How can preschool and kindergarten children learn accurate information about how Native Americans live today? Use these 9 tips to avoid common mistakes.

Teaching about Native Americans in Preschool and Kindergarten: Do’s and Don’ts

What do children learn about Native Americans in preschool and kindergarten classrooms? And what lessons are parents giving young kids about American Indians?

I hadn’t thought a lot about this question until fairly recently. I soon realized that too often what young kids are exposed to are short bursts of inaccurate stereotypes (at Thanksgiving, for example). These are usually followed by silence the rest of the time.

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Luckily, I discovered an amazing resource in a museum gift shop last week. I’m so glad I found  Lessons from Turtle Island: Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms.

Too often, lessons about Native Americans in preschool and kindergarten classrooms teach children stereotypes and inaccurate information. Click through to discover 9 ways you can help young children develop accurate images of how American Indians live today, including resources for the best early childhood books and activities. #preschool #multicultural #nativeamericans

This book is bursting with ideas for learning about Native Americans in preschool and kindergarten classrooms. It’s also a great resource for homeschooling families, or for families who value multicultural books and learning (even if they don’t homeschool.)

The book was written by Guy W. Jones and Sally Moomaw. Guy is a Hunkpapa Lakota and full-blood member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. Sally is an early childhood education professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Each chapter is introduced by personal reflections from the authors. Guy’s are often memories from his childhood or experiences of his own children. Sally’s are often stories about her preschool students’ misperceptions about Native Americans.

I highly recommend buying a copy of Lessons from Turtle Island or checking it out from your local library.

Below, I share some of my biggest takeaways from the book. To dive deep into the specific principles though, you really should read the book yourself!

Too often, lessons about Native Americans in preschool and kindergarten classrooms teach children stereotypes and inaccurate information. Click through to discover 9 ways you can help young children develop accurate images of how American Indians live today, including resources for the best early childhood books and activities. #preschool #multicultural #nativeamericans

Teaching about Native Americans in Preschool and Kindergarten: Do’s and Don’ts 

1. DO incoporate Native American peoples into the broad themes you already have in your curriculum, instead of singling them out for special study. 

Sally and Guy point out that having a special unit on Native Americans often focuses only on how Native peoples lived in the past. Preschool aged children aren’t able to distinguish between history and the present, so this is confusing for them.

This kind of approach also often leads to lumping different tribes’ cultures together, giving kids the false impression that there is a single Indian culture.

Instead, the authors give preschool and kindergarten teachers several themes that are easy for young kids to relate to. The themes, such as children, home, families, and community, are also ideal for incorporating books written by American Indian authors.

Lessons from Turtle Island includes extensive book lists, followed by related hands on activities. The activities help young children relate their own lives, homes, families, etc to those they’ve just learned about. They help kids see what we have in common across cultures, while also appreciating differences.

Related Post: 15 Indigenous children’s books set in the present day

Too often, lessons about Native Americans in preschool and kindergarten classrooms teach children stereotypes and inaccurate information. Click through to discover 9 ways you can help young children develop accurate images of how American Indians live today, including resources for the best early childhood books and activities. #preschool #multicultural #nativeamericans

2. DO present images that will counter the stereotypes about Native Americans that preschoolers likely already hold. 

Mainstream U.S. culture is filled with stereotypes about Native Americans, and kids absorb them from a very young age. Many of the preschool children Sally taught expressed fear of Indians. This isn’t surprising considering how sports mascots, children’s books and movies, and many other sources frequently present Indians as warlike.

The authors believe that trying to argue young children out of their stereotypes isn’t likely to succeed. But exposing them to stories of Native American children who are not so different from them has worked in Sally’s classrooms. Likewise, if it’s possible to have a class visitor who is Native American come and just spend time with the children, that can also provide a counter-image. (The authors include helpful guidelines for inviting class visitors.)

Related Post: 8 ways kids can observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Click on the image above to sign up for my free resource library for anti-bias caregivers and educators.

Related Post: Learning Native American History and Culture with 5 #ownvoices books from Chickasaw Press 

3. DO look for books, art, music, and curriculum created by American Indians whenever possible. 

The #ownvoices movement encourages us to read books about marginalized people that are written by authors who share the same identity as their characters. This is especially important with books about Native Americans.  Too many books written by non-Native authors reinforce stereotypes or mix different tribes’ cultures and histories together.

