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1875123 Responseshttp://www.racerelationsproject.org/2010/02/native-americans-question-one/Native+Americans%3A+Question+One2010-02-24+05%3A06%3A05Sam+Richards to Native Americans: Question One
This is a very interesting issue that this girl has brought up. I am a firm believer in beginning education at a young age so children can begin the learning process early and develop their own ideas. However, depending on how the Native American issue is presented is how they will be taught to view the information. Currently there is very limited education about Native Americans provided to young grade school children. This is rightfully so because if you taught young children of the terrible happenings in the past they would probably become scared of the issue and not acknowledge it. That is why I think it would be appropriate in this specific case to start teaching the truths about Native American people in fifth grade and continue to have it expanded on until the end of schooling. This would at the very least get the idea out there and allow people to talk about it.
The question presented is a very interesting one. When should we start education? Young kids don’t know who Native Americans are, but they know who Indians are. They hear Indians and draw a stereotypical person, with a feather. This is a huge problem. This problem stems from our parents and then just trickles down from generation to generation. In my previous discussion group we talked about having a similar class to soc119 a requirement. This way we could break this trend. We could all learn about racisms and stereotypes and break them.
However, we came up with many problems about this. There are some people that are set in their ways and taking a class like this would not change them. Especially people whose parents are also set in their ways, a class like this certainly would not change their opinions. Also, depending on what school you are attending, depends on your teachers. You may have a teacher who flips this type of class and does not do it in an effective way. The teacher is a key component to the class and not having an effective teacher could ruin the entire purpose of the class, getting rid of the stereotypes that we all hold against certain people.
Now more specifically I believe things about racism and stereotypes should be taught at a younger age than a college level class. When you get to college is when you see a large amount of stereotypes and racism. Therefore you need to learn about these things before going to college. Many times I believe it needs to be learned before going to high school as well. High school is when you do a large amount of your growing, as far as deciding your different beliefs.
Maybe it would be effective to have a class in seventh or eighth grade. This way you are exposed to all of these things before going into the world of high school and college where you experience all of this. This class could be very similar to the class we are all taking now. People should be free to openly talk about their thoughts and beliefs and begin to form their own beliefs, possibly ones aside from their parents. Because many times kids just take on their parent’s beliefs and run with them for the rest of their lives, they don’t even have the chance to form their own. This class could help them have a better understand the world around them and possibly encourage them to do their own part in changing these racisms.
As I said before however, this all must begin from our parents. Or maybe we need to be the ones to start it. We need to teach our children non racist beliefs. If we start taking these classes and then teach our children these things and they take the classes, it will eventually change from generation to generation. We need to act on this and educate everyone about it, it is the only way it can be changed.
It is very interesting to hear this girl’s point of view. Looking back to when I was growing up, I had the same perspectives as the children mentioned. We watched movies and made hats out of construction paper with feathers on the back to look like “Indians.” Growing up as a boy scout and later becoming an eagle scout there was much emphasis put on Native Americans. On numerous occasions Native American topics are talked about and the order of the arrow is all about brotherhood under a certain tribe. Even with all this focus on them, not even in scouts do people focus enough on the genocide or the Native American aspect. There is a merit badge called Indian lore which all scouts must take with the requirements to give the history of one Indian tribe, make replica clothing of a certain Indian tribe, and much more. Nowhere does it say anything about Native Americans and after listening to this question it sparked my attention.
Even America sports team’s names have names like the Cleveland Indians or Washington Redskins. When in reality, it would be politically correct to use the name Cleveland Native Americans instead. I agree to an extent with the question at hand. I feel that many people need to be educated about this genocide of innocent Native Americans who owned the land. Now, I do not think 3 and 4 year olds should be taught directly about this mass killing at such a young of an age. Rather, teachers should begin calling them Native Americans instead of Indians. Young students would then have more of an idea about this culture as they become older. As students move up in grade levels, I think they should gain more knowledge on the terrible things that our ancestors did to the native people. I do not feel like this is our generations fault nor we should be blamed for what former Americans did so many years ago, but I think we need to respect the Native American culture. The fact of the matter is this is their land. Looking at the Dave Matthews song “Don’t Drink the Water”, I had no idea of the underlying message behind the song. Being an avid Dave fan and enjoying this song, I was unaware of what he was trying to get across. Dave sings about how we (as colonists) came in and killed Native Americans for the land and how their blood is in the water. The song’s message has a strong significance and I think people need to be more aware of this significance at a younger age. By starting with introducing young children to Native Americans instead of Indian and then all the way up to the full on message of what happened to these extraordinary people. In conclusion, I agree that in growing up we are raised learning information about Indians and our educational focus should be altered, but at the same time I challenge society to step back and realize that this is not our land. By educating correctly we may not be able to fix what happened but we can show respect by teaching their culture accurately.
I find it interesting that our population frequently discusses the horrors of discrimination and racial inequality towards the black community, the holocaust that impacted the Jewish community and other inequities that we perceive were perpetrated against various minorities. We never hear about the inequities towards the American Indian population. Some weeks ago we agonized over whether a black man should be referred to as Negro, black, colored, dark skinned or African American. It is hard to ignore the impact of changing times on the perspective we have as to what is politically correct. That political correctness seems to have been ignored with regard to our indigenous Indian population. I question if we would even refer to this population as American Indians if it were not to distinguish them from the billion Indians of Asian descent that live on the other side of the globe.
The American Indian has gotten “bad press” and it is no wonder that young students identify this population with clichés from old “cowboy and Indian” movies. It is time for America to recognize the history and importance of the American Indian and moreover time for our Indian population to demand that they be included in the mainstream of American society.
I think the lecture about Native Americans was inherently confusing. It seems like the message was that we should accept “blame” for something that happened before our time. Repeatedly, Sam reminded us that we are living on “red land” and as a result we should feel morally obligated to take into account the reality of the situation. Part of me agrees with this, while my other half cannot get over the logical flaw. The notion that modern day white people are to blame, or that anyone alive today is to blame, is wrong. Save a few instances, I have never had an encounter with a person of Native American descent and I certainly played no role in the decimation of the Native American culture. Having said that, it is obvious that the status of the average Native American in the United States is dramatically lower than the average white American and for this, I acknowledge a responsibility to respond to the terrible living conditions that exist.
The idea of the Americas belonging to Native Americans prior to European is true in one sense, but flawed in another. The world is constantly shifting and peoples move around the globe accordingly. While the arrival of Europeans significantly decimated the Native American population and culture, it was a semi-natural occurrence. Disease accounted for an overwhelming majority of the “genocide” that Sam describes in class. Nevertheless, the colonists and conquistadors deserve no commendations for their actions; their brutal treatment and general negligence was the nail in the coffin of the Native American culture. Yet, what they did was no different than what the Vikings did to Northern Europe mark or what Alexander the Great did to Asia. It would be ridiculous to suggest that everyone in Sweden be “blamed” for the problems of Denmark and Germany, but this is exactly what is expected of white America. I bring this up because Sam’s main pet peeve is hypocrisy and this seems like fertile ground for it.
My reason for disagreeing stems for the usage of the term “blame”. In a sense, it’s degrading. It suggests that the only way for white people to act is to blame them for something. A more persuasive effort would be to appeal to the humanity of white people. It should be expected of anyone living in the United States that if an entire demographic of people is being oppressed so severely than something should be done. By “blaming” white people, you only ostracize them and lower the odds that they will join you. I understand the message Sam wants us to take away from the lecture: Modern day Native Americans are incredibly oppressed as a result of the unending encroachment of my ancestors on their land; that we have a responsibility to assist these people. My point of contention is only that he insists we are to blame, when in reality, history is to blame.
I have noticed that I have never learned about the genocide of Native Americans to the extent that Sam has been lecturing. I feel like it would be a good idea to start the education a little bit earlier since we do cover slavery and segregation throughout school but a lot of the issue is that we are not completely sure to the extent of what happened. The one thing that makes me angry about Sam’s lecture is how he always claims that we are standing on red land. I understand that but honestly, what can we do about it now?
I think this was a really interesting video clip. It brought up a really interesting point about the image of Native Americans. The images we hold for any group of people is taught to us when we are younger. We were taught in kindergarten that Native Americans were Indians and we learned that Indians are fighters and killers. I thought it was really cool how the teacher went into the classroom to see how the kindergarteners viewed Native Americans. To have them not even recall the name was not surprising. I feel like when we were young, Native Americans was a term never really used or inscribed into our brains. We would connect the image of feathers and bow-and-arrows to the term Indian. All I remember being taught about Indians is that they fought against the cowboys back in the day. I never learned about any genocide or fighting. Maybe this is just bad memory but you would think that if this was something so big for our country, education would be more in-depth on the topic. At that young age we learned about slavery and inequality of blacks versus whites in America, and that information stayed with all of us. But the topic of Native Americans founding North America and the Europeans coming over and killing them for the land was never touched upon. I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, one of the wealthiest counties in the country. We have never talked about or learned about Native Americans and the fact that they are in such poverty. This class was the first time I ever learned or heard about these issues. Our high school is Pascack Valley and our school mascot is an Indian. I think my junior year in high school, there was talk about changing the mascot, saying that it was disrespectful to the Native Americans to use their old, violent past as our fighting symbol. To be honest, I did not agree because I did not understand why they were trying to change it. I understood that Native Americans could be offended by this violent image being portrayed I just did not understand why it was such a big deal since that was really how they used to be. I didn’t think it was a problem because it was history and truth this image, not some made up idea of how Native Americans used to be. After this class, and seeing the pictures and images of Native Americans now and the poverty they live in, I can kind of understand more where they are coming from. It is more disrespectful now because, they are not warriors or fighters anymore, nor would they have the money to fight or revolt even if they wanted to fight. They have no means of defending their once owned land and it is sad. We are all responsible for taking their land from them and putting them in their poverty conditions. I think education earlier just like slavery is taught and drilled, is essential. The events of the Native Americans is a huge genocide and huge part of our country that needs be to taught like the rest of our history.
The question that is posed is what age or how early should our young be educated about Native Americans? The issue here is that in a study of some sort when little kids were asked to draw a picture of a Native American they couldn’t but when they were asked to draw a picture or an Indian they drew a picture of a person with primitive weapons. Yes, admittedly this shows ignorance on behalf of the kids, but they are just kids! I don’t disagree that somewhere down the line these kids need to be educated about who Native Americans are and need to learn about their culture but I don’t believe this case shows anything. At a young age there are more important things to learn about than the politically correct way to draw and discuss Native Americans, such as the alphabet, the English language, and becoming potty trained. The truth is learning about the political correctness of Native Americans takes a distant back seat to many other things and shouldn’t need to be addressed until high school or late middle school at the earliest.
Apparently the education system is doing a fine job educating about Native Americans because in the large sociology class when Sam mentions Native Americans no one raised his or her hand and said, “You mean those people in Teepees with spears?” I understand Native Americans have not had it well with regards to treatment by general modern Americans, and they also suffered the largest genocide ever at the hands of those same Americans, but with regards to education…so what?
It may be harsh to say but learning about Native Americans is not all too important in most people’s lives. I understand Sam wants everyone to acknowledge the hardships felt by the genocide of the Native Americans so that we can start making things right but I don’t think this needs to start at an early age, if it has to start at all. I come from the mindset that in battle and wars to the winner goes the spoil. It is tragic what happened to the Native Americans by our great great grandfathers, but I cannot agree that I am at all responsible for their actions. As a Jew, I do not blame modern Germans for the crimes of their elders, and I certainly don’t demand reparations for those crimes.
I too would appreciate the acknowledgement of the travesties which occurred during the Holocaust, and that is all. I do not demand that young German students in school learn about Jews when they are two or three or ten, but at some point in their learning have the issues of the past brought up. I think the same stance should be applied for the Native Americans. As long as at some time during schooling students are educated about Native Americans and the issues concerning them I am perfectly content. Not only this, but by learning about the issues and genocide of the Native Americans, I truly feel that the government has done its job in making-up for the crimes of its past (as best they possibly can or should).
