Why is Since Time Immemorial (STI) curriculum important for educator preparation programs?
The STI curriculum prepares candidates to “educate…youth who are our future leaders, about tribal history, culture, treaty rights, contemporary tribal and state government institutions and relations and the contribution of Indian nations to the state of Washington” in a culturally sensitive manner; as required by the 1989 centennial accord and the 1999 millennium accord.
The Legislature recognizes this goal has yet to be achieved in most of our state’s schools and districts. As a result:
- Indian students may not find the school curriculum, especially Washington State history, relevant to their lives or experiences.
- Many students may remain uninformed about the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of their tribal neighbors, fellow citizens, and classmates.
- The lack of accurate and complete curricula may contribute to the persistent achievement gap between Indian students and other students.
Washington State schools using the Since Time Immemorial curriculum will greatly contribute towards:
- Improving the understanding of students and educators about the past contributions of Indian nations and the contemporary and ongoing tribal and state government relations
- Improving the experiences Indian students have in schools
- Helping improve the accuracy of Washington’s history curriculum
Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State curriculum poster created by Michael Vendiola, a citizen of the Swinomish Tribe, former Director with OSPI’s Office of Native Education.
Requirements for teacher preparation programs
Teacher preparation programs must integrate the Since Time Immemorial curriculum into their programs and courses, and ensure that teacher candidates engage and familiarize themselves with the content. Programs may modify the curriculum in order to incorporate elements that have a regionally specific focus
Washington State or Pacific Northwest history and government
- Programs must offer and require candidates to complete a one quarter or semester course, or the equivalent, in either Washington State or Pacific Northwest history and government.
- Any course used to meet this requirement must include information on the culture, history, and government of the American Indian peoples who were the first human inhabitants of the state and the region.
These requirements apply to all approved teacher preparation programs, including alternative routes, traditional routes, and CTE teacher preparation programs.
To prepare candidates to successfully teach about the history, culture, and government of American Indian people, much more than just curriculum integration is needed. Candidates need to be able to demonstrate the intersection of cultural competence, equity, and pedagogy in their teaching practices.
Promising practices for preparation programs
Integrating the Since Time Immemorial curriculum into educator preparation programs is one part of a bigger picture of continuous learning and partnership with tribes, educational service districts (ESDs), and school districts. PESB and OSPI’s Office of Native Education (ONE) are working together to support opportunities and resources for all parties.
Promising practices for educator preparation programs involve a variety of models centered around four main areas:
- Relationships, partnerships, and collaboration between tribal nations, preparation programs, and districts
- Professional learning for program leaders, faculty, and field supervisors
- Content and curriculum
- Evidence of engagement
Several preparation programs participated in webinars sharing their models centered around these four main areas. Programs are highly encouraged to view the recorded webinars and study the slide decks of models of promising practices for examples of how they can begin and progress in this work.
Relationships, partnership, and collaboration
As a foundation of this work, promising practices involve educator preparation programs establishing partnerships and collaborating with local tribes and local school districts in proximity to the program’s physical location. Preparation program leaders should work with their organization’s Native Education Liaison or, if the organization does not have a liaison, take it upon themselves, to reach out to local tribes and local tribal schools. Partnerships should advance the mutual interests of all parties, with the interests of all native and non-native students at the forefront.
View the tribal partnership webinar with guest speaker Denny Hurtado of the Skokomish tribe.
Resources for establishing partnerships with local tribes and school districts:
- School districts and nearest federally recognized Indian tribes
- Interactive Washington State tribal map
- Tribal maps
- Tribal chair contact information
- Federally recognized tribes in Washington State
- Non-federally recognized tribes in Washington State
- Tribal colleges
- Washington State tribal schools
- Affiliated tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI)
- Washington State Indian education association
Professional learning
Building upon the foundation of partnerships with local tribes, a second main area of promising practice is professional learning for program leaders and faculty around the Since Time Immemorial curriculum as it relates to and reflects local tribal history and culture. Preparation program leaders, faculty, and candidates are welcome to attend the following OSPI/ONE webinars to gain an understanding of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum and other resources available on the STI curriculum website. Registration is required for these webinars.
