Integrating Native Americans into the Curriculum

Cultural Sensitivity Issues and Advice to Teachers

Native Americans in Classroom Textbooks: A Very Negative History

Into the 1950s: Native Americans are depicted as "ignorant savages," "Indian varmints" and "vanishing peoples."

1970s: Indians “are infested with problems,” obstacles, non-contributors, savages who resorted to questionable tactics against settlers and as reservation Indians—remnants of a once proud people. “Child-like" or "spiritual" or "stoic".

1990s-2000s: More neglect than stereotype, which promotes the idea that Indians are gone.

Native Americans in U. S. History Textbooks:FROM BLOODY SAVAGES TO HEROIC CHIEFSJesus GarciaJournal of American Indian EducationVolume 17 Number 2 January 1978

Examples: Stereotypes and NeglectA history textbook called America, America (Grade 10): "A tribe is a group that is united by a common history, follows the same customs, and is ruled by the same chief or group of Elders. The people of each tribe speak the same language, and have the same religion."

People, Places and Change (Grade 7) devotes only one page to American Indians, of which an illustration of a Pueblo takes up half the page.

The American Nation (Grade 13) Just four of 972 pages are dedicated to the history of Indians during the late 1800s. Students learn only that Indians went to war over losing their land.

What’s wrong with these?Every spring the Plains Indians held a Sun Dance to call the buffalo herds back to their summer feeding grounds…Their house were teepees made of buffalo skins. The Plains Indians were a strong, hardy, people who could move from place to place quickly. Because the soil and climate were not favorable for crops, they were not farmers, nor did they live in permanent villages.

As they conquered the Indians, the Spaniards forced them to work in mines that had once belonged to them or to dig new ones. Historians believe that the Spaniards probably mined more gold in fifty years than the Indians had in a thousand years.

The men were tall and erect with skin of bronze and brown hue. Their cheekbones were high, eyes piercing and dark, and like most primitive people, their foreheads were inclined to slope backwards. The young women were slender, comely….and vivacious, but like all primitive races, they lost the grace and freshness and beauty of youth at an early age. They married young and performed their daily rounds of drudgery without complaint…They lived their simple lives without dreams of a wider field of usefulness..Of all primitive peoples, the North American Indians were the ideal children of nature.

Yet this book is made of realities, not romance. Primitive Man, never having learned to enjoy his emotions, had no sentimental feelings for the past and his wildest stories wer to him matter of fact.

ERASING NATIVE AMERICAN STEREOTYPES

What are the differences in the two images on the page?

http://www.nmnh.si.edu/anthro/outreach/sterotyp.html

An accurate evaluation of fictional literature about Native Americans for the elementary classroom:

1. Does the author use imaginative and artistic language to convey the Native American experience as well as the human experience?

2. Does the author write from the Native American cultural standpoint rather than the Anglo-American dominant viewpoint, without being patronizing or sensational?

3. Is the Native American character in children’s fiction fully developed and presented without generalized statements about dress, mannerisms or personality?

4. Are the descriptive passages and specific adjectives used in fictional literature about the Native American free from stereotypes and bias?

5. In a story about Native Americans of the past, is the Native American presented as an integral and contributing part of the history of America?

6. In a book about Native Americans of the past, is the culture of the Native American described in such a way as to preclude improper comparisons between past and present-day cultural standards? (Specifically, words like "primitive" or "stone-age" should be avoided, as these words imply, incorrectly and inaccurately, that Native American society of the past had little or no technology.)

7. Is the culture of the contemporary Native American described as a dynamic process rather than a static one? (see Note 4)

8. Does the book adequately and accurately describe the life and present situation of the Native American in the world of today? (see Note 5)

The Native American in Juvenile Fiction:TEACHER PERCEPTION OF STEREOTYPES

Maria Falkenhagen and Inga K. Kelly Journal of American Indian Education

Volume 13 Number 2 May 1974

Don’t assume because you read a book, saw a TV documentary, or visited the “rez” that you

know anything about Indians

Don’t speak of Indians as if they were all alike.

563 Federally Recognized Tribes

At least that many are only state recognized or are unrecognized

350 languages in 1492 with 200 surviving, more than 2000 dialects

Cultures ranged from egalitarian foragers to socially stratified, urban, agriculturalists. Religions varied from animists to theistic. Shelters from brush windbreaks to five-story apartments.

Don’t assume because someone is Indian that they know anything about Indians.

Don’t ask Indian students : “What is the Indian view of _____?”

Indians are now, not just back then!

Don’t speak of Indians in the past tense.

Don’t worry too much about what to call Indians.

Or is it Native Americans, or is it Indigenous Americans or is it First Peoples, or is it _____?

Realize that words do have power.

Why offend someone when you don’t have to?

Political correctness is there for a reason.

Sensitivity is not just about “identity politics.”

Think carefully about adopting “Indian ways.”

Present realistic images of Indians, not stereotypes

Common examples: ecological Indians, tipis and feathered warbonnets, mascots, scalping, Indian ‘talk’.

Indians are not just another ethnic minority.

In fact, they were only granted US citizenship in 1924.

They are “super citizens.” Why?

Because their ancestors signed treaties.

The United States government made more than 350 with Native American tribes

All of the treaties were broken.

Not one was broken by Indians until after the government broke it.

Not one was ever rescinded by Congress.

All of them technically are still in effect and have the same power as the U.S. Constitution.

There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours forever.

...which for the Lakota with the Ft. Laramie of 1868 was four years!

45,000 American Indians, including the famous Code Talkers, volunteered for service in WWII, by percentage, the largest number of any group in the US.

Indians were badly treated, but have been among the most patriotic of Americans.

Lori Ann Piestewa, Hopi, Killed in Action, Nasiriyah, Iraq on 23 March 2003

Recognize that there are other perspectives…

…some of them from an Indian point of view!

And some of them, pretty darned funny!

Don’t emphasize only the problems in modern Indian life.

Lots of good things are happening in Indian Country.

Recognize that some key “Indian” values are also “human” values

Bravery

Generosity

Humility

Respect

“Doing what’s in your heart.”

Cultural sensitivity means recognizing people for their intrinsic humanity.

Yes, there are Indians in Indiana!

39,000 in the last census

14,000 enrolled members from about 60 nations

5,500 Miami live in Indiana

Please get past Thanksgiving as an

important time to talk about Indians!

And one more thing…

Some Good Sources for Educators

American Indians: Stereotypes & Realities Author:  Devon A. Mihesuah   ISBN: 0-932-86322-1

Publisher: Clarity Press  Native North America Authors:  Larry J. Zimmerman, Brian Molyneaux   ISBN: 0-806-13286-8 Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World Author: Jack Weatherford  ISBN: 0449904962   Publisher: Ballantine Books   Indians in Unexpected Places Author: Philip Deloria   ISBN: 0-700-61344-7 Publisher: University Press of Kansas