About Me

Danzho'! My name is Kelly Tudor and I am a citizen of the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas. I am culturally intact, learning my language, and raising my children within our culture and traditions. My grandmother was sold in 1929 and as a result my family was displaced from Texas. She was able to maintain a relationship with her biological mother for her first several years of life. As a result, she was able to pass down everything she knew through our family. In October of 2019 I moved our family home to Texas. I am a third generation member of the American Indian Movement and was a co-chairman of AIM Chapter of Indiana and Kentucky before we moved home.

I grew up in public education. I remember how I was treated as a Native student in majority white schools. I knew that what they were teaching me was not accurate. I began my journey as an educator when my son was little. We knew we wanted to homeschool our children, but when I began looking for educational resources I realized that education about Natives in public, private, and homeschool settings was still just as bad as it was when I was a child. I wanted to help change this.

Over the years my children and I have been hired at museums, school events, libraries, schools, and historical sites to teach about Native Americans both past and present. When we first started, we received a lot of questions from students and teachers that seemed like the answers should be common knowledge, but were not. Questions like “Do you live in a tipi?” and “Do you use electricity?” I had to change the way I taught to include this basic information. I curate book lists and teaching resource lists for parents and educators. I teach k-12 students online and in person. I also teach adults, lecture at universities, speak at confereces and symposiums, and teach teacher workshops and professional development on HOW to teach about Natives. I am also on an advisory board for UTA (Arlington). I have served on a committee for 4 years that has developed the American Indian/Native Studies course for high schools in the state of Texas, have served on a TEA work group for this course, and am one of the main writers of the teacher guide for the course as well. 

Over time, people started asking me my opinions on various curriculum and textbooks. I began checking out books from the library to review. I started emailing curriculum companies for copies of their texts, lessons, or book lists that I could review. Some were happy to send me copies and I began reviewing curriculum. I have spent years reading and taking notes on these. I have now been hired by multiple companies as a consultant on their US history in regards to how Native Americans are taught about and what resources to use. I have also written articles for a history subscription company. And I have served as an advisor for an online education company. Often times I point to Debbie Reese and Jean Mendoza’s book reviews on americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com. Understandably, they haven’t reviewed every book and so far I haven’t seen any curriculum come up on their site. I will continue to direct people to their reviews whenever I can because I love them! I hope this blog will help fill in the gaps, especially in regards to textbooks and curriculum.

My son, Aslan Tudor, is the youngest published Native American author on record that we know of. He published his first book at age 10. Check him out at: https://www.eaglespeaker.com/aslan-tudor and https://www.facebook.com/Aslan-Tudor-431919040703036/ And he now owns NDN Comics and Games NDN Comics & Games (ndncomicsandgames.com)