By Sarah Ornstein
Ms. Ornstein is the Assistant Children's Librarian at MPMRC.
"Teiethinonhwaraton." If you read this Mohawk word, would you know what it means and how to pronounce it? If you read about powwow dance styles and drumming, would you know how they look and sound? Sometimes seeing and hearing are the best way to learn about something, and if you can't do it in person, watching a video or listening to a CD could be the next best way. Audio and visual materials present an excellent way of learning about Native culture by listening to, or watching Native Peoples tell stories, talk about their lives, and demonstrate traditional customs and arts, often in both English and their Native language. Using multimedia can also be preferable to simply reading about cultures because many students favor visual and oral methods of learning. The multimedia products in the Mashantucket Pequot Children's Library - videos, CDs, computer software, and audiocassettes, for example - are wonderful resources.
The Children's Library holds approximately 300 videos. Although they cannot be taken out of the library, we encourage everyone to view videos here, or to preview a title before making an expensive purchase. The collection does include some feature-length films and educational "docu-dramas," but the highlights are instructional videos about Native cultures. The video, Into the Circle, produced by the Native organization, Full Circle Communications, is an hour-long introduction to Native American powwows. Beginning with the roots and evolution of the modern powwow, Into the Circle explains drumming and singers, the typical structure of a powwow, and demonstrates the regalia and types of dance styles that a visitor might see, using interviews and footage from Oklahoma powwows. This is the next best thing to attending a powwow. An excellent video for younger children is Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message, adapted from a picture book by Chief Jake Swamp (Mohawk). This short animated film is a narration in English and Mohawk, of the traditional Iroquois Thanksgiving Address, which begins, "To be a human being is an honor, and we offer thanksgiving for all the gifts of life" (and if you want to know the meaning of the word that began this article, watch this one). The descriptions and illustrations of the natural wonders are beautiful, and although the book has the same content, it really helps to hear the pronunciation of the Mohawk!
The Children's Library also contains more than 90 sound recordings. A recently acquired CD, Under the Green Corn Moon, is a compilation of Native American lullabies, including a Mashantucket Pequot song performed by Laughing Woman, a tribal elder. This is a wonderful, relaxing collection with songs from all over the country. Our sound recordings include music for children by artists like Joanne Shenandoah and Ulali, and storytelling by Johnny Moses (Tulalip), Dovie Thomason (Lakota/Kiowa) and many more. Johnny Moses's audiocassette, The Third Ear, always gets kids laughing. He uses a very funny range of voices to tell traditional stories, like "The Yahow Story" about pushing up the sky, and some not-so-traditional stories, like "Grandma Drives" - she loves the "canoe on wheels."
We also have the Internet. Most children are very comfortable using computers and many today like to do their research online. There are few good websites for children about Native peoples, but here in the library we have twenty online databases and several excellent computer programs for use on-site. The Great Peace…The Gathering of Good Minds, is an educational CD-ROM created by members of the Oneida and Tuscarora tribes about the Iroquois Confederation and Iroquois history. The interactive format is informative and fun for kids to use. Online databases like The Native American Experience, The American Indian, and DISCovering Nations, States and Cultures, are full of photographs, articles, and images - which is useful because children commonly request to see pictures.
These are just a few examples of the wonderful multimedia material about Native Peoples available in the Children's Library, where we house a very unique and unusual collection. Our goal is to collect all materials - including books, magazines, CD-ROMs, video and audiocassettes, compact disks, coloring books, etc. - that address the topic of Native Peoples and that were created for children. No other library is attempting to create such a resource, which suggests that, as the collection grows, the Children's Library will become the keeper of an important historical record - the Native American stereotypes that children were, and still are, exposed to in all forms of media. On the other hand, the library is also becoming an unparalleled research tool for teachers and students looking for accurate and authoritative information from a variety of sources on Native cultures and histories. Come to the Children's Library and have fun while watching a film, listening to music, or navigating a computer program - and learn something too! Call 860-396-6899 or email: childrenslibrary@mptn.org.
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