Contemporary American Indian History

Introduction

As a teacher of American History, it is exasperating to pick up textbooks that dedicate no more than a few sections to the indigenous cultures of this land. The limited study of Native cultures and lack of representation in American History textbooks inadvertently foster the assumption that indigenous cultures of North America are unimportant or extinct. It is troubling to imagine that this kind of irresponsible teaching and reporting breeds countless misconceptions, ignorance and cultural insensitivity. In recent years, books published by historians like Howard Zinn, Ronald Takaki and James Loewen provide resources because these historians challenge the traditional narrative and seek to stray away from Eurocentric views of US history. At the same time, I am aware that old habits die hard for some Social Studies curriculums and teachers, even for those intend to teach historically accurately and truthful content.

To kick off our study of our country, last school year I displayed an interactive map and timeline of American Indian tribes dating back to 1784.¹ I instructed my students to note what happens as I moved the cursor, in ten year increments, from 1784 to the present day. They were to record their observations and their wonderings. The goal was to engage students and make them aware of the indigenous cultures of this land and lead them to ask some major questions. As I anticipated, they were baffled by the map as they witnessed the Native populations plummet from 1790 to the present day. They wondered what happened to all of those people. Did they leave? Were they killed? If so, who killed them? Why? How? As we explored topics throughout the year regarding indigenous cultures, European exploration, and the Trail of Tears, we came back to those questions and wonderings they developed during the first week of school. While my intention was to make students aware of some of the tragic events that occurred to the Native populations of this land, I did not realize, until doing this research, that I, too, may have been subliminally sending the message that American Indian populations are nonexistent today. I’ll be honest in saying that my knowledge of contemporary American Indian was limited. Though I showed my students the interactive map, I failed to notice and emphasize that there were existing Native populations in our neighboring states of Wisconsin and Michigan. After researching, I became increasingly intrigued and inspired by the Menominee stories of triumph and resilience in Wisconsin.

It has been estimated that millions of American Indians have been killed from the colonization period to current day due to displacement, disease and other tragic events. In contrast, the Menominee tribe has developed a strong voice against political disenfranchisement which led them to withstand survive the effects of termination, and remain in the over six million American Indians that populate the United States today.²