STI introductory webinars
Introductory level training sessions will encompass:
- an overview of the STI curriculum including some history and legislation
- a guided navigation through the STI website
- introduction to the Native Knowledge 360 curriculum developed by the National Museum of the American Indian and other pertinent materials
- an opportunity to plan to integrate and implement STI curriculum into your classrooms
Content and curriculum
The third area of promising practice is integrating the Since Time Immemorial curriculum into the preparation program curriculum across all subject areas. The Since Time Immemorial tribal sovereignty curriculum is aligned to social studies, English language arts, environmental and sustainability education, and social-emotional learning state standards.
The webinar recordings and slide decks include several various models from preparation programs demonstrating how this could be done. In addition to those models, the following resources can be helpful to programs in this work.
- Since Time Immemorial curriculum
- OSPI/ONE “Ready to Go” lesson resources
- OSPI/ONE Since Time Immemorial professional learning guide
- Lesson planning template
- Examples of model
- Grade level outcomes – “The big five outcomes” for each grade level found on page two of the STI Overview.
Evidence of engagement
How can preparation programs monitor their engagement? The following list is not exhaustive, rather these are examples of evidence that indicate the preparation program is engaged on a holistic level.
- Tribal and district partnerships
- Professional learning for faculty, staff, and field supervisors
- Demonstration of learning and understanding by teacher preparation candidates through various assignments, artifacts or assessments
Models of promising practices
STI Newsletter
The quarterly Since Time Immemorial newsletter provides resources, research, and updates on the work of integrating Native sovereignty curricula into practice, in Washington state and beyond.
- STI Implementation from a former Native superintendent’s view
- University educational partnerships: promoting Native knowledge in teaching and learning together
- Integrating social justice, JMLSTI, cultural competency, and SEL into teacher education: our journey at Yakima Valley College
- NIEA 2024 overview from Palm Springs, CA
- Honorably renaming instruction: the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial curriculum
- Learning in places: teachers learning to build relationships with the land around them
- Taking the next step: Native advisory boards and education representation
- Book study: Indigenous children’s survivance in public schools
- WACTE Since Time Immemorial coffee chat
- First steps in Building Relationships with Tribal Nations
- Learning in Places: Reflections on Transformative Pedagogy
- In Memoriam of John McCoy
- Program updates from EPPs
Resources
OSPI’s Office of Native Education website
STI Terminology and timelines
- STI Timeline
- American Indian Tribal Sovereignty Primer
- Glossary of Terms
- Since Time Immemorial Sovereignty Poster
Curriculum Resources
- Office of Native Education Curriculum Materials and STI Materials
- Clearing Magazine Summer 2022 Special Issue on Indigenous Perspectives & Environmental Education
- Native Case Studies
- Native Knowledge 360° Education Initiative
- Recruiting, Retaining, and Supporting Indigenous Educators Resources
Regional Curriculum
- MASD Since Time Immemorial Curriculum Resources
- Spokane Tribal LifeWays Curriculum: Contact Jennifer Lebret, jen.lebret@spokanetribe.com
- Suquamish Since Time Immemorial Curriculum: Contact Barbara Lawrence, blawrence@suquamish.nsn.us
- Pacific Northwest Finder for Indigenous Resources in Education
Principle/Program Administrators
- Washington State School Director’s Association (WSSDA) STI Terminology and timelines
Articles
Bill, D., Minthorn, R.Z. and Montgomery, M. (2022). Visioning Indigenous Futures: Centering Sovereignty and Relationality in Belonging. Education Sciences.
Faircloth, S. C., & Tippeconnic, J. W., III. (2015). Leadership development for schools serving American Indian students: implications for research, policy, and practice. Journal of American Indian Education, 54(1), 127.
Faircloth, S. & Minthorn, R. (2018). The evolution of Native education leadership programs: learning from the past, leading for the future. In S. Waterman, S. Lowe & H. Shotton (Eds.), Beyond Access: Indigenizing Programs for Native American Student Success. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Jacob, Michelle M., and Stephany RunningHawk Johnson. (2020) On Indian Ground. The Northwest. Edited by Michelle M. Jacob and Stephany RunningHawk Johnson, Information Age Publishing Inc..