This is a really good question. I really do believe that we as a nation need to, take steps, in making kids more aware of the diverse cultrul. Growing up in Middle school and Elementary school, I realized that people around me were different. Some of these people were my friends, and knowing that they were from a different ethnicity, I never brought up the question, of where they were from. Some were along the line, we need to give the kids a good understanding, of what it means to be from different backrounds. Along with teaching them of the different ethnic groups, we also need to start this process at a relitevly young age maybe not three or four, but probably somewhere around third and fourth grade. I think teaching kids any younger than third grade, would not have any effect, and would not grasp the concept as well as a third or forth grader would. One reason why we should start at a young age, is because the sooner and better they understand, the less awkward it is going to be starting a conversation with them. I noticed throughout Middle school, that people clung to others that had the same characteristics as them. All the African-Americans, Asians, whites, and Latin Americans all divided up into their groups. Although this was just the majority, their would be different friend groups of all sorts of ethnicitys. For the major part of it though, someones best friend was the one that resembled them. Another reason why we should start at a young age is because racial comments might be made, but the third or forth grader did not know what he did wrong. Throughout school some people would always be picked on and it just wasnt the Blacks and Latinos it was everyone. I could defintely see a forth grader, making fun of an Asian and their eyes, and the forth grader has no idea what he really meant. He might as well of said the F-Bomb, in the middle of the school. To avoid such conflicts, they need to know that people are different, and the reasons why. Blacks needed dark skin to adapt to the hot sun and the Asains needed to adapt the the constant wind blowing sand all over the place. The only thing that would be how far to you go into the topic. For a forth grader some things are a little to much, for them to understand the bigger picture. The minimum information they should know, are people come from different backrounds for different purposes and that you should not make fun of them for being different. My question would have to be would this be suffectient or should they know more?
I think that it is imperative that the perception of Native Americans change and it is easiest to change the view people have at a young age before too many of the old perceptions are ingrained in their minds. While I am not suggesting the preschoolers know of the gritty atrocities and genocides the Native Americans experienced I think it is time that children learn more about Native Americans. They are not simply tomahawk wielding, feather adorned warriors but much more. I would like children in elementary schools to understand the many roles Native Americans played and continue to play as well as, at an appropriate age, the terrible circumstances and discrimination they have and continue to face.
this actually is not the first time that this question has presented me. my sister is a pre-school teacher in North Carolina and she was presented in a situation in which she didn’t really know how to respond. during thanksgiving she was teaching her class about the native americans. she thought long and hard about what to say to her class, she had her lesson planned, and she said when it actually came time to talk about it, she changed her mind on what to says. she started the class with talking about the trail of tears. she knew that these kids, being 3-5, had never really learned about what happened. she told them that people from Europe came over and didn’t like the Native Americans because they looked and acted different. she told them that the European settlers made the native americans leave and that the ones that they didn’t kill they spread extreme sickness throughout the land. so that she could get the kids involved and get them to start thinking about it in the right way she asked if the kids thought this was fair. all the kids said that it wasn’t fair and that we treated them horribly. she asked them what she thought we should have done about it. the kids said that they thought we should have let them stay and learned from them and became friends. one kid actually said that they should learn from eachother and accept eachother even though their different. after the class, my sister was really scared that a parent might get upset about what she taught the kids in class. she knew that this kind of thing wasn’t really taught in school, especially at such a young age. a couple of days later, my sister received an email from one of the mothers from her class. she was hesitant to open it, but when she did she was pleasantly surprised. the email said that the mother was so so happy that she had actually taught them what really happened all those years ago. she thought it was great that my sister was teaching them such valuable lessons so early on. she thanked my sister and my sister was glad that she taught them what she did. I guess the point is that we should not only educate our children about this, but we should start doing it early in their lives. right off the bat the kids knew that what Jessica was telling them wasn’t right, and they leanred that we should accept eachother for our differences.
Education is the key to knowledge. The more that we know about what actually happened, the more people will realize the seriousness of it. We all learn about 'Indians' in elementary school, in fact my mother teaches 4th grade and they are covering Native Americans in their history lessons right now. I think that I knew more then about tribes, lifestyles, territories, etc. then than I do now. Why do we not keep learning about our countries original people? We even say that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. The absurdity of that statement cannot be reiterated. Did 'America' not exist before European colonization? It is bullshit, and we continue to teach it. The only people to 'discover' America were the people who crossed the Bering Strait millions of years ago. I think we do not teach it for a number of reasons. We are embarrassed of our history. How could the 'great settlers' that came on the Mayflower and whatnot have been the instigators of the greatest genocide in human history? We also teach the greats of European conquest without mentioning anything of American Indians. Greece and Rome were great, but what was going on here, on 'our land' in the first year AD? I have always wanted to know questions to these answers but I have never gotten them. We need to acknowledge this genocide first and foremost. We do not exactly have a rich history (i.e. slavery), so why not admit that we made some huge mistakes and educate our youth on how they can make this a better world. It comes down to pride. Imagining teaching a room of 8 year old kids that their ancestors killed millions of people. I remember most of the kids being on the side of the Indian-they were resourceful, they had interesting spiritual beliefs, and they dressed so damn cool. Maybe we do not want to lose loyalty at such a young age. It is better to have a bunch of kids believe that this is the greatest country in the world, the country that Columbus discovered.
Our education system needs a complete overhaul anyway if we wish to compete in the growing global market, so why not teach the facts at a young age? We screwed up, Americans are not perfect and we need to start teaching our flaws as well as our accomplishments. We should include the true history of America and Native Americans alongside any other history throughout elementary school and high school. It is the history of our country and our ancestors, so why deny it? This is a change that needs to be implemented as soon as possible to combat the ignorance surrounding this issue. It is our responsibility to acknowledge what we have done.
I think we should start educating young kids about the struggles of the Native American population. Perhaps initially, for very young children in pre-school and kindergarten, we not go into so much detail because it may scare them. However it is important that we address the fact that there were many hardships that they had to go through and overcome. As kids get older they should learn more and more about all of the things the Native Americans have gone through to help build support for the population and break stereotypes. I think there are important lesions that can be learned, and these lessons can help make Americans better people overall. I think we should address the wrongs of the United States, and as a country help to improve the situation the Native Americans are in now. If conditions improve, and poverty is not such an issue, we can teach kids that the United States realized that they were doing something wrong but are doing things to make up for these wrongs. Also, building more support and sympathy for the Native American populations still living in the United States would probably help implement polices to improve their conditions.
This is an excellent question, and one that definitely needs to be answered if we expect the youth of our nation to come to understand the seriousness of the genocide that happened in our nation's history. The term "Indian" is a term that has come to mean many things in our society today, even though it shouldn't. Not only does it mean a person from India, but it has come to mean Native American. The stereotype that exists for Native American's is absolutely absurd. The fact that preschoolers realize this stereotype exists and fall for it is a truly scary thought, and one that needs to be addressed if we expect things to change anytime soon. It's apparent that from an early age, the American youth is taught that Indian is a term that refers to Native Americans, or anyone who builds a tee-pee and walks around with a weapon in their hands.
Indian is a term that should literally just mean a person whose ancestors came from India. With the ubiquitous moral problems that exist in our culture today, we need to focus on teaching our children the importance of straying away from these negative stereotypes. It's extremely difficult to change a grownup's point of view about a particular moral issue in our society today, so we cannot wait until our children grow up with these negative views before we do something about it. We need to teach our children from an early age to ignore these stereotypes, and make sure they are well-educated when it comes to racial differences, to prevent something like what happened in this preschool from happening again. It's truly sad that so many children had no clue what a Native American was, when it is their territory that they were standing on. Furthermore, the fact that they associated the term "Indian" to a person with nothing but a feather on his head and a weapon in his hand is terrifying.
Our first step in dealing with the genocide that occurred in our country's past is to acknowledge it, rather than ignoring it. As I mentioned previously, the only way to change our society for the better is with our youth. We, of course, need to be the individuals that initiate this change, but we need to instill proper moral values into the eyes of our youth, so that when they grow older and have kids, it will be passed on to future generations, until eventually these negative stereotypes are wiped out of our community. The change does not need to be something drastic, it just involves changing our opinions about how to deal with our children, and we need to realize that we need to take the first step in teaching American youth the proper way to look at our past, rather than ignoring the parts that make us feel guilty.
I think this is a great question. I agree that we need to teach young kids all about the truth of Native Americans. Whether or not this will leave America with no soul as Sam Richards says, it doesn't matter, the truth needs to be taught.
I remember learning about Native Americans ind fifth grade, and I think that was the first time I really learned about them. My parents may have given me a brief explanation, but that was the extent of my knowledge. In my class I remember we learned about five different tribes of Native Americans. We learned about different the various types of houses, the different staple foods, the geography of the land, but they seemed to leave out the fact that the Europeans genocided and displaced basically the entire race of them. It seems that the curriculum brushed over the brutal murder of men women and children. The argument could possibly be made that little children shouldn't be learning about genocides in elementary schools. 1. They mostly likely see and commit countless murders on television and video games respectively. 2. As Sam Richards essentially stated in class, by ommitting information, we are thus lying about it. I think he said it like "by our inaction, we are allowing the violence to continue." I agree, and by singing songs like "This land is our land." and the "Land of the brave" we are indoctrinating the children to forget about Native Americans. I was definitely socially conditioned in this way. I really didn't learn about the extensive genocide and atrocities committed towards Native Americans until my senior year of high school. Did I learn this in my U.S. History class? Nope. I read a book called The Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. It explains how our history classes gloss over Native Americans, and often outright distort information. In order to trick kids into believing that the U.S. has a soul, our education system glorifies everything we do, save slavery, because we got over it, but the Native Americans go unnoticed. We should teach our children the truth from a young age. Peace
It is hard to say what would work best to get the message out there about what has happened to Native Americans in the past. It is not surprising to hear what the students drew a picture of when asked to draw and Indian because schools don’t educate their students enough at an early age. I remember the first time I truly learned about the struggles of Native Americans was in eight grade, at the age of twelve. Twelve is entirely too old to just begin learning about what has happened in our past. Schools should definitely begin teaching lessons at an early time to educate their students. Starting in elementary school and briefly covering topics to at least familiarize students could work, but the material covered may be too intense to teach young children. It is a very difficult question to answer and I would hope that somebody could formulate a more concrete procedure to integrating the studies into a school curriculum.
For starters, being an elementary education major I feel as if this question and topic for discussion really hits home with me since I am studying what children should and should not be learning. This question and the general topic of this questions I feel is way to critical and deep for any pre-school student. I do not think that at the age of three and four years of age children will understand these topics. Also at this age they are learning the simple things and trying to remember them so with this extra information I do not believe it would be retained anyway.
I definitely do believe this is a valid question to bring up though because students do need to learn about these sorts of things. Another question is when are the students at an appropriate age to be discussing these sorts of topics? I feel that even though pre-school aged students are too young, I do feel as if in kindergarten they can learn the terminology of Native Americans. From a personal experience I babysat a kindergartner that attended a Montessori school in which she learned about various cultures, each month would be a different culture. I thought this was a great idea because she learned so much information in a fun and exciting way and was still able to recall the knowledge after her kindergarten graduation. I feel she will keep that knowledge with her since she had learned in a fun way by using songs, games, other activities and then incorporating all that knowledge into the graduation itself. So bringing up the terminology and how they live and other things a long those lines I feel can be started at a young age.
