NOTE: This complimentary online course that teaches how to run the adventure was made in partnership with Claudia Fox Tree, an Indigenous (Arawak) Activist and Educator and Cultura Connector, a nonprofit directory for locating cultural educators. The adventure has both low resource and medium resource options. It can be run with nothing more than paper printed with the clues and journal entries, or you can create a simulated archeological dig and use props to enhance immersion.

Plot Synopsis:  In this educational adventure, students are charged with finding a cure for a rapidly-spreading, deadly contagion that has continued to evade science and is threatening to wipe out all of humanity. It is believed that a powerful antidote had been unearthed hundreds of years ago, however this life-sustaining cure, along with the people who bore the knowledge of its properties, are assumed lost to history.

Students must study Taino artifacts and decode clues in order to piece together what exactly the antidote is and how to use it in order to stop the spread of this unprecedented threat to our existence. Along the way, students will uncover some horrific truths of the past, and how history has been written to disregard these atrocities against the indigenous people of the Caribbean.

While the scenario surrounding the deadly virus provides a compelling yet fictitious situation, students will experience a confronting simulation which exposes a dark and ugly truth about commonly accepted history – one that we are still grappling with today. While fun and educational, this simulation is intended to address the importance of cultural awareness and serve as a springboard for continued conversations about the lens through which history is often told.