Native American Cultural Center online
Abalone, the Native American Cultural Center Online, is committed to providing you with a variety of educational resources. The following educational materials reflect the diversity and richness of California Indian people. These materials are designed for different levels of students as well as teachers.
Bookmark this page to return often!
Start here if you’re looking for ideas. Everyone likes some fun activities that are educational too. NACC has listed some suggestions to spur your indigenous educational creativity!
NACC has assembled these online resources for teachers and students in a variety of levels, from grade school to high school. The focus is the local First Nations people of the San Francisco Bay Area. Some sites have links to additional materials available online.
The Bay Area has some fascinating native plant life. Learn how many of these plants were used for healing and medicine from educator Andrew Brother Elk. You may want to cultivate a few of these wonderful plants in your school garden or at home.
Celebrate spring with NACC’s “Native Spring Festival” through June. Many activities are appropriate for school children. Links to other Bay Area events as well.
Dancers the world over are in the debt to this wonderful, beautiful, and hard working American Indian ballet dancer, America’s first prima ballerina. Learn more.
In 2004 the Grammy Awards, CBS, and Outkast broadcast a racist dance number and NACC launched a successful nationwide boycott. Find out what happened, why stereotypes are bad, and what you can do to combat them.
These colorful maps show tribal areas, names, and language families for the area we now call California. Included are frequently asked questions and answers for students and teachers. A variety of classroom activities are suggested for use with the maps.
Go right to some lesson plans you can modify to suit your class, or download as is. We encourage you to try to modify plans to represent California Indian cultures.
NACC has started a new program centered around the oldest art form known to humans. To see some stunning photos and read about California Indian dance, click on the link.
NACC poses some study questions and examines a Graton Rancheria project as a case study about California Indian sovereignty, history, and culture.
This 2002 survey of California’s First Nations people offers a revealing snapshot of current cultural issues for the tribes. It includes a narrative summary as well as the research data. This is useful for higher level classes and teachers seeking more in-depth information.
Author Dick Baugh speaks wise words from experience. Click here to read an educator’s guide: ‘What to Teach Kids and Why.’ This helps frame education on American Indian issues in a broader context of skills we all need to live happily.
Click here to see a list of ten great books, and to read read two powerful short stories by noted author Gerald Haslam from his award winning collection That Constant Coyote: California Stories.
The online galleries of this website contain interesting and beautiful aspects of First Nations cultures, some of which will be unfamiliar to students and teachers. NACC invites to you visit the galleries and create your own questions based on what you see.
This site has a wealth of useful information on fire making, California Indian tools, classes, books, instructors– an excellent resource in the Bay Area.
KQED offers lesson plans for teachers based on media. This one is for Grades 9-12 and based on “The Return of Navajo Boy.”
*ABALONE is the online virtual cultural center for the Native American Cultural Center (NACC). All rights reserved.
Ohlone Male Dancer
