Native American Curriculum Training (NAC)

What did you learn in school, from the media, and your family about Native Americans? The people I have met that know most about Native Americans in my state have come from other countries. They know how many Native Americans are in Minnesota, and how many reservations and tribal communities there are here.

I have worked in substance abuse and mental health counseling since 1984, and most treatment programs work with Native Americans and have little to no training to work with diverse cultures.

A Director in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division at the State of Minnesota in 2009 required the training to be adapted and trained in Minnesota. Since then, the training has been happening in corrections, state hospitals, and many of the treatment programs around the state.

NAC is 22 hours of presentation. The participant receives a PowerPoint book and a handouts book. We usually use 4 trainers. A big part of the presentation style and a favorite of the participants is to hear personal stories from each of the trainers.

A few of the trainers include counseling tips throughout the training, so they do not have to wait until the last few modules to get counseling tips on working with Native American program participants.

The first module is an overview of the entire curriculum, including the need for the curriculum and who has contributed to the curriculum. We started training on the NAC in 2009. It was an adopted curriculum from South Dakota.

In South Dakota, it is a mandatory curriculum for all substance abuse counselors. In Minnesota, the curriculum is recommended and the state continues to fund the curriculum training through different training entities.

There is a pre and post-survey to see how well they learn the material. The material is based on the spiral learning theory. It varies from group to group and the average gain is usually about a 25% increase in knowledge.

We have trained many trainers, yet it is difficult to find trainers available for the three-day training, other than those retired trainers.

So what can I say about American Indians 101 in the time and space I have left to write this. Others have said things like the following in the 12+ years of training on this curriculum.

"The trainers are wonderful!" With so much knowledge and experience in growing up as Native Americans. There are trainers of all ages.

The 22 modules are all about Indigenous people in the United States for thousands of years before Columbus and to this day. Many would ask why this wasn't taught in school?

This curriculum was developed for substance abuse professionals working with Native American program participants, and there is a lot of material on counseling the Native American. All of it is so helpful.

Tips and Techniques, written by Terry Cross on working with Native Americans is an oldie but a good handout.

There is information about the importance of having program participants address physical and mental illnesses like diabetes and hypertension, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression in addition to alcoholism.

The videos are all so helpful. The participants learn the Native American family structure.

Many learn cultural differences and similarities, and the differences in communication styles that will be helpful in their work with the Native American program participant.

Many participants hope to learn about ceremonies and beliefs. There is so much more than can be delivered in a three-day training, let alone a few modules.

If you are interested in learning more about Native Americans in the United States you can find information in many good books, on YouTube, and on other social media, and by taking college courses.