Protecting the Promise

de Timothy San Pedro, Megan Bang, Django Paris

"Protecting the Promise: Indigenous Education between Mothers and Their Children is a collection of educational essays as told by five Native American families in the U.S. Northwest (Washington, Montana, North Dakota). Collectively, these stories speak to the "everyday" aspects of Indigenous educational resurgence rooted in the intergenerational learning that occurs between Native American mothers and their children. It is in the hyper-local--the everyday moments--in Indigenous families' lives where "the most radical and hopeful possibilities for Indigenous resurgence and futures can and do unfold" (Bang, Montan o Nolan & McDaid-Morgan, 2018, p. 2). We define "resurgence" as the ongoing actions (both large and small) that recenter Indigenous realities and knowledges while, simultaneously, denouncing and healing from the damaging effects of settler colonial systems. This book is a testament to the powerful ways everyday interactions between mothers and their children are intricately connected to larger social issues such as protection of land, sovereign tribal nation rights, revitalization, and sustaining of language and cultural practices. Everyday is defined as those daily actions taken up by families and communities, often unacknowledged and unseen by teachers and schools that have the power to generate Indigenous resurgence (Corntassel & Scow, 2017; Hunt & Holmes, 2015)"--