Native American project links Caribou educators and museum

As a kickoff to initiate public awareness of Caribou’s commitment to LD 291, the Nylander Museum of Natural History in Caribou presented two literary resources to two Caribou elementary schools (Teague Park/Principal Lois Brewer and Hilltop/Principal Jane Kilcollins). One children’s book, “When the Shadbush Blooms”,will be donated to each school’s children’s library and one “Wabanakis of Maine and the Maritimes”,will be donated to each school’s educator’s resource collection.
    Part of the LD 291 mandate by Maine’s Legislature is to addresse the need to teach accurate historical content to Maine students; in particular, the truth about Maine’s Native people and their longstanding history with the land. Most modern classrooms teach very little about Maine’s indigenous people and even less about the modern issues and challenges that face Indian people in current times. LD291 directs Maine’s public school systems to get the facts straight and teach about regional indigenous people in a manner that is accurate, sensitive to cultural differences and includes Native people’s involvement.
The Nylander Museum is a natural history museum that houses a substantial collection of prehistoric stone tools — artifacts that are thousands of years old and are the physical cultural remains of the paleo-Indian peoples that inhabited northern Maine shortly after the glaciers of the last Ice Age retreated. The Indian people in Aroostook County have an ancient connection to Maine and Canadian history. Native people have occupied this northern woodland/Maritime region for many thousands of years.
Jeanie McGowan, Nylander Museum director and the museum’s board of trustees felt that with a bit of support from the museum, Caribou educators were in a unique position to use the museum’s collection as a starting point for Indian cultural education in schools. The state had mandated the concept years ago, but few resources were actually available to educators, and some available resources were not sanctioned by Indian people. It was a treasure hunt to find resources that addressed cultural differences and guided accurate and inclusive teaching, according to McGowan.
The Nylander’s plan to support Caribou teachers began with many hours of searching for reference material; and then learning that most available resources lumped the Maine tribes into the Wabanaki Confederation — an 18th Century historical collaboration of five regional Algonquian tribes intended to increase strength and support among Maine’s five Indian cultures.
Most Wabanaki resources focused primarily on the southern/central Maine tribes — the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot people, and the Aroostook County Mi’kmaq and Maliseet people with ancestral Canadian roots were far less known than others in Maine.
McGowan says, “It seemed that very little educator material distinguished the two Aroostook County tribes and addressed their specific cultural differences from each other and from the other Maine tribes. When we recognized that imbalance, we felt an Aroostook County identity like the Nylander should step up to the plate and offer to share the workload to address LD291 in Caribou, at least. The Caribou School Department was a willing partner and soon our team grew to include educators (retired and in-service), museum staff and board members, people from the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet tribes, regional libraries, and interested local people.
“We have some of the Maine Indian history here in the museum on display in the form of stone tools. Because we house these sacred ancestral objects and because we are committed to honor their cultural significance and provide for their care and safety, we have developed over the years a working association and friendship with the Mi’kmaqs and the Maliseets. We are committed to fostering respect and inclusion, and finding avenues to develop resources. It seemed a natural path for the museum to work with area teachers and share the knowledge available through the museum and its friends.”
The Caribou LD 291 Project is dedicated to improving teacher resources and providing opportunities that address the educational mandate. The museum acts as liaison between the tribes and the educators, researching and providing resources to schools and organizing professional development opportunities and school presentations.
“We feel that the Nylander is a good starting point. We have dedicated some of our resources to work with this mandate and initiate a good beginning here in Caribou.  The path to successful implementation is sometimes complicated, but this is important work and it can be more effectively accomplished by groups of people working together. We truly feel that Indian people provide the best teacher resources to support teaching about Indian people, and we are working toward an interactive educational experience here in Caribou for students, educators and families,” says the Nylander director.
Without accurate resources the LD 291 job is impossible. Many of our homes and libraries have reference materials on the American Indian, but few have been critically reviewed as to their appropriateness or accuracy. When approached by McGowan to join the LD 291 effort, every community library in Aroostook County, including the Northern Maine Community College and the two university libraries in Presque Isle and Ft. Kent, signed onto the project with enthusiasm and conviction.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am of Aroostook County libraries and those dedicated individuals who provide such a service to our communities. Their commitment to this project is just outstanding,” says McGowan, “Not one person showed disinterest. Everyone was anxious to learn about their resources and move forward. I’m not sure this has ever been attempted before, but leave it to Aroostook County people to pull it off.”
