Contemporary American Indian History

Rationale

African-American students in urban Philadelphia have little knowledge of contemporary American Indians, from where such people live to the traditions and history of native people. For many students, Indian people are relics of the past, people that were once the mythical inhabitants of our continent, forever frozen in historical obfuscation. Upon conducting informal polls among my ninth-grade students, American Indians are frequently not considered a category of people in the US that was listed by the vast majority of students. Philadelphia public school students are not the only demographic lacking knowledge of American Indians. Again informally surveyed, the bulk of people in my personal and professional networks also admittedly had very little knowledge about the history or current status of Native Americans in our own nation. The systemic and deliberate efforts to erase and marginalize native people have unfortunately succeeded in school curricula. Native American writer and scholar, Louis Owens confirms: “The Indian in today’s world consciousness is a product of literature history, and art, and a product that, as an invention, often bears little resemblance to actual, living Native American people.”² Owens sentiments express the dire necessity of this unit as a method to expose authentic narratives of modern Native American experiences.

This unit responds to the above-described void. Students of the twenty-first century are increasingly exposed to a global plurality of narrative voices as access to these stories and writers has become progressively more accessible, largely due to the proliferation of the Internet. This is important and a necessary shift from the traditional canon of dead white males. One scholar highlights: “as of yet, literature by Native Americans has met with only begrudging, and at best slight acceptance into the American canon”.³ Students, who are the burgeoning stakeholders of our societal constructions and mores, must receive equal education on the narratives and histories of imperialism, racism and violence of their own nation. A tension exists in a population indoctrinated with only nationalistic mythology, particularly those for whose physical and cultural signifiers do not correlate to the elevated icons. In the same way that students must be educated about the variety of experiences and voices globally, students must also be informed of the perspectives of the multitude of groups in the United States, including by not limited African-Americans, American Indians and Latinos.

This unit is an introduction (or revision) of Contemporary American Indian History and Literature. Novels will be used to explore the contemporary history of American Indians and the politics of identity that this history invokes. My hope is not only to expose students to the oft-suppressed voices of native people but also to add a new layer of nuance to their understanding of the troubled and conflicting narratives of our nation’s history.