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Abenaki History in the Monadnock Region- Teacher Workshop
August 12, 2022 @ 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Abenaki History in the Monadnock Region is a one-day teacher workshop, ideal for grade school and middle school educators who seek to expand their knowledge of Abenaki history and culture. Sessions are a mix of lectures and activities and focus on the region’s 13,000-year history including: archaeology and how Indigenous culture has evolved; interactions between Indigenous people and European settlers; Native connections to the land; ethnobotany; and, a contemporary look at Abenaki identity and culture. The workshop will close with an introduction to free educational resources offered by the Historical Society of Cheshire County for classroom use.
Schedule of Sessions
Schedule:
8:30am. Registration
9am. Prehistory, Pre-contact & Archaeology. Dr. Goodby
10am. Contact Between Europeans, Abenaki People, and the Land. J. Dow
11am. Ethnobotany Lessons. L. Murphy
LUNCH
1pm: Modern Interactions between Abenaki People & the Dominent Culture. J. Dow
2pm: Indigenous Identity & Culture Today. L. Murphy
3:30pm: Abenaki Resources for the Classroom. L. Murphy
4pm: Closing discussions & wrap up
Essential Skills Addressed
Theme A: Conflict and Cooperation
Theme B: Civic Ideals, Practices, & Engagement
Theme C: People, Places & Environment
Theme D: Material Wants and Needs
Theme G: Science, Technology, & Society
Theme H: Individualism, Equality & Authority (Colonialism. and balancing the rights of the individual with the rights of a group)
Theme I: Patterns of Social and Political Interaction (Equality vs. Equity)
State Themes Addressed
Attendees will be able to:
- Find social studies-related information, draw on the diversity of sources, and discriminate between the most worthwhile and trustworthy sources.
- Distinguish between primary and secondary sources.
- Detect cause and effect relationships.
- Distinguish between facts, interpretations, and opinions.
- Recognize author bias; recognize propaganda.
Robert Goodby is a professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University. He holds a PhD in anthropology from Brown University and has spent the last thirty years studying Native American archaeological sites in New England. In 2010, he directed the excavations of four 12,000 year-old Paleoindian dwellings at the Tenant Swamp site in Keene. Goodby is the author of the 2021 book A Deep Presence: 13,000 Years of Native American History as well as many scholarly articles on paleo-Indians and archaeology.
For 35 years, Judy Dow has been a educator/mentor, braiding into all of her educational work core concepts of the Wabanaki people of New England: Respect, Reciprocity, Relationships, Responsibility, Reverence. Judy was the recipient of the VT Governor’s Heritage Award for Outstanding Educator in 2004. She has taught students from pre-K to university and worked in community settings, reservations, prisons, and assisted living centers. Her current focus is reclaiming historical Indigenous stories, and mapping them to provide youth with another perspective of history, science and math. These tools will assist them in making meaning of their own lives.
Lynn Murphy is an Abenaki elder, wife, mother, grandmother, and a descendant of the Sadoques family of Keene, NH. She recently retired as a middle school science teacher and now works on an Indigenous humanities summer camp for youth through the Vermont Humanities Council. She is a former trustee of the Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum and currently serves on the board of Gedakina.
Registration: $75 (includes activities, meals, and handouts). Teachers using the promo code “ABENAKI” will receive a 100% discount on their registration thanks to support from NH Humanities, the Putnam Foundation, and Harris Center for Conservation Education.