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Days before 2023 Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Teaching for Change and the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian conducted an annual curriculum teach-in where K-12 teachers collected the knowledge and resources necessary to teach Indigenous American history and culture.
This year’s teach-in centered on the reclamation of education sovereignty, much of which the native people lost between the 18th and 20th centuries when the U.S. government stripped Indigenous American children of their language and culture in federal boarding schools.
The details of this centuries-long plot is documented in the first volume of a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report that the Bureau of Indian Affairs released last year under the direction of Deb Haaland, secretary of the interior and the first Indigenous American to serve as a cabinet secretary.
In his teach-in keynote address, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland explained how the forced assimilation of Indigenous American children allowed the U.S. government to steal land from Indigenous people in the mainland, as well as Alaska and Hawaii.
“Multiple generations of indigenous children were forced by the federal government to go through this system, based on their political and legal status as native people and native Hawaiians,” Newland said. “The U.S. government, under its constitutional authority, had recognized legal power to do this.”
In his remarks, Newland, a citizen and former tribal president of the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan, encouraged teachers to highlight the true history of Indigenous American-U.S. government relations.
“Colonization has left painful scars and wounds, not only on Indian people but this nation that are still present,” Newland said at the beginning of his keynote. “We still have work to do to heal these wounds. By being honest about the past, we can lay the groundwork for that healing and for respecting and empowering our youth.”
The Annual Teach-In Builds Community
The recent teach-in served as the precursor for an educators’ open house scheduled to take place in New York City on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. On Nov. 4, Teaching for Change will once again join the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian for a virtual teach-in that’s anticipated to reach hundreds of teachers from across the United States.
More than 100 teachers who converged on the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian on Sept. 30 walked through exhibits, participated in interactive workshops, and watched guest instructors model lessons.
They also scoured through books by native authors that had been banned at the state level and delved into lessons centered on the sovereignty of Indigenous American nations, as expressed in the diverse array of flags representing indigenous political entities that have existed since before Christopher Columbus’ arrival.
As explained by Renee Gokey, teacher services coordinator at the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, the teachers who attended the teach-in learned to further embrace the diverse culture and history of Indigenous American nations.
Gokey said that Teaching for Change and the Smithsonian Institute led teachers along in the examination of primary and secondary sources about Indigenous American nations. One of those sources was a photo of Seneca Indian School, an federal boarding school for children of the Seneca, Shawnee, and Wyandotte nations in Wyandotte, Oklahoma.
Other parts of the collection include tools that Indigenous Americans used.
Gokey, an Indigenous American and resident of the Eastern Shawnee nation in Oklahoma, said these efforts are intended to help students of any racial and ethnic background to identify with Indigenous Americans.
“We have good material that [tackles] ideas of belonging,” Gokey said.
“How can people understand their relationship with belonging to this place, with the community and sovereign, native nations?” Gokey continued. “We have maps and tools that are built into our lessons. The most powerful are the quotes and images of native people in life today.”
Bringing Education About Indigenous Peoples into the 21st Century
Today, the federal government recognizes 574 American Indian nations and Alaskan native entities, with the Navajo nation counting as the largest group. As expressed in the U.S. Constitution, each of these nations have self-governance even though they are within the fabric of American society. The U.S. government has limited such sovereignty through treaties, congressional acts, executive orders, federal administrative agreements and court decisions.
Teaching for Change, in existence since 1989, sets out to pursue social justice in the classroom, primarily through the examination of history and contemporary issues. This mission continues amid the banning of books written by native authors, and the lack of academic material in schools that highlights the Indigenous American experience beyond the 19th century.
Deborah Menkart, Teaching for Change’s executive director, told the Informer that much of the work done at the annual teach-in centered on expanding teachers’ and students’ knowledge of Indigenous Americans using the arts, language arts, and social studies. She said that the outcome of the teach-in will be seen in how teachers execute culturally rich lesson plans about Indigenous Americans.
“People were overwhelmed and appreciative to be among members of the community to learn the things they didn’t learn growing up and receiving the information and tools to bring to their students,” Menkart said. “This gives teachers peer support and encouragement to teach history despite attempts to silence them. The workshops offered information and pedagogy.”
