Oregon Tribal Curriculum

Nowadays, I get requests all the time for relevant tribal curriculum for public schools. This has been an issue for decades in Oregon. There were tribal curriculum units created in the 1950s and later by various school districts. I will try to dig up a copy of the Salem School District curriculum- it is actually not too bad, for the time period.  Then some of the historical societies had curriculum and “history chests” they let schools borrow. I know Marion County Historical Society has such a chest, with materials and some baskets, degraded by decades of use.

The first statewide curriculum was Indians In Oregon Today. This curriculum was organized and written in the 1990s and finalized in 2004, and appears to have rarely been used. It was put out with the help of the Oregon Indian Education Association.

Then as of 2017 a project was planned to have another Tribal curriculum written for the state, the project was aided by a bill SB13, and is still rolling out. Several tribes completed their portion by 2021. Many Tribes of Oregon added units to the curriculum, some are still working on their units.

It has been critically noted, numerous times by myself and other native professionals, that there has never been a good plan to roll out this curriculum to school districts. The Oregon State Education Department did some area trainings- but to this day the curriculum seems to be rarely used. SB 13 had no money for education about Indigenous studies, and so most teachers do not know how to address tribal history and culture in the classroom. In addition, universities with teacher training programs have not stepped up and insisted their new teachers take ethnic studies or Indigenous studies courses to get their degrees. Today, few teachers can effectively and confidently teach indigenous studies topics.

Instead, I continue to hear about schools teaching Lewis and Clark and/or Oregon Trail as Native history-which it is not. I teach at the university level, so I am hearing this directly from your graduated students. They tell me, and the whole class, that they are not happy to realize that what they were being taught in their high school was incorrect and inaccurate and some are even angry about the fact that they have to forget everything they have learned previously about the Native peoples of the state.

But for practitioners, teachers and curriculum advocates there are options today for nearly every tribal region, that many still do not know about.

Curriculum | Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Duration: 30–90 minutes (modifiable based on need) Dive into the rich history, struggles, and resilience of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. This presentation sheds light on the tribe’s indigenous culture, ancestral lands, and their journey throughout centuries of colonization and forced removals. Through stories, captivating videos, and photographs, this engaging presentation highlights … http://www.grandronde.org

Oregon Department of Education : Tribal Curriculum : American Indian/Alaska Native Education : State of Oregon In 2017, Oregon Legislature enacted Senate Bill 13 which directs Oregon Department of Education (ODE), in partnership with Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes, to create Native American K-12 curriculum for Oregon public Schools. Looking towards the future of Tribal History/ Shared History through the Office of Indian Education we are currently working with each of the nine federally … http://www.oregon.gov

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The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw has some curriculum on their website

I cannot find additional curriculum from the Warm Springs website but the High Desert Museum has  curriculum about the Wasco peoples. The project was supported by the Warm Springs tribe.

The Umatilla Tribe has their education website devoted to Language education and they have a lot available on their website. Some of the units appear easily used in the classroom- especially the Traditional Ecological Knowledge units.

I did not find curriculum from the Coquille, Klamath, Burns Paiute, or Cow Creek- although I know some of these tribes are still working on the state curriculum units, or have them already on the state website, and they are mainly concerned with language preservation, acquisition and research.

The Cow Creeks have a very dynamic Takelma Language education program, with products available online and at the Takelma Coffee website.