Minthorn, R.Z. (2020). Indigenizing the doctoral experience to build Indigenous community leaders in educational leadership. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership 23 (1), 61-66.
Minthorn, R.Z. (2022). Indigenizing Doctoral Programs: Embodying Indigenous Community Ways of Being. In C. Pewewardy, A. Lees, & R. Minthorn (Eds.), Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Minthorn, R.Z., Bill, D. & Montgomery, M. (2021). Reclaiming Emotions: Re-unlearning and re-learning discourses of healing in a Tribally placed doctoral cohort. Genealogy 5(1), 24.
Legislation
Teacher preparation programs must integrate the Since Time Immemorial curriculum into their programs and courses, and ensure that teacher candidates engage and familiarize themselves with the content. Programs may modify the curriculum in order to incorporate elements that have a regionally specific focus
Washington State or Pacific Northwest history and government
- Programs must offer and require candidates to complete a one quarter or semester course, or the equivalent, in either Washington State or Pacific Northwest history and government.
- Any course used to meet this requirement must include information on the culture, history, and government of the American Indian peoples who were the first human inhabitants of the state and the region.
These requirements apply to all approved teacher preparation programs, including alternative routes, traditional routes, and CTE teacher preparation programs.
To prepare candidates to successfully teach about the history, culture, and government of American Indian people, much more than just curriculum integration is needed. Candidates need to be able to demonstrate the intersection of cultural competence, equity, and pedagogy in their teaching practices.
Promising practices for preparation programs
Integrating the Since Time Immemorial curriculum into educator preparation programs is one part of a bigger picture of continuous learning and partnership with tribes, educational service districts (ESDs), and school districts. PESB and OSPI’s Office of Native Education (ONE) are working together to support opportunities and resources for all parties.
Promising practices for educator preparation programs involve a variety of models centered around four main areas:
- Relationships, partnerships, and collaboration between tribal nations, preparation programs, and districts
- Professional learning for program leaders, faculty, and field supervisors
- Content and curriculum
- Evidence of engagement
Several preparation programs participated in webinars sharing their models centered around these four main areas. Programs are highly encouraged to view the recorded webinars and study the slide decks of models of promising practices for examples of how they can begin and progress in this work.
Relationships, partnership, and collaboration
As a foundation of this work, promising practices involve educator preparation programs establishing partnerships and collaborating with local tribes and local school districts in proximity to the program’s physical location. Preparation program leaders should work with their organization’s Native Education Liaison or, if the organization does not have a liaison, take it upon themselves, to reach out to local tribes and local tribal schools. Partnerships should advance the mutual interests of all parties, with the interests of all native and non-native students at the forefront.
View the tribal partnership webinar with guest speaker Denny Hurtado of the Skokomish tribe.
Resources for establishing partnerships with local tribes and school districts:
- School districts and nearest federally recognized Indian tribes
- Interactive Washington State tribal map
- Tribal maps
- Tribal chair contact information
- Federally recognized tribes in Washington State
- Non-federally recognized tribes in Washington State
- Tribal colleges
- Washington State tribal schools
- Affiliated tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI)
- Washington State Indian education association
Professional learning
Building upon the foundation of partnerships with local tribes, a second main area of promising practice is professional learning for program leaders and faculty around the Since Time Immemorial curriculum as it relates to and reflects local tribal history and culture. Preparation program leaders, faculty, and candidates are welcome to attend the following OSPI/ONE webinars to gain an understanding of the Since Time Immemorial curriculum and other resources available on the STI curriculum website. Registration is required for these webinars.
STI introductory webinars
Introductory level training sessions will encompass:
- an overview of the STI curriculum including some history and legislation
- a guided navigation through the STI website
- introduction to the Native Knowledge 360 curriculum developed by the National Museum of the American Indian and other pertinent materials
- an opportunity to plan to integrate and implement STI curriculum into your classrooms
Content and curriculum
The third area of promising practice is integrating the Since Time Immemorial curriculum into the preparation program curriculum across all subject areas. The Since Time Immemorial tribal sovereignty curriculum is aligned to social studies, English language arts, environmental and sustainability education, and social-emotional learning state standards.
