Angela Erdrich and her sister Heid E. approached Kenwood art teacher Margaret Swenson in 2015 about starting a Native American art curriculum at the school. Both Angela and Heid E. are Turtle Mountain Ojibwe tribal members. 

Angela Erdrich is a pediatrician, artist, and illustrator of the book “Josie Dances.” She had kids at Kenwood and connections to many other Native artists. Angela and Heid are siblings of Louise Erdich, the owner of Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Kenwood. 

Swenson initially said no to the Native American art curriculum because she didn’t know how to do it correctly, but later agreed to start the unit at the elementary school because she thought it was important to teach the kids about Native art.

“I didn't know where to begin and how to do it right. I have also made mistakes teaching about cultures that I didn't want to repeat,” Swenson said. “Knowing it is important and crucial though, and truly wanting to do it, I changed my mind.”

The Native American art curriculum focuses mostly on Ojibwe and Dakota artists, since those groups occupied Minnesota before colonization and today. Swenson and Erdrich gathered Native artists, including Erdrich, to teach students in Grades 1 through 4 about Native art styles, the materials they use and the history behind their art. Students in kindergarten learn about Norval Morrisseau’s Tree of Life and fifth graders study Patrick DesJarlait’s paintings. 

While Native artists help teach many of the classes, Swenson runs the kindergarten and fifth grade units inspired by artists Norval Morrisseau and Patrick DesJarlait. She teaches the kids to layer their paint like DesJarlait and save the details, like fish scales, for last.

Students in Margaret Swenson's fifth grade art class learned in the style of Native artist Patrick DesJarlait. They layered watercolors to paint fish that are original to the Red Lake region, where DesJarlait is from (photo by Angela Erdrich).

“[Swenson] had these really deep thoughts about like, this isn’t about cultural appropriation or imitating him,” Angela said about Swenson’s teaching of DesJarlait. “It’s about studying his style and honoring his style.” 

Each grade makes a project specific to the Native art and culture they have studied, which they display at an exhibit for students and families.

One important feature of the curriculum is that it teaches Native art in the present tense. While the projects do include historical elements, Swenson uses contemporary Native artists to teach the students that Native Americans actively participate in traditional and modern elements of culture and society. 

“The goal of the curriculum, too, was to teach Native American subject matter in the present tense,” Angela said. “It’s not like people used to berry pick or something. It’s like, this is a thriving tradition.”

One challenge for Swenson was to teach curriculum about a different culture in an honorable way rather than appropriating or exploiting it. Angela said that Swenson is intent on respecting Native artists and learning from their style rather than copying their work. 

“People sometimes are afraid, with teaching about Native Americans, that they might do it the wrong way or say the wrong thing,” Angela said. “So for her to take it on and to be dedicated to it, I would like to see her efforts used as maybe not just this one school, but it’s something that could be done elsewhere as well.”

Swenson said that Angela and Heid E. helped educate her on how to teach the kids about Native American art in a respectful way.

“Dr. and Heid Erdrich showed me how to teach about present day Native Americans while avoiding stereotypes, misinformation and keeping Native culture frozen in time,” Swenson said.

According to Angela, Swenson teaches the curriculum so well that Birchbark Books & Native Arts created an award in her honor for community members who “bridge the gap of cultural understanding.” Each year, the school picks somebody on behalf of Birchbark who bridges this gap for the Margaret Swenson award.

Artist and pediatrician Angela Erdrich brought her nephew, a Dakota corn grower, to show Kenwood third graders Native corn. They made still life drawings of the corn (photo by Angela Erdrich).

The Native artists who teach the first through fourth graders are Gordon Coons, Marlena Myles, James Autio and Angela Erdrich, who teaches third graders about still life. She brings in her nephew, who is a Dakota corn grower, to show the students what Native corn looks like. To teach kids how Native artists historically used the materials that were around them, she shows students some Native pieces and asks them to guess what materials were used. They almost never guess porcupine quills as an art material, she said.

Artist Marlena Myles teaches students to draw a silhouette with Sharpie and bleed color from tissue paper, which is a similar technique to her own digital art. Erdrich said she was amazed that an artist as busy as Myles put aside the time to teach the class, and credits Swenson for being such a great teacher.