A local group is teaming up with one of the nation's most prestigious museums to offer a workshop for local educators around Native American history.
The Greater Cincinnati Native American Coalition, a group of indigenous activists and allies, will partner with the Washington, D.C.-based Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian to hold a workshop Sept. 21 for educators teaching grades 4-12 called "American Indian Removal: What Does It Mean to Remove a People?"
The workshop, part of an initiative by the Smithsonian called "Native Knowledge 360º," will feature documents, maps, images, activities and perspectives from members of the Native American community. The event will also provide educators with information about free resources they can use to plan lessons on the subject.
"Most Americans have only been exposed to part of the story, as told from a single perspective through the lenses of popular media and textbooks," a news release about the event reads. "NK360° provides educational materials and teacher training that incorporate Native narratives, more comprehensive histories, and accurate information to enlighten and inform teaching and learning about Native America."
Educators can register for the workshop online or prior to the event, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College's main conference center. Lunch will be provided.
The Cincinnati Native American Coalition is a collective of advocacy organizations, faith groups and individual activists formed in 2014 who support Native American rights and racial equity. The coalition is also focused on local, often relatively unacknowledged Native American history.
"As a step toward honoring the truth and achieving healing and reconciliation with those indigenous peoples who were affected most by the Doctrine of Discovery and broken treaties, we acknowledge the traditional Shawnee and Myaamia lands on which we now stand, and on which the city of Cincinnati was built," the group says on its website.