The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change will host an online teach-in with keynote speaker Rebecca Nagle and interactive workshops.
NMAI education experts, Teaching for Change, and K–12 teachers will share curriculum and teaching strategies and explore the NMAI’s Essential Understandings for teaching about Indigenous peoples’ histories and their experiences around treaties and sovereignty today.
Workshops will feature classroom resources from the NMAI’s online education portal Native Knowledge 360° and the Zinn Education Project. The teach-in will be held online via Zoom.
Within two weeks after the teach-in, we will send recordings of the keynote and selected sessions, along with a robust collection of recommended resources from each session.
Professional development credits provided. ASL interpretation for keynote and selected sessions.
SCHEDULE
In Eastern Time. 12:00 – 12:25 PM: Welcome andKeynote Speaker 12:35 – 1:25 PM: Round 1 of Workshops 1:35 – 2:25 PM: Round 2 of Workshops 2:30 – 3:00 PM: (Optional) Group Discussions by Grade Level
Keynote Speaker
Rebecca Nagle is an award winning journalist and citizen of Cherokee Nation. She is the writer and host of the podcastThis Land. Her writing on Native representation, federal Indian law, and tribal sovereignty has been featured in the Atlantic, the Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, Indian Country Today, and more. Rebecca Nagle is a Peabody nominee and the recipient of the American Mosaic Journalism Prize, Women’s Media Center’s Exceptional Journalism Award, and numerous awards from the Native American Journalist Association.
Indigenous communities deserve the same standard of journalism as the rest of the country, but rarely receive it from non-Native media outlets. Nagle’s journalism seeks to correct this. From the census, to COVID, to the Supreme Court, Nagle focuses on deeply and timely reporting that sheds light on issues of national importance.
Nagle lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where she also works on language revitalization.
Workshops
Within two weeks after the teach-in, we will send recordings of the keynote and selected sessions, along with a robust collection of recommended resources from each session.
Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean by Bert Correa (Taíno), Smithsonian NMAI museum program specialist. Recommended for grades K-12. [ASL]
Teaching Treaties: Fort Wayne and the Coming of the War of 1812 by Tiferet Ani, high school teacher and curriculum writer. Recommended for middle to high school teachers. [ASL]
Exploring American Indigenous History in the 20th Century with Indian No More by Charlene Willing-McManis and Traci Sorell by Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor of Indian No More and editor of middle grade books at Tu Books and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books. Recommended for grades 4–8.
Exploring Indigenous History, Resilience, and Community with The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz by Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor at Tu Books, and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books. Recommended for grades K–8. [ASL]
Registration
The registration is via Eventbrite and there is a $10 fee. Each registrant who attends the teach-in will receive a children’s book by mail following the event. The Zoom link is sent a few days in advance of the event and again on the day of the event.
Workshop Descriptions & Speaker Bios
Indigenous Central America Recommended for grades K-12. Many students in U.S. classrooms can trace their roots to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as other Central American countries, yet the history of the region is largely absent from U.S. curriculum. There is even less regional-specific content focused on Central America’s rich and centuries-old Indigenous cultures, such as the Mayans. This session will provide teachers with strategies and resources for introducing the Quiche Maya ancestral story in their classrooms. Participants will explore the Popol Vuh, the Maya origin story, which highlights the importance of corn and nature to the Maya and other Indigenous communities throughout Central America. Connections will be made to Indigenous communities and the challenges they face today. Facilitated by Jonathan Peraza Campos, middle school teacher and Central America program specialist with Teaching for Change.
FACILITATOR BIO
Jonathan Peraza Campos
Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/el) received his undergraduate degree in 2018 from Emory University. He completed his MS in Social Foundations of Education at Georgia State University in 2021, and he is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in history and Latinx/Latin American Studies. Jonathan studies and organizes around the links between racism, imperialism, immigration, militarism, incarceration, policing, and education, especially in the American South and Central America/ns. His work is centered around educational, academic, and activist projects particularly surrounding Latinx and migrant youth and communities in metro-Atlanta. He is an educational consultant and an abolitionist educator and organizer. Much of his work has focused on teaching Latinx and immigrant youth about their histories, writers, thinkers, and movements through a Latinx Studies and ethnic studies lens. He is also invested in building the next generation of agitators and movement leaders as a political educator.