Yet talking about genocides is a totally different subject matter. I do not feel as if it would be appropriate to discuss this topic with such young students nor would I feel comfortable teaching to such young students it since genocides are such horrible events. I personally do not think I would not discuss genocides until at least upper elementary levels, maybe around sixth grade at the earliest, and still then I am not sure if that is the right age. I believe maybe toward middle school students, around seventh, or eighth grade can have a better understanding on what genocides are and how they have affected the world. This is definitely a topic that needs to be discussed its just a matter of when is the right time.
Overall the discussion of who Native Americans are, is of great importance and should be taught at young ages so they can become aware. Yet just wait until later aged students to discuss problems that have occurred and are occurring with those people and areas of living.
My reason for disagreeing stems for the usage of the term “blame”. In a sense, it’s degrading. It suggests that the only way for white people to act is to blame them for something. A more persuasive effort would be to appeal to the humanity of white people. It should be expected of anyone living in the United States that if an entire demographic of people is being oppressed so severely than something should be done. By “blaming” white people, you only ostracize them and lower the odds that they will join you. I understand the message Sam wants us to take away from the lecture: Modern day Native Americans are incredibly oppressed as a result of the unending encroachment of my ancestors on their land; that we have a responsibility to assist these people. My point of contention is only that he insists we are to blame, when in reality, history is to blame.
I definitely think that we need to better educate children about Native Americans. In elementary school children learn about Columbus discovering America and about the pilgrims and the Indians sitting down and having Thanksgiving dinner together and everyone is happy. They don’t learn the truth, they don’t learn about the genocide. No, maybe it won’t fix the problem, but awareness could be the first step. Last year my friends and I decided to road trip across the country to the Rose Bowl. It was an extremely eye opening experience for me. When driving through parts of Arizona and Nevada we passed dozens of Native American villages. The people were living in run down shacks often with a single cow and rusted out pickup truck sitting out front. I have literally never seen anything like it; I was both fascinated and horrified. We passed tiny roadside stands with hand painted signs that were probably the only income for the village. Unfortunately, we were on a road in the middle of nowhere that didn’t get much traffic so the stand probably received little to no business. We drove for miles before finding a gas station owned by Native Americans. It was the only sign of modern technology that we saw anywhere, including the only flushing toilet. Most of the villages had green plastic porter johns sitting off to the side of them. At 20 years old I had was introduced to an entire world that I never knew existed. I can’t believe how naïve I was. When I thought of Native American reservations I always pictured people living in teepees and having pow wows around the campfire, but there were no teepees and no campfires, only falling down shacks. Why, in elementary school do we read stories and draw pictures of “Indians” living in teepees when it isn’t the reality. We are educated to think that these people are happy. They aren’t happy, they are suffering. I don’t know what we can do about it, but I think that for a start the American people at least need to know about it. A sociology class my junior year of college should NOT be the first time that I am learned about this. It’s like the American people are in denial. They act as if they ignore it and don’t teach kids about it, it will go away. They act like it never happened, but it did happen and it’s not going away. Those people and those villages of shacks that I saw in Arizona are not going to go away no matter how much we ignore them. The American people need to step up and accept the reality about Native Americans, and one way to do that is to teach our kids about it.
YES, education needs to be started early and frankly, I think the whole fairytale of Christopher Columbus should be put to rest. These kids are learning that Columbus came to America and had peaceful relations with the Native American people, while “helping” them become civilized. It scares me to think that people still actually believe this is true. The real story: Good old Christopher Columbus came to America bringing viral diseases and STDs during the Columbian Exchange, and forcefully removed the Native Americans from their land later on. This peaceful, thanksgiving meal garbage should be erased from our history books because it’s teaching only one side. “Indian” is only understood by kids as these indigenous people, with, like the girl said, a weapon and a feather. I was helping in a kindergarten class over Thanksgiving vacation and what do I see when I walk in? Little pictures drawn of “Indians” with axes, adorned with feathers, and no smile—while the pilgrim next to the Native American had nice clothes, food, and a smiled. Education is paramount in the decrease of ignorance—which many people have until high school or later—when they finally learn the truth about the inconsiderate jerk formerly known as Christopher Columbus.
I think that this girl brings up a great point. When should we start the education of what has happened to Native Americans? I mean, I knew that it happened to some extent before this class, but I really didn’t think about it that much until it came up in here. I knew very little about it. I don’t think the education of the genocide can start at the grade school level, but we can definitely start with more facts about Native Americans in grade school and work up to the genocide that occurred at the high school level. Right now, it is easier to simply avoid the topic, but we need to start educating at an earlier age.
Why shouldn't we teach third and fourth graders the truth about what this country has done to Native Americans? Because it might put a downer on their Thanksgiving? Its not Santa Claus, it's real life. Maybe if kids grew up realizing the truth about what happened a couple of them might really try to help some people. Teaching kids anything else is just wrong. I said before that when I was a kid Native Americans were portrayed as hostiles impeding the progress of dedicated hard working settlers who were just trying to make a better life for themselves. And they were godless in the eyes of white people, so I guess that means they didn't deserve the land anyway!
In response to, “what should we do as a nation to educate people about the genocide of Native Americans,” I think we definitely should educate at an early age. In the example that she provided, the four year olds didn’t know the correlation between an Indian and a Native American. Even though they did know what an Indian, they didn’t completely understand the complexity of what it is to be an Indian besides the physical dress. One reason that the children thought of a weapon and a feather when they thought of an Indian could be because of the movies and pop culture they’ve come across even in their four short years of life. Movies like Pocahontas would portray this picture and the movie never mentions Indians as Native Americans.
Also, the education system as a whole should introduce Native American history into learning. I know that I personally was never exposed to any education about Native Americans and before this class, I had no idea how bad their situations were and that they really even existed. I’m sure that this information is not integrated into the education system simply because American’s are not proud of this fact of their history. As Americans, we are proud of our freedom and yet we unjustly put Native Americans into a life of persecution and poverty. I think that by learning early on, in elementary school as well as continuing this education into middle and high school would be very beneficial to the education of the nation.
By educating people at an early age, we will grow up with this knowledge and be more inclined to want to help eradicate this injustice. I feel that if I knew about this at an earlier age, I would be more active in awareness and advocating against the plight of the Native Americans. Even thought it was my ancestors who did these horrible things and put the Native Americans into their sad situation today, I would not want to have a part in it. I would want to help them in any way I could and because I haven’t learned much about this, I feel like anything that I do now would be null and void. How can I, as an uneducated individual on Native American history or culture, be any help to them? Because of that, I doubt I’ll do anything but speak about it to my friends and possibly even research it if I have time because it has sparked a brief interest in me to learn more and become more educated on this topic that no one else ever took the time to educate me about. I have really enjoyed learning about this in class as of late, and I’m very appreciative to Sam for opening my mind and sparking an interest within me on this topic.
I agree with her, I think they should start in pre-school. At the same time, they should also educate the elderly, the reason why is because children look up to their parents and if their parents portray Native Americans as violent “Indians” so will their child, this is not rocket science. Education is not only in school, children learn from everywhere and everything, and when you’re wrong you believe almost everything that you’ve been told. So if they person or object they rely on the most keeps teaching them something other than the truth, that is what they will learn. This education has to involve everything that surrounds a child to be effective, even the media.
I definitely agree that the education about the truth about Native Americans should start at a much younger age. While teachers do not have to go into such harsh details about killings and such, it should be known that the Native Americans suffered tremendously because we wanted their land, and young students should be aware of this. I think if elementary school students knew about the Native American’s struggle, then they will grow up having more appreciation for them, and not having a false perception about their lives. So hopefully school systems can start implementing more Native American units into their school years so that the students have a full appreciation for them as they grow up.
I think that she has completely good point, I know someone else who asked me if ‘its so important to educate and take action, when should we start? I think that creating a different image and telling the truth about Native Americans young is a very good and important step forward. By creating the image that Native Americans are just people with a feather and a weapon, isn’t the right way to go. It's a distant image of the past.
It wouldn’t make sense to continue to raising and teaching children all the things that we learned. And then attempting to reconstruct and change the image that was pushed into their head ever since they were children, that wouldn’t stop the problem at the root. The new generation has to be different from the past or else this cycle will continue. Also, the more time that passes by the more uneducated generations are going to feel more distant and that they don’t have any responsibility to help. Everyone, that has ever, or will ever step foot in the United States and reeks any sort of benefit whether it be a location where their house is, get a job, stay in a hotel, go to school, etc. the entire civilization (I don’t know if civilization is the correct word but, even so) known as the United States was built upon the land and blood of the Native Americans and they didn’t receive any justice or true equality even after being the last to be able to be officially called “American.”
We owe them support and understanding, those who are just visiting for as international students, are getting something by being here, and that is something a Native American should have been entitled to a long time ago, therefore you still at least, at the very least should educate yourself on what happened, if you do nothing else. Knowing what happened isn’t about feeling guilty. Also, it’s not about being responsible for parent’s mistakes; your personal ancestry is totally irrelevant.
On another not, I’m honestly, completely shocked and alarmed at how many people don't feel like they have a responsibility to Native Americans. Responsibility does not equal blame; go get a fucking dictionary. Accepting the responsibility means, that we should take the time to help each other.
If they were beaten up and robbed, and everyone around them were using the money in their wallet and using their stuff right in front of their face; all the while everyone is pretending it happened, but it wasn’t so bad, and the fact that they are poor now has nothing to do with. I think they would have a problem with that.
And the idea of starting the education process with children and then continuing throughout their years in school is one of the best solutions I’ve heard. We can’t wait till the people that are now confused, uneducated, and to resistant to change and seeing the true problem at hand.
I think that the problem here lies within our education system. It’s hard to blame individuals for being ignorant if they had no outlet to learn the truth about our past. I know that I never actually learned about the genocide. I had heard that the truth was very far from what we learned in school- but still, I never formally learned that genocide occurred. When I think about what I did learn in school about Native Americans, it seems very clear why the drawing of a person with a weapon and feather would have happened. I can’t imagine what it is like, being Native American, knowing that the genocide is ignored. It is not that people know, and are simply interested in talking about other things. It is that somehow most people in this country pretend that this never existed or have no idea it did, and believe that we did nothing wrong. I know that I find it unfathomable that there are people who have never heard of the Holocaust, or even worse, don’t believe it happened.
Because I am one of the people that graduated from a good high school, yet never learned about any of this, I think that children need to learn more about the history of our country, and what the Europeans did when they arrived. This being said, I don’t think children should be learning about genocide when they are 5 or 6 years old. There would be no point, and no sense of understanding, as a child that young simply doesn’t understand the concept of death. What children do understand is the concept of having something taken away from them, and the concept of wrong or right. So we can start by teaching children about our history with the idea that it was wrong- and that Europeans showed up in America and took what wasn’t theirs. There’s a start. Just because we don’t want to teach them about genocide at that age, doesn’t mean we should completely ignore the whole topic.
Also, as kids get older, and start to learn about wars and slavery, this genocide should not be a side note in a textbook. This topic doesn’t deserve any less attention than other events in our history. As someone in another video question on the blog said, this topic needs to be taught in a way that hits home, that people realize what it means- that people’s lives were taken, for their own land. It is a big step if we learn about the genocide happened- but we also need to work towards putting real meaning behind the word.
While education is not the only thing that needs to be done, I think it would be a great start. That way, there wouldn’t millions of people living in the US, like me, that were never taught about the true history of America.
