The class will introduce the various major native civilizations of North and South America.  Students will learn about traditions, communities, games, activities, legends, all from the standpoint of the daily life of a child in those civilizations. This will be interactive with children exploring these activities such as the Great Ball Game (Pok-A-Tok).  They will look at original art and dramatizations, re-enacted videos and participate in a number of activities to experience this daily life.  All materials, including re-enactments and original sources, will be taken from scholars who are also members of indigenous North and South American tribes.  

As this will be a class for younger students, the activities and projects will be specific to the cultures we are studying at the time. For example:
     -Playing Pok-A-Tok (Aztec-ullamaliztli or tlachtli) is easy to set up and children have a great time learning a very simple but very 
      difficult game.  
     -Building a small chinampa will help students understand how important these floating gardens were to the survival of certain 
      cultures.  
     -Building a diorama of a mound builder or long house village (Cahokia; Haudenosaunee or Confederation of Six Nations as 
      examples) will help the students understand community spacing, security and usage.
These are just a few activities we will have during the duration of the course.

 My academic background and life experience will play a vital role in the success of this class.  In 1982, I worked with the Tribal Elders of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Idaho developing consumer finance policy and programs for their members.  I have a minor in cultural anthropology and spent two summers living with the Hutterites in King's Colony, Montana, studying their faith.  I completed the full course study in Meso-American history and culture at university as well as two courses in Native legends and myths.  I have lived in the Czech Republic as a Fulbright Scholar, studying education and Roma (Gypsy) culture.  I have lived and worked in both the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, working at schools with native Arab populations.  I have approached these experiences, as best I could, trying to be as native as possible.  For example, I learned Czech and spoke only Czech (as best I could) to make the experience more authentic in Brno, Moravia;  Arabic in the Middle East helped as well.  In Idaho, I needed to take courses in Tribal Law to be able to assist in the work there.  I feel I am an objective student of all cultures and I believe this will be a positive journey for the students.

The intent of this course is to present these cultures to students, not from a western aspect but as a respecter and student of their civilization's story.  I have been helping students understand history, culture and government in entertaining and thought provoking ways for 28 years.