The Tulsa Race Massacre and Black-Native History in Oklahoma Recommended for high school teachers. [ASL]
The October 2019 airing of HBO’s show Watchmen brought one of the most brutal episodes in U.S. history — the Tulsa Race Massacre — to the attention of millions of people. In this seminar, we will examine primary sources that deconstruct the massacre and its aftermath through the eyes of those who experienced it. But to truly understand the massacre, one must understand the history of Tulsa. Why did so many African Americans flock to Oklahoma after the Civil War? How were they able to accumulate so much wealth that their Tulsa neighborhood became known as “Black Wall Street”? What was the Indigenous history of the region and what were the complex interactions between American Indian communities and incoming Black settlers? Through an analysis of the two distinct communities in this region in the 1830s, participants will learn how to teach about this culturally dynamic place in the Midwest and why students should learn about the Tulsa Massacre and its broader context. Facilitated by Alaina Roberts.
FACILITATOR BIO Alaina Roberts (Chickasaw/Choctaw)
Alaina Roberts is an award-winning African American, Chickasaw, and Choctaw historian who studies the intersection of Black and Native American life from the Civil War to the modern day. This focus originates from her own family history: her father’s ancestors survived Indian Removal’s Trail of Tears and were enslaved by Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. Roberts is the author of I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land. Currently an assistant professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Roberts holds a doctorate in history from Indiana University and a BA in history, with honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She writes, teaches, and presents public talks about Black and Native history in the West, family history, slavery in the Five Tribes (the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indian Nations), Native American enrollment politics, and Indigeneity in North America and across the globe. More.
Pipeline Protests: Putting Climate Civil Disobedience Into the Curriculum Recommended for middle to high school teachers.
This workshop is built around the documentary film Necessity: Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance, which details the story of multiple climate activists, including Indigenous leaders in the climate justice movement, valve turners who use civil disobedience to stop the flow of oil, and legal teams that use the “necessity defense” in the courts. Participants will deepen their understanding of this intricate story through role-play exercises where they take on the perspectives of real-life subjects from the film. Attendees will receive a classroom-ready curriculum suitable for multiple content areas in grades 7–12 and adapted for online instruction. Facilitated by Tim Swinehart, high school teacher and co-editor of A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis.
Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean Recommended for grades K-12. [ASL]
Explore the rural roots of the Taíno movement and the living legacies of Native peoples throughout the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands and their U.S. diasporas. Learn more about key resources created by NMAI to introduce Taíno history and contemporary culture into your classroom. Participants will also examine updates to the popular “The People vs. Columbus, et al.” lesson, compiled by the Zinn Education Project. Copies of the lesson will be made available, along with classroom resources on Taíno history and contemporary culture. Presented by Bert Correa (Taíno), Smithsonian NMAI Museum Program Specialist.
FACILITATOR BIO
Bert Correa (Taíno)
is a documentary field research videographer, award-winning Native American community activist, and skateboard event organizer based in New York City. He is the current videographer for the Smithsonian Institution’s Taíno exhibition research team at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in New York. Bert is also a museum program specialist in the education department for the NMAI–NY.
Bert graduated from the State University of New York at Delhi, where he focused on forestry and ornamental horticulture. His awards include the 2017 Tekina (Community Leader) Taino Award, as well as a prestigious Event Organizer Recognition Award from Damn Am, a premiere global skateboard contest series. When Bert is not working in the community or organizing events, he is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hiking, camping, and honing his outdoor survival skills.
Invited to the Table of Deceit by Shan Goshorn
Teaching Treaties: Fort Wayne and the Coming of the War of 1812 Recommended for middle to high school teachers. [ASL]
Participants will engage in a lesson that demonstrates how to use historical and contemporary sources to explore the meaning and legacy of treaties. The session will include an analysis of the 1809 Fort Wayne Treaty and a look at a piece of treaty-themed artwork by renowned multi-media artist Shan Goshorn. By exploring these sources with students in the classroom, teachers will be able to emphasize the critical importance of treaties in preserving tribal sovereignty and advancing cultural identities. Participants will walk away with a classroom-ready lesson that demonstrates how Indigenous histories are an integral part of contextualizing global events such as the War of 1812. Facilitated by Tiferet Ani, high-school teacher and curriculum writer.
