Two Red Birds: Blackfeet teachers' work displayed at the Smithsonian (fwd)

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Glacier Reporter

Two Red Birds: Blackfeet teachers' work displayed at the Smithsonian.
http://www.goldentrianglenews.com/articles/2005/06/02/glacier_reporter/news/news4.txt

[photo inset - The Smithsonian honors Blackfeet Head Start educators
Julia Schildt, Carol Bird and Ethyl Grant by displaying their Blackfeet
language and cultural curriculum material in the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC.
Photo courtesy Laura Massey]

When children in Head Start classes on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation
chime, "There were two red birds, Sitting on a hill / One named Jack,
The other named Jill," the youngsters giggle and clap to the
nonsensical nursery rhyme. Their version is unique: The children recite
in Blackfeet:

Naa-tok-kaam Moah-ksi-pik-s'iks

Ii'ta-toh'kit'toh'pii'yoi, Nit'a toom moi-yii

The inimitable lesson, part of a creative curriculum by Blackfeet Head
Start administrators and teachers Carol Bird, Ethyl Grant and Julia
Schildt, is now displayed in Washington D.C. at the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.

"Representatives from Head Start in D.C. visited Browning last year,"
said Bird. "They asked for a copy of our curriculum to display in the
Smithsonian's new Indian museum. Two binders are now installed in the
resource center and categorized with the Smithsonian library."

Creation of the program began three years ago, when the Blackfeet women
recognized a need for a structured curriculum for their Head Start.
They integrated Blackfeet language and culture into what they knew
pre-kindergarteners needed before entering public schools on the
Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

"As we focused on a color, Otah-koin-nat-tsi, the Blackfeet word for
yellow, for example, we found autumn-yellow leaves, collected them and
learned something about color, science, counting," Bird said. She noted
that they integrated language and culture lessons into Head Start's
framework of language development, literacy, math, science, creative
arts, social and emotional development, approaches to learning and
physical health and development.

Head Start teachers on other Montana Indian reservations hope to create
similar curricula substituting Blackfeet language and culture for
Chippewa-Cree on the Rocky Boy's Reservation, said MSU Health and Human
Development professor Laura Massey. Massey and another health and human
development professor, Janis Bullock, helped fine-tune the document.
Sisters Bird and Grant graduated from MSU in 2002. Schildt is a senior
at MSU.

"We now have in place distance learning programs on three reservations,
Blackfeet, Rocky Boy's and Ft. Belknap," said Massey. "Through WebCT,
we are teaching online courses to Head Start teachers and others, some
of whom have never even touched a typewriter. And we now have the
Blackfeet curriculum available on CD."

They spent a year creating a program that now directs early education
for 290 children in Blackfeet Head Start programs in Babb, Browning,
East Glacier, Heart Butte, Starr School and Seville.

"It was a personal goal for me to make a curriculum," Bird said. "When I
worked in kindergarten, the big focus was on the alphabet. When I began
working at Head Start, I asked for a curriculum. They didn't have one.
So I wanted something in place-an outline and direction for teachers so
the children were prepared for kindergarten, could write their name and
write letters of the alphabet."

Bird and Grant asked storyteller and cultural teacher Cecile Doore to
teach Blackfeet language.

"During quiet time, the bilingual teacher told Na'pi stories, lessons or
fairytales," Bird said. "The children really learned to listen. She told
the Na'pi stories in English and added words in Blackfeet, words like
'dog' or 'blackbird.'"

The Na'pi stories are meant to teach things like respect, values, honor
and politeness, said Grant.

"When an elder gives you a Na'pi story, you listen," said Grant, noting
that Na'pi, or Old Man is a main character in Blackfeet legends. "If
you are misbehaving at a powwow, an elder might pull you aside and tell
you a Na'pi story. When you leave, you know that you now must behave or
Na'pi will get you."

"The children should know who they are and where they came from," Bird
said.

"Our next goal," added Grant, "is to develop a curriculum for children
0-3 years old."

"They created a gem," Massey said. "Their storytelling is particularly
good. They used traditional stories, not just translated nursery
rhythms, and combined them with Blackfeet language with assistance from
elders. They developed themes with basic concepts translated throughout
the curriculum. And they are finding success with the children."