How the News Can Help Us Understand the Essential Understanding in Indian Education for All Curriculum
Having lived in Montana most of my life, I also spent most of my life having some sort of Native American education being implemented in my classes. In elementary school, most of it centered around Lewis and Clark’s expedition, and taking part in or watching a musical whose opening song will always haunt me. In middle school, the work was boring and from workbooks that I no longer remember, but in high school we started actually reading books written by Native American authors. We went into the history of Native Americans in my history classes, I learned about the stories associated with some Native American cultures, and I had a distinct advantage in 2015 when the AP US History test accidentally made one of their short answer questions about pre-colonial Native American life instead of about the Industrial Revolution (which was the question they released as being in the test). My education was not as great as it could have been, but it was better than my cousins who never talked about Native Americans or my college classmate, who thought Native Americans no longer existed.
Students in Montana have the honor of having Indian Education for All (IEFA) as a part of their state curriculum. For that reason, seven Essential Understandings were created as guiding principles for educators to follow when teaching about Montana’s Native American tribes. These principles also align with the ERC’s Grand Challenges and at least one Essential Understanding always relates with Native American centered stories in the news.
The second of these understandings expands on the first understanding. The first one says that diversity exists amongst the tribes, and the second one expands to say that diversity exists within each Native American individual. No one has the same experiences, and no one views their identity in the same way. This understanding connects with the “understanding the American experience” Grand Challenge. It connects with every part of this challenge because the history of the United States government and society directly impacted the way Native American tribes and people are viewed by society and themselves. Because of events like the Trail of Tears and processes like creating reservations and boarding school assimilations, Native American identities were totally upended and redefined. Now, one’s association with a tribe, their parents involvement, and their own curiosity about their heritage can all play a role in defining their Native American identity. Their community can also play a large role, as well as what their media and government say.
One example of the media and multiple governments playing a role in someone’s identity is Elizabeth Warren taking a DNA test to show she has Native American ancestry. The idea stemmed from Donald Trump continuously calling her “Pocahontas” as a derogatory term and her taking the DNA test as a political stunt. According to a New York Times article by Astead W. Herndon, she apologized for asserting her Native American identity, and some tribes have forgiven her as well as the fact that she is working with some tribes. However, the idea of identity comes into question. There is a sense of Warren’s Native American identity being redefined by the situation because it is now a part of who she is to the public, but she doesn’t talk about growing up with that being an essential part of her home. She also did not ever talk about wanting to do more research to become a part of a tribe before this situation occurred. The identities of all Native Americans were also redefined because their identity became a part of politics that was different than the assimilation it had been in the past. Now it’s a new type of ammunition that some progressive policy makers and citizens use to show that they are “progressive” when in actuality it shows how removed people are from the real issues that Native Americans face with their identity.