FACILITATOR BIO
Tiferet Ani
Tiferet Ani is a social studies educator who has taught middle and high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland, and worked as a curriculum developer and teacher educator for the district. Tiferet has revised U.S. history curriculum to counter the dominant narrative and elevate Indigenous, Black, Latine, LGBTQ+, and women’s histories throughout. The Southern Poverty Law Center and CBS News have reported on this work. Tiferet has also developed an LGBTQ+ Studies elective with high school students. Read more about the work of their students here. She served as a co-facilitator of the DC Area Educators for Social Justice Secondary Curriculum Group for the 2021–22 school year. She is currently residing on unceded Lenni-Lenape land as they pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Exploring American Indigenous History in the 20th Century with Indian No More by Charlene Willing-McManis and Traci Sorell Recommended for grades 4–8.
Join Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor at Tu Books, and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books, as they discuss the historical background and curricular applications of the award-winning middle grade novel Indian No More. They will also highlight the outstanding free educator activities available to use with the book. Indian No More is the winner of the 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award, a selection for the 2020 Global Read Aloud, and the first middle grade novel to place a major focus on the Termination Era (1953–1968). Come away from the session with teaching strategies for Indian No More and ideas for teaching about Native peoples and communities within a contemporary context.
FACILITATOR BIOS Katie Potter
Katie Potter is the Senior Literacy Manager at Lee & Low Books. She is responsible for writing and developing the rigorous Teacher’s Guides and Educator Resources for all frontlist titles, in addition to working with university professors and nonprofit organizations on how to incorporate diverse, multicultural literature into curriculum and syllabi. Prior to Lee & Low, Katie worked as an educational researcher, teacher, and literacy instructor. Katie has a dual BA in Psychology and Spanish from Skidmore College and an MS in Literacy and Childhood General Education, Grades 1–6, from Bank Street College of Education.
Elise McMullen-Ciotti
Elise McMullen-Ciotti is a children’s book editor with Lee & Low Books, as well as an author and food scholar with NYU Steinhardt’s Food Studies master’s program. Elise has worked in children’s book publishing since 2012 and as an editor since 2017. As an editor, she works for Lee & Low Books and most specifically their middle grade and young adult imprint Tu Books. As a consultant, she’s had the opportunity to work with many publishers on supporting Indigenous voices, ensuring that Indigenous topics get more traction and respect in the industry.
As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she focuses a good deal of her editorial work on publishing Indigenous authors, but also prioritizes working with authors from other marginalized communities. In 2019, she co-edited the middle grade novel Indian No More (Tu Books), the first children’s book to highlight Native American history in the 1950s. Also in 2019, she contributed to the picture book Fry Bread (Roaring Brook Press), whose end pages feature the names of 665 Native nations within U.S. borders. More.
Exploring Indigenous History, Resilience, and Community with The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz Recommended for grades K–8. [ASL]
Join Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor at Tu Books, and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books, as they discuss the historical background and curricular applications of The People Shall Continue. Republished for its fortieth anniversary, this powerful story by renowned Acoma Pueblo poet and storyteller Simon J. Ortiz traces the history of Indigenous people of North America from the time of creation to the present. Moderators will share with participants the free Teacher’s Guide and educator resources available to use alongside this book in the classroom. Come away from the session with teaching strategies for The People Shall Continue. These strategies will incorporate themes of continued resilience and community among Indigenous peoples.
2022 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Curriculum Teach-In
Sovereignty and Treaties
Saturday, October 1, 2022 | 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET (9:00 AM – 12:00 PM PT)
View Teach-In Highlights
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) and Teaching for Change will host an online teach-in with keynote speaker Rebecca Nagle and interactive workshops.
NMAI education experts, Teaching for Change, and K–12 teachers will share curriculum and teaching strategies and explore the NMAI’s Essential Understandings for teaching about Indigenous peoples’ histories and their experiences around treaties and sovereignty today.
