The COVID-19 pandemic altered how our communities communicate and interact with one another. To keep students and communities safe, tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) transitioned from in-person classes and community events to closing their campuses and offering academic courses online. Community programming and events were canceled or postponed. The impact on TCU communities and their students was profound—particularly in programs and courses where students’ work was highly interactive with elders, mentors, and Native master artists. The American Indian College Fund’s Native Arts and Culture Program was one such initiative that had to be re-envisioned.

In response, the College Fund established the Native Arts Distance Learning grant during the spring of 2022 to help TCUs transition to virtual instruction. As a result, distance learning went from a futuristic idea to a norm in Native arts and culture. Eligible TCUs invited to participate were those prepared for distance learning capabilities indicated through factors like hosting previous online classes, having open campus space capable of implementing social distancing, and identifying master artists, culture bearers, or knowledge keepers who could help with teaching Native art forms.

Instructors were forced to innovate and change their methods and instructional practices, and even their teaching approach regarding Native arts and culture. TCUs and their faculty adapted to the sudden changes by incorporating new teaching channels, such as live video classes through Facebook, YouTube, and Zoom. Learning and teaching interaction between master artists and student and community participants were now happening on the screen.

In all, seven TCUs received Native Arts Distance Learning grant awards, including Blackfeet Community College, College of Menominee Nation, Diné College, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University, Northwest Indian College, and Salish Kootenai College. Each TCU that applied for the grant participated in an application review that identified learning gaps due to TCU closure during the pandemic. They discussed how they planned to adapt Native arts curriculum and integrate it into online classes, how to create new innovative pedagogy to support virtual learning and instruction, and how the pandemic has impacted intergenerational learning.

SNAPSHOTS

At the outset of the pandemic, the College of Menominee Nation (CMN) had to cancel their traditional Menominee Theatre Pageant. This production was staged from 1937 to 1970 with live music and dancing that highlighted Menominee tribal history and legends. In recent years, CMN has revived the pageant and attendance at the event grew each year. In 2020, CMN decided to host the pageant virtually with the help of the Native Arts Distance Learning grant.

CMN began with the conversion of an in-person event to a short virtual play titled The Raccoon and the Blind Man by recording it for students and community members alike. CMN’s program administrator, master artist, and actors rehearsed the play through Zoom. At rehearsals they shared stories, laughed, and celebrated together as a community. The recorded play will be incorporated into future theater classes at CMN, and the video will be used in live productions as a teaching tool for storytelling.

Lessons learned have become valuable information. CMN shared and discussed what worked, what setbacks they encountered, and what could be changed or adjusted for future events. They hosted a live Facebook discussion with those who worked on the project to talk about the trials and tribulations of rehearsing through the screen rather than in person. In addition, they shared tips and created tutorials on how to record parts for the event.

In neighboring Minnesota, Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College (FDLTCC) also replaced its face-to-face interaction and teachings with online and distance learning. For its Native Arts Distance Learning grant, FDLTCC created three video tutorials in lacrosse stick making, split-toe moccasin making, and beaded earring making using a traditional design. The videos targeted people of all ages and learning styles, from children to elders. Participants could watch the videos and gain the knowledge and skills they would need to create their own works of art.

FDLTCC worked with master artists to record the instructional videos. The master artists relied on the technology that was at their disposal—cell phones. FDLTCC provided the master artists with “smartphone video recording kits” to help them record the process. Each kit consisted of a smartphone mount, tripod stand, external microphone, and LED video lighting.

Once the master artists received their recording kits, they created a step-by-step guide for their highlighted Native art form. just as if they were teaching in a face-to-face workshop, the master artists connected their processes with the creation of the Native art form, conveying its cultural, spiritual, and historical significance to online participants.

Nearby in Hayward, Wisconsin, Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University (LCOOU) provided innovative distance learning methods and instruction through its distance learning grant workshop in the community education program titled Gashkibijiganikewin (Making Feast Bundles and Ribbon Skirts). The instructors used Google Forms to register students for the online workshop. LCOOU mailed their students supply kits, and if they did not have a sewing machine or laptop, they had the opportunity to check them out for the duration of the class. The master artist delivered instruction through live Zoom sessions. This workshop continued to be available to students and community members of all ages, allowing for intergenerational learning.

Materials play a big part in distance learning workshops. If participants don’t have materials, an online arts workshop won’t work. LCOOU therefore purchased several sewing machines for its main campus and each of its satellite campuses. LCOOU also helped eliminate students’ barrier to accessing supplies by providing the necessary materials, allowing students to focus on learning and gaining the skills for making ribbon skirts.

Far to the Southwest, Diné College provided an online Navajo silversmithing academic course for its students. The TCU’s master artist, Lyndon Tsosie, is a silversmith who had previous experience teaching in a distance learning format, enabling him to troubleshoot issues that most master artists at other TCUs struggled with.

Tsosie chose to teach weekly online lessons to provide the opportunity for dialogue and instruction with students. Teaching in a synchronous online environment, even if not in person, allows learners to ask questions and view up close the hand movements integral to the art form. Such tangible teaching allows the instructor to provide guidance in real time about tools, equipment, materials, and technique, which is essential for a hands-on Native art form such as Navajo silversmithing.

CHALLENGES

Oftentimes, distance learning presented challenges. As with Diné College, other TCUs worked closely with master artists, culture bearers, and elders to teach and pass on knowledge. But many elders were unfamiliar with technology, including how to teach by video or upload materials. In addition, TCUs had to worry about the safety of the master artists they were employing. The pandemic took many of the great knowledge holders, culture and language bearers, and elders. TCUs had to be careful to ensure that those who were teaching were protected.

