Native American

Indian Students
Chapter 4
How to effectively teach Native
American Indian students

Landin Shank
What do you see?
Now what do you see?
Things to avoid

● Positive Self talk in front of other students

● Trying to force Competitiveness

● Verbal Participation

● Punctuality
Things to do

● Incorporate Native American Indian culture into lessons...There’s a lot.

(Advanced Farming, Advanced Medicine, Matrilineal society.)
● Provide experiences for students to work together and share ideas
○ Group tables
○ Partner work
○ Group projects instead of tests

● Build strong relationships with your students

Put It Into Action
Native American Family
Structures and Values

By Sydney Hann
Family Values
In Native American families, a high priority is placed on both the immediate and extended
family.

Usually both sets of grandparents are very involved in child rearing.

Children are considered “gifts worth sharing with others” as opposed to the White
european perspective that children constitute private property to be disciplined when
necessary.

Native American families generally tend to be an interdependent cultural group, which

means they place a higher value on the welfare of the group as a whole over any one
individual.

Great respect is taught for elders at a young age

Notable Differences from European American
Families

Generally speaking, Native American homes place less emphasis on strict rule
following as opposed to European American homes where strict rules need to be
followed to avoid consequences.

The extended family is very important in Native American cultures across the
nation when it comes to child rearing traditions.

Native American cultures, generally speaking are interdependent cultural groups

as opposed to the White European Americans who usually align with
individualistic culture groups.
True or False Questions-
Native American Families

True or False, Native American families tend to display many trademarks of

individualistic culture groups. ________________________________

True or False, grandparents and other extended family are often an important
part of child rearing. ________________________________

True or False, Native American children follow strict rules set by parents and
grandparents. ________________________________

True or False, Native American children are taught from a young age to respect
the wisdom of their enders. ________________________________
What are the cultural
characteristics of
American Indians?

Created by
Danielle Teubner
 ➢ American Indians are taught that all actions must be in
harmony with nature.
➢ Youth are taught to respect and protect their elders.
➢ Strong cultural values on sharing and generosity.
➢ Notable for having patience and passive temperaments.
➢ Tend to lower their voices in response to anger.

Common misconceptions:
➢ American Indian students are lazy and uncaring.
➢ Unconcerned with academic performance.
➢ Inactive/lack classroom participation.

Created by Danielle Teubner

➢ Gender plays a big role in understanding American Indian
culture.
➢ Females are taught different ways of thinking, behaving, and
learning than their male counterparts.
➢ Females are taught to socialize the use of words either
positively (to inform, comfort and uplift others) or negatively
(to insult or threaten).

➢ Both immediate and extended family contribute to American

Indian children and adolescent cultural identity and
development. (“It takes a village” mentality)
➢ American Indian children have few rules to obey.
➢ American Indian families value the importance on group
welfare.

Created by Danielle Teubner

Video: “We are still here” -A documentary on today’s
Young Native Americans

Created by Danielle Teubner

How can you direct your perceptions to a more positive
viewpoint?

Created by Danielle Teubner

How can educators help American
Indians become and stay academically
successful?

➢ Develop close relationships.

➢ Provide access to school wide anti-bullying, anger
management and substance abuse programs.
➢ Create customized intervention plans to help at risk students.
➢ Develop mentoring opportunities.

Created by Danielle Teubner

➢ Understand & learn the cultural differences of American Indian
students.
➢ Include curriculum that places emphasis on generosity, sharing,
and cooperation. (non-competitively)
➢ Reassure American Indian learners that mainstream society
accepts and even encourages personal achievement.
➢ Help them understand that their school peers will not think any
less of them for excelling in classwork.
➢ Let students know that praise is a form of acknowledging
accomplishments and mainstream students expect it.
➢ Offer private recognition and praise if learners still remain
uncomfortable with public praise.
➢ Avoid judging American Indians for their lack of concern for time
and realize they will turn in assignments late or maybe tardy to
school often.
➢ Help them understand that their cultural beliefs are not wrong
and help them learn and understand mainstream U.S. beliefs so
they can do well in school.

Created by Danielle Teubner

Briefly describe some common held religious
beliefs within American Indian cultures.

Created by Danielle Teubner

Common Religious values/beliefs of American Indian Culture:

➢ View the world to be interconnected and everything (including humans) live according
to the same process.
➢ Believe everything has its own power, function and place in the universe.
➢ Believe that every part of nature has a spiritual entity and possess intelligence,
emotion and free will.
➢ They do not pray to God but instead pray to all the different components that make up
nature.
➢ Ceremonies and rituals play a vital role in religion.
➢ No written Bible/Holy Book.
➢ Religious traditions and beliefs are passed down verbally to the next generation.
➢ No recognized name given to American Indian Religion.

Created by Danielle Teubner

How do the religious beliefs
of American Indians
contrast the commonly held
European American
values?

Created by Danielle Teubner

Contrasting European American Values:

➢ Believe that individuals have freedoms as long as their actions remain within
the law.
➢ Value the accumulation of material possessions such as private property or
savings. (Measuring a person’s worth with their social status)
➢ Raise their voices in response to anger.
➢ Praise individualism
➢ Christianity centers God above all
➢ Bible

Created by Danielle Teubner

Evaluation by European American Students

● Since European Americans value academics, being evaluated solely on

academic teaching by them would be beneficial.
● Value school for education purposes only.
● Attitude for learning is not pleasant.
○ Most kids refuse to listen.
○ See everything as competition.

By: Raymond A. McAllister

Evaluation by Native American Students

● Non-competitive nature within the classroom.

● Develop teamwork, as their culture sees that people intertwine through every
aspect of life.
● If their culture is included within the classroom, you will be successful.
● Personally, I would want to be evaluated by Native American students.
○ Agree with what their culture has established.
○ Minority education is important to me.
● As a group, I also think we agree with what their culture stands for and
would want to be evaluated by them.
○ At the end of the day, academics should not be the only aspect you want to be evaluated on.

By: Raymond A. McAllister