The webinar recordings and slide decks include several various models from preparation programs demonstrating how this could be done. In addition to those models, the following resources can be helpful to programs in this work.
- Since Time Immemorial curriculum
- OSPI/ONE “Ready to Go” lesson resources
- OSPI/ONE Since Time Immemorial professional learning guide
- Lesson planning template
- Examples of model
- Grade level outcomes – “The big five outcomes” for each grade level found on page two of the STI Overview.
Evidence of engagement
How can preparation programs monitor their engagement? The following list is not exhaustive, rather these are examples of evidence that indicate the preparation program is engaged on a holistic level.
- Tribal and district partnerships
- Professional learning for faculty, staff, and field supervisors
- Demonstration of learning and understanding by teacher preparation candidates through various assignments, artifacts or assessments
Models of promising practices
STI Newsletter
The quarterly Since Time Immemorial newsletter provides resources, research, and updates on the work of integrating Native sovereignty curricula into practice, in Washington state and beyond.
- STI Implementation from a former Native superintendent’s view
- University educational partnerships: promoting Native knowledge in teaching and learning together
- Integrating social justice, JMLSTI, cultural competency, and SEL into teacher education: our journey at Yakima Valley College
- NIEA 2024 overview from Palm Springs, CA
- Honorably renaming instruction: the John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial curriculum
- Learning in places: teachers learning to build relationships with the land around them
- Taking the next step: Native advisory boards and education representation
- Book study: Indigenous children’s survivance in public schools
- WACTE Since Time Immemorial coffee chat
- First steps in Building Relationships with Tribal Nations
- Learning in Places: Reflections on Transformative Pedagogy
- In Memoriam of John McCoy
- Program updates from EPPs
Resources
OSPI’s Office of Native Education website
STI Terminology and timelines
- STI Timeline
- American Indian Tribal Sovereignty Primer
- Glossary of Terms
- Since Time Immemorial Sovereignty Poster
Curriculum Resources
- Office of Native Education Curriculum Materials and STI Materials
- Clearing Magazine Summer 2022 Special Issue on Indigenous Perspectives & Environmental Education
- Native Case Studies
- Native Knowledge 360° Education Initiative
- Recruiting, Retaining, and Supporting Indigenous Educators Resources
Regional Curriculum
- MASD Since Time Immemorial Curriculum Resources
- Spokane Tribal LifeWays Curriculum: Contact Jennifer Lebret, jen.lebret@spokanetribe.com
- Suquamish Since Time Immemorial Curriculum: Contact Barbara Lawrence, blawrence@suquamish.nsn.us
- Pacific Northwest Finder for Indigenous Resources in Education
Principle/Program Administrators
- Washington State School Director’s Association (WSSDA) STI Terminology and timelines
Articles
Bill, D., Minthorn, R.Z. and Montgomery, M. (2022). Visioning Indigenous Futures: Centering Sovereignty and Relationality in Belonging. Education Sciences.
Faircloth, S. C., & Tippeconnic, J. W., III. (2015). Leadership development for schools serving American Indian students: implications for research, policy, and practice. Journal of American Indian Education, 54(1), 127.
Faircloth, S. & Minthorn, R. (2018). The evolution of Native education leadership programs: learning from the past, leading for the future. In S. Waterman, S. Lowe & H. Shotton (Eds.), Beyond Access: Indigenizing Programs for Native American Student Success. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.
Jacob, Michelle M., and Stephany RunningHawk Johnson. (2020) On Indian Ground. The Northwest. Edited by Michelle M. Jacob and Stephany RunningHawk Johnson, Information Age Publishing Inc..
Minthorn, R.Z. (2020). Indigenizing the doctoral experience to build Indigenous community leaders in educational leadership. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership 23 (1), 61-66.
Minthorn, R.Z. (2022). Indigenizing Doctoral Programs: Embodying Indigenous Community Ways of Being. In C. Pewewardy, A. Lees, & R. Minthorn (Eds.), Transformational Indigenous Praxis Model. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Minthorn, R.Z., Bill, D. & Montgomery, M. (2021). Reclaiming Emotions: Re-unlearning and re-learning discourses of healing in a Tribally placed doctoral cohort. Genealogy 5(1), 24.