Salish Kootenai College (SKC) in Pablo, Montana, experienced a delay in filming due to safety protocols set in place to help protect their community. Due to the age and health issues of many master artists, SKC worked to ensure that everyone involved was safely protected while filming, giving special care to the master artists’ comfort levels. The introduction of the COVID-19 vaccination provided an additional safety measure for master artists as they continued to film their lessons.

Instructors like SKC’s Eva Boyd are not only master artists but also cultural bearers who may be the only elders to possess knowledge of certain art forms. TCUs therefore had to take extra precautions to protect their well-being during the pandemic.

SKC learned that slow and less than reliable internet access also affected how they could provide lessons for their students and community members. A collaboration with one master artist was challenged not by the artist’s lack of technological expertise, but by slow internet speeds, which created challenges with sharing and editing content through online platforms. SKC utilized secure digital (SD) memory cards to help bring lessons to the screen. In addition, SKC used social distance protocols to limit risk exposure. For example, one master artist recorded his Native arts lesson and then left his SD card in the bed of a pickup truck for the SKC program administrator to pick up, who in turn saved and edited the files and returned the SD card to the truck bed.

SKC created eight videos for projects and assignments to be used for a course. This was a learning process for the program administrator and the master artist, who discovered that the recording did not stop after one video. There were follow-up questions and clarification needed from students on the art form they were learning. The master artist often filmed additional videos for further instruction and explanation.

Nearby in Browning, Montana, Blackfeet Community College (BCC) hosted workshops in making parfleche, rawhide earrings, leather bags, and beaded medallions. One challenge the college faced was streamlining the recording, editing, and uploading process. Time was of the essence, and BCC learned from their first workshops that recording and editing a class could take over 12 hours. As they hosted additional classes they established a system that cut down recording time and allowed for a faster turnaround in the editing process. This allowed BCC to upload workshops in a timely manner.

“Distance learning is not the best way to offer our courses, but it is better than no cultural arts classes at all,” attests Cameron Decker, program administrator at SKC. “Incredibly special moments of resiliency, creativity, humor, and ‘normalness’ have occurred because we continued to offer our courses. Our efforts were appreciated by students who were able to express themselves creatively and culturally because we persevered and faced this challenge.”

LESSONS LEARNED

The pandemic has illuminated the numerous challenges TCUs face, including limited internet access due to their remote, rural locations. Nevertheless, TCUs were inventive with their approach and created video repositories of different Native arts lessons. After the workshops and academic courses were filmed and shared, TCUs made the videos available for students and community members to access anytime through their institution’s library. Instructors could also show the videos in class and oftentimes TCUs would include media links that could be viewed anywhere with an internet connection.

The widespread creation of knowledge libraries and repositories at TCUs during this time was a common response to the situation. Both CMN and FDLTCC will use the video recordings of their Native arts lessons for upcoming classes and will archive them for future generations. Moreover, these videos will be included in arts courses and can be accessed for other subject areas. For example, physical education courses can utilize the lacrosse stick-making video for a lesson about the history of the sport, and a beading video can be utilized for a math lesson. “Restoring and preserving became the guiding focal point that spurred the idea of a traditional arts video library—a repository of traditional arts tutorials to preserve the processes and protocols of various traditional art forms,” explains Roxanne DeLille, FDLTCC’s program administrator and dean of Indigenous and academic affairs. “A repository for video tutorials could create a platform by which the reservation and college community could continue to have access to master artists and the creation of traditional art forms, even in situations where face-to-face interactions could not occur. In this way, master artists could continue to send forward cultural knowledge and skills preserving and revitalizing their art forms by capturing their associated processes and protocols.”

CMN’s Sabrina Hemken, Karen Ann Hoffman, and Bruce Wilber Jr. share a laugh while rehearsing for a traditional Menominee pageant. The college eventually broadcast the pageant live via Zoom.

TCU administrators were surprised by some of the positive effects of distance learning, such as the large number of students who enrolled and how courses could be accessed from anywhere. For example, they learned that family members from across the country were taking a Native arts workshop at the same time but at different locations. Workshop participants included students, local community members, and tribal members living off the reservation— some even several states away.

Another positive effect was student interest in learning traditional art forms. Northwest Indian College (NWIC) in Bellingham, Washington, hosted a variety of workshops that were aimed at all age groups, but one of their demographic foci was on middle and high school students. The college held a Salish weaving arts workshop aimed at those students. In the process, NWIC learned that the distance learning workshop had a high level of engagement due to the topic—students wanted to learn this traditional Native art form and the teachings from the master artist, regardless of the medium in which it was taught.

By recording master artists, TCUs are also preserving cultural knowledge for future generations. “A repository for video tutorials could create a platform by which the reservation and college community could continue to have access to master artists and the creation of traditional art forms,” explains Roxanne DeLille, dean of Indigenous and academic affairs at FDLTCC.

Distance learning has led to many other lessons and questions about Native art forms, master artists, and teachings. just as with in-person classes, important questions were what Native art forms could be taught, and what knowledge could be shared online. Additional measures need to be taken to help ensure that lessons are taught in a careful and respectful way, while showing compassion and understanding for working with master artists and respecting the knowledge and skills they share.

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Each TCU that participated in the American Indian College Fund’s Native Arts Distance Learning grant learned many lessons along the way and created new and innovative practices that will help them for future instruction and learning. “This distance learning project has brought about a success story for both student and community distance interaction,” says Aaron LaFromboise, Blackfeet Community College’s program administrator. “The project came after our college and community were plunged into the depths of online learning and the spring prior to this project was a steep learning process. The success of this project demonstrated to the TCU staff and faculty that extracurricular engagement is not only possible but can be successful.”

Bridget Skenadore, MA (Diné), is the program officer for the Native Arts and Culture Program at the American Indian College Fund.