Essential Questions

1. How is music a universal language?

2. How can artforms teach you about other cultures?

3. Why is it important to know the history of the land we live on?

4. How can art build community?

5. What are the benefits of connecting cultures through art? 

Learning Intentions – Upon completing this Module, students will:

1. Explain how art is an important mode for communicating our human experience.

2. Recognize the eight sovereign Native American nations in Utah and their ancestral and current land.

3. Illustrate past and present events of Utah’s main Native American Tribes.

4. Employ art as an aesthetic tool to communicate messages about important historical and contemporary issues.

5. Articulate the role of song and dance in healing and building identity and community.

6. Recognize contemporary Native American artists and their contribution to modern society.

Success Criteria

1. I will acknowledge those that came before me and with whom I share this land. 

2. I will discover more Native Americans (artists, athletes, scientists, professors, etc.) to help shine a light on their positive contributions.

Learning Outline

This 3-hour module is on the video presentation by Honey Duvall. It can be taught as a whole learning experience, or in chosen sections as time allows:  

• 10 minutes: Launch Activity– The Universal Language

• 50 minutes: While Viewing– Voice of Honey

• 10 minutes: Post-Viewing– A Drop of Honey: Traditional Dances with Contemporary Beats

• 45 minutes: Demonstration–   Hello! Yá'át'ééh We are still here! 

• 45- 60 minutes: Making Connections– Arts Integration Project - Shining a Bright Light on Native American Contemporary Art

Launch Activity–Pre-Viewing: The Universal Language

[10 min]

[Learning Intention 1]

Procedures:

1. Hook: Ask Students, 

   1. Do you think music is a universal language? Explain. 

   2. How has music influenced your life?

2. Tell Students: We are about to watch a series of videos featuring a Salt Lake City  R&B artist who believes that music is a universal language and who uses music to help understand herself, heal, and expand community.  She goes by ‘Honey’ and you will hear her explain how she got this name and more about her journey. Let’s read her introduction.

3. Read the unit and/or module introduction out loud to the class. 

4. After hearing that introduction, write down at least two things you want to learn or understand better about Honey. Have a few volunteers share with the class. 

While Viewing/ Post Viewing: Introduction: Meet Honey

[10 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,2,4]

Procedures:

• Play Video 1: Introduction: Meet Honey (7:12 min)

• Ask Students: Did this first video answer anything you wanted to learn more about? Discuss. 

Pre-Viewing: Voice of Honey

[5 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,2,3]

Procedures:

• Tell Students: Honey introduces herself  as Diné. Diné (Di-neh) means “The People,” and is how the Navajo refer to themselves. The Diné comprises the largest indigenous nation in North America. (Show students Map_Native American Lands in Utah and scroll to “Map of Modern Native Lands Within Utah” reading through the eight sovereign (self governing) nations in Utah and pointing out the Navajo Nation.)  As you can see, the Navajo Nation stretches across portions of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico; at more than 27,000 square miles, it is larger than 10 of the U.S. States— 574 sovereign Native American nations currently exist in the United States!

• Today over 200 more tribes are seeking federal recognition through a time-consuming and difficult process. Sovereignty (self-governance) is important because it provides access to resources and funds and it is the path to reclamation of lands. 

While Viewing/ Post Viewing: Voice of Honey

[15 min]

[Learning Intentions 3,4]

• Tell Students: Now that we know a little more about where Honey is from, let’s watch Video 2: Voice of Honey to learn more about her journey into music and watch clips of her latest music videos!

• Play Video 2: Voice of Honey (14:14 min)

• Ask Students: 

  1. What else did you learn about Honey?

  2. Let’s talk more about her music. Is there anything notable about her style? 

Pre-Viewing: Indigenous Stories, Tradition, and Dance with Honey

[5 min]

[Learning Intentions 4]

Procedures:

• Tell Students: As we have seen, Honey incorporates Native American culture and traditional music into her R&B music. We will now watch the third video where she performs two dances for us in traditional regalia. Before we watch here is a quote from Honey on powwow dancing:

“Powwow dancing has always been second nature. The music was already there, but now I just had to add some movement to it. I knew I could stay on beat but in the powwow scene…we sing on the off beat not on beat. It was a whole new realm. I was trained to stay on the beat and here I was dancing to the off beat. Confusing! It wasn’t until I began breaking down powwow songs that I finally found where I fit in…right smack in the middle.”

