Teleconference with Passamaquoddy kids

Making new friends

Stratford Elementary students Skype with Native American children from Maine

By Anne BlankenshipThrough the use of technology, some Stratford elementary students had a chance to travel across the United States and meet with students from a different culture and ethnic background.

The students are studying about Native Americans. Their teachers approached art and technology teacher Lisa Schaa, to see if there would be a way the students could see and talk with some Native American children.

"They asked if we could find some children that our Stratford students could Skype with," Schaa said. Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls and video conferencing over the Internet. She did some research and found a reservation school in Maine.

"I spoke with the Passamaquoddy reservation and the school there was willing to Skype with the students about life, traditions, music and school," she said. According to Schaa, Passamaquoddy means "People of the Dawn," a reference to the fact that the tribe lives on the eastern most tip of Maine and are some of the first to see the sun come up each morning.Before the teleconference:"They had asked their teachers if the Native Americans lived in teepees, and if they wore feathers in their hair. They really didn't understand what real Native Americans looked like," she said.After the teleconference:Emma Collicott said the children looked a little different than themselves because they all had dark hair.

"But they didn't have paint on their faces or feathers in their hair," said she. "They had on the same kind of clothes as we did."Comment:  It's a perennial source of wonder that the old stereotypes persist. That most people haven't met or even seen a modern Native.

Actually, they've probably seen a modern Native: Wes Studi in Avatar, the Wolf Pack in New Moon, Adam Beach in Law & Order: SVU, Sam Bradford in football, Joba Chamberlain in baseball, Wayne Newton, Carrie Underwood, et al. They just don't realize what they're seeing because modern Natives don't have "paint on their faces or feathers in their hair."

For more on the subject, see "Hatchets, Feathers, and the Color Red."

Below:  "The first and second graders at Stratford Elementary get their first peek at the students from Perry, Maine. The children had lots of questions about life on the reservation."