All-Women-Led Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments Launches Website and First-Of-Its-Kind Educational Resource Guide

The all-women-led Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments (CMTED) is pleased to announce a pair of exciting, indigenized resources to support educators in Michigan – a first-of-its-kind resource guide developed for educators by Indigenous educators and the newly launched CMTED website (cmted.org).

For the first time in history, CMTED has a platform to share Indigenous-developed and Indigenous-vetted educational resources with Michigan’s education system. The initial resource on the website – Maawndoonganan: Anishinaabe Resource Manual – contains CMTED- endorsed instructional materials such as books, podcasts, videos, and websites. The guide is intentionally focused on Social Studies Standards adopted by the Michigan State Board of Education in June 2019 that are inclusive of Indigenous content.

It is the commitment of CMTED to support the role K-12 education plays in educating Michigan’s students and educators about the original people of this land. In turn, it is the ethical responsibility of Michigan’s K-12 educators to make the personal and professional commitment to learn about the land on which they live, work, and play. Intentional and collaborative relationships between CMTED and the K-12 teaching force will help ensure a more informed Michigan citizenry.

CMTED hopes educators across Michigan embrace these resources as part of lifelong learning and to assist in the implementation of the social studies standards in classrooms across the state.

The Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments (CMTED) includes representatives from each of the Education Departments of the 12 federally recognized sovereign nations that share geography with what we now call Michigan. CMTED assists in establishing a network of support, guidance, and collaboration to advocate for educational and cultural needs of Tribal Citizens.