Spring Session 2022
This Spring, we will be using a book by Forrest Carter, The Education of Little Tree as an outline for a discussion of Native American history and spirituality. Link to Amazon or Bookshop.org
From the Publisher's introduction:
Teenagers took to the book almost as a cult. The values as well as the prose touched many who didn’t usually read. Younger children found Little Tree on their own. Librarians began to find Little Tree missing from the shelves. Students of Native American life discovered the book to be as accurate as it was mystical and romantic. Elementary-school teachers learned that Little Tree fascinated their seemingly world-weary charges. But most generally the love of Little Tree passed from reader to reader with the increasingly hard-to-find borrowed copy of the book.
Little Tree is a charming 150 page book that touches nearly every topic of Native American and First People's life in relation to culture in early 20th Century North America. There is even a series of issues that revolve around Native American spirituality and Christianity.
I suggest you obtain the book and read it now then volunteer on some part of the book that especially fascinates you. We don't have to read the book in sequence, the topics found in it can be put in any order.
We will begin class on the 9th of January with a collection of our local voices, and maybe further on, some guests.
| Date | Instructor | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| January 9 | Doug Olena | Introduction to The Education of Little Tree Presentation |
| January 16 | Doug Olena | “Little Tree” and “The Way” |
| January 23 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| January 30 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| February 6 | Lois Olena | The Ojibway Medicine Wheel and Native spirituality. Book resource: God is Red: A Native View of Religion |
| February 13 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| February 20 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| February 27 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| March 6 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| March 13 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| March 20 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| March 27 | Marty Mittelstadt | “The Dog Star” Indian reeducation schools |
| April 3 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| April 10 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| April 17 | Doug Olena | Pentecostal and Native American spirituality and The Journal of John Woolman |
| April 24 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |
| May 1 | Volunteer | “Little Tree” |