I'm a preschool teacher...apparently I'm changing my November craft plans. I sadly had no idea the headdress was offensive. I'm glad I read this.

Anonymous wrote:I’d be very upset about this as well.

Hahahahahaha!

Anonymous wrote:Oh, really? You guys think it is totally cool to create a "Native American headress?"

Wow. You will have to tell me more about what that looks like.

Did it look like this?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enUS674US674&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=gT4BWrrqAYHxkwXdvKfwCA&q=micmac+hat&oq=micmac+hat&gs_l=psy-ab.3...43961.44106.0.44256.3.3.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..3.0.0....0.xEkaajzeBBE#imgrc=4rjjO-5SFUH7kM:

No?

Perhaps like this?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enUS674US674&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=I0ABWo32IoWvkwXH8rWgDg&q=traditional+seminole+headdress&oq=traditional+seminole+headdress&gs_l=psy-ab.3...23438.25189.0.25347.12.10.0.0.0.0.180.924.0j6.6.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..8.1.146...0i13k1j0i8i13i30k1.0.m2fdgBwqxHE#imgrc=5ixuMpNDisKQnM:

Let me guess-- it was supposed to be a child's version of this:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enUS674US674&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=PkABWpy5HYersAfElq2YAw&q=lakota+sioux+headdress&oq=lakota&gs_l=psy-ab.1.2.0j0i67k1l2j0l5j0i67k1j0.63397.64187.0.66573.6.6.0.0.0.0.151.582.0j4.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..2.4.581....0.lu92GVMHAys#imgrc=8TmEIT3C3k2XlM:

In other words, a mockery of a piece of important religious/ceremonial clothing that traditionally had to be earned and was worn only in a few tribes?

How about next week your kids make 'African clothing' to learn about the genocidal slavery practices Europeans once engaged in? No? Want to tell me there is no such thing as 'African clothing' and that Egyptians have far different traditional clothing than the Maasai?

Listen-- I let a lot of appropriation stuff slide right off my back but the whole reduction of two continents of cultures and peoples reduced down to a single caricature really gets me going. If you want to teach your kids about Native Americans teach them about your area's local tribes and the clothes they wore. And please, for crying out loud, teach them that we are actually still around...

Thank you

Anonymous wrote:What is the correct terminology: American Indian, Indian, Native American, or Native?

All of these terms are acceptable. The consensus, however, is that whenever possible, Native people prefer to be called by their specific tribal name. In the United States, Native American has been widely used but is falling out of favor with some groups, and the terms American Indian or indigenous American are preferred by many Native people.

http://nmai.si.edu/explore/education/did-you-know/P

all wrong. Indigenous American is now the favored flavor of the month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am with you, OP - I hate it. It is inauthentic and insulting. Something from the 1950s. I would simply tell the Director that unless the children are learning about one specific tribe from one specific time period that the making of a generic, Hollywood "Indian" headdress is demeaning.

Your mistake is to think that what's Politically Correct for adults is appropriate for young children. It's not.

It's preschool, people. The kids are going to remember a handful of images, and whether you lectured them on the customs of a specific tribe or not, they will only remember a hairband with feathers.
And they will remember it was FUN! And later they'll want to know more about it and they'll read up on it, and go the museum of the American Indian (my kids love that place) and understand that our world can be cruel and complicated.

Keep that spark of fun, otherwise they won't love learning. Keep it so simple that it IS CARICATURE. This is what's developmentally appropriate for preschoolers. There will be a lifetime of progressively more subtle and restrictive language and posturing for them later on.

An entire culture should not be reduced to a caricature because it is fun for preschoolers. Glue feathers on a headband and be a bird. Teaching culturally insensitive and FAKE culture is not a "spark of fun". And it NOT developmentally appropriate for any preschooler to even begin to understand the complexities of the Native American culture and what European settlers did to them. Preschoolers should be learning about animals - not a tortured and murdered people.

So because they were/are treated badly we should pretend they don't exist to our preschoolers? I really hope you didn't mean that.

Oh, really? You guys think it is totally cool to create a "Native American headress?"

Wow. You will have to tell me more about what that looks like.

Did it look like this?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enUS674US674&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=gT4BWrrqAYHxkwXdvKfwCA&q=micmac+hat&oq=micmac+hat&gs_l=psy-ab.3...43961.44106.0.44256.3.3.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..3.0.0....0.xEkaajzeBBE#imgrc=4rjjO-5SFUH7kM:

No?

Perhaps like this?

