Cultivating a new culture

INVERNESS — The fifth-grade social studies students in Barbie Anderson’s class traded in their desks and chairs in a classroom Monday for a seat on a bearskin rug on the floor of a teepee.
 

Matthew Beck

David Kelly, 11, right, seems less enthused than his fifth-grade classmates Karyl Sonza, center and Haleigh Morgan, as the they inspect a tannedskunk pelt. The students have been studying American Indians and their culture.

Buy this photo

Matthew Beck

Fifth-grade teacher Barbie Anderson explains some of the many items that adorn this large teepee.

Buy this photo

Matthew Beck

More than 20 students easily fit into the teepee.

Buy this photo

Matthew Beck

Students look at a necklace made from beads and coins.

Buy this photo

Matthew Beck

Authentic clothing and items used in everyday life in the Native Indian world were available for the students to learn from.

Buy this photo

Anderson, a Pleasant Grove Elementary School instructor, has worked in the school district for more than 30 years. She says as part of the benchmarks her students must complete by year’s end, her classes are studying Native American culture.
 

In recent weeks, her six fifth-grade classes have been studying that culture by reading and watching videos, but she says the first-hand experience can’t be topped.
 

“The students are much more tuned into what we are doing,” she said of the out of the classroom lesson.
 

She says watching videos and the lessons from their books are not tangible to the youngsters.
“Now they’re making connections to what they’ve seen on a video and what they see in front of their eyes. They’ll remember a lot of that.”
 

More than 20 students made their way from the school building and into the narrow opening of the gigantic teepee, which measures 16 feet across the floor. The class had room to spare inside the living quarters.
 

Anderson carefully explained each of the items she brought to her students.
Beaded necklaces, clothing items made from white-tail deer and cowhide, decorative jewelry that included one piece made from elk teeth were just some of the items she passed around the teepee during the 45-minute lesson.
 

Students closely inspected  all of the trinkets, clothing and headdresses.
 

One item that got quite a reaction was a skunk pelt that had been tanned, smell-free of course.
“The thing I liked best was the skunk skin. That was cool,” Karyl Sonza, 10, said.
 

Students seemed amazed at the amount of people and belongings a large teepee can hold.
 

“It’s really big and I’ve never seen a teepee before,” said Karyl Sonza.
 

Classmate Haleigh Morgan, 10, was equally impressed with the teepee.
 

“I thought that it was really cool. There was all of this ancient Indian stuff,” she said. “It was all old and cool with all of the colors and deer skins. From the outside the teepee looked really, really small. I didn’t think the whole class could fit inside but when you got inside it was really big.”
 

Anderson and her husband Paul have been married more than 40 years and the couple have participated in pow-wows their entire marriage, according to Anderson.
 

Paul Anderson is a Boy Scout leader and has been involved in studying and sharing of the culture since the age of 12, his wife said.
 

“He’s been doing it for years and years and years, its part of the Boy Scout life,” she said.
Her husband will visit the school Friday to continue the lesson and teach the students about ancient Indians, using authentic Indian artifacts.
 

The teacher says that Native American culture continues to be an important part of her family, including when raising the couple’s children and sharing what they know with other youngsters is special to her. She said she wants this lesson to be more than every other lesson the children in her class learn.
 

“I want them to see and feel and touch,” she said. “They saw the splashy stuff on the screen. I want them to understand that what they see sometimes in cowboys and Indians movies isn’t the real Native American Indian. These people have a culture and they were very family oriented.”