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  Dr. Bonney, a member of the UNC-Charlotte Anthropology department, said she was concerned about the section on Indians in the state curriculum for public schools.
"The North Carolina curriculum includes anthropological studies for the intermediate level," she said. "But no one knows how to teach the subject." The studies cover all the peoples of the state, but "there is no realization how Indians live today," she said.
"I get many requests to come to schools and talk," Dr. Bonney said. "I find there is such a lack of meterials and resources. And the teachers simply don't have time to dig them out."
To remedy the situation, Dr. Bonney applied for and has received money for Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Title IX funds. With the grant she plans to develop a teachers' manual and resource book on all ethnic groups in the state.
The year long course will involve classes and workshops for teachers which will prepare them to bring their students a "more realistic and positive approach" to studies about Indians.
"We're trying to get at the stereotyping and discrimination," Dr. Bonney said, citing the material presently offered which talks about "domesticating the savages," substitutes "massacre" for "battle" and describes all reprisals, no matter how fully justified, as "brutal."
A series of workshops will be held during the program and Waldorf will present one on the Algonkian Indians.
"Most of the Indians in North Carolina were Algonkians and they never lived in teepees," Waldorf said. "But teachers come here to the Indian Village with their classes and want to know where the tepees are."
Dr. Bonney is developing an integrated unit on Indians which teachers can use in their classes. The unit will cover every phase of work in the classroom for a period of one to two weeks.
"We offer Indian games for physical education, reading exercises, math games, simulation games to teach family and clan culture, even decision making as Indians would handle such tasks. We will have instructions for making musical instruments and arts and crafts and many resources for folk tales, legends and dances," Dr. Bonney said.
She stressed the importance of getting rid of the negative stereotype and emphasizing the contributions of Indians to the nation's culture in their art, foods, medicines and words, for example.
A collection of resources at UNC-Charlotte which can be checked out by teachers will include display cases with artifacts for the children to handle, a section which Waldorf will help; a diorama three-dimensional scale model of an Algonkian village; a film on Roanoke Island Indians which has been prepared by Waldorf; and teachers' and students' handbooks.
"Teachers won't have to be trotting around to libraries for books, films, games," Dr. Bonney said. The handbook will give resources for every aspect of the studies.
"We are getting a great deal of participation from the Indian community," she added. "They are able to present material from the Indian point of view rather than the social scientist or historian point of view."
The course will cover all other ethnic groups in the state as well as the Indians.
Dr. Bonney's interest in Indians dates back to her student days at the University of Arizona and her work in a Navajo boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"I'm interested in a realistic, positive image of today's Indian as well as the pre-history Indian," she said. (V. Evans photo)
(Copy of Original Article held in the Waldorf family archives. MKW)
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