Teaching Indigenous Literature for Social Justice: Cherie Dimaline’s The Marrow Thieves in U.S. Secondary Classrooms

Abstract

This project speaks to non-Native English language arts educators teaching Native literatures in their secondary classrooms. Some narratives taught in high schools today carry on negative stereotypes about Indigenous Peoples. The goal of this project and the unit plan included is to foster empathy for marginalized communities and use Indigenous pedagogical strategies to respectfully teach Native texts to disrupt these stereotypes while working with Iowa Core Standards. This unit works with Cherie Dimaline’s young adult novel, The Marrow Thieves, as its primary text and includes other pieces for instruction inside and outside of the classroom. The provided approaches to teaching this novel to grades 9 and 10 students are supported by Native writers and non-Native allies to give educators a basic foundation for teaching about Native texts, cultures, and knowledges to pursue social justice education.