Please ask your representatives to support "Indian Health Service Advance Appropriations Act of 2013"
Dear Tribal Citizen,
Today I ask you to contact your US Senator and representative to Congress strongly urging support for the bill "Indian Health Service Advance Appropriations Act of 2013" (H.R. 3229/ S. 1570) to allow advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service (IHS) in order to provide timely and predictable funding to administer health programs and services to American Indian and Alaska Native people.
This bill is critical to our people.
Healthcare services directly administered by the federal government, such as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), are funded by advance appropriations to minimize the impact of late and, at times, inadequate budgets. The decision of Congress to enact advance appropriations for the VA medical program provides a compelling argument for the effectiveness of advance funding a federally administered health program, which could easily be applied to the IHS.
Beyond the efficiency inherent to advance appropriations, providing timely and predictable funding helps ensure the federal government's Trust Responsibility is carried out.
Please use the attached letter and send it in today.
Find your senator and representative:
Should We Celebrate Columbus Day?
Use Problem-Solving Skills to Answer a Question with No Clear Answer
from Education World ®
www.nea.org/tools/lessons/Should-We-Celebrate-Columbus-Day.html
Subjects: Language Arts, Social Studies
Grade Levels: 6-8, 9-12
Objectives Students will:
- • use information literacy skills to evaluate the reliability of source material on Columbus,
- • use problem-solving skills to create a solution to an ill-constructed problem that has no clear right or wrong answer,
- • work in cooperative teams to gather information, discuss a problem, and come to a conclusion.
Keywords research, evaluation, collaboration, media literacy, Columbus, debate
Materials Needed
- • a wide variety of literature or history texts with background information on Columbus
- • Internet access (optional)
Procedure
Task
Explain to students that they have been hired by town officials to consider whether the town should continue to recognize Columbus Day as a holiday. In recent years, protests from Native American groups have increased and town officials have been under increasing pressure to stop celebrating Columbus Day.Those groups argue that Columbus's legacy is one of murder and theft and is not worthy of memorializing. On the other hand, many other community members feel it is unfair to judge the morality of a man who lived 400 years ago by today's standards. They argue that Columbus was a man of his times, when expansion and conquest were accepted as normal. They further argue that even if Columbus was not a moral icon, it is really the spirit of adventure, exploration, and innovation that we celebrate on Columbus Day.
Tell students that in the course of their research they will have to determine exactly how much is known about Columbus and what he did. They will have to evaluate the actions of the man and the results of his actions (i.e., present-day American culture). Finally, they will have to decide the best course of action the town can take to resolve the conflict between its residents.
Tell students to divide their conclusions into three sections:
- • Summary of the issues. Students should summarize the basic arguments for and against the continuance of the Columbus Day holiday. They should support each argument with specific evidence from research.
- • Possible options. Students should describe in detail a minimum of three options to resolve the conflict within the town. They should provide an explanation of how each option would satisfy and not satisfy the groups on both sides of the argument.
- • Final recommendation. In two or three paragraphs, students should give a final recommendation. They should also include an explanation of why they selected that particular option, the pros and cons of that selected option, and an explanation of why the option selected is the best of all possible options.
Steps
Have students work in groups to put together an action plan. The action plan should list:
- • where to look to find the answers to the questions (the Internet is not always the best place)
- • who will gather the information for each question and deadlines for completing research
- • what outside texts group members will read
- • a detailed description of what the group will do on each day of the one-week project
- • who will do the actual writing; this should probably be more than one person and the entire group should discuss what is going to be written
Tell students to submit the action plans by the end of the first day. Grade each group based on how detailed the plan is and on the quality of the questions.
Tell students that each group should hand in its final report and "division of labor" sheet by the end of the week. The division of labor sheet should list what each group member did on the project and should look similar to the information provided in the plan of action. The information in this document should reflect whether each group member met his or her responsibilities within the group.
Research
Tell students that each group may send one member to the computer center or library during class time. Point out that, although they can find an enormous amount of information about Columbus on the Internet, they should not use only the Internet for their research. Some Web sites that might be useful include:
- Christopher Columbus: Man and Myth
- http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/1492.exhibit/c-Columbus/columbus.html
Teacher Note
Because this was the first major assignment of the year and many students were unfamiliar with this type of project, many had trouble understanding exactly what I expected. I strongly suggest creating a model (perhaps on a related but separate topic) or displaying a student project example from a previous year to give the students an idea of the required format.
Assessment
Evaluate students on the written quality of the final project. Additionally, consider the quality and depth of the questions asked and the students' ability to provide answers.
Copyright © 2007, EducationWorld.com
Teaching about the Voyages of Columbus
ERIC Digest.
THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC
The voyage of Columbus in 1492 is a turning point in world history. After 1492, peoples and civilizations of long-separated regions began to develop connections that have led to the incipient global community of the 1990s. It is their global significance that justifies a prominent place in today's school curriculum for the four voyages of Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, not the mere fact of their 500th anniversary in 1992 and thereafter. Educators, therefore, should use the Columbian Quincentenary as a ripe time to renew and reform teaching and learning about these events of long ago that still affect most peoples and places of our world today.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
The far-reaching and transforming interactions of peoples in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, which occurred after 1492, are known today as the "Columbian Exchange," the title of a seminal book by Alfred W. Crosby.
Crosby has provided an ecological perspective on the conditions and consequences of the Columbian voyages that should be included in the school curriculum. He has examined how plants, pathogens, and animals moved from one hemisphere to the other and changed natural environments and cultures. He has described the devastating effects of Eastern Hemisphere microbes on Western Hemisphere peoples and the subsequent shifts in the genetic composition of populations in the Americas. However, Crosby has emphasized that the "Columbian Exchange" has not been one-sided. Certainly European and African plants, animals, goods, and ideas have affected the Amerindians. But peoples of the Western Hemisphere have influenced the Europeans, Africans, and Asians too, especially in their cultivation of crops and preparation of foods.
Elementary and secondary school teachers should use Crosby's concept of the "Columbian Exchange" to help their students acquire an ecological perspective on world history. Thus, they will learn how cultural diffusion and social changes have shaped our modern world. And they will understand Crosby's most important message: Once begun, the "Columbian Exchange" cannot be reversed. The Columbian voyages and the subsequent Age of Exploration and Discovery have forged inseparable bonds between once separated peoples and civilizations, and there is no turning back.
GEOGRAPHY IN HISTORY
Ideas of geography are indispensable aids to interpreting and understanding events and developments of history, such as the Columbian voyages and their consequences. This point is made convincingly by D. W. Meinig in his ground-breaking project, THE SHAPING OF AMERICA: A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON 500 YEARS OF HISTORY. Teachers should consult Meinig's work to understand how ideas in geography can improve explanations of events associated with the Columbian voyages and their global consequences.
Teachers should also use the five themes developed by the Joint Committee on Geographic Education. These five themes are location, place, relationships within places, movement, and regions. They have been endorsed as foundations of geography education by three prominent organizations: The National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, and the National Council for Geographic Education. These five themes, applied to inquiries about the Columbian voyages, can be used to bring a geographic perspective to events and developments in history.
THE PERSON IN HISTORY
As educators bring the often-neglected ecological and geographical perspectives to the study of the Columbian voyages, they must be careful to remember the importance of the great or prominent persons in history, such as Columbus. The term "great person" in history is not used here to denote extraordinary goodness or virtue; rather, it is applied only to those who have had the most far-reaching effects on the shape of our world. Thus, Columbus can be considered a great man because his decisions and deeds have had great global impact, from his era to our own times.
One key to understanding the Columbian voyages and their consequences is accurate information and interpretation about Columbus and his deeds. Teachers and students need to distinguish the many myths from realities about the life and times of Columbus. They should, therefore, consult the best biographical literature on Columbus. One recommended source is the time-honored biography by Samuel Eliot Morison, ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA, which emphasizes the skills of Columbus as a sailor, leader, and visionary.
A new biography by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has won high praise from scholarly reviewers for its judicious treatment of Columbus within his European context, as a man of a particular era, culture, and place in history. In this balanced and unbiased biography, Columbus's strengths and weaknesses are examined. Thus, for example, the author reveals Columbus's extraordinary achievements as a navigator and explorer and his great failures as a colonizer and administrator. Fernandez-Armesto's scholarly biography is a blend of sympathy and antipathy about the trials and triumphs of Columbus, who is shown to be neither a pure villain nor an undiminished hero. Teachers ought to follow the example of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto in developing realistic classroom portrayals of Columbus.
MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS
A persistent threat to accurate and balanced treatments of the Columbian voyages is ethnocentric or monolithic interpretation. The school curriculum has often ignored or glossed over the diverse viewpoints of Amerindian and African peoples. Improved teaching and learning about the Columbian voyages must include the various voices of this fateful encounter between the diverse cultures of four continents and three races.
An excellent scholarly source of knowledge about Amerindian viewpoints on the European invasion of their lands is CULTURES IN
CONTACT: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN CONTACTS ON NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS, edited by William Fitzhugh. Teachers and students should also examine Amerindian perspectives discussed in TWO WORLDS: THE INDIAN ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEANS, 1492-1509 by S. Lyman Tyler.
