Questions to consider when teaching an American Indian literatures course include the nature of Native American identity, what constitutes American Indian literature, and the cultural context of Indian texts. Overviews articles in this issue that describe different approaches to mainstreaming American Indian literature into traditional American…

Examines seven Hopi narratives that focus on the first death that occurred after the Hopis' emergence into this world. Provides questions to use in teaching this myth and other cultural texts, including questions concerned with use of sacred texts, parallels with Anglo stories, translation issues, audience, storytellers, quality, art of the…

The history of the Hmong people of Southeast Asia is based mainly on oral traditions, and until recent decades there was no written Hmong language. With the introduction of writing, a new view of history is beginning to emerge, as demonstrated by college student term papers. (SLD)

Analysis of three Native American Cinderella-type tales finds that although each has flaws in depicting Native American culture, overall they are culturally accurate and respectful. Such tales can be used as teaching tools to help children understand Native American cultures and beliefs while making them aware of how culture and beliefs can easily…

Native American trickster stories teach lessons about inappropriate social behavior or roles through satire. Frequent targets of such lessons are gender relations, expectations, and transgressions, most notably male licentiousness. Lessons concerning inappropriate female behavior may be conveyed through female trickster stories, found mainly in…

Draws on Isabelle Knockwood's memoir about Mi'kmaw children's experiences in a Nova Scotia boarding school to examine the contradictory impacts of English literacy on American-Indian peoples and cultures. Discusses literacy as a weapon of colonial assimilation and, conversely, the appropriation of literacy within a Mi'kmaw system of knowledge…

This book introduces the general reader to the mosaic of American Indian languages and cultures as they exist in time and space, and supplies limited technical linguistic orientation to encourage further exploration of language interrelationships, cultures, and other ways of knowing. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the status, diversity, and…

Visual literacy is a culturally-derived strength of Native American students. On a continent with more than 200 languages, Native Americans relied heavily on visual intelligence for trade and communication between tribes. Tribal people interpreted medicine paint, tattoos, and clothing styles to determine the social roles of those with whom they…

Although traditional indigenous stories are widely recognized for their artistic merits and their role in the linguistic and cultural continuity of indigenous peoples, they are seldom used in schools. This paper discusses the instructional uses of traditional coyote stories, with particular reference to bilingual revitalization programs involving…

Many American Indian students are alienated from schooling by the obvious disparities and conflicts between language usage in the oral tradition of their communities and that required in written academic discourse. A community-based language model used with Lakota college students empowers students by teaching critical writing that fuses…

Native Americans have oral traditions that are distinct from the European literacy consciousness, having different modes of discourse, different kinds of metaphorical thinking, and different conceptions of teaching as storytelling. Storytelling is important in children's education, but to be effective and respectful of Native culture, school…

This book presents an ethnohistorical examination of American Indian thinking and philosophy and strives to explain the complexity of the American Indian mind in its traditional cultural and natural environment and in contrast to the American mainstream linear world. It is argued that Indian thinking is visual; circular; concerned with the…