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Credit:
Wyoming Humanities Council
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Last year, lawmakers
passed legislation to bring more education about Native American
history and culture to Wyoming students. Its called Indian
Education For All and it fulfills social studies requirements. To
help with the effort, the Wyoming Humanities Council has created
a fold-out kiosk that will be exhibited in schools and libraries
around the state starting next month.
Humanities Council Director
Shannon Smith said the exhibits are a tangible way to teach kids
about the two tribes on the Wind River Reservation. The five-foot-tall
kiosks include photos and booklets, one for adults and one for kids.
To create the exhibits, Smith said the Council reached out to tribal
elders and community members, along with regional ethnohistorians.
The process involved a lot of debate, but she said that means the
exhibits will do something thats rarely been seen in other
scholarship about the Wind River tribes.
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Credit:
Wyoming Humanities Council
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Theres great
historical documentation about the Eastern Shoshone and theres
great historical documentation about the Northern Arapaho but less
that focuses on that intersection and what brought both tribes to
that region, said Smith. And were really proud
to be part of at least opening up a new way to look at this history.
Smith said with help
from a design company in Cheyenne and wyohistory.org, theyll
be able to start putting up the exhibits in just a few weeks.
So we anticipate
theyll be printed in this coming month and distributed to
every school district and every library system. And quite a few
school districts have asked for multiple copies and each copy we
figure is worth about $1500 and were able to give this free
of charge because we were able to raise funds.
Smith said she was also
honored to get requests from reservation teachers who say the kiosks
are accurate enough to use to teach Native American children about
their own culture and past.
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