In Massachusetts this year, every public school is getting copies of a new state history book co-written by a Wampanoag author and historian. Teachers say that’s changing, thanks to native scholars who have authored children’s books, lesson plans and other materials.

Standard social studies textbooks have included little about Native Americans, and alternatives were long elusive. School officials say they aren’t changing history, but adding parts that have been left out. “Too many may have lost the civilizational self-confidence needed to celebrate the Pilgrims,” Cotton said. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a Republican who last week blasted “revisionist charlatans of the radical left.” Prominent lawmakers have resisted efforts to rethink Thanksgiving, including Sen. It encourages lessons, for example, on the coronavirus’ impact on Native Americans, and on Neilson Powless, who recently became the first Native American in the Tour de France.Īlthough schools say parents have mostly embraced the changes, they acknowledge it can be polarizing. In recent guidance, the nearby Brookline school district urged teachers to incorporate native perspectives even on topics not necessarily specific to Indigenous people. Montana in 1999 was among the first to require schools to teach tribal histories and is now joined by Washington, Oregon and others.Įven in states where it isn’t mandatory, however, classrooms are becoming more inclusive.Īfter national protests over killings of Black people by police, Arlington’s history department created a committee to examine race, which led to discussions about expanding and correcting teachings about African Americans, Native Americans and other groups too often left out. Schupman and the museum have worked with states as they create new teaching standards on Indigenous cultures. “Change is still needed, and it has only been significant in some places.” “Progress seems to be gaining momentum, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” said Ed Schupman, manager of Native Knowledge 360, the national education initiative at the National Museum of the American Indian, and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. Change has been slow and spotty, they say, and many schools cling to insensitive traditions, including costumed dramas and paper headdresses.

Who is eligible for Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness?Īdvocates for Indigenous education caution there’s still much to improve. Students as young as kindergarten are now being taught that harvest feasts have been part of Wampanoag life since long before 1621, and that thanksgiving is a daily part of life for many tribes. Now taboo, the costumes were abolished in 2018, and the district is working to expand and correct classroom teachings on Native Americans, including debunking Thanksgiving myths.

In Arlington Public Schools near Boston, students until recently dressed annually in Colonial attire. “I think we are at a point where people are now ready to listen.” “We carry this Colonial view of how we teach, and now we have a moment to step outside that and think about whether that is harmful for kids, and if there isn’t a better way,” said Remillard, who teaches at Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School in East Harwich, Massachusetts. She asks students to rewrite the Thanksgiving story using historical records, and then she asks them to write a poem from the perspective of a person from that time, half settlers and half Wampanoag.

Now she’s trying to balance the narrative. On Cape Cod, language arts teacher Susannah Remillard long found that her sixth grade students had been taught far more about the Pilgrims than the Wampanoag people, the Native Americans who attended the feast. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu

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