Teaching the Truth is Not Easy

Abstract

Are you going to talk about Indians? asked the boy in the front row. Well, sort of, said, preoccupied with figuring out how to advance my PowerPoint slides. Then the little red-haired girl started to bounce up and down and wave her arm wildly from side to side. Ooohh! Oooh!! she squealed, unable to contain herself. I'm royalty, she blurted out. I have royal blood. Her great, great grandmother, she reported, had been a Cherokee princess. smiled and nodded. It's amazing how many white people are descended from Cherokee Indian princesses--in spite of the fact that there is not now and never has been any Cherokee royalty. Just another example of the power of the Disney Studios' animation department, suppose. Once she opened the door, more than half the class quickly and proudly reported some genetic link to Indians, some even to Sacagawea and Sitting Bull. The number of self-identified Indian descendants reminded me that was in a classroom east of the Mississippi River. off-reservation classrooms in Montana and North and South Dakota--where students were far more likely to be related to Sacagawea and Sitting Bull--children generally don't eagerly proclaim their Native American heritage, whether real or imagined. it was November, and November has become a strange month in elementary school classrooms. first noticed this when taught 3rd grade on a northern Montana reservation. As a non-Native teacher trying to find ways to make the curriculum relevant to children in a culture and community did not understand, found myself confused and frustrated and in need of re-education. It was hard work every day, but when November came around, teachers dragged out coloring sheets of Indian chiefs and had their children make toothpick tipis and birch bark canoes--for our Indian children. And they taught the Thanks-giving story complete with paper-bag Indian vests. It was the strangest thing. But, on this day, my task was to help children think differently about Native Americans. So started by asking them if they knew what Indians look like. They assured me that they did and proceeded to describe the perfect stereotypical Plains Indian. clicked on my first slide. There, for all to see was just the Indian they had described--a proud Lakota warrior. Did they know where Indians live? Oh yes, they knew that too. In tipis! they shouted. You better know this, the teacher threatened. We just studied this! That really revved up the response rate. Wikiup! one shouted. Longhouse! shouted another. clicked and a slide appeared showing a beautifully painted Blackfoot tipi. Yes, all agreed. That is where Indians live. Then onto the next slide. There was a picture of a white woman interviewing a Lakota chief. The chief was dressed in full traditional regalia and the woman was dressed in typical attire from the turn of the century--turn of the 20th century, that is. When Indians dressed like the man in this picture, women dressed like her, explained. But your teacher and don't dress like this today. And except on special occasions, Native Americans don't dress like this either. Would you like to see how Native Americans dress today? The children leaned forward in their chairs and silence fell over the room. Yes. They wanted to see. clicked forward through a series of my students in Montana. The 5th graders were surprised to see children who looked very much like themselves. Next, showed them pictures of Native American homes on reservations and in cities. And again, they were surprised to learn that Indian children live in homes very much like their own. …