UC Author Honored With National Human Rights Award

University of Cincinnati author and early childhood education specialist Sally Moomaw and co-author Guy W. Jones, a Hunkpapa Lakota, will be honored in Boston on Dec. 11 for their book, Lessons from Turtle Island – Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms. The book for teachers of early childhood classrooms is one of 12 nationally that was selected from 392 nominations to join the winner’s circle of the 19th -annual Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards, according to Loretta J. Williams, director of the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights.

The awards are announced in conjunction with International Human Rights Day. The center, located at Simmons College in Boston, is a national organization that works to promote action for equality.

Moomaw says it was her own lack of knowledge about Native Americans and their history that led to her Lessons from Turtle Island book collaboration with Guy W. Jones, one of the founders of the Miami Valley Council for Native Americans, based in Dayton, Ohio. Moomaw is associate director of professional development at UC’s nationally recognized Arlitt Child and Family Research and Education Center, and has more than 20 years of experience teaching preschool children.

Published by Redleaf Press in 2002, Lessons from Turtle Island – Native Curriculum in Early Childhood Classrooms has guidelines and resource lists for teachers as they plan multicultural activities for the classroom.

The Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights is named in memory of the author of History of Bigotry in the United States, published by Random House in 1943. Center director Loretta J. Williams says nominations for the awards are submitted by publishers and readers. Williams says the review panel is composed of a diverse representation of people ranging in age from 22-80, and it includes academics, students, clergy and retirees.