North Texas course on Native history, culture aims to combat stereotypes

Stephen Silva Brave realized concerning the rivalry between “cowboys and Indians” and the way Christopher Columbus found the brand new world rising up in Texas faculties. But his lecturers by no means mentioned why the battle occurred or how Columbus may have found the continent when there have been already individuals dwelling on it.

“When I was in school, I don’t think I really thought too much about it, but I knew it wasn’t right,” stated Silva Brave, who’s Sicangu Lakota and now has two kids of his personal attending the Grand Prairie college district.

On weekends and over holidays, Silva Brave’s grandmother would fill within the gaps with journeys to reservations, tales about her time in boarding faculties and her path to Texas by the Indian Relocation Act.

He now hopes to share that deeper understanding to college students throughout the state.

Silva Brave is a part of a gaggle of advisors creating a brand new American Indian/Native Studies course, an elective for Texas excessive schoolers that’s being piloted in Grand Prairie this yr. District officers hope the State Board of Education will undertake requirements for it, making it simpler for all excessive faculties to provide the curriculum.

It’s the newest ethnic research class that can focus on the historical past and culture of a gaggle that isn’t often highlighted in state curriculum totally. The SBOE adopted Mexican American Studies in 2018 and African American Studies not lengthy after, setting the template for related lessons.

The new course comes at a time when Texas is embroiled in a debate over how historical past ought to be taught – and from whose perspective. The SBOE is rewriting requirements for social research lessons throughout all grade ranges and final yr, legislators handed legal guidelines that limit how lecturers deal with present occasions and topics like racism.

When the legal guidelines had been signed by the governor and as elections additional fanned the flames over what’s taught within the classroom, Silva Brave nervous the Native research course could possibly be in jeopardy.

But at an April board assembly, SBOE members signaled their want to transfer ahead.

Grand Prairie college leaders had been keen to develop a course that delves into Native American historical past and experiences.

“It means recognizing cultures, people that have felt invisible and have felt marginalized in the past,” stated Lanette Aguero, who facilitates the district’s social research program. “It helps to bring respect to those people and to share their stories.”

Developing the course

Annette Anderson’s youngsters had been taught that almost all Natives had been not in Texas though her household would spend their weekends at native powwows or Native neighborhood gatherings. Anderson, who serves on the Council for the Indigenous Institute of the Americas, stated considered one of her kids ultimately sought out an schooling in New Mexico to study extra about their culture.

So when Grand Prairie put out the decision for enter on how to train a category centered on Native research, Anderson was keen to assist. She wished to emphasize the presence of the neighborhood that exists in the present day and combat stereotypes.

“They’d go to school and what they were being taught was that we were extinct, that there were no Indians in Texas [and] the ones that had been here were prehistoric people who were cannibals” Anderson stated. “There were all kinds of inaccurate pieces of information.”

Students ought to study of Native contributions to science and expertise, advisory members stated. For instance, many medicine used in the present day are based mostly on Native crops from North and South America and notable astronauts, docs and scientists embrace those that are Native Americans.

Teens additionally ought to discover difficult points round sovereignty, the proper of tribes to govern themselves, which incorporates overlaying historical past, authorities and culture.

It was a problem to distill such wealthy histories and cultures of the 574 federally acknowledged tribes right into a single course, stated Hawana Huwuni Townsley, who’s a citizen of the Comanche Nation.

Advisers additionally didn’t need to focus solely on the tribes based mostly in Texas as a result of residents of assorted Native nations now reside within the state , Huwuni stated.

The means Native historical past is taught in many colleges is caught within the 1800s, she added, so it’s particularly essential to train modern-day contributions.

“I hope [students] walk away with the thought that there is so much more out there,” stated Huwuni, including that she hopes the course will encourage teenagers to continue learning about Native historical past and cultures.

Understanding totally different views

Few college districts throughout the nation provide particular classes on American Indian/Native research, stated Kenneth Roemer, a professor emeritus on the University of Texas-Arlington who developed programs in Native American literature. Students usually arrive in Roemer’s lessons missing historic context or background information.

“We wanted to break away from [the stereotypes of] noble savage, savage savage, the vanishing Indian – that they were no longer there,” Roemer stated.

Plus, college students are rising up in a quickly diversifying world, the professor added.

“The more they can learn about other people they are going to be with, the better,” Romer stated.

Many of the scholars who take the highschool class will seemingly not establish as Native, Grand Prairie officers acknowledge. But Aguero, who oversees the district’s social research, careworn the significance of reflecting various pupil views in classes.

“We learned history from, I guess, the colonizers’ perspective and not so much from the voices of the people that were already here,” she stated.

Huwuni supplied an instance of this from Oklahoma, the place some faculties had been re-enacting the Oklahoma Land Run, when settlers raced to stake their declare to land that Native Americans had been already dwelling on.

Schools appeared to be celebrating the historic occasion, Huwuni stated, so college students realized from the settlers’ perspective, not that of the tribes who misplaced their land.

Senior Jessica Long didn’t really feel she had a fantastic understanding of Native historical past earlier than she enrolled in Grand Prairie High School’s Native course this semester.

“In regular history, they don’t really talk about the minority side,” Long stated.

Long now is aware of about notable figures like Dan Akee, a Code Talker who enlisted throughout World War II. For a challenge, Long designed a faux Instagram profile for Akee, delving into his time within the army, struggles with alcohol and non secular devotion.

Her classmates mentioned the controversy of the Keystone Pipeline System and Native opposition to the northern challenge’s potential for injury on sacred land, air pollution and well being dangers.

Long, who’s Black, took African American Studies final semester to study extra about components of her personal culture that she didn’t perceive as a result of lessons didn’t cowl it. It opened her eyes to how a lot of historical past is outlined by who writes it, she stated.

“Even if you don’t identify as whatever group you’re learning about, it still helps you to empathize with what they’re going through and also you could be one of those activists to speak for them and raise awareness for their cause,” Long stated.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the protection and dialog about pressing schooling points important to the way forward for North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with assist from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Todd A. Williams Family Foundation and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial management of the Education Lab’s journalism.