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JULY 1, 2021
9
Virtual Education Summit explores teaching Native culture
By Danielle Harrison
Smoke Signals staff writer
Approximately 200 Oregon
educators from all grade levels
participated in the Grand Ronde
Education Summit to learn more
about the Grand Ronde Tribe, best
practices for teaching standards
required by Senate Bill 13, Native
American art, cultural lifeways
and the importance of Indigenous
studies.
It’s the second year in a row the
summit has been held in a virtual
format due to the COVID-19 pan-
demic. The free professional devel-
opment training was open to all
teachers, who were also provided
resources and materials to use in
their classrooms.
The one-day summit was held
on Thursday, June 24, with Tribal
Curriculum Specialist Justine Fly-
nn welcoming participants.
“We strive to bring you meaning-
ful and useful information to help
educate your students about Native
culture in Oregon, and how it helps
all Oregon students,” she said.
Cultural Resources Manager
David Harrelson gave attendees
an overview of Grand Ronde Tribal
history, governmental structure,
various ceremonies and events, as
well as a virtual campus tour.
“Tribal people have been here
in Oregon since time immemorial,
before time began,” Harrelson said.
“Our people have long memories
and the oldest geological event our
people remember is the flooding of
the Willamette Valley. … One thing
that is really helpful is the names
of our ancestors are written on the
landscape. These names might be
familiar to you and they are named
after the people who lived there.”
Harrelson also thanked attendees
“We really do provide a wide variety
of support through the state of
Oregon to meet the objectives out-
lined in our plan.”
~ Oregon Indian Education Director
April Campbell
for making Senate Bill 13 curricu-
lum meaningful to students. Senate
Bill 13 required the Oregon De-
partment of Education to develop
curriculum relating to the Native
American experience in Oregon.
This includes Tribal history, sov-
ereignty, culture, treaty rights,
government, socioeconomic expe-
riences and current events.
“We have as many schools as
Tribal members,” Harrelson said.
“It’s so important to have advocates
and allies to help us do the work
that needs to be done.”
Tribal member and diversity
coach Cheyanne Heidt delivered
the keynote speech, where she dis-
cussed being a Native student and
teacher, and her experiences with
education in both roles.
She also talked about her busi-
ness, Destination Diversity, and
how she is working to help teachers
implement culturally responsive
teaching in their classrooms.
“My main theme is focusing on
roles in my personal and profes-
sional life and how they interact
with each other,” Heidt said. “What
drives my view of education is
that the best teachers are those
who are willing to learn from their
students.”
Heidt discussed her background
and cultural foundations, and how
her educational journey and differ-
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(war or peacetime)
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ent experiences have informed her
passion for culturally responsive
teaching.
“I talk about culturally responsive
teaching a lot. Not everyone knows
about it,” she said. “It is integrating
students, family and community
into your classroom curriculum
and strategy. If you ask questions
and learn more about students, you
can take those pieces of information
and integrate them into your class-
room and what you teach. … You
can slowly and meaningfully bring
culturally responsive teaching into
your classroom. Everyone can ben-
efit from these practices.”
The summit has continued to
increase in popularity among educa-
tors, especially in its virtual format,
increasing from 90 attendees the first
year it was held in Grand Ronde to
250 the fifth year.
After the keynote address, sev-
eral breakout sessions were held
where attendees could ask ques-
tions and work in small groups,
just as if they were attending the
summit in person.
Grand Ronde Tribal member and
Oregon Indian Education Director
April Campbell was one of the pre-
senters. She works closely with state
education groups, Oregon’s nine
federally recognized Tribes, and
other Native communities and orga-
nizations. She also led the revision
efforts for the Oregon American In-
dian/Alaska Native Education State
Plan and currently leads efforts to
implement Senate Bill 13.
Campbell discussed the services
that she provides as Indian Edu-
cation Director and plans for the
future.
“We really do provide a wide vari-
ety of support through the state of
Oregon to meet the objectives out-
lined in our plan,” she said. “I felt
proud that were were able to offer
funding to all nine Oregon Tribes
for language grants to continue
to develop their Tribal language
programs. … With COVID and the
social and emotional needs of our
Native students, it was nice to be
able to support them.”
Plans for the next two years
include a focus on what Campbell
calls the “data justice” issue.
“There really is a gap in compiling
data on our students,” she said.
“When you register a student you
will be asked about ethnicities.
We’re looking at how we can collect
it differently to help better identify
all our (Native) students.”
Other goals include managing
discipline, assisting with transition
to high school and post-secondary
education, having increased Native
school staff members, translating
materials into Spanish and con-
ducting assessments of Senate Bill
13 implementation efforts.
Curriculum for Senate Bill 13
was developed in 2018 and 2019 by
a committee and implemented in
school districts for required teach-
ing in the 2019-20 school year to
students in the fourth, eighth and
10th grades.
The committee included 18 rep-
resentatives from Oregon’s nine
federally recognized Tribes, led by
Portland-based Education North-
west Consultants, a nonprofit
organization that worked with
the Department of Education to
support implementation of Senate
Bill 13.
Tribal member and Guided
Study/Credit Recovery Teacher
Adam Langley led another break-
out session that highlighted the
importance of Indigenous studies
in the classroom.
Langley discussed ways an edu-
cator can implement these practic-
es into the curriculum and various
starting points, as well as how
these studies benefit all students.
“The number one thing we hear
from kids is, ‘Why haven’t we
learned this before?’ ” Langley said.
In the fall, he and Tribal member
Zoe Holsclaw will be co-teaching a
Shawash (Native) Studies course
that will focus on historical and
contemporary Native American
issues, culture and language, es-
pecially as it relates to the Grand
Ronde Tribe, and the resiliency of
Native people as a whole. It will
be offered to all Willamina High
School students, regardless of Trib-
al affiliation.
“It is our hope that Shawash
Studies will encourage a deeper
understanding of Native American
cultures and strengthen relation-
ships and communication between
Tribal and non-Tribal students and
faculty,” Langley said. “It will allow
us to dive in and see how different
history looks from different per-
spectives. Indigenous studies are
needed because everyone deserves
to understand how history has
shaped their lives.”
Langley also emphasized that
anyone can teach Indigenous studies.
“You don’t have to teach about
culture or language if you don’t
feel comfortable doing so,” he said.
“You can examine federal, state
and local policies/history same as
you would any other subject in your
classroom.”
Langley closed with providing a
brief tutorial of the Tribe’s curric-
ulum page and materials. All of
these can be accessed for free at
www.grandronde.org. Click on the
“history and culture” tab, then on
“curriculum.”
Other morning breakout ses-
sions included the Tribe’s Natural
Resources Department classroom
programs, Native art, opportunities
to learn about First Foods and a
discussion on federal Native Amer-
ican policies.
Afternoon sessions included cul-
tural and Native stories, Grand
Ronde Tribal curriculum, Chinuk
Wawa language programs, imple-
menting Native culture in the class-
room environment and culturally
responsive teaching practices.
All sessions were recorded and
will be posted at www.grandronde.
org/educationsummit2021.