There’s a long list of books that perfect for preschoolers and kindergartners included in Lessons from Turtle Island. (Some are unfortunatley out of print but many are still available.) They also include important artists, musicians, and more.

You can also consult my list of 17 #ownvoices children’s books about Native Americans and First Nations Canadians. (Be sure to check the age recommendation listed for each book.)

Another excellent source for reviews of new books is the blog American Indians in Children’s Literature.  Blogger Debbie Reese recommends books, but she also includes reviews of books she does NOT recommend due to stereotypes and other problematic material.

Related Post: 9 tips for teaching children the history of Native American peoples in your community

4. DO be prepared to replace some of your favorite books or classroom resources.

One of the things I appreciate about the book is that Sally shares when she’s made mistakes or had to change her teaching as she learned more. She tells us that when she first started to teach more about Native Americans, she included some materials that she discovered later were inappropriate.

When we discover that a treasured book has a message we didn’t realize that was racist, it’s easy to get defensive. But if the goal is to help children have accurate information about all people, we need to replace that book with something better.

As an education major in college, I remember thinking Susan Jeffers’ Brother Eagle, Sister Sky was a beautiful book. But Guy and Sally point out that Native people in the book are presented generically, “in a mishmash of dress and culture.” And, Native peoples are only portrayed in the past. Meanwhile, a white modern day family is shown. There are other books written by Native authors that can help children understand the importance of caring for the earth.


If you want to dive deeper into exploring systemic racism and antiracist practices with white children, join the email waitlist for my Nurturing Antiracist White Kids course.


5. DO be aware of what may be sacred

The authors give several examples of common preschool crafts that are inappropriate because they use sacred objects. For example, feathers are considered sacred by many tribes, so they shouldn’t be used in American Indian themed crafts.

The authors also point to a peace pipe craft in one popular children’s craft book. The peace pipe is so sacred in Native American cultures that it’s used only on the most improtant occasions. Making a “peace pipe” out a toilet paper roll is therefore offensive.

Navajo (Diné) sand paintings are used in religious and healing ceremonies. So while it’s ok for kids to play with colored sand, children shouldn’t be encouraged to create their own Navajo sand paintings.

Generally, the authors encourage a different approach to the crafts that are often used to learn about Native Americans in preschool classrooms. Instead of making a “Native American ______”, children can be introduced to Native American art. You can show them children’s books created by American Indian artists. Kids are then encouraged to make their own art, pulling from their own cultural roots and life experience, instead of imitating a Native American culture.

Related Post:7 Ways to Raise Race Conscious Kids

6. DON’T teach children false information on Thanksgiving and Columbus Day

Preschool aged children are often taught a sanitized version of the Thanksgiving story. You know, the one where the Piligrims and Indians had a peaceful feast together. That story gets a lot wrong, and it leaves a lot out. For example, we don’t talk about how 90 percent of the Native peoples living in Massachusetts died from European dieseases within a few years of first contact.

Thanksgiving plays take place in schools across the country every year. At these, non-Native kindergartners are taught that it’s ok to dress up as another race. Those playing the Indians are told to dress in ways that slightly resemble Plains Indians, but not the Wampanoag people.

What should be done instead? I suggest skipping “the first Thanksgiving” stories. There aren’t any books for preschool aged children that accurately tell the story of the interactions between the Wapanoag people and the English settlers. But there are picture books by Native authors about gratitude, such as We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga. This book could be read near Thanksgiving, but also at any time of the year.

Related post: Teaching children about the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

Want to teach children about the many cultures and histories of Native Americans? When you're choosing multicultural children's books, it matters who wrote them. Click through for a list of 17 picture books about American Indian and First Nations people, written by indigenous authors. From every day stories of kids being kids to books that help children understand Native American history, you'll find it all in this list! #childrensbooks #ownvoices

Related Post: Unpacking myths and stereotypes with kids about the “first Thanksgiving”

What about Columbus Day? Many preschoolers are taught that Christopher Columbus was a great hero, not the exterminator and enslaver of the Arawak people. Preschool aged children are too young to be told the full gruesome and frightening truth about Columbus. But educators can commit to not lying to children about history.

