New Everyday Native Resource: Selected by Montana Indian Education

Walnut Creek, Calif. (August 22, 2018) – Everyday Native, a new free 4th-12th grade online teacher's resource, was selected by Montana's Office of Public Instruction (OPI), a leader in Indian Education, in its first week. Everyday Native is the first collaborative teacher's resource created by non-Native and Native Americans to focus on the daily lives of Native youth. Montana's OPI recognizes Everyday Native as an effective cross-cultural resource that helps reduce racism by creating understanding and respect between non-Native and Native American students.

Montana's OPI lists Everyday Native in three subject areas: Language Arts, Social Studies and Art.

Currently, the mission of Everyday Native is set against a backdrop of startling increases in race-based bullying and hate-acts throughout the nation's K-12 educational settings. For Native America youth between 15-24 years old, historical and present day racism contributes to a higher than national average rate of suicide. Everyday Native aims to fuel a teacher-led movement healing racism and ignorance, one classroom at a time.

Early praise from teachers in Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, and California welcomes the resource's positive message and how it dispels stereotypes of American Indian peoples. To ensure accuracy and cultural sensitivity, Everyday Native content is reviewed by Lakota and Salish educators.

Educational Institutions Embrace Everyday Native: A Tool to Fight Hate

Amidst rising trends of hate and bullying in K-12th school settings, there has been a parallel rise in recognizing a need for increased diversity education for school staff and students. Recent reports also find that the media largely continue harmful stereotypes of Native peoples, which further influences laws and policies affecting the daily lives of Native families. Additionally, while research shows that Native peoples are 'invisible' in modern society, recent increases in the number of states requiring Indian or Diversity Education means that more teachers are using educational resources like Everyday Native to combat these trends.

Recently, Everyday Native was shared and discussed amongst students, faculty, and community members at Harvard University. The response: overwhelmingly positive.

Everyday Native cross cultural-collaborator, Victor Charlo, states, "As a longtime educator and curriculum developer, I see Everyday Native as a unique, innovative addition to teachers' toolkits. It will bring real social change into classrooms."

Since its July 31st launch, Everyday Native has been featured by Montana Public Radio, The Write Question/NPR, Wyoming Public Media, Native News Online, Language Magazine, and the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language, and Literacy.

Cross-Cultural Collaboration: A Long Friendship

Teachers and students using the Everyday Native resource will discover stories, photography and poetry focused on the daily lives of Native youth. Each chapter includes discussion and writing sections that follow a Native youth's stories and ask students to think about the highlighted youth's experiences and also relate it to their own. Stories are reviewed with parents and updated to keep information relevant.

Everyday Native was born out of the collaboration between a non-Native documentary photographer, Sue Reynolds, and Victor Charlo, a Salish Indian poet-playwright and venerated member of the Salish Kootenai Tribes. Reynolds and Charlo's first collaboration included a photo-poetry book, Still Here: Not Living in Tipis (2013), saw success and recognition from then U.S. Congressman George Miller and California State Senator Mark DeSaulnier. Both Reynolds and Charlo's works help heal racism and have appeared in national and international outlets.

Fact Sheet

• Everyday Native is a free 4th-12th grade teacher's resource created to help bridge the gap of understanding between non-Native and Native American youth. Starting in late July 2018, teachers, parents and the public can access it at http://www.everydaynative.com.

• Everyday Native is the first collaborative teacher's resource created by non-Natives and Native Americans to focus on the daily lives of Native youth.

• Suicide is 2.5 times the national rate and the second leading cause of death for Native American youth, in part due to historical and present day racism.

• Everyday Native's goal is to help reduce racism by asking students to reflect on the daily lives of Native youth, who walk the two worlds of non-Native and Native life.

• Everyday Native emphasizes the everyday life of Native Americans as opposed to popular stereotypes created by movies, TV, books and news media.

• Everyday Native enhances the study of many subjects, including Language Arts, Native American History, U.S. History, Social Studies, Current Events, Photography, Poetry, and Art.

• Founder-photographer Sue Reynolds created the photographs in Everyday Native over 12 years and more than 50,000 miles visiting Indian reservations.

• Revered Salish Indian poet and elder Victor Charlo wrote the poems that appear in Everyday Native based on his life on and off the reservation over the past 50 years.

• Everyday Native features photos and stories of 12 Native American families and is reviewed by Lakota and Salish educators. Teacher-reviewers say "The photography is exquisite, the poems breathtaking. There are extended opportunities for learning."