Nebraska Synod ELCA
Event
The Blanket Exercise is an experiential learning tool that leads a group of participants through 500+ years of Indigenous history, highlighting the relationship between the Tribal nations and the European explorers, colonial setters, and U.S. federal and state governments.
The exercise is interactive and requires participants, as they are able, to stand and move throughout the first hour of the experience. The second hour allows for participants to process the experience and share what they may have learned and what they will take away.
The Blanket Exercise was first created in Canada and has been adapted and used to educate general populations there, in the United States, and in many other parts of the world. The exercise does engage participants both intellectually and emotionally and can in some instances affect individuals deeply.
Due to the honest nature of the information included in the narration of the exercise, all participants are expected to be 15 years of age or older.
Vance Blackfox, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is the founder and director of Other+Wise, a multi-site cultural education and cultural immersion program for youth from across the country. Vance previously served as the Director of Communications at the National Native American Boarding School H
ealing Coalition, as the Director of Communications for Native Americans in Philanthropy and has held executive director positions at the Haskell Foundation, which supports Haskell Indian Nations University, and the Oaks Indian Mission. Vance has served as the Guest Curator of the Indian Museum at the University of Texas at San Antonio Institute of Texan Cultures, and as the Indigenous Theologian for the Faith-Based Initiative for the City of San Antonio.
An alumnus of Texas Lutheran University and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Vance has served the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in multiple capacities, from taking a post as National President of the Lutheran Youth Organization as a teenager, to later working as a diversity and cultural education professional for the Women of the ELCA, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, California Lutheran University, ELCA Youth Gathering, and LSTC’s Youth in Mission. In addition to serving numerous ELCA and ecumenical teams and committees throughout the years, he is at present the Indigenous Theologian and Coordinating Team Member for the ELCA’s Theological Round Table, ELCA’s Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations, as well as creator and producer of the Vine Deloria Jr. Theological Symposium hosted at LSTC.