I feel that since our parents and their parents have been born into America's society, we have all been lied to about our Country's beginning. Obviously Christopher Columbus didn't discover America, because there were people here already. I think that the education system has a lot to do with today's use of mind control. We are all taught the same, so that we can think the same, and then in the future make the same decisions. This I feel is the biggest conspiracy of all. We are much more victimized before we realize. Unfortunately, things the institutions like the education system and the media have drawn images in our heads of what things are "supposed" to look like. The young children wouldn't have known to draw a stick figure with a feather if it wasn't an idea already instilled in our heads that was backed by years of serious manipulation. In order to stop these iconic images from popping in our heads, when we hear words like Indian, will take incomprehensible amounts of energy. Who actually will stand behind this project till the end? I hate to say that I am a pessimist, but the days are starting to look gray. Bottom line, is we need to fess up to all of our evil, and face the truth about America. It is all a lie. Our whole country is built from the stealing of other people and then calling it our own. How awful! Everything is so intertwined it is unbelievable. It's such a hard project to unravel, because it begins right in the heart of our people. The truth hurts. I feel that the lying still continues today because it has been treated like something we just keep quiet about now, like it never happened. Education is the best way to teach our future leaders, but then you have to think about what would happened if we did change our education. Costs to re-write books would be immense. Basically, I think that people are afraid to face the truth about our country, and I think that we are more comfortable living a lie. Also, once the truth comes out I am sure there would be a new found struggle over power and greed. There could also possibly be a revolt, and in my opinion I feel a much needed one. It's hard to sleep at night knowing where are country comes from.
I think when most kid’s think of Indians they refer back to Thanksgiving and them sharing a meal with Pilgrims. They usually aren’t taught about the Trail of Tears or the forceful relocation till high school. When students read about what happened in textbooks it is usually sugar coated and not really as truthful as it should be. In movies Native Americans are usually portrayed as savages and always confronting whites.
I think the only thing we can do as a society to make up for what happened is educate students at a young age. Books can only go so far though. By showing them video clips or taking them to current reservations it might open their minds
It's hard at times to appreciate exactly how bad the popular image of native Americans is for me. I, like the kids the girl mentioned, grew up having heard Native Americans called Indians, and they were often characterized as having the feathers in the hair and being armed with a bow. I remember those times fondly, and it seemed so innocent back then. But now that I've gotten some more perspective on life, I can see the problem with how I used to view Natives. Besides the ignorant nature of the name "indian," it's wrong that their culture has been reduced to being militant savages. While I don't think it's a good idea to introduce to children the full story of the fate of the natives ( I don't think they'd handle the whole genocide thing well) the least we can do is give their culture the justice it deserves.
The difficult part with starting an early education on describing the Native American culture to little children is exactly how to portray them to younger children. For the longest time, Indians have been seen to children the same way that knights are, or a GI Joe, as a toy or almost fictional character. I know that most kids growing up played common games such as cowboy’s and Indians, or with little GI Joe’s, and for some reason despite the green coloring of these action figures, there was always a common idea that they were white. Maybe the reasoning behind this is because of certain movies like Pocahontas, and the Indian in the cupboard, where we have made not only the Indian people look smaller than white people, but also dependent on them as well. The white person was always the one helping the inferior culture and therefore whenever these children played these games, they wanted to be superior and therefore placed themselves among the white culture. Personally I think that certain figures such as Indians are something that is vital to a children’s production, so rather than try to teach children about Native Americans at an early age, maybe we should try to re examine our image of an Indian itself. Why is it that we can’t make Indians to be white as well as Native American, and we make Cowboys Native American as well as white? If we start to mesh all of the cultures into an idea that anybody can be anyone, than children would learn at a young age that we are all the same. This would hopefully establish a universal idea that there are no differences between us all, and that we all come from the same place. We would then be able to worry about the history and origin of how we came to become one America comprised of different cultures later in a child’s development. I found it very interesting to learn in class that based on someone’s racial background, the likelihood of helping out that individual was significantly greater if they were white. A step like this may hopefully enable children to be more willing to help out every culture because they would see from a start that we are all the same and have all worked together in the past under the same scenarios. This may also help out the job market for those of different ethnic backgrounds because growing up the children will see that we are all capable of doing the same work. Then again these are all hope and dreams, there is no telling what exactly will establish a commonality among cultures and a fairness within different cultures’ households.
The question of when to start educating kids about native Americans is actually pretty interesting. I personally think kids should start learning about the native Americans at an early age. Not necessarily about the horrible killings and bad things that happened but about the history of the land, how they survived, what they had to eat and drink and who these people really are instead of thinking of them as just an Indian with feathers and leather dresses. I think that it is really sad that kids today only have limited knowledge of the native American culture and what they do know comes from what they see on TV or in movies .
Learning about the native Americans for me started when I was in about 4th grade and it was just a very brief lesson that didn’t amount to anything because I remember very little from that class. Everything today focuses on local and state history more then on the history of our country and our land. Many kids associate Native Americans with Thanksgiving and pilgrims because that is basically all they know about them. It seems like the teachers when they do talk about the native American history like to focus on all the good and cheerful things like the pretty headdresses and dances that are associated with native Americans. Instead of telling kids about what really happened back then. Now I know kids shouldn’t learn about the really bad things at a young age but maybe focus alittle more in depth when kids are in middle school and into the early stages of high school.
The learning experience will be expanded for me over spring break I am planning on going on a mission trip to south Dakota to stay and work for a week on a native American reservation with the Lakota tribe. While here I will be rebuilding homes and buildings working with children doing things like tutoring and after school programs as well as food and clothing distribution. We will also be able to learn first hand about subjects like Sioux history,culture, health issues, social issues that are still around today . I will be doing all of this while learning more about the native Americans that are still living on the land. So as for me I am looking forward to learning more about the native Americans that I don’t know and what better place to learn from then the source.
Yeah I think we should start education on diversity and the correct language to use early. Maybe with more exposure to all the different kinds of people and the different nationalities out there in the world their would be less ingrown prejudice. Like when we are kids we learn what they think we can handle, but I've learned that kids are really very bright, they understand the differences in people and they probably would be fine with learning the language to use. It is important to show kids diversity young so they know what is going on and can open minded about the people in the world.
I think, as Professor Richards has said multiple times during class, that the first step we need to take towards raising Americans' awareness as a whole, is to acknowledge what we have done to Native Americans in the past. When it comes down to it, we did steal THEIR land. I guess growing up I never really looked at it in that way, nor did I ever stop and take a moment to think deeply about the movies/television shows I watched as a kid portraying the Plains-Indian Wars. I remember whenever I used to visit my grandma and grandpa as a kid, I used to always watch a movie called Son of the Morning Star. It was based on the battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand), and now that I take a different perspective while watching it, I realize that this country really does have a negative view towards Native Americans. It really baffles me as to how we have come to view Native Americans with such a negative stigma. What we need to do is issue a formal apology to these poor people. For over two-hundred years we've taken their lands, killed off their main sources of food, and overrun their land with factories and other sources of industry, leaving them with just a mere shadow of what their culture once was. All the while, we have allured them with false promises of gold, property, and equal opportunity. Oh yeah, and not to mention the millions and millions of innocent men, women, and children we have killed while doing so.
The most important thing we need to do if we're going to break this cycle of unfair treatment of Native Americans is to educate our youth early and often about their hardships. I feel as though when I was growing up, schooling almost glorified Indians versus Cowboys types of things. I mean, one of the most glorified rivalries in all of sports does just that with the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. How ironic I might add that our nation's capitol, the city of Washington D.C. so proudly cheers for the Redskins every football season. Back to my point, if we never let our children know what really happened to these poor people, genocide, then how will they be able to help them out any more than we have? Native Americans today are suffering all over the United States from poverty, alcoholism, and high suicide rates. The reservations in which Native Americans live on today try to continue the traditions of their ancestors, but with such a tough transition into our culture, their struggles remain. I feel as though something has to be done for the benefit of the Native Americans who grown up dealing with such struggles.
Before the lecture on Native Americans, I had no idea some of the information we talked about. First, I did not realize that the slaughter of Native Americans was the largest genocide in human history. I also had no idea that Native Americans had the highest suicide rates, highest drug and alcohol abuse rates, and lowest income rates. As I am during almost every lecture, I was shocked. In my school district we never discussed Native American history to its full extent. We typically learned that yeah, there were Native Americans living in North America when European settlers came over to America, and yeah they killed the Native Americans in order to acquire land and maintain their newly discovered land, and eventually white men made Native Americans move to reservations. We never discussed in detail all the violence and tragedy the Native Americans faced. I think that many American students are unaware of the extent of the struggles the Native Americans experienced. I think we definitely need to create awareness of the entire side of Native American history in students today. Students should start learning about Native Americans in early grade school, like many schools do already. However, I think that around fifth or sixth grade teachers should introduce the history of the Native Americans’ genocide and teachers should continue to teach about the history of Native Americans throughout the following years of grade school. A big aspect that teachers should talk about is where Native Americans are at today. Like I said before, I had no idea that the group had the highest suicide rates, lived in such poverty, and abused drugs and alcohol so much. I had no idea about this information due to what I learned in my history classes in high school. After discussing the movement of Native Americans to reservations, my school district pretty much ended teaching us about Native Americans and where and how they live today. In our discussion group, I stated that I really forget about Native Americans and that they still are around today. I do not think I have ever seen a Native American in my life. Schools definitely need to raise awareness about the history and current status of Native Americans today. Also in our discussion group, we talked about how professional sports teams use images and names of Native Americans in different ways. For example, the Washington Redskins were brought up in conversation. I learned that the term redskin was a highly derogatory term. I was not aware of this, I think, mainly because of my lack of knowledge about Native Americans. We talked about how some people are very upset by the fact that the United States uses images of Native Americans for teams and names teams after different native groups. Before our discussion, I experienced absolutely no feelings of anger or frustration when I saw images or heard names of sports teams named after Native Americans. Then, after our discussion, I realized that it is not right for us to keep images and names like that around. In conclusion, relating back to the video response, I think that people are okay with these icons and names because we lack the awareness. We NEED to start educating students about the continuing history of the Native American peoples.
I totally agree that we should change the way that children are taught about American Indians. Yes the education should be taught and this should be known. People really need to know the true history of what has happened in America. Ashamed of it or not. This is something that affects so many lives today and if people understood this at a very young age then possibly many more people would care about the treatment of American Indians. This is something that people should not forget about it is a part of history and should be taught to young Americans to better suited for the real world and learn more about the truth of American history.
I don’t think the government or school system will allow for the genocide of the Native Americans to be taught in schools. In school, we learn that they were here before us but we are only told that they died from diseases. We are never really told that there was a genocide that almost completely wiped out the entire Native American population. If we are told about how the Native Americans were transported over to reservations in handcuffs and on foot, it is only a brief sentence or two in a textbook. The government would not allow for it to be taught as a genocide that was committed so we could benefit from the “newfound land” because in doing so they’d be admitting that the United States of America is not the great country it’s perceived to be. Also, the American citizens may want to help the Native Americans once they understand how unfairly they are being treated and this may cause a revolution which is not something the government wants.
You know this really is a good question. I remember back in grade school and learning about how the "Indians" and the Pilgrims had their thanksgiving feast and such. And I never really learned the depth of anything that the settlers did to the Native Americans or how they were taking over their land. I guess I just assumed that they co-habited together and things were good for the Pilgrims and Native Americans. I know that a child will never be able to understand the true meaning behind a genocide or kicking people out of their homeland because they are so young and they don't exactly know how to relate to things, because thats how we learned when we were kids. Being able to apply things to what we already know and then learning new things and building off of them. I know that it would be good for children to know about how poorly people like them had treated the people who were here first, but you can't expect a child to know what to do or to even think about something like that until they are older so that they will actually learn and understand. Children don't know inequality or genocide or civil rights or anything they just know who is mean and pushed them on the play ground and which teachers are nice and gives them candy on fridays when school is out. The thing is it would be pointless to teach children something that even adults have a hard time understanding and I would never want to corrupt the mind of child like that. The point that I'm trying to make here is that even though we could teach children about how the Native Americans were really treated when the Pilgrims came over and settled their land would be informational but rather pointless. Children just need to know simple easy to understand things when they are young and until they can really grasp it. Genocide is something that people like to put behind themselves and try to ignore, and this is adults. Adults are old enough to understand the wrongs of this world and putting something like that into children is just cruel. Everyone will learn about it as they get older and if they don't they are ignorant about how the world really is. I say don't try to push something like that into schooling, its not fair. I don't know how I would have turned out if instead of learning about the thanksgiving feasts and recess I would have been taught about genocide and wars. Leave children with their innocence, they don't need to be burdened with the wrongs of this world just yet. give them their peace.
