Do Your Homework

By Gail Junion-Metz -- School Library Journal, 4/1/1998

When students are assigned reports on Native Americans this year, you can be ready

The signs are always the same: Suddenly, all the books on Native Americans are disappearing. Lots of frustrated young customers are asking for help. You feel a headache coming on. At some point in every school year, students flood the library with assignments to research Native American history and culture. The following sites should provide some help.

Just the Facts

If you need to find information about Indian tribes, visit NativeWeb, created, says the site, as an outgrowth of 1994's Internet for Native Peoples Conference. Its "Resource Center" contains a "Nations Index" and "Geographic Region Index." Each index topic is followed by sub-topics. For example, a map of the Inuit people would be in the maps subsection under "Inuit" in the "Nations Index." Also visit the "Subject Index," where, under "Historical Materials," I found information on the intriguing, animal-shaped tribal burial mounds in Ohio. Other areas of this site are designed for, not about, Native Americans, such as the "Tracing Your Roots" section. These areas could help students researching contemporary Native American life.

My second stop would be the Index of Native American Resources on the Internet, maintained by Karen Strom, a member of the NativeWeb collective. Here you'll find a compact, well-organized group of links. In the "Electronic Texts" section (which provides full-text documents) I found Eskimo stories and the Iroquois Constitution. Check out the "History" section, which offers written and oral histories, such as interviews with Saskatchewan elders. Teachers might like the "Education" section, which includes items on standardized testing of Native American children and multicultural curriculum materials for preschools.

If you are working with elementary and younger middle school students, visit The Native American History Archive, which is hosted by the Institute for Learning Technologies at Columbia University. This site is less text-heavy and more visually appealing than the two previous sites. Younger children can visit "The Navigator" for pictures, clickable maps, a timeline, and information about Indian chiefs. Be sure to click on the "Curricula" link for teaching resources and visit the "Tribe Finder."

From Dreamcatchers to Kivas

For students interested in general background reading, try the "Native American Studies" section of Study Web. This site is specifically designed for teachers, librarians, and homeschooling parents. Study Web contains well-written annotations on sites for students, offering grade-level designations and describing the amount of graphic material on each site. You'll find unique Native American links listed here, such as "Etiquette on the Reservation" and "Animal Symbolism in Plains Indian Sun Dance."

If classes need to find out about Indian crafts, then NativeTech, created by anthropologist Tara Prindle, is your site. Here they can find out how to make willow toys, dreamcatchers, and cornhusk figures, or see indigenous art. Interested in how native peoples have dressed? Then visit Native Clothing, an online exhibit sponsored by the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Speaking of museums, stop at the National Museum of the American Indian and visit its online exhibits. In the museum's "Conexus" project, students can follow their curiosity and "walk" from room to room. Or how about taking a 3-D tour of a Native American kiva (ritual house)? Visit Sipapu: Chetro Ketl Great Kiva, where you click on different parts of the kiva to move around. (Or if you have a later version of Netscape, fly through the kiva via a Quicktime movie.) This site really shows off the Web's potential for educators.

Web Addresses

• NativeWeb/Resource Center
  www.nativeweb.org/resource.phtml
• Index of Native American Resources on the Internet
  hanksville.phast.umass.edu/misc/NAresources.html
• The Native American History Archive
  www.ilt.columbia.edu/k12/naha
• Study Web/Native American Studies
  www.studyweb.com/culture/nativeam.htm
• NativeTech
  www.lib.uconn.edu/NativeTech/
• Native Clothing
  www.civilization.ca/membrs/fph/stones/clothing/clmenu.htm
• National Museum of the American Indian
  www.si.edu/cgi-bin/nav.cgi
• National Museum of the American Indian/Conexus
  www.conexus.si.edu/main.htm
• Sipapu: Chetro Ketl Great Kiva
  sipapu.ucsb.edu/html/kiva.html