Educators Look To First Americans Museum For Resources, Support

The newly-opened First Americans Museum is opening up new opportunities for education in the state.

“One of the biggest messages of the Oklahoma exhibition, is that, we’re still here. Tribal people live in the 21st century, and we have continued our cultures,” said Adrienne Lalli Hills, associate director for learning and community engagement at the museum.

Now, the museum hopes to reach educators with perspectives from today. 

Oklahoma has 39 very diverse tribes, a distinction that can be lost in the classroom, she said. 

“Our learning department hopes to take the rich multimedia research insights and first person narratives and create a web resource for educators to implement indigenous perspectives into the curriculum,” Lalli Hills said. 

For teachers trying to Oklahoma’s bring history to life, this is big.

“It’s invaluable. You can’t place a certain amount of importance on oral history, because its passed down from generation to generation so its this, excellent primary source,” said Amanda Moore, a social studies teacher at Riverside Indian School. 

There’s workshops available for teachers. 

“Say you’re a history teacher and you’re just going for Oklahoma history and you want to learn as much as you can about that, they also have workshops that you can go to where you’re learning more about the cultural side of it. I thought that was awesome,” Moore said. 

The museum will be begin hosting school tours on January 10. 

Monday is Indigenous People’s Day and the museum will host events all day long for kids and families.