Native Curriculum and Higher Education in Contemporary America

 

Written by: Cory Beeles

        As most of us remember from pre-secondary education, Native American people, cultures, and their histories are mentioned, but never rememberable. Our education systems value American ideas and histories, which can and is over looking populations of people that are within the American Nation. Some of these groups are newer, some were forced to come to these lands, but there are groups that have always been here. Why is that?

            As I was growing up in a traditional public American school system, we learned about Native peoples at very certain times of the year. I remember it always around Thanksgiving and I also remember it was always the same lesson. The “history and story” of Thanksgiving, the Trail of Tears, and then a few different wars and battles that took place. It was always in the view of the white American man. It would highlight the whiteness and never the nativeness. It made all Native people in the image that Hollywood created for them. The stereotypical Indian with the scowl, headpiece, rhythmic slow speech, and always looking for battle with tomahawk in hand. We also see them as sad and almost pathetic in our history courses. We are taught that they don’t exist anymore. They were the past and they are not a part of the present. Which all this is completely wrong in so many ways! Even saying it felt wrong. Native people have such rich, complex, and diverse cultures. Each having its own history and story to tell.

            Using the most current report from The National Indian Education Study, which is the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), Native American students make up 1% of all students in pre-secondary educational systems. 90% of all Native American students, according to Corey Mitchel from EducationWeek.com, are attending traditional public American school systems. If you remember, we do not learn very much about Native culture, histories, nor language. Now, this means only 10% of Native American students are partaking in a curriculum that is teaching and educating them on Native studies. Though, I currently do not have the proper statistics on this, we can assume this means very few American students are learning Native Studies, Native and non-native.

            This doesn’t mean that there are not curriculums that have Native studies within them! An article from Native News Online explains that there is progress happening in American Education Systems that are now adding Native studies to their programs. This is a slow progression, but a progression regardless. State Senator of Connecticut, Cathy Osten, proposed a bill in 2020 that pushes education systems in Connecticut to start teaching Native American history in their public schools. This means that the bill will restructure the social sciences being taught in all public schools of Connecticut. Instead of starting their lessons with Columbus and the first settlers. These courses will be expanding past hundreds of years to include Native histories!

            In Corey Mitchell’s article from EducationWeek, most students who were included in the NAEP report, rarely to never learn Native history, language, culture, and their impact on the world, especially students who are Native. By incorporating this curriculum, students will be introduced to a world that our nation has tried very hard to forget. Students will even start learning about place names that we see every day in our studies. Let’s take Connecticut for example. Chairman Rodney Butler of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation stated in Native News Online that the word ‘Connecticut’ is an Algonquin word meaning “long tidal river”. Another example would be if you were driving down the interstate in Indiana, we will see signs for Peoria, Illinois. Almost everyone you speak to may not know that Peoria, Illinois is named after a tribe who currently live in Oklahoma!

            By doing this, Native and non-native students will be introduced to Native cultures, languages, and histories that we may have never had a chance to learn till much later in our post-secondary educational careers. This is not just important to non-native students, it’s even more important to the Native students. It gives them the education they deserve. It will teach them about their own identities and the battles that their families, bands, tribes, and nations have gone through. By including Native studies to non-native curriculums, we can give a better understanding on Native people. There have been many studies done on how we can turn our understanding of a group of people by learning about them. By doing this, the future may be brighter for many to all Native persons.

            Being from and living in Indiana, let’s take this topic closer to home. Another article from Native News Online, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi are partnering up with Indiana Tech to create a scholarship for higher education to individuals from Native tribes. The Pathways Scholarship Program is to help people of Native background in Indiana to seek education and training for more jobs and careers. This scholarship also helps with book rentals and online tutoring.

            To take it even one step closer, IUPUI offers a Native Studies program! Programs like these are still being founded through out the States. Not many college level schools and universities offer these programs and if they do, they may be very underfunded.

By promoting Native studies in earlier education, by educating Native individuals about their own histories, by raising opportunities in educational systems, and funding them, we could possibly push the veil that has been blocking Native studies from the general public for hundreds of years. I encourage you to take the time to peer into the world of nativeness by educating yourself, participating in programs that encourage education of Native people, or even just learning about native food or authors. We can open the doors to revitalization for an entire world that our forefathers sought to destroy.

Sources:

Mitchell, C. (May 08, 2019). Many native American students don’t learn about their languages and cultures in school. EducationWeek. Source: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/many-native-american-students-dont-learn-about-their-languages-and-cultures-in-school/2019/05

Native News Online Staff. (November 24, 2020). Tribal leaders support bill on teaching native history in Connecticut. Native News Online. Source: https://nativenewsonline.net/education/tribal-leaders-support-bill-on-teaching-native-history-in-connecticut

Native News Online Staff. (January 27, 2020). Pokagon band of Potawatomi partners with Indiana tech on scholarship. Native News Online. Source: https://nativenewsonline.net/education/pokagon-band-of-potawatomi-partners-with-indiana-tech-on-scholarship