Workshops will feature classroom resources from the NMAI’s online education portal Native Knowledge 360° and the Zinn Education Project. The teach-in will be held online via Zoom.
Within two weeks after the teach-in, we will send recordings of the keynote and selected sessions, along with a robust collection of recommended resources from each session.
Professional development credits provided. ASL interpretation for keynote and selected sessions.
SCHEDULE
In Eastern Time.
12:00 – 12:25 PM: Welcome and Keynote Speaker
12:35 – 1:25 PM: Round 1 of Workshops
1:35 – 2:25 PM: Round 2 of Workshops
2:30 – 3:00 PM: (Optional) Group Discussions by Grade Level
Keynote Speaker
Indigenous communities deserve the same standard of journalism as the rest of the country, but rarely receive it from non-Native media outlets. Nagle’s journalism seeks to correct this. From the census, to COVID, to the Supreme Court, Nagle focuses on deeply and timely reporting that sheds light on issues of national importance.
Nagle lives in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where she also works on language revitalization.
Workshops
Within two weeks after the teach-in, we will send recordings of the keynote and selected sessions, along with a robust collection of recommended resources from each session.
Full workshop descriptions and presenter bios further below.
Indigenous Central America by Jonathan Peraza Campos, middle school teacher and Teach Central America program specialist. Recommended for grades K-12.
The Tulsa Race Massacre and Black-Native History in Oklahoma by Alaina Roberts (Chickasaw/Choctaw), historian and author of I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land. Recommended for high school teachers. [ASL]
Pipeline Protests: Putting Climate Civil Disobedience Into the Curriculum by Tim Swinehart, high school teacher and co-editor of A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis. Recommended for middle to high school teachers.
Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean by Bert Correa (Taíno), Smithsonian NMAI museum program specialist. Recommended for grades K-12. [ASL]
Teaching Treaties: Fort Wayne and the Coming of the War of 1812 by Tiferet Ani, high school teacher and curriculum writer. Recommended for middle to high school teachers. [ASL]
Exploring American Indigenous History in the 20th Century with Indian No More by Charlene Willing-McManis and Traci Sorell by Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor of Indian No More and editor of middle grade books at Tu Books and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books. Recommended for grades 4–8.
Exploring Indigenous History, Resilience, and Community with The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz by Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor at Tu Books, and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books. Recommended for grades K–8. [ASL]
Registration
The registration is via Eventbrite and there is a $10 fee. Each registrant who attends the teach-in will receive a children’s book by mail following the event. The Zoom link is sent a few days in advance of the event and again on the day of the event.
Workshop Descriptions & Speaker Bios
Indigenous Central America
Many students in U.S. classrooms can trace their roots to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, as well as other Central American countries, yet the history of the region is largely absent from U.S. curriculum. There is even less regional-specific content focused on Central America’s rich and centuries-old Indigenous cultures, such as the Mayans. This session will provide teachers with strategies and resources for introducing the Quiche Maya ancestral story in their classrooms. Participants will explore the Popol Vuh, the Maya origin story, which highlights the importance of corn and nature to the Maya and other Indigenous communities throughout Central America. Connections will be made to Indigenous communities and the challenges they face today. Facilitated by Jonathan Peraza Campos, middle school teacher and Central America program specialist with Teaching for Change.
Recommended for grades K-12.
FACILITATOR BIO
Jonathan Peraza Campos
Jonathan Peraza Campos (he/him/el) received his undergraduate degree in 2018 from Emory University. He completed his MS in Social Foundations of Education at Georgia State University in 2021, and he is currently pursuing a second master’s degree in history and Latinx/Latin American Studies. Jonathan studies and organizes around the links between racism, imperialism, immigration, militarism, incarceration, policing, and education, especially in the American South and Central America/ns. His work is centered around educational, academic, and activist projects particularly surrounding Latinx and migrant youth and communities in metro-Atlanta. He is an educational consultant and an abolitionist educator and organizer. Much of his work has focused on teaching Latinx and immigrant youth about their histories, writers, thinkers, and movements through a Latinx Studies and ethnic studies lens. He is also invested in building the next generation of agitators and movement leaders as a political educator.
