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<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>I am looking for information
books or websites on the
</smaller></fontfamily><color><param>3434,3434,3939</param>Navajo,
Apache, Iroquois, and Nez Perce cultures (5th  7th grade reading levels) 

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<excerpt><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><color><param>3434,3434,3939</param><smaller>.
. . .  I remember telling a classmate that Social Studies was dates and
times not history. History was stories about real people. I want my
students to know the stories and feel the connection to the past. Hope
this makes some sense.
</smaller></color></fontfamily><color><param>3434,3434,3939</param> 

<fontfamily><param>Times</param>Kimberly Herbert</fontfamily> 

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What you say makes very good sense.  For what it is worth, you might
consider preceding the Native American unit with the class identifying
the "artifacts" and "stories" in their own families.  The teacher might
start by telling or showing something fairly common (humble) from the
teacher's family history.  Then help them generate a whole list of
categories.  Then give the students several days to interview their own
relatives, mining their memories for family stories, borrowing old
photos, and other artifacts.  If students create and art, it is more
creative to respond to one's own culture and then use this self-study to
build a frame of reference for the cultures of others.  I think it is
very important to the study other cultures, their stories, and artifacts.
 However, I worry about the integrity of us copying or reproducing their
stories and artifacts.  Their artwork is self-referential. Can our art
and writing also be self-referential?  I believe history and social
studies come to life as the stories relate to what is meaningful in our
own lives.  One way to write about the "other" stories might be to find a
personal similarity or contrast situation and relate to it by writing the
"other" story as "comparison" or a "contrast" story.  What if I had a
time machine and entered their culture, how would I need to change to be
accepted?  What if a student from their culture came to our school, what
would be easy and hard for them?

This web site essay gives additional ideas and illustrations.

http://www.goshen.edu/art/ed/multiculturalart.html

Marvin

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