Contemporary American Indian History

Rationale and Background Information

Many students, particularly students who have already felt the effects of poverty and social marginalization, are passionate about justice-based topics. Low-income students of color, such as the students that I teach, are aching for resources to help create change in their own communities and others; this is where education loses those students. Telling politically correct and revisionist histories of the past, while often not featuring the perspectives and stories of people of color (or other subjugated persons) as central characters, only emboldens the meritocracy narrative that urban students already recognize as false. Teaching students narratives that are often contrary to their lived realities is to lose their interest, set them up for failure, and prevent them from thinking critically about ways to create impactful solutions. This curriculum unit is designed to retain their interest, while validating their understandings that often the government, and by default, the Constitution are complicit in the disparagement of American peoples.

Middle schoolers are on the cusp of understanding their place in society, and as such are often interested in lessons that stab at the ideal of America as the proverbial “city on the hill.” Often in teaching the concepts laden in the Civics and Economics Virginia 8th grade course, there is an inclination to relay the information as fact and remove the complexities behind them.¹ Such instruction means covering the fundamental political principles which are credited with shaping the Constitution of the United States of America (limited government, rule of law, consent of the governed, democracy, and representative government) as consistent approaches to governing American society throughout time. Presenting the Virginia objectives as such is contrary to my commitment of educating inner-city children of color. My ultimate goal as a teacher is to build politically well-informed and self-aware change agents, who realistically approach societal ills without cynicism.

As such, students experience the impacts of the Constitution on their lives every day, and yet still do not understand the Constitution as a living breathing foundational document. However, all the same, students need to be introduced to the Constitution as just that: a document. Often times, the branches of government betray the commitments bestowed upon them by the Constitution, so the document itself cannot rectify injustices, but rather the players entrusted to uphold it.

The fundamental political principles of American governance were not and are not applied to everyone equally. However, as middle schoolers, their concepts of injustice are often self-indulgent and ill-researched. In order to instill positive citizenship based characteristics, it is important to share that their respective populations are not alone in their quest for a subjective freedom. Integrating discussion and research on the treatment of contemporary American Indians, as allowed by the United States government, will show students that contemporary sister movements for justice also exist. Although problematic, this lapse in knowledge is understandable, given that required instruction regarding American Indians in Virginia middle schools ends with their attainment of citizenship in 1924.

Despite middle school history content extending to the present day, there is no mention of American Indians past the granting of federal citizenship or the brief highlight of the Navajo Codetalkers. Upon being asked, “Ms. Greene, aren’t all Native Americans dead?” by one of my students, I realized that this lapse in information has led my students down two routes of thinking: 1) after citizenship attainment, the problems faced by American Indians are nonexistent, or 2) American Indians, as an entire people, have ceased to exist altogether. Both thought processes, while reasonable for a 13 year old given current Virginia curriculum, are detrimental and exemplify the level of erasure contemporary American Indians face in society.² Civics and Economics is a subject that is not mutually exclusive from contemporary American Indian history, but rather inextricably linked. The curriculum unit that follows juxtaposes the fundamental political principles of the Constitution (as well as the concept of checks and balances), and the realities of Federal Indian law and policy. Students, especially those from systematically oppressed and suppressed populations, must not merely be taught foundations of American government, but also to think critically about how well the country is living up to its claims.