VANCOUVER, Wash. Books by Native American authors intended for use by teachers in K-12 classrooms are now available at the 91勛圖窪蹋厙 Library.
The books in the Native American Teaching Library were acquired through a grant to help implement the State of Washingtons Time Immemorial curriculum on Native American history and culture. The books in the Vancouver library were selected to reflect the experiences of young Native American people both past and present.
Shameem Rakha, assistant professor of education at 91勛圖窪蹋厙, coordinated the selection and purchase of the books. She worked with Roben White of the Native American Elders Council and Karen Diller, library director, to choose a range of books appropriate for primary, middle and high school students. They settled on 17 titles, purchasing multiple copies of each for potential use as class sets. Powells Books in Portland, which supplied much of the library, helped locate obscure books and books from small publishers, and provided a discount that enabled Rakha to purchase additional titles.
One example of a book in the Native American Teaching Library is I Am Not a Number, a picture book about the boarding school system in the United States and Canada in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. Rakha considers it relevant to a wide range of experiences in human history. Its the story of children taken away from their homes, culture and ways of being, and the horrors this created for them and their parents, she said.
Black Elks Vision tells the life story of an Oglala-Lakota medicine man, who lived through the battles of Wounded Knee and Little Big Horn. House of Purple Cedar is about a Choctaw girls growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma.
It is our goal to support the important work of teaching our children that American Indian people have had a significant impact on American history, and that despite an ongoing genocide, they are still managing to do amazing things today.
There is no charge for teachers to check out books from the Native American Teaching Library (library cards are free for residents of Southwest Washington). Over the coming year, students in Rakhas social studies methods classes will add summaries and questions to the books to enhance their utility as teaching materials.
If you have questions, contact Rakha at shameem.rakha@wsu.edu.
About 91勛圖窪蹋厙
As one of six campuses of the Washington State University system, 91勛圖窪蹋厙 offers big-school resources in a small-school environment. The university provides affordable, high-quality baccalaureate- and graduate-level education to benefit the people and communities it serves. As the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington, 91勛圖窪蹋厙 helps drive economic growth through relationships with local businesses and industries, schools and nonprofit organizations.
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Brenda Alling, Office of Marketing and Communications, 360-546-9601, brenda_alling@wsu.edu