While Viewing: Indigenous Stories, Tradition, and Dance with Honey

[10 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,4,5]

• Play Video 3: Indigenous Stories, Tradition, and Dance with Honey (9:59 min)

• Ask Students: Again, what did you learn about Honey and did this last video answer any of your unanswered questions? 

• Tell Students: These dances were not strictly Diné or Navajo dances. For example, the Jingle Dress dance was an Ojibwe tribal dance. The Ojibwe live in both the United States and Canada and occupy land around the Great Lakes, including in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario. Show students the Ojibwe_Map. 

• Tell Students: Honey often performs in Salt Lake and surrounding areas. You can find her schedule on her website: https://voiceofhoney.com/index.html

Post-Viewing: A Drop of Honey: Traditional Dances with Contemporary Beats

[10 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,4,5]

Procedures: 

1. Tell Students: Leading us into the next lesson, let’s watch the entire, I’m Praying For You Music Video (3:26 min). Be prepared to discuss the following:

   1. What is your initial reaction?

   2. Does Honey successfully integrate traditional with contemporary music? Explain

   3. What do you think her music does for indigenous communities from young children to elders?

2. (Optional) Play the other two complete music videos linked in the materials section and discuss, focusing on how Honey blends traditional with contemporary styles.

Demonstration: Hello! Yá'át'ééh We are still here! 

[45 min]

[Learning Intentions 2,3,4]

Procedures:

1. Tell the students: Native groups continue to repeat their desire for students and teachers to understand that their tribes existed not only as indigenous people from the past, but that they live as indigenous people today. (To read more on this: https://advancingartsleadership.com/blog/ancestral-and-present-day-maps-8-sovereign-nations-within-utah) 

2. Read Students this excerpt from the Division of Arts and Museums Native American Teaching Artists Roster: 

Adam Conte (show students images of Adam from Instagram) Adam Conte (@adam_conte01) is from the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and is part Mohawk.  He wants people to know and believe that Native Amercans are beautiful, smart, very talented, thriving, relevant and resilient. Currently, most online content is negative (suicide, missing indigenous women, drugs, alcohol, Covid victims, income disparity). There isn’t enough focus on that which is good and demonstrates talent. There are athletes, entrepreneurs, scholars, attorneys, authors, visual artists, musicians, scientists, mathematicians, and college professors, all within the native community. Adam thinks it is important to raise awareness of the challenges, but knows his artistic contributions are important. He wants to emphasize that which is positive and show the Native people in a bright light. 

3. Our focus for the rest of this module is to learn more about our indigenous people’s past and also look into how they are living today. 

4. Earlier in this module you saw there were eight sovereign nations in Utah including the Diné Bikeyah (Navajo Nation) where Honey is from. Show students the Map_Native American Lands in Utah. Choose any one of these indigenous tribes and research their history to today, jotting down significant events, turning points, and facts that tell others about their past and present. 

5. Create a chronological timeline depicting the Indigenous Tribe’s past and present

   1. Low Tech Modality: Draw a timeline on a piece of paper or cardboard. Add colors and imagery

   2. High Tech Modality: Choose a timeline template on Canva.com or use other timeline software to create a chronological timeline.

6. Have students share their timelines in small groups.

Shining a Bright Light on Native American Contemporary Art 

[45-60 min]

[Learning Intentions 1,4,6]

Procedures:

1. Tell students they are going to learn more about today’s indigenous people through the lens of art. 

2. Ask Students: What are some of the things you learned about Honey through her art? Remind them to think about what Honey’s R&B music and her traditional singing and dancing tell us about her. What does the fact that she blends the two say about Honey?

