Editors' Introduction

Abstract

1 J O U R N A L O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N E D U C A T I O N — 5 8 , I S S U E 3 Editors’ Introduction In a 2000 article, Leech Lake Ojibwe scholar Scott Lyons framed the term “rhetorical sovereignty” as a challenge for Indigenous peoples to engage. Lyons defined rhetorical sovereignty as “the inherent right and ability of peoples to determine their own communicative needs and desires in this pursuit, to decide for themselves the goals, modes, styles, and languages of public discourse” (pp. 449–­ 450). Rhetorical sovereignty , Lyons noted, is a response to rhetorical imperialism, the U.S. mythology of the “vanishing” Indian and the “natural” (even divinely ordained) supremacy of White “civilization.” He also observed that the individuals or systems who “set the terms set the limits” (2000, p. 452). Many young people—­ non-­ Native and Native—­ grow up in education contexts where they do not learn about the Native peoples on whose lands they reside. Many, in fact, are taught or come to believe that Indigenous peoples are relics of the past who once “roamed” vast swaths of “virgin wilderness,” only to “inevitably” succumb to progress, technology, and modernity. This form of rhetorical imperialism becomes a pedagogical imperialism (some might say pedagogical violence) whereby students are taught that Indigenous peoples faded away in the face of railroads, telegraphs, and Anglo-­ European “civilization.” With this special issue, JAIE stakes out an expression of pedagogical sovereignty wherein statutes and laws—­ hard-­ fought by Indigenous leaders, educators, community members, and allies—­ are reframing the terms of teaching and learning in U.S. public schools. As is always the case, all forms of sovereignty rely heavily on public goodwill and awareness of the terms of the debate. Along with guest editor Dr. Cynthia Benally and the contributors, we take up the possibilities that Indigenous pedagogical sovereignty represents.1 Increasing numbers of state legislatures are passing statutes and laws requiring that American Indian history be taught to schoolchildren. The articles presented here call our attention to Arizona, California, Maine, Montana, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Other statutes have either been passed or are in process in New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Washington. The statutes are a response to the silences of the ­ histories 2 J O U R N A L O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N E D U C A T I O N — 5 8 , I S S U E 3 of the places in which people live. In 1977, Bourdieu and Passeron wrote about a concept they called genesis amnesia, which, they said, “finds expression in the naïve illusion that things have always been as they are . . . [and] . . . can lead to the eternizing and thereby the ‘naturalizing ’ of signifying relations that are the product of history” (p. 9). It is critically important that we disrupt commonly held assumptions “that things have always been as they are.” This special issue and the statutes and laws around which it revolves are intended to disrupt the narratives of absence, filling the silences of our histories and existences with the sounds of Native voices and lives. The silences, however, are powerfully entrenched. In each case but Oregon, the challenge remains that a “law on the books” is either not enforced, unknown by those responsible for implementing it, and/or unfunded . Teachers, students, and whole populations in many states have grown up in the silences; educators are (not surprisingly) ill-­ equipped to deliver the learning experiences and content necessary to teach their students. Who, then, teaches the teachers? While not explicitly noted in these articles, this special issue should be a clarion call for institutions of higher education and colleges of education in particular to critically revisit required courses to ensure that all those certified through their programs—­ teachers, administrators, counselors, support staff, and those serving special needs students—­ have a firm understanding of the nature of the place where they live and work. As editors, we are convinced that we must move beyond land acknowledgements (although these are important) to ask all pre...