Indian Hats?!

Over the past few days, some of the children have been asking for feathers from our art center to make "Indian Hats".

This presents an interesting opportunity to further our diversity work.  This work is often a bit unclear and, at times, uncomfortable.  The children feel no discomfort.  After all, they are just making "Indian Hats".  To them, this is a simply a fun and creative craft activity.  So why does this activity bring up discomfort for some adults?  Is it because the Native Americans have been victims of genocide and still face serious struggles to this day?  Is it because they are depicted negatively in children's movies and in the media in general?  Perhaps these questions lead us to feel protective of the Native Americans, and we impulsively rush to defend their name and their image - even from children who are innocently engaged in a craft activity.  So at this point you may be wondering how we are handling the situation.  Is there even a "situation" that needs handling?  Here is a dialogue that occurred between teachers...

Raji: "Some of the children are making "Indian Hats".  It seems harmless enough, but for some reason I feel like I should say something to them about it.  What's your take on this?"

Kathy:  "You could try asking them what they know about Native Americans..."

Raji:  "Great idea!  I'll do that."

So here is what they know about Native Americans...

They have bows and shields
They wear these hats all the time
They fight with bows and arrows

I started telling them about how there was a guy who thought he was in India, but he was wrong - so he started calling them Indians.  Now we refer to them as Native Americans (although you might meet some who prefer to be called Indians - respectful terminology is often a moving target).  I also told them that the hats with feathers were usually worn during "holidays", and not all the time, as some may think.

I stopped there, because I am not an expert in the field, and kindergartners have a relatively narrower range of attention than most grown ups.

I started thinking about our seed study and I planned on making some kind of a connection there...

Hey - wait a minute...  The 4th graders are studying the Lenape - the Indigenous people of this region!  We look forward to their visit tomorrow as they share some interesting information that they have acquired in their individual research on topics that they have chosen to study...