One mother in Madison County this week complained to school officials that encouraging elementary students to “dress in Native American attire" ahead of Thanksgiving is racist and promotes harmful stereotypes.

Apryl Arthurs, whose 5-year-old son attends Central School, is a member of the Mohawk tribe. After learning of a planned "powwow" for kindergartners, Arthurs wrote a letter to the principal, saying in part: “I wish to state this clearly: dressing up as a stereotype of a culture is racist.

"Even if it’s children. Even if it’s just for fun…Even if no one has spoken up before now. Even if this has been going on for decades.”

A letter she received back from school principal Alex Hughes and provided to AL.com stated that the school does not condone racism. Hughes wrote that the powwow was a way to spark interest and excitement about a people and a culture. “However,” Hughes wrote, “I see no evidence that there is any level of racism in this activity.”

Colorful paper-and-feather headbands, paper-bag vests and macaroni necklaces have been a staple in elementary classrooms for decades, used to teach students about Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving.

But in 2019, amid national discussions of what it means to wear another culture as a costume, some are calling on educators to avoid Native stereotypes and to give students a more accurate depiction of individual indigenous cultures.

“This is a really big deal to me and to other Native people,” said Arthurs. “I get that it’s not world-changing. But I just want it taken seriously. Let’s work together to do this right.”

After communicating with the teacher and the principal, Arthurs filed a complaint with the ACLU and posted about the issue on Facebook.

When AL.com contacted the Madison County Schools superintendent and school board, district spokesperson Tim Hall acknowledged the issue had been brought to their attention by a parent.

“We have made adjustments to our student programs to make sure we are culturally sensitive,” he said in a statement on Thursday evening. He declined to elaborate further.

District officials later met with Arthurs to discuss creation of new curriculum guidelines around education on native cultures and peoples.

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Arthurs first took her concerns to the teacher. Late last week, Arthurs’ son’s kindergarten teacher sent home a note saying students were encouraged to “dress in Native American attire” for the kindergarten powwow planned for this week.

Arthurs sent a message to the teacher, asking for details about the event.

“I was hoping maybe they had contacted one of the local tribes, maybe they were bringing in a drum, that kids would learn some of their dances or something like that,” she said.

The teacher responded, saying planned activities included headdress and teepee making, campfire tribal stories and a VR experience. The teacher said the focus would be on tribes from within Alabama, and that she wanted to be sensitive to Arthurs’ concerns, according to messages Arthurs provided to AL.com.

This bothered Arthurs because, she said, teepees were not used by any tribes local to North Alabama, and headdresses have deep spiritual meaning.

“Traditional headdresses, the ones everybody thinks about, with the big feathers, that’s an incredibly sacred item to very specific tribes,” she said. “There’s a prayer in every stitch, there’s a meaning in every bead and feather. To just make a mockup out of it, it’s yucky.”

Teachers are trying to do the right thing by introducing their students to different cultures and people, said John Petrovic, a professor of social and cultural studies at the University of Alabama College of Education.

“What happens, in elementary schools especially, is that teachers are caught in a tension of presenting rather complex material and lives, while trying to do it in ‘fun’ ways that will pique students’ interest,” he said.

Dressing up is one of those ways, but it’s problematic, he said. Not all Native peoples lived in teepees or wore feathers or carried tomahawks.

“It would never be appropriate for children to dress up as an African American or, for a less-racialized example, a person of Jewish faith,” he said.

“Children who may think – as many adults – that all (Native American) peoples dressed the same, will begin the process of understanding what a stereotype is and why it is problematic” if a lesson about native cultures is taught without using feathers-and-war-paint stereotypes, he said. “This is what teachers should be teaching.”

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Arthurs eventually asked for a meeting with school personnel organizing the powwow, and a school administrator gave her a call, she said. The administrator asked if she would be a resource for future events. The administrator said the dressing up was just for fun and was not meant to be offensive.

Arthurs offered to send in some age-appropriate storybooks she has about native stories, and offered to provide supplies for a craft that would be more accurate to local native cultures, she said.

She was politely rebuffed, she said, so she wrote to the principal.

“Our kindergarten students are dressing up to celebrate learning,” Hughes wrote back in a letter, which Arthurs provided to AL.com. “In no way is that racism, in fact it is the opposite…Many grade levels have days where students dress up as historical cultures, famous people from history, or even to represent a career, and in each case it is to learn and celebrate. In none of these cases are we stereotyping a culture or people.”

Arthurs said she then contacted the school superintendent but did not receive a response. When she posted about the experience on Facebook, she said many of her friends contacted the school to express their anger at the situation.

“I wasn’t asking them to stop the powwow event,” said Arthurs. “November is actually Native American History Month. It’s important to learn about indigenous culture, and especially to be familiar with the people who lived where you live now.

“I just want it handled in a way that’s fitting in 2019. Don’t dress up. There are resources and crafts out there that are educational about specific people who lived where you are.”

Update on Nov. 23, 2019, at 9 a.m. to add that Madison County Schools officials met with Arthurs on Friday to discuss creating a supplemental curriculum and guidelines for all grade levels and staff around education on native cultures.