Your Future Your Choices

Supplement for Hands on Banking Instructor Guides

Elementary School: Unit 1, Section 2 – Earnings (p. 11)
Middle School: Unit 1, Section 3 – Earning Power (p. 17)
High School/College: Topic 2, Lesson 1 – Making Your Way

Lesson Narrative

Traditionally, each member of the community had a particular job (i.e. leader, educator, hunter, tool maker, cook, child rearing, etc.). Native societies were egalitarian in nature. All jobs were equal as were the people who did them. Women’s and men’s responsibilities were thought of as parallel rather than hierarchical. In the egalitarian Native societies, authority was dispersed, and decisions were made by those who would be carrying them out. People contributed according to their abilities and interests. The term leader is used because no one in the community had the right to “govern” over another. Governance is commonly defined as the exercise of authority, control, or power. Given this definition, American Indians did not traditionally “govern” themselves and it is inaccurate to try to fit American Indian leadership paradigms into this conceptual framework.

While it is true that the Native women generally played a subordinate role in ceremonial life and lacked formal political power (no women signed treaties), they had a type of political power that contemporary American women lack. In many societies, women owned the lodge, tipi, and its contents. In agricultural societies, she owned the fields, seeds, farming implements, and the right to trade their surplus crops. In societies that hunted, women made the decision on where to camp. Native women had the right to divorce, and since they owned the home, men were “put out” of the home. Native women were held in high esteem for their craft work and healing abilities.

Native men were responsible for hunting, defensive and aggressive warfare, manufacturing of weapons, and many of the community political and religious operations. Their duties often took them away from their homes and it was dangerous work.

At the end of the 19th century, there was an attack on these traditional roles by the U.S. government. Native men were to become farmers, blacksmiths, etc. while Native women were expected to be “civilized” like European American women by becoming housewives. Although these changes were resisted by Native people, many of the Native men’s traditional roles quickly disappeared. The job of caring and supporting the families fell on the shoulders of women. You can still see this shift today.

On Plains reservations in the beginning of the 21st century, women are more likely than men to have completed a high school education and to hold jobs outside of the home. Women are often the primary providers for their household, while their partners take over child care, cooking, and cleaning.

Preliminary Work:

Review the statistics given in the Hands on Banking lesson to find if they apply to Native teenagers. For example, 70-80% of U.S. teenagers have worked for pay at some time during their high school years.

Discussion:

Discuss with the students their understanding of traditional roles within families and communities.

  1. What are the ancestral roles of people in their tribe?
  2. How did their ancestors view these roles?
  3. How are the roles of their ancestors viewed today?
  4. What are the roles of men and women today?

Research:

  1. Have your students research the demographics of their own tribe in the area of family make up: who has jobs, who raises the children (this could be both parents or a mix of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles).
  2. Have them research the employment rates in their tribe.
  3. Research the housing make up in their tribe…who lives with whom? And why?
  4. Research the correlation between levels of education and earnings.

Presentations:

Have students report out to the class their findings from their research.

Wrap-up Journaling

This discussion will give the students a chance to reflect on what they have learned in this lesson.

  1. How do they see the information they have just learned fit into their lives?
  2. How do they go about obtaining employment? What sources do they use?
  3. How long have they worked? Where? For how long?
  4. How far in their education do they feel they want to go? Why?
  5. Ask students what more information they would like on the subject.
  6. Let students know the next topic is “Spend Smart” and ask them to come prepared to discuss their experiences in how to get the most for their money.

NOTE: The activities in this lesson segues into and covers some ideas in Topic 3.

Sample Narrative Activities:

  • Teacher or elder telling a traditional tribal story.
  • Explore tribal employment. Look up tribal council’s education background via LINKEDIN
  • Search your tribe’s job board.
  • Search AISES job board, look types of positions, i.e. senior level vs entry level.
  • Explore what family members do for a living.