African and African-American views of the Columbian voyages are closely tied to a far-reaching and profound consequence of the "Columbian Exchange"--the Atlantic slave trade. Two highly recommended sources for teachers are Phillip D. Curtin's (1) THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE and (2) THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC IN THE AGE OF THE SLAVE TRADE. In addition, Basil Davidson's THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE is an excellent source that presents the African context of the trade in human beings.
In presentations of multiple viewpoints about the conditions and consequences of the Columbian voyages, teachers should emphasize both diversity between groups and diversity within groups. For example, the great variations in responses of Amerindian people to their encounters with Europeans should be stressed in the school curriculum.
MOVE BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK
If teachers are to provide a multiplicity of viewpoints and perspectives on the Columbian voyages, they must move beyond the textbook to use various educational materials and resources. A recent survey of standard textbook treatments of Columbus, by Carla Phillips and William Phillips (1991, 27-30), reveals their serious limitations. The authors demonstrate that teachers must expose students to more accurate and profound examinations of the Columbian voyages than are provided in the typical textbook.
Development of classroom lessons based on primary documents is one way to provide realistic and detailed treatments of diverse viewpoints. THE LOG OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS is one primary document that can be the basis for challenging and illuminating teaching and learning activities.
"Columbus and the Age of Discovery," a well-designed seven-program documentary video series about Columbus's voyages, provides another excellent means of moving beyond the textbook to enrich teaching and learning in the classroom. These video programs, produced by the WGBH Educational Foundation of Boston, were broadcast initially on PBS in October of 1991. They will be shown again on PBS channels in October of 1992 and in 1993. The director of this video series, Zvi Dor-Ner, has also written a companion book to his television programs, COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.
Dor-Ner's book is first rate in its presentation of the European context of the Columbian voyages, the key events of Columbus's life, and the global consequences of his deeds. In both his video programs and book, Dor-Ner avoids the flawed extremes of uncritical glorification and super-critical denunciation of Columbus, which have distorted too many treatments of his life and deeds. Thus, teachers should make ample use of Dor-Ner's videos and companion book in developing lessons and research projects for their students.
Write to WGBH for information about their video series, COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY, and an accompanying TEACHER'S GUIDE: 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134. You can purchase this series directly from the WGBH collection, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543; (800) 828-WGBH. An interactive video disk (for IBM and MacIntosh) has been developed by Optical Data; contact WGBH of Boston about its availability.
Successful education in schools about the Columbian voyages depends upon the solid and ever-expanding knowledge base of the teacher. Elementary and secondary school history teachers, therefore, must accept the never-ending challenge of reading and learning about the life and times of Columbus to provide themselves and their students with accurate information and interpretations.
REFERENCES AND ERIC RESOURCES
The following list of resources includes references used to prepare this Digest. The items followed by an ED number are in the ERIC system. They are available in microfiche and paper copies from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). For information about prices, contact EDRS, 7420 Fullerton Road, Suite 110, Springfield, Virginia 22153-2852; telephone numbers are (703) 440-1400 and (800) 443-3742. Entries followed by an EJ number are annotated monthly in CURRENT INDEX TO JOURNALS IN EDUCATION (CIJE), which is available in most large public or university libraries. EJ documents are not available through EDRS. However, they can be located in the journal section of most libraries by using the bibliographic information provided below.
Crosby, Alfred W. THE VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS: A TURNING POINT IN WORLD HISTORY. Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education and the Indiana Humanities Council, 1989. ED 312 213.
Crosby, Alfred W. THE COLUMBIAN VOYAGES, THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE,
AND THEIR HISTORIANS: ESSAYS ON GLOBAL AND COMPARATIVE HISTORY.
Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1987. ED 303 417.
Crosby, Alfred W. THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE: BIOLOGICAL AND CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES OF 1492. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.
Curtin, Phillip D. THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC IN THE AGE OF THE SLAVE TRADE. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1991.
Curtin, Phillip D. THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969.
Davidson, Basil. THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1980.
Dor-Ner, Zvi. COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1991.
Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. COLUMBUS. New York: Oxford, 1991.
Fitzhugh, William, ed. CULTURES IN CONTACT: THE IMPACT OF
EUROPEAN CONTACTS ON NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.
Fuson, Robert H., editor. THE LOG OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Camden, ME: International Marine Publishing Company, 1987.
Ibero-American Heritage Curriculum Project. LATINOS IN THE
MAKING OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND
TOMORROW. Albany, NY: New York State Education Department, 1990. ED 324 184.
Joint Committee on Geographic Education, GUIDELINES FOR GEOGRAPHIC EDUCATION. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers and the National Council for Geographic Education, 1984. ED 252 453.
Meinig, D. W. THE SHAPING OF AMERICA, A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE ON 500 YEARS OF HISTORY: ATLANTIC AMERICA, 1492-1800. Volume I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986.