The Tulsa Race Massacre and Black-Native History in Oklahoma
Recommended for high school teachers. [ASL]
The October 2019 airing of HBO’s show Watchmen brought one of the most brutal episodes in U.S. history — the Tulsa Race Massacre — to the attention of millions of people. In this seminar, we will examine primary sources that deconstruct the massacre and its aftermath through the eyes of those who experienced it. But to truly understand the massacre, one must understand the history of Tulsa. Why did so many African Americans flock to Oklahoma after the Civil War? How were they able to accumulate so much wealth that their Tulsa neighborhood became known as “Black Wall Street”? What was the Indigenous history of the region and what were the complex interactions between American Indian communities and incoming Black settlers? Through an analysis of the two distinct communities in this region in the 1830s, participants will learn how to teach about this culturally dynamic place in the Midwest and why students should learn about the Tulsa Massacre and its broader context. Facilitated by Alaina Roberts.
FACILITATOR BIO
Alaina Roberts (Chickasaw/Choctaw)
Alaina Roberts is an award-winning African American, Chickasaw, and Choctaw historian who studies the intersection of Black and Native American life from the Civil War to the modern day. This focus originates from her own family history: her father’s ancestors survived Indian Removal’s Trail of Tears and were enslaved by Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians. Roberts is the author of I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land. Currently an assistant professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Roberts holds a doctorate in history from Indiana University and a BA in history, with honors, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She writes, teaches, and presents public talks about Black and Native history in the West, family history, slavery in the Five Tribes (the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Indian Nations), Native American enrollment politics, and Indigeneity in North America and across the globe. More.
Pipeline Protests: Putting Climate Civil Disobedience Into the Curriculum
Recommended for middle to high school teachers.
This workshop is built around the documentary film Necessity: Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance, which details the story of multiple climate activists, including Indigenous leaders in the climate justice movement, valve turners who use civil disobedience to stop the flow of oil, and legal teams that use the “necessity defense” in the courts. Participants will deepen their understanding of this intricate story through role-play exercises where they take on the perspectives of real-life subjects from the film. Attendees will receive a classroom-ready curriculum suitable for multiple content areas in grades 7–12 and adapted for online instruction. Facilitated by Tim Swinehart, high school teacher and co-editor of A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis.
FACILITATOR BIO
Tim Swinehart
Tim Swinehart teaches at Lincoln High School in Portland, Oregon, and writes regularly for Rethinking Schools magazine, including the article “‘Don’t Take Our Voices Away’: A Role Play on the Indigenous Peoples’ Global Summit on Climate Change.” He is co-editor of A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis.
Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean
Recommended for grades K-12. [ASL]
Explore the rural roots of the Taíno movement and the living legacies of Native peoples throughout the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands and their U.S. diasporas. Learn more about key resources created by NMAI to introduce Taíno history and contemporary culture into your classroom. Participants will also examine updates to the popular “The People vs. Columbus, et al.” lesson, compiled by the Zinn Education Project. Copies of the lesson will be made available, along with classroom resources on Taíno history and contemporary culture. Presented by Bert Correa (Taíno), Smithsonian NMAI Museum Program Specialist.
FACILITATOR BIO
Bert Correa (Taíno)
is a documentary field research videographer, award-winning Native American community activist, and skateboard event organizer based in New York City. He is the current videographer for the Smithsonian Institution’s Taíno exhibition research team at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in New York. Bert is also a museum program specialist in the education department for the NMAI–NY.
Bert graduated from the State University of New York at Delhi, where he focused on forestry and ornamental horticulture. His awards include the 2017 Tekina (Community Leader) Taino Award, as well as a prestigious Event Organizer Recognition Award from Damn Am, a premiere global skateboard contest series. When Bert is not working in the community or organizing events, he is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hiking, camping, and honing his outdoor survival skills.
