Education Everywhere — With her white shawl opening like butterfly wings, Grand Rapids Museum Middle School seventh-grader Asuncrana Dandridge danced for an audience of school-age peers.
She was sharing the fancy shawl, a Native American dance during the Grand Rapids Public Musuem’s Anishinaabe Culture Day, when school groups visited to learn about the history of Indigenous culture.
Asuncrana, member of a Potowatami tribe of Native Americans, said she was excited to share a piece of her heritage during the dancing and drumming showcase.
“I feel happy that people can learn about our culture, see us dance and know we are still here,” she said.
She was joined on stage by Annabelle Kendall, a sixth-grader at Museum School, and Native American dancers and drummers of all ages from several tribes.
Along with watching the dancing, students from Lowell, Grandville and other area districts spent the day interacting with tribe members to learn about indigenous people, their longevity in Michigan and their traditions.
Anishinaabe, members of a group of culturally related indigenous people in the Great Lakes region, presented on pottery, basket weaving and oral storytelling. Students made corn husk dolls and played native games.
Teachers tied the opportunity to third- and fifth-grade social studies lessons about Michigan’s history and indigenous people. Lowell Area Schools Cherry Creek Elementary School fifth-grade teacher Kori Grooters said her students have learned the Native American regions of North America and made Native American dwelling dioramas from household items.
Said Grooters: “It ties everything together for them to see instead of just reading and looking at pictures (and) for them to be able to actually talk to tribal members.”
John Pigeon, a member of the Pokagon band of Potowatomi, demonstrated basket weaving with his son and granddaughter.
“We tell the people we are still here. We are still living a good life on the lands that were made for us,” Pigeon said. “By engaging the kids when they are young, we hope to dispel a lot of stereotypes about our people. They say that we are vanishing Americans, but we are not. We have been doing the same things for twenty to thirty thousand years in this area.”
Grandville West Elementary teacher Heather Smith said her third-graders have been learning about indigenous people dating back to the Ice Age, including their stories, the uniqueness of different tribes and fur trading.
“It’s all about Michigan, who was here before the explorers,” Smith said.
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