One Crow Canyon extends the reach of our educational programming is through seminars and workshops for teachers. Over the last 10 years, more than 700 teachers have come to Crow Canyon to enhance their curriculum and develop lesson plans based on multicultural perspectives. In 2022, we hosted 23 K–12 teachers from around the U.S. thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

One of those teachers was Nate Ramin, a middle school social studies teacher from Chicago. “I think there’s a pretty big deficit in terms of how a lot of schools teach Native American history, especially in the Midwest,” shared Nate. “Much of what is taught in classrooms leaves out the perspectives of the people being studied. Often Native Americans are studied as part of the past, but that’s just not the case – they’re very much a present part of the world today.”

Nate appreciated the opportunity to travel to Crow Canyon and experience an inclusive and respectful approach that incorporates traditional western archaeology as well as Indigenous perspectives and knowledge.

“This training dovetailed with my sixth grade world studies class in which we look at ancient civilizations,” shared Nate. “I’ve been able to incorporate the study of Ancestral Pueblo people not as people who came and went, but as the ancestors of people who are still living in the Southwest.”

Helping his students find relevance is important to Nate’s teaching approach and demonstrating modern connections to Ancestral Pueblo people has made a real difference in their learning. “Studying something that’s theoretically over and done, students don’t see as relevant. However, studying something that continues on and impacts us, and that we may even be able to take part in is more relevant to them, and students really appreciate that,” explained Nate.

Click here to learn more about Crow Canyon’s NEH program.

This story is from the 2022 Annual Report.