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enUS674US674&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=I0ABWo32IoWvkwXH8rWgDg&q=traditional+seminole+headdress&oq=traditional+seminole+headdress&gs_l=psy-ab.3...23438.25189.0.25347.12.10.0.0.0.0.180.924.0j6.6.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..8.1.146...0i13k1j0i8i13i30k1.0.m2fdgBwqxHE#imgrc=5ixuMpNDisKQnM:

Let me guess-- it was supposed to be a child's version of this:

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1CAACAJ_enUS674US674&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=PkABWpy5HYersAfElq2YAw&q=lakota+sioux+headdress&oq=lakota&gs_l=psy-ab.1.2.0j0i67k1l2j0l5j0i67k1j0.63397.64187.0.66573.6.6.0.0.0.0.151.582.0j4.4.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..2.4.581....0.lu92GVMHAys#imgrc=8TmEIT3C3k2XlM:

In other words, a mockery of a piece of important religious/ceremonial clothing that traditionally had to be earned and was worn only in a few tribes?

How about next week your kids make 'African clothing' to learn about the genocidal slavery practices Europeans once engaged in? No? Want to tell me there is no such thing as 'African clothing' and that Egyptians have far different traditional clothing than the Maasai?

Listen-- I let a lot of appropriation stuff slide right off my back but the whole reduction of two continents of cultures and peoples reduced down to a single caricature really gets me going. If you want to teach your kids about Native Americans teach them about your area's local tribes and the clothes they wore. And please, for crying out loud, teach them that we are actually still around...

I am 100% in agreement with you, OP. I would be disgusted, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach Pre-K and to wear during our Thanksgiving feast we will make "harvest crowns," inspired by American Indian headdresses. Is that okay with you, OP?

What will it look like?

It will be a headband on brown corrugated paper. It will be decorated by autumn leaves that we have preserved in glycerin.

I would be outraged that you manipulated the leaves' natural life cycle.

I agree with you OP. I was in Michael's yesterday and genuinely surprised to see Indian crafts on the Thanksgiving rack.

I will say that when I was in K, not only did we make elaborate construction paper Pilgrim and Indian costumes, but the girls assigned to be Indians had to carry paper papooses while the boys got bows and arrows. I was pissed, as I wanted a bow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I teach Pre-K and to wear during our Thanksgiving feast we will make "harvest crowns," inspired by American Indian headdresses. Is that okay with you, OP?

What will it look like?

It will be a headband on brown corrugated paper. It will be decorated by autumn leaves that we have preserved in glycerin.

I'm so glad we moved to a part of the country where parents don't look for reasons to be offended.

Signed,
Choctaw Nation member

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am with you, OP - I hate it. It is inauthentic and insulting. Something from the 1950s. I would simply tell the Director that unless the children are learning about one specific tribe from one specific time period that the making of a generic, Hollywood "Indian" headdress is demeaning.

Your mistake is to think that what's Politically Correct for adults is appropriate for young children. It's not.

It's preschool, people. The kids are going to remember a handful of images, and whether you lectured them on the customs of a specific tribe or not, they will only remember a hairband with feathers.
And they will remember it was FUN! And later they'll want to know more about it and they'll read up on it, and go the museum of the American Indian (my kids love that place) and understand that our world can be cruel and complicated.

Keep that spark of fun, otherwise they won't love learning. Keep it so simple that it IS CARICATURE. This is what's developmentally appropriate for preschoolers. There will be a lifetime of progressively more subtle and restrictive language and posturing for them later on.

An entire culture should not be reduced to a caricature because it is fun for preschoolers. Glue feathers on a headband and be a bird. Teaching culturally insensitive and FAKE culture is not a "spark of fun". And it NOT developmentally appropriate for any preschooler to even begin to understand the complexities of the Native American culture and what European settlers did to them. Preschoolers should be learning about animals - not a tortured and murdered people.

Everything a preschooler learns is simplified down to caricature, don't you get it? Science, history, everything except reading and math.
It truly does not matter, because they are only going to retain that learning is fun.

You probably don't have older children, because this continues until the end of their academic career. They learn a little bit more about tribe lifestyles in 4th grade, and AGAIN, it's simplified. Which is as it should be! In middle school they learn about ancient civilizations, Old Europe and empire-building, and do they gloss over massacres, colonization effects and perverted customs? You bet they do. In high school some teachers can get more reflective and have the students think more about the implication of culture loss and forced integration across history, but it's really if you choose specific college courses that you can really get into it.

Don't be so ignorant with your pearl-clutching, it's clear you really have no clue what you're talking about, either on the history front or the child development front.
Otherwise you will spend their entire childhood feeling offended and attempting to suppress a perfectly normal learning process.

Sorry:

http://nmai.si.edu/explore/education/did-you-know/

What is the correct terminology: American Indian, Indian, Native American, or Native?

All of these terms are acceptable. The consensus, however, is that whenever possible, Native people prefer to be called by their specific tribal name. In the United States, Native American has been widely used but is falling out of favor with some groups, and the terms American Indian or indigenous American are preferred by many Native people.

http://nmai.si.edu/explore/education/did-you-know/P

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What if they had made Pilgrim hats, OP? Would that have bothered you as much?

DP but my kid is doing a pilgrim hat. Should I be offended?

In DS's preschool, some of the children made pilgrim hats and others made Indian headdresses. I don't know how the teachers decided which one was which.