Applications for 2019 are closed.
For information on future NEH programs, click here.

  (Photos by Summer Scholar Deva Estin)

Teaching Native American Histories is a Summer Institute for Teachers, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This three-week program is organized around five key concepts that are introduced in Week 1, re-visited in Week 2, then applied and extended in Week 3. First, place matters–what we call “grounded history”–exemplified by the Summer Institute’s location in the Wampanoag homeland in southeastern Massachusetts. Second, identity is a contested space, encompassing how people see themselves, how they are seen by others (representation), and the consequences thereof. Third, Indigenous identities are intimately connected to land, from stories about creation to current environmental and legal challenges. Fourth, historical trauma is an important factor to consider in relation to past events, how those events are taught– or not–in schools today, and what Indigenous communities are doing to promote healing and wellness. Fifth, teachers can learn to find and evaluate classroom resources about Native Americans for themselves.

The first two weeks are based in Hyannis, Massachusetts, where we will stay in a waterfront hostel and meet in a classroom at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum, just a few steps away. For the third week, we move to the air-conditioned dormitories at Bridgewater State University, where campus facilities allow the Summer Scholars to work on curriculum projects.  Field trips include visits to Plimoth Plantation and six Indigenous communities: Aquinnah Wampanoag, Mashantucket Pequot, Mashpee Wampanoag, Mohegan, Narragansett, and Nipmuc.

This is the second NEH Summer Institute co-directed by Linda Coombs (Aquinnah Wampanoag) and the fourth for Alice Nash (University of Massachusetts Amherst).

Teaching Native American Histories builds on more than twenty years of innovative collaboration among college and university-based scholars, K-12 teachers, and regional Native American communities through the Schools Partnership program at Five Colleges, Incorporated, a non-profit consortium of five campuses—Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Smith colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Among the Five Colleges’ many curriculum programs, its Native American & Indigenous Studies NAIS”) program includes some of the leading NAIS scholars in the United States, several of whom will participate in our NEH Summer Institute.

Hosted by the Five College Consortium, held on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

View the 2019 Institute Flyer