Morison, Samuel Eliot. ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA: A LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1942.
Nielsen, Lois L., and George R. Nielsen. "Preparing for the Columbian Quincentennial: An Annotated Bibliography." SOCIAL STUDIES AND THE YOUNG LEARNER 3 (September-October 1990): 13-15. EJ 426 378.
Phillips, Carla R., and William D. Phillips, Jr. "The Textbook Columbus: Examining the Myth." HUMANITIES 12 (September/October 1991): 27-30. EJ 442 191.
Tyler, S. Lyman. TWO WORLDS: THE INDIAN ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEANS, 1492-1509. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989.
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John J. Patrick is Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies/Social Science Education, Director of the Social Studies Development Center, and a Professor of Education at Indiana University.
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This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. RI88062009. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI or ED.
Title: Teaching about the Voyages of Columbus. ERIC Digest.
Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);
Target Audience: Teachers, Practitioners
Descriptors: Curriculum Development, Educational Change, Educational Objectives, Educational Resources, Elementary Secondary Education, Geographic Concepts, Historiography,
History Instruction, Instructional Materials, Social Studies, Teaching Methods, World History
Identifiers: Columbus (Christopher), Columbus Quincentenary, ERIC Digests
How should we remember columbus? http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2003/10/13/opinion/8819.shtml
2003 Christopher Francis Princetonian Columnist
Many will celebrate Christopher Columbus today, five hundred and eleven years after his arrival Some of us are told his arrival marked the "discovery" of a new continent and a new nation without mention of Columbus' legacy of colonization and exploitation. Christopher Columbus washed ashore frightened and lost, he destroyed lives, enslaved, tortured, killed and oppressed. The celebration of Columbus on this day seriously questions our capacity for human emotion and sympathy. Rather than honor Columbus' actions and image we should honor the brave and innocent men, women and children who died and those who survived his influence of centuries of conquest, colonization, slavery and religious persecution.
If we celebrate, we must also remember. We must remember all those who died from violent and destructive attacks on our soil and to those who died defending it. The arrival of Columbus marked a huge turning point in American history, a history that includes Native Americans, Western-European colonizers and the Unites States. The colonization of the Americas was extremely bloody. The struggle for power and domination in the "new world" destroyed the souls of those unable to defend themselves against such militarily aggressive authorities. Too many innocent men, women and children were violently oppressed and killed and such acts of terror need to be remembered and not celebrated.
The battle for indigenous survival continued well after the colonizing period and eventually all Indian people began fighting the same enemy. After centuries of fighting each other, Indian people and the United States agreed to live in peace. Reluctantly, the United States government rightfully agreed to protect and to provide for the needs of Indian people and recognized the sovereign status of over 500 Indian nations. Today, Indian nations across the United States are fighting legal and political battles to hold the U.S. government accountable for the agreements previously made to them in exchange for the land and resources that have made the United States of America the strongest military and economic power in the world. The government-to-government relationship between Indian nations and the federal government is unequal and unfair because it has become a government-over-government monopolistic enterprise of abuse and unjustified neglect. Indian people have the same rights as all citizens of the United States, but too often these rights do not protect their desire to preserve Native languages and cultures. Indian people simply want to teach younger generations their heritage, while having the resources and rights to maintain their culture. They want the right to determine their own destiny without the fear of having something taken from them. Native Americans constitute a larger percentage of the U.S. armed forces, proportionately, than other groups. The duty to defend and protect against attacks on American forces and on American soil is highly felt in Indian communities because Indian people are committed to defending their elders and their children from the evils out to destroy them and their way of life.
Indian people have survived centuries of mistreatment and disregard for their way of life. The celebration of Christopher Columbus only justifies unethical and immoral acts against humanity. Although the image of Columbus may represent discovery and conquest, the image of Columbus to the indigenous people of the Americas, Africa and all colonized continents in the world, is of countless souls and bodies beaten to death for power, economic exploitation and religious domination. These souls deserve a sincere apology for attempts to celebrate such hate and violent disregard for their culture, race, religion and simple existence. The celebration of ethnic genocide and disregard for human rights committed against Indian people is gravely disrespectful and hurtful. Rather than celebrate this evil man, we all must remember the millions of indigenous people who had their lives violently stolen after his arrival.
Our future as a free and just nation should not include the praise for or glorification of Christopher Columbus, but it should include the story of the Indian fight for survival and struggle for peace. In a world mentally, physically and spiritually scarred by such hate and evil, we must remain united. We must all unite to protect our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as members of this great nation and of the free world. Let us unite to remember all those who died for these rights and condemn all those who did nothing but fight to destroy them. On behalf of all Native people, I ask you, today, to remember those who are no longer with us and to celebrate the survival of those of us who are still here.