I think in addition to providing better education and teaching respect for Native Americans, our country as a whole needs to work on changing the way we portray them as a people. We do not have baseball teams and high school mascots named after different factions of any other race, so why Native Americans? Plastering cartoon images of once well respected Native American tribes all over sports paraphernalia teaches our society that they do not need to be taken seriously. By continuing to use these images that represent the little we know about Native Americans, we are adding to our country's ignorance and disrespect of the entire race.
I think it is definitely important to start education early. I do not mean to teach the kids about all the brutal murders and other horrible things done to the Native Americans, but to begin to teach against discrimination and the stereotypical ideas about other cultures. Obviously, people are becoming more aware of discrimination. Now instead of sitting "Indian style" in kindergarten, you sit "criss cross apple sauce." The teachers think that this is enough. In phrasing it in more of an appropriate way, I think the kids would take to the stories of the struggles that have happened on this land in the past. Even if we start with the basics, it will eventually lead to long-term understanding of what really happened.
I feel as if this situation and question is bigger than all of us. It will take a lot of education to help bring equality and justice to the Native Americans. We can educate children early on in school, but that will not happen until this reaches the national level. Politicians and other people of power would have to get involved in order to properly integrate this education into the school systems. However, we have to start somewhere no matter how small it is. We never want to see our own faults, and that is why Americans do not ever talk about the genocide that occurred here. Something I find interesting is that we call them Native Americans. So, in a sense, we do acknowledge that they are the original inhabitants of America. I just thought that was interesting to note.
The massacre that happened to the American Indians is one that cannot be ignored and should be addressed. The racism that still happens against Native Americans today stems from American’s general ignorance of their history and culture; and the best way to solve this issue is to start with education. I think this is a good point to make, that we should start with education, but I think the waters are murky in regards to choosing what age to start teaching the brutal truth of the situation.
Our culture is one full of censorship and tries to not pollute the minds of children. For example, some measures that have been taken like the “explicit content” label that appears on music that is supposed to advise parents to not allow their children to listen to that album/song. Also, there are many programs that parents can download onto their computer that prohibit anyone from visiting porn sites or other promiscuous websites. These two examples go to show that we do value censoring some information from children. However, it is difficult to decide at what age should the censors be lifted? This goes for anything, whether it be lifting the ban from promiscuous sites, revealing embarrassing family history, or the truths of racism.
With this in mind, I think the way the facts are presented to preschoolers should not be too different from the way they are presented now. I don’t think that 3 and 4 year olds can comprehend the enormity of the situation, but it would be acceptable to incorporate some truth when the history of the Pilgrims is taught. Like mentioning that there were people here first but the Pilgrims made them move away is reasonable. And once the history of the Pilgrims is taught more in depth that is when the honest and brutal truth should come out. My guess is that age is around 2nd or 3rd grade, I can’t quite remember when that particular part of history was discussed but that’s my best guess.
If we begin to teach the truth at an early age it would clear up any confusion about the history of the United States and hopefully encourage a more respectful attitude. I think different measure should be taken in the areas with a greater amount of American Indians, anti-racist measures I mean. Perhaps some sort of conflict resolution camps or classes. Whatever it may be, education is the most promising way to try and chip away at the racist block that exists. I realize this isn’t the answer, and that it will still exist even if new classes are implemented but it’s a start. As for those who aren’t decedents of American Indians or consider themselves one, I think it’s important to just understand the truth of the situation and respect the them.
Frankly I don't think it is possible to integrate the genocide of Native Americans into the public school system. Whether or not it is the right thing to do is moot, because I think that myself and many others would agree that educating and spreading the word is the "right" thing to do at an early age. American History, as taught in public school in America, is required to paint a picture of the mainstream view, because if it were otherwise, then the vision of genocide would be implanted in enough peoples' brains to cause a widespread dismissal of the traditional viewpoint (Manifest Destiny) of how America was created. Of course, this will never happen. This isn't even an issue of special interests in DC. I can honestly say that I thought I knew all the details but it turns out that I didn't know the half of it. I know that, to fit in to "our" (society's) collective view on things, the genocide is something to not mention. But if this is learned at a younger age, it would be more implanted into kids' brains that it was a horrible tragedy and they may not know better but to be vocal about it. So as long as people find out the truth later in life, the system can continue.
I thought the person in this video posed an excellent question. When exactly should we start educating students about Native Americans and what exactly happened to them? Also, how do we go about doing this? One reason I am particularly intrigued by this question is because I am an elementary education major. I started to wonder about this question myself while Sam was lecturing about Native Americans.
As a kid, I was taught that Christopher Columbus was some sort of hero. I was also taught that Thanksgiving was a feast celebrating the cooperation of the settlers and the Native Americans. Clearly, kids are misled. I did not even realize that the killing of Native Americans is the largest genocide of all time until this class. As I got into middle school and high school, I began to realize that we essentially stole the Native Americans' land and we killed many of them to take their land. However, I had no idea the killings were on such a large scale. In junior high school and high school, I felt like my history teachers would almost beat a dead horse when the topic of the holocaust came up. I realize that the holocaust was terrible, but a larger genocide occurred right here in our country, but no one seems to even bat an eye. It's as if history teachers ignore the topic all together, because America can do no wrong of course, but we are quick to point the finger at Germany and the Nazi party for the holocaust.
As far as when exactly we should start teaching children about the genocide of Native Americans, it is tough to say. To tell every detail to a kindergarten student may be a little overwhelming. I feel like the best way to tell children about the topic is to introduce it slowly. All you may want to tell a kindergarten child is that we stole land from the Native Americans. You can then discuss with the kids why taking something that does not belong to you is bad. As the kids become older, you can begin to give them more and more details on what really happened. It is also important not to lie to children. I feel angry now that I was misled as a child about this topic. I would say maybe third grade would be the proper time to go into detail with children about this topic. At that age, they are better able to comprehend the information you are sharing with them and really take it into perspective.
When I become a teacher, I fully intend on educating my kids on what really happened. To what degree I educate them depends on what grade it is I am teaching. I will make sure though that I will not lie to my students and I will not mislead them, as my teachers did to me as a kid.
I don’t think necessarily that teaching about the genocide to preschoolers is the best idea for the simple fact that I don’t believe that children of that age have the mental capacity to fully understand what genocide even is or how it affected this country or the native Americans. I do however think that it should be taught in schools. Most American history classes make little or no reference to these acts and the current struggles that face many Native Americans. I also feel that it would be a good thing for schools to teach about the different cultures of Native Americans even early in schools.
I think that children should be taught about Native Americans and about what happened to them. Because there is little known information about the Native Americans and they were the first people of the land. When in school we learn about Christopher Columbus and his journey but what about all the people that came before him. Learning there history is good for children so that they are not just oblivious to the Native American culture in general. Also Native American were the first Native people of the United States. Also, mostly everything that surrounds you everyday has something to do with Native Americans and people should be aware of that.
Education is one of the most important things when someone tries to change some phenomena, trend, social norms, etc. Nobody can stress enough how education is crucial especially young children learn about the world and how it goes.
When human beings are young, we tend to be vulnerable to every kind of information. We listen, we taste, we hear, and we see. By doing so, we learn what is wrong it what is right; we learn how we should think; we learn how to develop ideas. This is why teaching correctly and learning in a right way is so important.
In my opinion, schools and parents should start teaching their children about historical truths about Native Americans from their young age. When I was young, I used to think Native Americans were uncivilized people who wear feathers in their heads, bring stone-made weapons, and live in tents made in animal leathers. I used to sing “Ten Little Indians” in my pre-school. I did not know what was wrong about it when I was little, because that was what my teachers taught me.
Actually, even until I came to the U.S., I did not think about Native American discrimination issues that seriously. I thought blacks were the most discriminated people in the U.S. However, Sam’s lecture made me open my eyes again. Highest suicide rate? Highest poverty level? These are the real situation what Native Americans are facing until now. From the time when Europeans stole their Red Land, their territories to stand strong together also got stolen. Furthermore, wrong educational system is misleading many innocent children. As the girl said in the video, I am pretty sure that not many kids would understand what Native Americans are. I am sure that still many children would imagine red-faced people in feather head bands when they hear the term, “Indians.” Even Disney’s Peter Pan depicts Native Americans like that. When the situations are like these, what can our future generation learn? They will only get wrong images about Native Americans. As a consequence, future Native Americans generations will suffer from same problems that come from misunderstandings and discriminations.
In order to disconnect the chains of suffrage, the U.S. education system should be changed. We should not try hard to hide the facts; instead, we should teach our children to see the horrible truths, and how to see them in a clear way. Only in this way, they would feel for Native Americans more easily, and they would try to solve the sociological problems. I know it is getting better, but we should try harder to help Native Americans to get away from the shackles named discrimination by erasing the words selfishness and ignorance in our children’s minds.
I agree that it is important to learn more about the Native American history, and it’s sad that almost no one has heard about the greatest genocide on United States soil. However, I don’t believe there is room in the curriculum to teach the history of the Native Americans. There is so many things missing from our typical school curriculum that I really think should be added, but it would be impossible to implement all these things into a typical school year. This is what college is for. In college we are given the opportunity to design our own course schedules and learn about the “extra stuff” that didn’t make it into the basic curriculum that we have in grade school and high school. Overall though, I think the standard curriculum that we have in grade school and high school is very flawed. There are so many courses that I spent countless hours studying for, and in the end, I will never use that material ever again in my career. The fact that I am an aerospace engineering student, I really don’t think that it was beneficial to learn the anatomy of the human body, or the classical literature of William Shakespeare because I will never apply it in my professional career. In my opinion, as an engineering student, I think that I was ill prepared for college in terms of mathematics. I really think that I should have been taught more calculus at an earlier age so that I would be more efficient at it at this point in my life. There was so much emphasis on classes like vocabulary and art, and I will probably never use that stuff ever again. I would have rather spent that time being productive and learning about engineering principles like moments of inertia, or torque. As a whole, the United States education system should be redesign. Grade school and high school are teaching the future of America, very broad ideas, and it isn’t until college that we actually learn the important ideas and concepts that we will use for the rest of our lives. I realize it is difficult to know what you want to do in terms of a career, when you are still in grade school, and I can see why the current education system gives students a sample of every little thing just so they can discover what they might want to do, but I feel like a lot of our youth is spent learning useless thing. In the end, we specialize in one field, and we often forget a lot of what we learned in grade school. I don’t know how to fix the education system, but it definitely needs to be updated.
This is a very interesting issue that this girl has brought up. I am a firm believer in beginning education at a young age so children can begin the learning process early and develop their own ideas. However, depending on how the Native American issue is presented is how they will be taught to view the information. Currently there is very limited education about Native Americans provided to young grade school children. This is rightfully so because if you taught young children of the terrible happenings in the past they would probably become scared of the issue and not acknowledge it. That is why I think it would be appropriate in this specific case to start teaching the truths about Native American people in fifth grade and continue to have it expanded on until the end of schooling. This would at the very least get the idea out there and allow people to talk about it.
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The question presented is a very interesting one. When should we start education? Young kids don’t know who Native Americans are, but they know who Indians are. They hear Indians and draw a stereotypical person, with a feather. This is a huge problem. This problem stems from our parents and then just trickles down from generation to generation. In my previous discussion group we talked about having a similar class to soc119 a requirement. This way we could break this trend. We could all learn about racisms and stereotypes and break them.
