574 Nations - Native America is Many, Not One

Show vs. Tell: project a 'Native American' generic stock illustration (the kind the textbook used to use - a single feathered figure on a horse) next to MG-3, the 574 Nations map. 'What's wrong with picture 1?' Children name the problem - one image cannot stand for hundreds of nations.

• Name the stereotype gently ('this is what books used to show')
• Highlight 4 distinct nation icons on MG-3
• Affirm and label children's noticings

M-2-F-CUL-02-A Map

Two panels: LEFT panel a small (8x10) faded textbook-illustration of a single feathered figure on horseback labeled 'NATIVE AMERICAN' (clearly marked DO-NOT-USE-THIS); RIGHT panel a full-color NMAI 'We Are 574' wall map of US tribal nations at 36x48 with each nation pin-labeled and dots sized to population. Both labeled with provenance. NMAI map credit: 'Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 2023, used with permission via NK360.' Color key: Algonquian family (blue), Siouan (red), Athabaskan (green), Iroquoian (gold), Muskogean (purple), Salishan (teal), Uto-Aztecan (orange), Inuit-Yupik (white-on-grey), other (grey-outline).

There is no ONE Native American people. There are 574 federally recognized Tribal Nations in the United States today, plus more nations recognized only by their states or by themselves. Each nation has its own LAND, its own LANGUAGE, its own SONGS, its own LAWS, its own LEADERS. The Diné (Navajo) Nation in the southwest is different from the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Nation in Oklahoma, which is different from the Wampanoag Nation in Massachusetts, which is different from the Tlingit Nation in Alaska.

• If a book or movie shows ONE 'Native American' character, it is making a mistake. The right question is: which nation?

  model NO - three different languages from three different nations. Each is the real language of a real nation today.

  prompt Let's listen to three greetings - Diné 'yá'át'ééh', Lakota 'háu', Mvskoke 'hesci'. Are these the same language?

• Show me ONE nation on the MG-3 map and say its name aloud.
• True or false: All Native people speak the same language. (False)

• Pair-work: each pair picks 1 nation from the local region list and uses the sentence frame to introduce it to the class.

  scaffold Use the MG-3 wall map - find the nation, point to it, then say the sentence.
• Class chant: 'There are five hundred seventy-four nations - and our nation has its name.' Then each child says their selected nation aloud.

• Name THREE distinct Tribal Nations and point to each on the map.

• Add '574' and 'diverse' and 'distinct' to Word Wall
• Preview tomorrow: where is OUR region on this map?

• Find one Tribal Nation name in the news this week (online or in a newspaper at home, with a grown-up). Be ready to share the name and what the news was about.