Seventh Generation to provide funding for curriculum on Vt. native tribes

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - Vermont-based eco-friendly cleaning company Seventh Generation is teaming up with the Vermont Commission of Native American Affairs to bring new curriculum into the state’s schools.

The company has committed to providing $50,000 to put toward assembling a curriculum focused on Vermont’s native tribes. The idea is that starting next year, on Indigenous Peoples Day, the commission will provide schools the opportunity to keep kids in class and teach them about the state’s native tribes by providing them with the new learning materials free of charge.

Because the materials would be created by Vermont’s own tribes, commission members say that doing this is the best way to honor the day and teach accurate and relevant information so that students can see it as a learning opportunity instead of a vacation.

“We started saying, so what if instead of kids getting the day off, kids go to school on Indigenous People’s Day. For the first time, we could make sure that what the kids will learn in the state of Vermont -- at least for the kids at schools that sign on -- they’ll be learning about the genuine, authentic Abenaki history,” said the commission’s Jeff Benay.

The commission is already working to draft ideas and materials that they can present to the schools before the next school year.

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