Selecting Diverse Resources of Native American Perspective for the Curriculum Center - Children’s Literature, Leveled Readers, and Social Studies Curriculum

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dawugda

Biased and inaccurate information about Native Americans persists in children’s resources and many curriculum center collections. Accurate, culturally relevant materials are essential for both Native and non-Native learners to understand contemporary society and history. State initiatives, including Washington State’s tribal sovereignty curriculum, highlight the need for improved print and digital holdings across children’s literature, leveled readers, and social studies.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Curriculum Center challenges and evaluation

Strategic plan for enriching resources

Native People: nomenclature and representation needs

Selecting Diverse Resources of Native American Perspective for the Curriculum Center: Children’s Literature, Leveled Readers, and Social Studies Curriculum By Nadean Meyer Abstract Biased and inaccurate information about Native Americans continue in children’s resources and remain in many of today’s curriculum centers. While Native American students remain a minority in schools, accurate information is vital for understanding contemporary society and our history by both Native and non-Native students. Many states including Washington State are creating tribal sovereignty curriculum and adding tribal perspectives to their state curriculum. Valuable print and digital resources and sources of continuing selection assistance are suggested to increase the holdings of today’s curriculum center in three areas: children’s literature, leveled readers and social studies curriculum. Introduction "The Curriculum Center is full of bias and misrepresentations of Native People,""My children's favorite books reflecting their Native culture are not available in the Curriculum Center" The American Indian studies director at my university, like myself a former K-12 educator, shared these observations with me about our Curriculum Center when I arrived on campus five years ago. This interview caught my attention. While many faculty I interviewed remarked on the outdated look and content of the Curriculum Center, she was willing to say that we were missing an entire perspective and that the items we did have were inaccurate. She was correct. My first evaluation of the collection showed glaring gapsand the dated items she mentioned. These two issues are a common dual problem in children’s literature collections and school curriculum about Native Americans: misrepresentation or inaccuracies in the current resources, and gaps or missing key accurate resources (Almeida, 1996) . It became one of my priorities to identify and select the best Native American youth materials I could find. Pacific Northwest tribes, both Northwest Coastal and Inland Plateau in Washington State, are my primary focus but because teaching United States history involves so many tribes and regions, every curriculum center needs quality resources with tribal perspective from tribes throughout the continent including Pacific Northwest tribes. Many of the references and selected resources list will assist other centers in their quest to provide accurate national and regional information. This project to enrich our center’s resources with more Native American materials heightened my awareness of the discrepancies in education of Native youth and current pedagogy of anti-bias curriculum and culturally relevant curriculum (Griffin, 200) . A compilation of frequent misconceptions about American Indians provides answers to context in Do All Indians Live in Tipis?: Questions and Answers from the NationalMuseum of American Indian (National, 2007) . This book is a good entry for understanding complexity among tribes and the many fallacies that remain among non-Natives about American Indians issues. Other resources provide more details (Hirschfelder, Molin, & Wakim, 1998; Ongtooguk & Dybdahl, 2008; Pewewardy, 1998) Dialogue in our state legislature, education departments, and with regional tribes is producing a new curriculum and awareness of the issues (Edmo, 2008; RCW, 2006; Where, 2008) that is mirrored in other states as well (Apthorp, D’Amato, & Richardson, 2003; Lomawaima & McCarty, 2002; Ngai & Allen, 2007; Smiley & Sather, 2009). My strategic plan for increasing accurate Native Peoples’ curriculum materials comprises three areas of the curriculum center collection: • Children's literature • Leveled readers in reading series • Social studies curriculum. Each area of the collection needed culturally relevant materials with a Native perspective and the voice of tribes, both locally and nationally. Current materials were evaluated using criteria developed by experts

FAQs

What problem in curriculum center resources does the project address?

The project addresses biased and inaccurate portrayals of Native Americans in children’s resources, along with gaps or missing key accurate materials.

Which three areas are prioritized for improving the curriculum center’s collection?

The strategy focuses on children’s literature, leveled readers in reading series, and social studies curriculum.

How does the document describe appropriate terminology for Native Peoples?

It emphasizes using preferred terms such as a person’s name and acknowledged tribal affiliation; it notes that “Native American” is commonly used in K-12, while “American Indian” is often used in higher education, and “First Nation” is used in Canada.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dawugda