Part of the Nylander’s goal is to support Bibliography Bingo workshops where participants cross-reference each library’s American Indian resources with national Indian-reviewed bibliographies that speak to a resource’s accuracy and appropriateness. Libraries will receive feedback from the Bingo workshops so they can learn which books to recommend to library patrons and which have not been accepted by Native reviewers. End goal — every community library in Aroostook County will be able to identify poor resources from good resources, and supply that information to educators and families.
The Nylander Museum has built its own small library of recommended books and videos that will go on display at the Caribou Public Library in the reference section—to be available for review, but not for borrowing. In addition to materials on Maine Indians, additional books about other American Indian cultures have been loaned to the Nylander and will be included in the library display for educators.
An extension of the Caribou LD291 Project is being drafted that will continue progress to include presentations on Native history and current issues in Aroostook schools, as well as review school libraries. McGowan is both realistic and enthusiastic. “This countywide project will likely become quite challenging at times. But the work ahead has incredible value and our overall goals support many, many educational content area including history, literacy, culture, science. It brings together people from schools, libraries, museums, and Indian communities. I am working with an LD291  team in Augusta that is reworking the Maine State Learning Results social studies and literacy guidelines to align with the mandate’s goals. I think we are on the threshold in Maine of developing a forward-moving change built on respect for all people and inclusive of all cultures—a celebration of our diversity,” she said.
Current project partners include Nyland Museum of Natural History, Caribou School Department, the Aroostook County community libraries, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs and the Houlton Band of Maliseets.
The Caribou LD 291 project plan for 2008-2009 includes plans: to design and construct two traveling trunks specific to Aroostook County Indian tribes, one representing the Mi’Kmaq culture and one representing the Maliseet culture; to offer professional development workshops and support resources to Caribou educators (PD workshops will be open to all educators, librarians, tribal members and interested public); and to coordinate a community library American Indian resource review by cross-referencing existing Aroostook County library holdings with lists of reviewed and approved or disapproved books and media.
Caribou project goals for LD 291 include: addressing the fact that the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes are fairly well represented in many of Maine’s currently available resources, yet the Aroostook County Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet tribes are under-represented in regional and statewide educator resource material; increasing educational resources for K-12 educators in Caribou and throughout Aroostook County that are specific to the Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet people; initiating and building a cohesive, community relationship between Aroostook Indian tribes and the Caribou schools by increasing cultural understanding and awareness; creating an accurately informed community of Caribou student and adult learners in the realm of cultural equity specific to the American Indian and  developing a regional extension of the project involving individuals and institutions (schools, tribes, museums, libraries, municipalities) that serves as a model for inclusion, equity and collaborative success based on an understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity.
Caribou LD 291 project objectives are: provide support to Caribou and Aroostook County schools to meet LD 291 mandate; direct Caribou and Aroostook County schools to equitable and appropriate resources; help Caribou and Aroostook County schools access tribal center resources; organize educator visits to Mi’Kmaq and Maliseet centers (Caribou School system has agreed to fund educators’ travel and sub time); fund community and PD presentations at the Nylander; create two classroom education kits — one on Mi’Kmaq people, one on Maliseet people; supply hands-on materials and books/media for traveling exhibit trunks; manage trunk construction and distribution; integrate the Nylander Museum’s Native Plants Medicinal Garden and Paleo-Indian Archaeology collections in trunk and classroom activities and lessons; integrate ethno-botany work of graduate student Michelle Baumbrek from the University Vermont.
Also, organize LD 291 PD sessions for Caribou educators; meet and greet tribal representatives/develop personal contacts; learn about Native people from Native people; earn strategies for inclusive appropriate classrooms; create a new relationship between the tribes and Caribou’s school system; create a list of reviewed Native presenters/opportunities/speakers/demonstrators that can visit schools or act as cultural resource mentors for Caribou educators; and provide a list of regional American Indian cultural events that welcome public participation and can be recommended to Caribou educators, students and families.
For more information contact McGowan at 493-4209.