However, we came up with many problems about this. There are some people that are set in their ways and taking a class like this would not change them. Especially people whose parents are also set in their ways, a class like this certainly would not change their opinions. Also, depending on what school you are attending, depends on your teachers. You may have a teacher who flips this type of class and does not do it in an effective way. The teacher is a key component to the class and not having an effective teacher could ruin the entire purpose of the class, getting rid of the stereotypes that we all hold against certain people.
Now more specifically I believe things about racism and stereotypes should be taught at a younger age than a college level class. When you get to college is when you see a large amount of stereotypes and racism. Therefore you need to learn about these things before going to college. Many times I believe it needs to be learned before going to high school as well. High school is when you do a large amount of your growing, as far as deciding your different beliefs.
Maybe it would be effective to have a class in seventh or eighth grade. This way you are exposed to all of these things before going into the world of high school and college where you experience all of this. This class could be very similar to the class we are all taking now. People should be free to openly talk about their thoughts and beliefs and begin to form their own beliefs, possibly ones aside from their parents. Because many times kids just take on their parent’s beliefs and run with them for the rest of their lives, they don’t even have the chance to form their own. This class could help them have a better understand the world around them and possibly encourage them to do their own part in changing these racisms.
As I said before however, this all must begin from our parents. Or maybe we need to be the ones to start it. We need to teach our children non racist beliefs. If we start taking these classes and then teach our children these things and they take the classes, it will eventually change from generation to generation. We need to act on this and educate everyone about it, it is the only way it can be changed.
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It is very interesting to hear this girl’s point of view. Looking back to when I was growing up, I had the same perspectives as the children mentioned. We watched movies and made hats out of construction paper with feathers on the back to look like “Indians.” Growing up as a boy scout and later becoming an eagle scout there was much emphasis put on Native Americans. On numerous occasions Native American topics are talked about and the order of the arrow is all about brotherhood under a certain tribe. Even with all this focus on them, not even in scouts do people focus enough on the genocide or the Native American aspect. There is a merit badge called Indian lore which all scouts must take with the requirements to give the history of one Indian tribe, make replica clothing of a certain Indian tribe, and much more. Nowhere does it say anything about Native Americans and after listening to this question it sparked my attention.
Even America sports team’s names have names like the Cleveland Indians or Washington Redskins. When in reality, it would be politically correct to use the name Cleveland Native Americans instead. I agree to an extent with the question at hand. I feel that many people need to be educated about this genocide of innocent Native Americans who owned the land. Now, I do not think 3 and 4 year olds should be taught directly about this mass killing at such a young of an age. Rather, teachers should begin calling them Native Americans instead of Indians. Young students would then have more of an idea about this culture as they become older. As students move up in grade levels, I think they should gain more knowledge on the terrible things that our ancestors did to the native people. I do not feel like this is our generations fault nor we should be blamed for what former Americans did so many years ago, but I think we need to respect the Native American culture. The fact of the matter is this is their land. Looking at the Dave Matthews song “Don’t Drink the Water”, I had no idea of the underlying message behind the song. Being an avid Dave fan and enjoying this song, I was unaware of what he was trying to get across. Dave sings about how we (as colonists) came in and killed Native Americans for the land and how their blood is in the water. The song’s message has a strong significance and I think people need to be more aware of this significance at a younger age. By starting with introducing young children to Native Americans instead of Indian and then all the way up to the full on message of what happened to these extraordinary people. In conclusion, I agree that in growing up we are raised learning information about Indians and our educational focus should be altered, but at the same time I challenge society to step back and realize that this is not our land. By educating correctly we may not be able to fix what happened but we can show respect by teaching their culture accurately.
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I find it interesting that our population frequently discusses the horrors of discrimination and racial inequality towards the black community, the holocaust that impacted the Jewish community and other inequities that we perceive were perpetrated against various minorities. We never hear about the inequities towards the American Indian population. Some weeks ago we agonized over whether a black man should be referred to as Negro, black, colored, dark skinned or African American. It is hard to ignore the impact of changing times on the perspective we have as to what is politically correct. That political correctness seems to have been ignored with regard to our indigenous Indian population. I question if we would even refer to this population as American Indians if it were not to distinguish them from the billion Indians of Asian descent that live on the other side of the globe.
The American Indian has gotten “bad press” and it is no wonder that young students identify this population with clichés from old “cowboy and Indian” movies. It is time for America to recognize the history and importance of the American Indian and moreover time for our Indian population to demand that they be included in the mainstream of American society.
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I think the lecture about Native Americans was inherently confusing. It seems like the message was that we should accept “blame” for something that happened before our time. Repeatedly, Sam reminded us that we are living on “red land” and as a result we should feel morally obligated to take into account the reality of the situation. Part of me agrees with this, while my other half cannot get over the logical flaw. The notion that modern day white people are to blame, or that anyone alive today is to blame, is wrong. Save a few instances, I have never had an encounter with a person of Native American descent and I certainly played no role in the decimation of the Native American culture. Having said that, it is obvious that the status of the average Native American in the United States is dramatically lower than the average white American and for this, I acknowledge a responsibility to respond to the terrible living conditions that exist.
The idea of the Americas belonging to Native Americans prior to European is true in one sense, but flawed in another. The world is constantly shifting and peoples move around the globe accordingly. While the arrival of Europeans significantly decimated the Native American population and culture, it was a semi-natural occurrence. Disease accounted for an overwhelming majority of the “genocide” that Sam describes in class. Nevertheless, the colonists and conquistadors deserve no commendations for their actions; their brutal treatment and general negligence was the nail in the coffin of the Native American culture. Yet, what they did was no different than what the Vikings did to Northern Europe mark or what Alexander the Great did to Asia. It would be ridiculous to suggest that everyone in Sweden be “blamed” for the problems of Denmark and Germany, but this is exactly what is expected of white America. I bring this up because Sam’s main pet peeve is hypocrisy and this seems like fertile ground for it.
My reason for disagreeing stems for the usage of the term “blame”. In a sense, it’s degrading. It suggests that the only way for white people to act is to blame them for something. A more persuasive effort would be to appeal to the humanity of white people. It should be expected of anyone living in the United States that if an entire demographic of people is being oppressed so severely than something should be done. By “blaming” white people, you only ostracize them and lower the odds that they will join you. I understand the message Sam wants us to take away from the lecture: Modern day Native Americans are incredibly oppressed as a result of the unending encroachment of my ancestors on their land; that we have a responsibility to assist these people. My point of contention is only that he insists we are to blame, when in reality, history is to blame.
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I have noticed that I have never learned about the genocide of Native Americans to the extent that Sam has been lecturing. I feel like it would be a good idea to start the education a little bit earlier since we do cover slavery and segregation throughout school but a lot of the issue is that we are not completely sure to the extent of what happened. The one thing that makes me angry about Sam’s lecture is how he always claims that we are standing on red land. I understand that but honestly, what can we do about it now?
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I think this was a really interesting video clip. It brought up a really interesting point about the image of Native Americans. The images we hold for any group of people is taught to us when we are younger. We were taught in kindergarten that Native Americans were Indians and we learned that Indians are fighters and killers. I thought it was really cool how the teacher went into the classroom to see how the kindergarteners viewed Native Americans. To have them not even recall the name was not surprising. I feel like when we were young, Native Americans was a term never really used or inscribed into our brains. We would connect the image of feathers and bow-and-arrows to the term Indian. All I remember being taught about Indians is that they fought against the cowboys back in the day. I never learned about any genocide or fighting. Maybe this is just bad memory but you would think that if this was something so big for our country, education would be more in-depth on the topic. At that young age we learned about slavery and inequality of blacks versus whites in America, and that information stayed with all of us. But the topic of Native Americans founding North America and the Europeans coming over and killing them for the land was never touched upon. I grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey, one of the wealthiest counties in the country. We have never talked about or learned about Native Americans and the fact that they are in such poverty. This class was the first time I ever learned or heard about these issues. Our high school is Pascack Valley and our school mascot is an Indian. I think my junior year in high school, there was talk about changing the mascot, saying that it was disrespectful to the Native Americans to use their old, violent past as our fighting symbol. To be honest, I did not agree because I did not understand why they were trying to change it. I understood that Native Americans could be offended by this violent image being portrayed I just did not understand why it was such a big deal since that was really how they used to be. I didn’t think it was a problem because it was history and truth this image, not some made up idea of how Native Americans used to be. After this class, and seeing the pictures and images of Native Americans now and the poverty they live in, I can kind of understand more where they are coming from. It is more disrespectful now because, they are not warriors or fighters anymore, nor would they have the money to fight or revolt even if they wanted to fight. They have no means of defending their once owned land and it is sad. We are all responsible for taking their land from them and putting them in their poverty conditions. I think education earlier just like slavery is taught and drilled, is essential. The events of the Native Americans is a huge genocide and huge part of our country that needs be to taught like the rest of our history.
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The question that is posed is what age or how early should our young be educated about Native Americans? The issue here is that in a study of some sort when little kids were asked to draw a picture of a Native American they couldn’t but when they were asked to draw a picture or an Indian they drew a picture of a person with primitive weapons. Yes, admittedly this shows ignorance on behalf of the kids, but they are just kids! I don’t disagree that somewhere down the line these kids need to be educated about who Native Americans are and need to learn about their culture but I don’t believe this case shows anything. At a young age there are more important things to learn about than the politically correct way to draw and discuss Native Americans, such as the alphabet, the English language, and becoming potty trained. The truth is learning about the political correctness of Native Americans takes a distant back seat to many other things and shouldn’t need to be addressed until high school or late middle school at the earliest.
Apparently the education system is doing a fine job educating about Native Americans because in the large sociology class when Sam mentions Native Americans no one raised his or her hand and said, “You mean those people in Teepees with spears?” I understand Native Americans have not had it well with regards to treatment by general modern Americans, and they also suffered the largest genocide ever at the hands of those same Americans, but with regards to education…so what?
It may be harsh to say but learning about Native Americans is not all too important in most people’s lives. I understand Sam wants everyone to acknowledge the hardships felt by the genocide of the Native Americans so that we can start making things right but I don’t think this needs to start at an early age, if it has to start at all. I come from the mindset that in battle and wars to the winner goes the spoil. It is tragic what happened to the Native Americans by our great great grandfathers, but I cannot agree that I am at all responsible for their actions. As a Jew, I do not blame modern Germans for the crimes of their elders, and I certainly don’t demand reparations for those crimes.
I too would appreciate the acknowledgement of the travesties which occurred during the Holocaust, and that is all. I do not demand that young German students in school learn about Jews when they are two or three or ten, but at some point in their learning have the issues of the past brought up. I think the same stance should be applied for the Native Americans. As long as at some time during schooling students are educated about Native Americans and the issues concerning them I am perfectly content. Not only this, but by learning about the issues and genocide of the Native Americans, I truly feel that the government has done its job in making-up for the crimes of its past (as best they possibly can or should).
