Early Native Literacy
Introduction
This unit, Early Native Literacy, is designed to introduce young learners to Native American histories, cultures, and contemporary experiences through literature, visual arts, and reflective discussion. The unit centers around two key texts: Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard and Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series by Traci Sorell. Both books highlight Native American resilience, the power of community, and the importance of preserving and sharing cultural identity. The unit is guided by core themes include cultural strengths, sovereignty, and Indigenous knowledge systems, all supported by the 5E instructional model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate.
The first lesson: Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story (FBANAFS), is a story about Native American resilience. Through the use of verse, FBANAFS uses fry bread to pull together themes of family, diversity, history and cultural traditions. Above all, it showcases the important message that Native Americans are still here. United States Reservation Era federal policy removed American Indians from their homelands and onto reservations. On reservations, Native communities found themselves with limited economic prospects, and land that was difficult to farm. According to Kevin Noble Maillard (2019), the book’s author, “exiled Natives strived to retain...old traditions...[while creating] new ones, especially for food. They took the federal rations of “powdered, canned, and other dry, government-issued foods” and created what we know today as fry bread (FBANAFS, Author’s Note, para.2).
The second lesson, Contenders: Two Native Baseball Players, One World Series, is a nonfiction book about two baseball players, John Meyers and Charles Bender) who faced off in the 1911 World Series. This picture book pulls together themes of resilience and the fight for representation in sports. Through this lens, students examine issues of discrimination, perseverance, and achievement. They explore how these athletes navigated barriers and became symbols of strength for their communities. Students engage in historical inquiry, character analysis, and creative projects like designing their own baseball cards. This lesson is aligned to upper K–3 literacy and social studies standards and emphasizes the ongoing contributions of Native Americans to national narratives.