Teaching Treaties: Fort Wayne and the Coming of the War of 1812
Recommended for middle to high school teachers. [ASL]
Participants will engage in a lesson that demonstrates how to use historical and contemporary sources to explore the meaning and legacy of treaties. The session will include an analysis of the 1809 Fort Wayne Treaty and a look at a piece of treaty-themed artwork by renowned multi-media artist Shan Goshorn. By exploring these sources with students in the classroom, teachers will be able to emphasize the critical importance of treaties in preserving tribal sovereignty and advancing cultural identities. Participants will walk away with a classroom-ready lesson that demonstrates how Indigenous histories are an integral part of contextualizing global events such as the War of 1812. Facilitated by Tiferet Ani, high-school teacher and curriculum writer.
FACILITATOR BIO
Tiferet Ani
Tiferet Ani is a social studies educator who has taught middle and high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland, and worked as a curriculum developer and teacher educator for the district. Tiferet has revised U.S. history curriculum to counter the dominant narrative and elevate Indigenous, Black, Latine, LGBTQ+, and women’s histories throughout. The Southern Poverty Law Center and CBS News have reported on this work. Tiferet has also developed an LGBTQ+ Studies elective with high school students. Read more about the work of their students here. She served as a co-facilitator of the DC Area Educators for Social Justice Secondary Curriculum Group for the 2021–22 school year. She is currently residing on unceded Lenni-Lenape land as they pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Exploring American Indigenous History in the 20th Century with Indian No More by Charlene Willing-McManis and Traci Sorell
Recommended for grades 4–8.
Join Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor at Tu Books, and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books, as they discuss the historical background and curricular applications of the award-winning middle grade novel Indian No More. They will also highlight the outstanding free educator activities available to use with the book. Indian No More is the winner of the 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Award, a selection for the 2020 Global Read Aloud, and the first middle grade novel to place a major focus on the Termination Era (1953–1968). Come away from the session with teaching strategies for Indian No More and ideas for teaching about Native peoples and communities within a contemporary context.
FACILITATOR BIOS
Katie Potter
Katie Potter is the Senior Literacy Manager at Lee & Low Books. She is responsible for writing and developing the rigorous Teacher’s Guides and Educator Resources for all frontlist titles, in addition to working with university professors and nonprofit organizations on how to incorporate diverse, multicultural literature into curriculum and syllabi. Prior to Lee & Low, Katie worked as an educational researcher, teacher, and literacy instructor. Katie has a dual BA in Psychology and Spanish from Skidmore College and an MS in Literacy and Childhood General Education, Grades 1–6, from Bank Street College of Education.
Elise McMullen-Ciotti
Elise McMullen-Ciotti is a children’s book editor with Lee & Low Books, as well as an author and food scholar with NYU Steinhardt’s Food Studies master’s program. Elise has worked in children’s book publishing since 2012 and as an editor since 2017. As an editor, she works for Lee & Low Books and most specifically their middle grade and young adult imprint Tu Books. As a consultant, she’s had the opportunity to work with many publishers on supporting Indigenous voices, ensuring that Indigenous topics get more traction and respect in the industry.
As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, she focuses a good deal of her editorial work on publishing Indigenous authors, but also prioritizes working with authors from other marginalized communities. In 2019, she co-edited the middle grade novel Indian No More (Tu Books), the first children’s book to highlight Native American history in the 1950s. Also in 2019, she contributed to the picture book Fry Bread (Roaring Brook Press), whose end pages feature the names of 665 Native nations within U.S. borders. More.
Exploring Indigenous History, Resilience, and Community with The People Shall Continue by Simon J. Ortiz
Recommended for grades K–8. [ASL]
Join Elise McMullen-Ciotti (Cherokee), editor at Tu Books, and Katie Potter, senior literacy manager at Lee & Low Books, as they discuss the historical background and curricular applications of The People Shall Continue. Republished for its fortieth anniversary, this powerful story by renowned Acoma Pueblo poet and storyteller Simon J. Ortiz traces the history of Indigenous people of North America from the time of creation to the present. Moderators will share with participants the free Teacher’s Guide and educator resources available to use alongside this book in the classroom. Come away from the session with teaching strategies for The People Shall Continue. These strategies will incorporate themes of continued resilience and community among Indigenous peoples.
FACILITATOR BIOS
Same as session above.
Posted: August 22, 2022