ABSTRACT
Cushman is a White teacher at Zuni High School on the Zuni Pueblo. In her chapter, she explains how she came to teach in Zuni and the challenges she faced in acclimating as a Non-Native resident in a Native community. She shares her personal and professional development through her participation in Zuni: Engaging Teachers and Community (ZETAC) as she navigates her role as an outsider on the inside. She shares her journey since her arrival in Zuni, and what she has learned, especially about the importance of re-examining her own identity in reference to her cultural background, heritage, beliefs, identity, and privilege. She shares about trying to understand generational trauma, alcoholism, poverty, diabetes, abandonment, language loss, colonialism, White privilege, and historical perspective. Finally, she gives specific examples of her role as a teacher in helping Zuni students grow and excel in her English class through activities and assignments in which they read the works of Native writers, use the Zuni language in speaking and writing, and write about their experiences as Native youth in the 21st Century.
