Native American experience.
RaceBridges’ newest lesson plan is based on ”The Spirit Survives: The American Indian Boarding Schools Experience : Then & Now” a newly recorded account of one Native American family’s personal and painful experiences with forced assimilation. Written and read by award-winning storyteller Dovie Thomason, “The Spirit Survives” reveals the history of Indian boarding schools where indigenous children were taken by force and stripped of their cultural identity.
Thomason’s story, available in audio and text versions, intertwines personal narrative, the history of the schools, and the story of Gertrude Bonnin (later Zitkala Sa), the Sioux woman who went through these schools and afterward became a writer and activist for Indian rights.
The goal of this two-session lesson plan is to help students learn about the dangers of forced assimilation and of not knowing one’s own personal and cultural history. Students will also learn about the ability of a people to reclaim their history and move forward, even after methodical,
genocidal attempts to remove them. By exposing students to this personal and intimate story of this First Nations experience, teachers have the opportunity to ask meaningful questions about history, oppression and American inclusiveness. It also gives teachers an opportunity to reflect on the popular images that surround the Thanksgiving holiday.
About RaceBridges For Schools: RaceBridges For Schools seeks to increase interracial understanding and cooperation by developing Web projects and events that affirm human dignity and equality.
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