During WWII, President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 resulted in approximately 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry to be forcibly removed from their homes on the West Coast, then incarcerated in government-built concentration camps. Two of the ten War Relocation Camps were located in Arizona, notably on American Indian reservation lands. 13,000+ incarcerees were “relocated” to the Rivers confinement site on the Gila River Indian Reservation, with 18,000 sent to Poston located on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. Through the analysis of primary and secondary sources, including multimedia and maps, participants explore the intersecting histories and geographical perspectives of Japanese Americans imprisoned in these camps and the Indigenous communities on whose lands the U.S. government built them. This culturally responsive lesson appeals to educators of Geography, US History, and AP Human Geography, serving as a case study for Population, Migration and Political Geography.
Secondary/High School | Place-based | Cultures | Migration | U.S. History
Covetto
A self-proclaimed “geofanatic” with 30+ years in education, Jeannine Kuropatkin teaches World History/Geography and Holocaust Studies at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, Arizona. As a coach for the Model UN Team and as the campus liaison with both the Sister Cities Mesa, Youth Ambassador Exchange Program and Global Ties Arizona, Jeannine promotes student awareness of global connections as well as opportunities for citizen diplomacy and travel abroad. Participation in two Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad (Morocco and Indonesia) and teacher fellowships in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, and the US Territories (Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands), have allowed Jeannine to share authentic cultural experiences in the classroom and at teacher workshops. An avid curriculum writer, Jeannine’s Geography and History lessons are published on websites such as PBS Learning Media, Arizona Geographic Alliance, University of Arizona’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Fred T Korematsu Institute, GeoCivics Project, as well as in the journal, “The Geography Teacher.” Jeannine actively embraces leadership roles in Social Studies Education, serving as the current Vice President of the Arizona Council for the Social Studies (ACSS), long-standing Teacher Consultant with the Arizona Geographic Alliance (AzGA), and member of the Holocaust Education Advisory Committee for the Arizona Jewish Historical Society. Jeannine has received the NCGE Distinguished Teaching Award, Herff-Jones/Nystrom & NCGE Lesson Plan Award, and NCGE/CRAM Award for Exemplary Classroom Lesson. She is also a three-time recipient of the Great Moments in Teaching Social Studies Award, as well as the Isidore Starr Distinguished Social Studies Teacher Award from the Arizona Council of Social Studies. Jeannine was selected for the City of Mesa, Martin Luther King Jr. “Educator of the Year” Award.
Courtney Peagler is Vice President and Director of Education for the Fred T. Korematsu Institute in San Francisco, CA. A mixed-race descendant of Japanese Americans forced to leave their homes in California during WWII, she is committed to ensuring this shameful history is not forgotten and that its lessons are applied to the fight for social justice for all. Prior to joining the Institute, she was on the Advisory Committee and served as a docent for the exhibition “Then They Came for Me: Incarceration of Japanese Americans During WWII and the Demise of Civil Liberties” in the Presidio, San Francisco. A parent of two, she is an active board member at Daruma No Gakko, a non profit, co-op, parent-run summer program designed for elementary-aged children to learn about Japanese American heritage. She also serves on the Council of Friends of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to these roles, Courtney is a partner with her husband at Year 26 Consulting, where they provide strategic advisory, execution, and project management services to mission-based organizations. Previously, Courtney was on the executive management team at a New York-based education technology company and worked in a variety of roles in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. She has been designing and facilitating learning experiences for adults in a variety of professions, from nurses to university educators for over a decade. Her prior experience also includes instructional design for both online and live learning experiences, the evaluation of emerging technologies for education, assisting educators in their use of technology, website design and development, and media production. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Harvard and her MA in Educational Communication and Technology from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education.
Grant Skinner is the Social Studies Content Specialist for the Phoenix Union High School District (PXU). He has worked for PXU for 23 years spending 19 years in the classroom as a Social Studies teacher and Instructional Leader. He has extensive experience in writing and developing curriculum. This includes Culturally Relevant U.S. History courses from the perspectives of Mexican Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, and a Navajo Government course. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of New Mexico and his MA in Curriculum and Instruction from Ottawa University.