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This is a really good question. I really do believe that we as a nation need to, take steps, in making kids more aware of the diverse cultrul. Growing up in Middle school and Elementary school, I realized that people around me were different. Some of these people were my friends, and knowing that they were from a different ethnicity, I never brought up the question, of where they were from. Some were along the line, we need to give the kids a good understanding, of what it means to be from different backrounds. Along with teaching them of the different ethnic groups, we also need to start this process at a relitevly young age maybe not three or four, but probably somewhere around third and fourth grade. I think teaching kids any younger than third grade, would not have any effect, and would not grasp the concept as well as a third or forth grader would. One reason why we should start at a young age, is because the sooner and better they understand, the less awkward it is going to be starting a conversation with them. I noticed throughout Middle school, that people clung to others that had the same characteristics as them. All the African-Americans, Asians, whites, and Latin Americans all divided up into their groups. Although this was just the majority, their would be different friend groups of all sorts of ethnicitys. For the major part of it though, someones best friend was the one that resembled them. Another reason why we should start at a young age is because racial comments might be made, but the third or forth grader did not know what he did wrong. Throughout school some people would always be picked on and it just wasnt the Blacks and Latinos it was everyone. I could defintely see a forth grader, making fun of an Asian and their eyes, and the forth grader has no idea what he really meant. He might as well of said the F-Bomb, in the middle of the school. To avoid such conflicts, they need to know that people are different, and the reasons why. Blacks needed dark skin to adapt to the hot sun and the Asains needed to adapt the the constant wind blowing sand all over the place. The only thing that would be how far to you go into the topic. For a forth grader some things are a little to much, for them to understand the bigger picture. The minimum information they should know, are people come from different backrounds for different purposes and that you should not make fun of them for being different. My question would have to be would this be suffectient or should they know more?
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I think that it is imperative that the perception of Native Americans change and it is easiest to change the view people have at a young age before too many of the old perceptions are ingrained in their minds. While I am not suggesting the preschoolers know of the gritty atrocities and genocides the Native Americans experienced I think it is time that children learn more about Native Americans. They are not simply tomahawk wielding, feather adorned warriors but much more. I would like children in elementary schools to understand the many roles Native Americans played and continue to play as well as, at an appropriate age, the terrible circumstances and discrimination they have and continue to face.
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this actually is not the first time that this question has presented me. my sister is a pre-school teacher in North Carolina and she was presented in a situation in which she didn’t really know how to respond. during thanksgiving she was teaching her class about the native americans. she thought long and hard about what to say to her class, she had her lesson planned, and she said when it actually came time to talk about it, she changed her mind on what to says. she started the class with talking about the trail of tears. she knew that these kids, being 3-5, had never really learned about what happened. she told them that people from Europe came over and didn’t like the Native Americans because they looked and acted different. she told them that the European settlers made the native americans leave and that the ones that they didn’t kill they spread extreme sickness throughout the land. so that she could get the kids involved and get them to start thinking about it in the right way she asked if the kids thought this was fair. all the kids said that it wasn’t fair and that we treated them horribly. she asked them what she thought we should have done about it. the kids said that they thought we should have let them stay and learned from them and became friends. one kid actually said that they should learn from eachother and accept eachother even though their different. after the class, my sister was really scared that a parent might get upset about what she taught the kids in class. she knew that this kind of thing wasn’t really taught in school, especially at such a young age. a couple of days later, my sister received an email from one of the mothers from her class. she was hesitant to open it, but when she did she was pleasantly surprised. the email said that the mother was so so happy that she had actually taught them what really happened all those years ago. she thought it was great that my sister was teaching them such valuable lessons so early on. she thanked my sister and my sister was glad that she taught them what she did. I guess the point is that we should not only educate our children about this, but we should start doing it early in their lives. right off the bat the kids knew that what Jessica was telling them wasn’t right, and they leanred that we should accept eachother for our differences.
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Education is the key to knowledge. The more that we know about what actually happened, the more people will realize the seriousness of it. We all learn about 'Indians' in elementary school, in fact my mother teaches 4th grade and they are covering Native Americans in their history lessons right now. I think that I knew more then about tribes, lifestyles, territories, etc. then than I do now. Why do we not keep learning about our countries original people? We even say that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America. The absurdity of that statement cannot be reiterated. Did 'America' not exist before European colonization? It is bullshit, and we continue to teach it. The only people to 'discover' America were the people who crossed the Bering Strait millions of years ago. I think we do not teach it for a number of reasons. We are embarrassed of our history. How could the 'great settlers' that came on the Mayflower and whatnot have been the instigators of the greatest genocide in human history? We also teach the greats of European conquest without mentioning anything of American Indians. Greece and Rome were great, but what was going on here, on 'our land' in the first year AD? I have always wanted to know questions to these answers but I have never gotten them. We need to acknowledge this genocide first and foremost. We do not exactly have a rich history (i.e. slavery), so why not admit that we made some huge mistakes and educate our youth on how they can make this a better world. It comes down to pride. Imagining teaching a room of 8 year old kids that their ancestors killed millions of people. I remember most of the kids being on the side of the Indian-they were resourceful, they had interesting spiritual beliefs, and they dressed so damn cool. Maybe we do not want to lose loyalty at such a young age. It is better to have a bunch of kids believe that this is the greatest country in the world, the country that Columbus discovered.
Our education system needs a complete overhaul anyway if we wish to compete in the growing global market, so why not teach the facts at a young age? We screwed up, Americans are not perfect and we need to start teaching our flaws as well as our accomplishments. We should include the true history of America and Native Americans alongside any other history throughout elementary school and high school. It is the history of our country and our ancestors, so why deny it? This is a change that needs to be implemented as soon as possible to combat the ignorance surrounding this issue. It is our responsibility to acknowledge what we have done.
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I think we should start educating young kids about the struggles of the Native American population. Perhaps initially, for very young children in pre-school and kindergarten, we not go into so much detail because it may scare them. However it is important that we address the fact that there were many hardships that they had to go through and overcome. As kids get older they should learn more and more about all of the things the Native Americans have gone through to help build support for the population and break stereotypes. I think there are important lesions that can be learned, and these lessons can help make Americans better people overall. I think we should address the wrongs of the United States, and as a country help to improve the situation the Native Americans are in now. If conditions improve, and poverty is not such an issue, we can teach kids that the United States realized that they were doing something wrong but are doing things to make up for these wrongs. Also, building more support and sympathy for the Native American populations still living in the United States would probably help implement polices to improve their conditions.
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This is an excellent question, and one that definitely needs to be answered if we expect the youth of our nation to come to understand the seriousness of the genocide that happened in our nation's history. The term "Indian" is a term that has come to mean many things in our society today, even though it shouldn't. Not only does it mean a person from India, but it has come to mean Native American. The stereotype that exists for Native American's is absolutely absurd. The fact that preschoolers realize this stereotype exists and fall for it is a truly scary thought, and one that needs to be addressed if we expect things to change anytime soon. It's apparent that from an early age, the American youth is taught that Indian is a term that refers to Native Americans, or anyone who builds a tee-pee and walks around with a weapon in their hands.
Indian is a term that should literally just mean a person whose ancestors came from India. With the ubiquitous moral problems that exist in our culture today, we need to focus on teaching our children the importance of straying away from these negative stereotypes. It's extremely difficult to change a grownup's point of view about a particular moral issue in our society today, so we cannot wait until our children grow up with these negative views before we do something about it. We need to teach our children from an early age to ignore these stereotypes, and make sure they are well-educated when it comes to racial differences, to prevent something like what happened in this preschool from happening again. It's truly sad that so many children had no clue what a Native American was, when it is their territory that they were standing on. Furthermore, the fact that they associated the term "Indian" to a person with nothing but a feather on his head and a weapon in his hand is terrifying.
Our first step in dealing with the genocide that occurred in our country's past is to acknowledge it, rather than ignoring it. As I mentioned previously, the only way to change our society for the better is with our youth. We, of course, need to be the individuals that initiate this change, but we need to instill proper moral values into the eyes of our youth, so that when they grow older and have kids, it will be passed on to future generations, until eventually these negative stereotypes are wiped out of our community. The change does not need to be something drastic, it just involves changing our opinions about how to deal with our children, and we need to realize that we need to take the first step in teaching American youth the proper way to look at our past, rather than ignoring the parts that make us feel guilty.
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I think this is a great question. I agree that we need to teach young kids all about the truth of Native Americans. Whether or not this will leave America with no soul as Sam Richards says, it doesn't matter, the truth needs to be taught.
I remember learning about Native Americans ind fifth grade, and I think that was the first time I really learned about them. My parents may have given me a brief explanation, but that was the extent of my knowledge. In my class I remember we learned about five different tribes of Native Americans. We learned about different the various types of houses, the different staple foods, the geography of the land, but they seemed to leave out the fact that the Europeans genocided and displaced basically the entire race of them. It seems that the curriculum brushed over the brutal murder of men women and children. The argument could possibly be made that little children shouldn't be learning about genocides in elementary schools. 1. They mostly likely see and commit countless murders on television and video games respectively. 2. As Sam Richards essentially stated in class, by ommitting information, we are thus lying about it. I think he said it like "by our inaction, we are allowing the violence to continue." I agree, and by singing songs like "This land is our land." and the "Land of the brave" we are indoctrinating the children to forget about Native Americans. I was definitely socially conditioned in this way. I really didn't learn about the extensive genocide and atrocities committed towards Native Americans until my senior year of high school. Did I learn this in my U.S. History class? Nope. I read a book called The Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. It explains how our history classes gloss over Native Americans, and often outright distort information. In order to trick kids into believing that the U.S. has a soul, our education system glorifies everything we do, save slavery, because we got over it, but the Native Americans go unnoticed. We should teach our children the truth from a young age. Peace
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It is hard to say what would work best to get the message out there about what has happened to Native Americans in the past. It is not surprising to hear what the students drew a picture of when asked to draw and Indian because schools don’t educate their students enough at an early age. I remember the first time I truly learned about the struggles of Native Americans was in eight grade, at the age of twelve. Twelve is entirely too old to just begin learning about what has happened in our past. Schools should definitely begin teaching lessons at an early time to educate their students. Starting in elementary school and briefly covering topics to at least familiarize students could work, but the material covered may be too intense to teach young children. It is a very difficult question to answer and I would hope that somebody could formulate a more concrete procedure to integrating the studies into a school curriculum.
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For starters, being an elementary education major I feel as if this question and topic for discussion really hits home with me since I am studying what children should and should not be learning. This question and the general topic of this questions I feel is way to critical and deep for any pre-school student. I do not think that at the age of three and four years of age children will understand these topics. Also at this age they are learning the simple things and trying to remember them so with this extra information I do not believe it would be retained anyway.
I definitely do believe this is a valid question to bring up though because students do need to learn about these sorts of things. Another question is when are the students at an appropriate age to be discussing these sorts of topics? I feel that even though pre-school aged students are too young, I do feel as if in kindergarten they can learn the terminology of Native Americans. From a personal experience I babysat a kindergartner that attended a Montessori school in which she learned about various cultures, each month would be a different culture. I thought this was a great idea because she learned so much information in a fun and exciting way and was still able to recall the knowledge after her kindergarten graduation. I feel she will keep that knowledge with her since she had learned in a fun way by using songs, games, other activities and then incorporating all that knowledge into the graduation itself. So bringing up the terminology and how they live and other things a long those lines I feel can be started at a young age.
Yet talking about genocides is a totally different subject matter. I do not feel as if it would be appropriate to discuss this topic with such young students nor would I feel comfortable teaching to such young students it since genocides are such horrible events. I personally do not think I would not discuss genocides until at least upper elementary levels, maybe around sixth grade at the earliest, and still then I am not sure if that is the right age. I believe maybe toward middle school students, around seventh, or eighth grade can have a better understanding on what genocides are and how they have affected the world. This is definitely a topic that needs to be discussed its just a matter of when is the right time.
Overall the discussion of who Native Americans are, is of great importance and should be taught at young ages so they can become aware. Yet just wait until later aged students to discuss problems that have occurred and are occurring with those people and areas of living.
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My reason for disagreeing stems for the usage of the term “blame”. In a sense, it’s degrading. It suggests that the only way for white people to act is to blame them for something. A more persuasive effort would be to appeal to the humanity of white people. It should be expected of anyone living in the United States that if an entire demographic of people is being oppressed so severely than something should be done. By “blaming” white people, you only ostracize them and lower the odds that they will join you. I understand the message Sam wants us to take away from the lecture: Modern day Native Americans are incredibly oppressed as a result of the unending encroachment of my ancestors on their land; that we have a responsibility to assist these people. My point of contention is only that he insists we are to blame, when in reality, history is to blame.