Columbus Day should not be observed in early childhood classrooms. Parents and educators of older children must be prepared to teach the truth about what Columbus did and the generations of harm for indigenous peoples that he started.

Related Post: 15 Picture Books about Social Justice and Human Rights

7. DON’T encourage dramatic play in which children pretend to be Indian

Guy Jones and Sally Moomaw published Lessons from Turtle Island in 2002. Reading the part of the book on dramatic play, part of me thought, “surely preschool teachers know by now this isn’t ok, don’t they?”

As I did research for this post, I googled the phrase “preschool lessons about Native Americans.” When I clicked on the videos tab, the second video that popped up was titled “a preschool class pretends to be Native American.”

Hoping that the video was critical of what took place, I clicked on it. Sadly, it was a video of a teacher and her students chanting nonsense words and marching in a circle, wearing blankets and paper hats while the physical education teacher played drums for their “pow wow.”

There are so many reasons this type of play is problematic. Can you think of another racial group that we encourage children to dress up as and pretend to be?

Children will be using the inaccurate sterotypes they’ve learned from society to inform their play. These stereotypes are likely to include the idea that Native Americans only lived in the past; that they are exotic and different from other peoples; that they are scary and warlike; or that they speak broken English.

8. DON’T include a play tipi in your classroom or home. 

If you ask a typical preschooler where Indians live, they’ll likely tell you in a tipi. Even centures ago, only certain American Indians tribes lived in tipis. Types of homes varied widely. And today, very few Native Americans live in tipis. It usually doesn’t occur to young non-Native children that most American Indians today live in houses a lot like theirs.

Having a play tipi encourages children to think of Native peoples as only living in the past. Play tipis are also likely to contribute to warlike play, such as pretending to be cowboys and Indians. It encourages kids to think of all American Indian tribes as having the same culture.

Though I don’t believe the authors of Lessons from Turtle Island mention this, I believe play tipis are also an example of cultural appropriation. When some Native American tribes did live in tipis, white people thought their homes were another sign of how primitive and uncivilized they were. But now that play tipis have become fashionable, white owned companies are selling them and making huge amounts of money off these products.

If you already have a play tipi, this discussion may be making you uncomfortable. Will the children in your class (or home) be disappointed if you remove it? Possibly.

But it’s a chance to talk with kids about how you’ve learned something new, and so you are changing. There are many other more authentic ways you can introduce children to Native American cultures and peoples. And if they love having a cozy place to play or read, you can replace it with an indoor play tent.

9. DON’T use stereotypical “Native American” music that comes in some school music series

Guy and Sally use examples such as the offensive “Ugh-A-Wug” song in the musical Peter Pan. They also caution us about other music that uses sounds rather than words. They also encourage educators to be wary of “traditional” songs that appear in music textbooks (with no supporting detail). Many of these songs are not authentic.

Lessons from Turtle Island includes a section of music recordings that the authors recommend. They remind educators that there’s a wide variety of styles and categories of Native American music.

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3 responses to “Teaching about Native Americans in Preschool and Kindergarten: Do’s and Don’ts”

  1. Dyami Avatar
    Dyami

    Wow, some great ideas in this post! I am Native American myself. I have always loved to educate my children with blast from the past days. We dress up, make crafts and read books(historically accurate). We love to go outdoors and try to re-create living during that time frame, harvesting, cooking and living the way they had during that time for the day. We dont ever pretend to be a specific race, as race does not always signify culture. Native Americans lived in many different cultural groups, which are all fun to explore. I think that if we get past the race sensitivity and realize it is a way for cultural understanding, it would not be so offensive. We do this for many cultures, exploring how people had lived long ago, and even how some live today in our vastly different cultures around the world.

  2. Wendy Avatar
    Wendy

    Thank you so much for this post. My 2-year old son participates in a structured play group and the “theme” this week is Native Americans. Getting a quick glimpse at the activities, I felt they were in poor taste and perpetuated stereotypes. These are lessons I do not want to teach my son. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what felt so wrong about the content but this post really helped me to sort through my feelings. You have some excellent suggestions here that will help me with this topic. Thank you, thank you!!

    1. Rebekah Gienapp Avatar

      I’m glad it’s helpful Wendy and I hope it will help you share your concerns with folks planning activities for the playgroup.