3. Share a link to the Native American Teaching Artists PDF with students. As a group, direct them to the first entry on the document and remind them of Adam Conte of the Oneida Nation who we met in the previous section. As a reminder, he is a filmmaker/photographer who sees a lot of negativity in the portrayal of Native Americans and wants to change the narrative by highlighting the bright, creative, and positive things rampant in today’s Native American communities.  

4. Tell Students they are going to help Adam Conte shine a bright and positive light on indigenous First Peoples by choosing an artist from Utah’s Native American Teaching Artists PDF or from the ‘Native People Today’ entry in the Dig Deeper section of this module.  Have students browse the documents and select 3 artists that interest them. 

5. Tell Students: Now choose one of your three artist selections and research their art.  Select one piece of art by this artist to analyze and design a 2-3 slide PowerPoint/Google Slides presentation that includes: 

   1. A pure description of the art piece without value judgments. If applicable, describe line, medium, color, light, space, composition, and style.

   2. An analysis of why the artist used such features to convey specific ideas.

   3. A synopsis on what you learned about the artist through researching their art?

6. Have each student present to the class.

(Optional) Put students into small groups to  message/Instagram Adam Conte, sharing what they learned and/or appreciated through studying contemporary indigenous art.

Invite students to “dig deeper” on these topics by providing additional options for research and reflection on Native American traditional and contemporary culture.

Honey’s Website: Voice of Honey

Classes & Workshops

• Amplify Native Voices in the Classroom - a 15-hour PD course for teachers and administrators. This free course offers resources and experiences to help inspire, transform, and infuse teachers with personal and professional confidence in addressing cultural arts in their classroom. Developed by Beverly Taylor Sorenson BYU Arts Partnership. 

Native People Today (there are so many more!)

Native groups continue to express their desire that people recognize that their tribes exist not only in the past, but that they live as indigenous people thriving in diverse communities today.

• 3 Poems and Classroom Activities to Teach Joy Harjo, National Poet Laureate

• First Native Woman in Space- NASA Astronaut Nicole Mann of the Wailaki Tribe talks about her next mission

• Traditional Foods Program- Learn more about current cutting edge programs today’s Diné youth are starting to promote health and healing.

• Will Wilson- Will is a Diné photographer and trans-customary artist who spent his formative years living on the Navajo Nation. 

• Alastair Bitsoi- Listen to a podcast where Diné writer, storyteller, and farmer Alastair Bitsoi talks about revitalizing the four corners potato. 

Articles

• A Navajo Artist Finds her Beat and Shares it- Rhonda “Honey” Duvall is a leader in Salt Lake City’s Navajo community, elevating the presence of indigenous culture through music and dance.

Websites

• Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project- Our goal is to take the healing power of the Ojibwe jingle dress to the land, to travel, to dance and capture a series of images to document the spiritual places our ancestors once walked, and to unite and give hope to the world through art, dance and culture to help us heal.  Follow on  INSTAGRAM

• Untold Stories- Learn more about the untold stories of various Native Americans in history and the contributions of their heritage to our country.

Resources

• Native American Curriculum Initiative- lesson plans on Utah indigenous people such as how to teach the ‘Round Dance.’

• Evaluating Multicultural Classroom Resources : How Can a Teacher Decide What is Appropriate?- Many teachers wonder how to choose Native resources, whether they are appropriate to use in the classroom, and how to present them responsibly. Two authors and researchers (Heather Francis and Stephanie West) share basic principles to keep in mind for your resource selection activities. 

• Utah American Indian Digital Archive-  A gateway to the best resources regarding Utah’s Indian tribes. With articles, books, government documents, tribal documents, oral histories, photographs, and maps pertaining to the Northwestern Shoshone, Goshute, Paiute, Utah Navajo, White Mesa, and Ute Indians, this unique archive captures the complicated history of Utah’s tribes from multiple perspectives.

• Native Knowledge 360- Explore the framework and foundational concepts that build on the ten themes of the National Council for the Social Studies’ national curriculum standards for teaching about Indigenous peoples in a culturally and historically appropriate, respectful way. From the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Videos

Indigenous North American Tattoos- A traditional Native American artform that teaches us about their culture and is seeing a revival. What art forms have taught you about other cultures?