By the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Department of Education
Through consultation with local schools, the need for user-friendly lessons concerning the Citizen Potawatomi Nation has become evident. Teachers have expressed a hesitancy to teach Native American history because they are afraid of getting it wrong. As a result, they rely on the same old resources that might not be relevant to the tribes in their area. In response to this, the CPN Department of Education is developing a resource for teachers anywhere who would like to incorporate Potawatomi history into their classroom. We aim to provide ready-made, vetted lesson plans for teachers to use in their classrooms. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center’s encyclopedia (cpn.news/encyclopedia) is already a great resource to learn more about the Nation; this will be the source material for these lessons.
Our first lesson will be on the Trail of Death. We will host a session discussing this lesson during Virtual Family Reunion Festival and encourage all CPN teachers to join us. Register for the presentation at cpn.news/vfest23. We plan for this lesson to be adaptable to most grade levels and hope you will join us to help make this project a success. Look for more information about where to find the completed lesson in future issues of the Hownikan, or contact college@potawatomi.org with any questions. Find out more about this year’s Virtual Family Reunion Festival at cpn.news/virtualfest21.