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I definitely think that we need to better educate children about Native Americans. In elementary school children learn about Columbus discovering America and about the pilgrims and the Indians sitting down and having Thanksgiving dinner together and everyone is happy. They don’t learn the truth, they don’t learn about the genocide. No, maybe it won’t fix the problem, but awareness could be the first step. Last year my friends and I decided to road trip across the country to the Rose Bowl. It was an extremely eye opening experience for me. When driving through parts of Arizona and Nevada we passed dozens of Native American villages. The people were living in run down shacks often with a single cow and rusted out pickup truck sitting out front. I have literally never seen anything like it; I was both fascinated and horrified. We passed tiny roadside stands with hand painted signs that were probably the only income for the village. Unfortunately, we were on a road in the middle of nowhere that didn’t get much traffic so the stand probably received little to no business. We drove for miles before finding a gas station owned by Native Americans. It was the only sign of modern technology that we saw anywhere, including the only flushing toilet. Most of the villages had green plastic porter johns sitting off to the side of them. At 20 years old I had was introduced to an entire world that I never knew existed. I can’t believe how naïve I was. When I thought of Native American reservations I always pictured people living in teepees and having pow wows around the campfire, but there were no teepees and no campfires, only falling down shacks. Why, in elementary school do we read stories and draw pictures of “Indians” living in teepees when it isn’t the reality. We are educated to think that these people are happy. They aren’t happy, they are suffering. I don’t know what we can do about it, but I think that for a start the American people at least need to know about it. A sociology class my junior year of college should NOT be the first time that I am learned about this. It’s like the American people are in denial. They act as if they ignore it and don’t teach kids about it, it will go away. They act like it never happened, but it did happen and it’s not going away. Those people and those villages of shacks that I saw in Arizona are not going to go away no matter how much we ignore them. The American people need to step up and accept the reality about Native Americans, and one way to do that is to teach our kids about it.
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YES, education needs to be started early and frankly, I think the whole fairytale of Christopher Columbus should be put to rest. These kids are learning that Columbus came to America and had peaceful relations with the Native American people, while “helping” them become civilized. It scares me to think that people still actually believe this is true. The real story: Good old Christopher Columbus came to America bringing viral diseases and STDs during the Columbian Exchange, and forcefully removed the Native Americans from their land later on. This peaceful, thanksgiving meal garbage should be erased from our history books because it’s teaching only one side. “Indian” is only understood by kids as these indigenous people, with, like the girl said, a weapon and a feather. I was helping in a kindergarten class over Thanksgiving vacation and what do I see when I walk in? Little pictures drawn of “Indians” with axes, adorned with feathers, and no smile—while the pilgrim next to the Native American had nice clothes, food, and a smiled. Education is paramount in the decrease of ignorance—which many people have until high school or later—when they finally learn the truth about the inconsiderate jerk formerly known as Christopher Columbus.
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I think that this girl brings up a great point. When should we start the education of what has happened to Native Americans? I mean, I knew that it happened to some extent before this class, but I really didn’t think about it that much until it came up in here. I knew very little about it. I don’t think the education of the genocide can start at the grade school level, but we can definitely start with more facts about Native Americans in grade school and work up to the genocide that occurred at the high school level. Right now, it is easier to simply avoid the topic, but we need to start educating at an earlier age.
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Why shouldn't we teach third and fourth graders the truth about what this country has done to Native Americans? Because it might put a downer on their Thanksgiving? Its not Santa Claus, it's real life. Maybe if kids grew up realizing the truth about what happened a couple of them might really try to help some people. Teaching kids anything else is just wrong. I said before that when I was a kid Native Americans were portrayed as hostiles impeding the progress of dedicated hard working settlers who were just trying to make a better life for themselves. And they were godless in the eyes of white people, so I guess that means they didn't deserve the land anyway!
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In response to, “what should we do as a nation to educate people about the genocide of Native Americans,” I think we definitely should educate at an early age. In the example that she provided, the four year olds didn’t know the correlation between an Indian and a Native American. Even though they did know what an Indian, they didn’t completely understand the complexity of what it is to be an Indian besides the physical dress. One reason that the children thought of a weapon and a feather when they thought of an Indian could be because of the movies and pop culture they’ve come across even in their four short years of life. Movies like Pocahontas would portray this picture and the movie never mentions Indians as Native Americans.
Also, the education system as a whole should introduce Native American history into learning. I know that I personally was never exposed to any education about Native Americans and before this class, I had no idea how bad their situations were and that they really even existed. I’m sure that this information is not integrated into the education system simply because American’s are not proud of this fact of their history. As Americans, we are proud of our freedom and yet we unjustly put Native Americans into a life of persecution and poverty. I think that by learning early on, in elementary school as well as continuing this education into middle and high school would be very beneficial to the education of the nation.
By educating people at an early age, we will grow up with this knowledge and be more inclined to want to help eradicate this injustice. I feel that if I knew about this at an earlier age, I would be more active in awareness and advocating against the plight of the Native Americans. Even thought it was my ancestors who did these horrible things and put the Native Americans into their sad situation today, I would not want to have a part in it. I would want to help them in any way I could and because I haven’t learned much about this, I feel like anything that I do now would be null and void. How can I, as an uneducated individual on Native American history or culture, be any help to them? Because of that, I doubt I’ll do anything but speak about it to my friends and possibly even research it if I have time because it has sparked a brief interest in me to learn more and become more educated on this topic that no one else ever took the time to educate me about. I have really enjoyed learning about this in class as of late, and I’m very appreciative to Sam for opening my mind and sparking an interest within me on this topic.
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I agree with her, I think they should start in pre-school. At the same time, they should also educate the elderly, the reason why is because children look up to their parents and if their parents portray Native Americans as violent “Indians” so will their child, this is not rocket science. Education is not only in school, children learn from everywhere and everything, and when you’re wrong you believe almost everything that you’ve been told. So if they person or object they rely on the most keeps teaching them something other than the truth, that is what they will learn. This education has to involve everything that surrounds a child to be effective, even the media.
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I definitely agree that the education about the truth about Native Americans should start at a much younger age. While teachers do not have to go into such harsh details about killings and such, it should be known that the Native Americans suffered tremendously because we wanted their land, and young students should be aware of this. I think if elementary school students knew about the Native American’s struggle, then they will grow up having more appreciation for them, and not having a false perception about their lives. So hopefully school systems can start implementing more Native American units into their school years so that the students have a full appreciation for them as they grow up.
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I think that she has completely good point, I know someone else who asked me if ‘its so important to educate and take action, when should we start? I think that creating a different image and telling the truth about Native Americans young is a very good and important step forward. By creating the image that Native Americans are just people with a feather and a weapon, isn’t the right way to go. It's a distant image of the past.
It wouldn’t make sense to continue to raising and teaching children all the things that we learned. And then attempting to reconstruct and change the image that was pushed into their head ever since they were children, that wouldn’t stop the problem at the root. The new generation has to be different from the past or else this cycle will continue. Also, the more time that passes by the more uneducated generations are going to feel more distant and that they don’t have any responsibility to help. Everyone, that has ever, or will ever step foot in the United States and reeks any sort of benefit whether it be a location where their house is, get a job, stay in a hotel, go to school, etc. the entire civilization (I don’t know if civilization is the correct word but, even so) known as the United States was built upon the land and blood of the Native Americans and they didn’t receive any justice or true equality even after being the last to be able to be officially called “American.”
We owe them support and understanding, those who are just visiting for as international students, are getting something by being here, and that is something a Native American should have been entitled to a long time ago, therefore you still at least, at the very least should educate yourself on what happened, if you do nothing else. Knowing what happened isn’t about feeling guilty. Also, it’s not about being responsible for parent’s mistakes; your personal ancestry is totally irrelevant.
On another not, I’m honestly, completely shocked and alarmed at how many people don't feel like they have a responsibility to Native Americans. Responsibility does not equal blame; go get a fucking dictionary. Accepting the responsibility means, that we should take the time to help each other.
If they were beaten up and robbed, and everyone around them were using the money in their wallet and using their stuff right in front of their face; all the while everyone is pretending it happened, but it wasn’t so bad, and the fact that they are poor now has nothing to do with. I think they would have a problem with that.
And the idea of starting the education process with children and then continuing throughout their years in school is one of the best solutions I’ve heard. We can’t wait till the people that are now confused, uneducated, and to resistant to change and seeing the true problem at hand.
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I think that the problem here lies within our education system. It’s hard to blame individuals for being ignorant if they had no outlet to learn the truth about our past. I know that I never actually learned about the genocide. I had heard that the truth was very far from what we learned in school- but still, I never formally learned that genocide occurred. When I think about what I did learn in school about Native Americans, it seems very clear why the drawing of a person with a weapon and feather would have happened. I can’t imagine what it is like, being Native American, knowing that the genocide is ignored. It is not that people know, and are simply interested in talking about other things. It is that somehow most people in this country pretend that this never existed or have no idea it did, and believe that we did nothing wrong. I know that I find it unfathomable that there are people who have never heard of the Holocaust, or even worse, don’t believe it happened.
Because I am one of the people that graduated from a good high school, yet never learned about any of this, I think that children need to learn more about the history of our country, and what the Europeans did when they arrived. This being said, I don’t think children should be learning about genocide when they are 5 or 6 years old. There would be no point, and no sense of understanding, as a child that young simply doesn’t understand the concept of death. What children do understand is the concept of having something taken away from them, and the concept of wrong or right. So we can start by teaching children about our history with the idea that it was wrong- and that Europeans showed up in America and took what wasn’t theirs. There’s a start. Just because we don’t want to teach them about genocide at that age, doesn’t mean we should completely ignore the whole topic.
Also, as kids get older, and start to learn about wars and slavery, this genocide should not be a side note in a textbook. This topic doesn’t deserve any less attention than other events in our history. As someone in another video question on the blog said, this topic needs to be taught in a way that hits home, that people realize what it means- that people’s lives were taken, for their own land. It is a big step if we learn about the genocide happened- but we also need to work towards putting real meaning behind the word.
While education is not the only thing that needs to be done, I think it would be a great start. That way, there wouldn’t millions of people living in the US, like me, that were never taught about the true history of America.
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I feel that since our parents and their parents have been born into America's society, we have all been lied to about our Country's beginning. Obviously Christopher Columbus didn't discover America, because there were people here already. I think that the education system has a lot to do with today's use of mind control. We are all taught the same, so that we can think the same, and then in the future make the same decisions. This I feel is the biggest conspiracy of all. We are much more victimized before we realize. Unfortunately, things the institutions like the education system and the media have drawn images in our heads of what things are "supposed" to look like. The young children wouldn't have known to draw a stick figure with a feather if it wasn't an idea already instilled in our heads that was backed by years of serious manipulation. In order to stop these iconic images from popping in our heads, when we hear words like Indian, will take incomprehensible amounts of energy. Who actually will stand behind this project till the end? I hate to say that I am a pessimist, but the days are starting to look gray. Bottom line, is we need to fess up to all of our evil, and face the truth about America. It is all a lie. Our whole country is built from the stealing of other people and then calling it our own. How awful! Everything is so intertwined it is unbelievable. It's such a hard project to unravel, because it begins right in the heart of our people. The truth hurts. I feel that the lying still continues today because it has been treated like something we just keep quiet about now, like it never happened. Education is the best way to teach our future leaders, but then you have to think about what would happened if we did change our education. Costs to re-write books would be immense. Basically, I think that people are afraid to face the truth about our country, and I think that we are more comfortable living a lie. Also, once the truth comes out I am sure there would be a new found struggle over power and greed. There could also possibly be a revolt, and in my opinion I feel a much needed one. It's hard to sleep at night knowing where are country comes from.
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I think when most kid’s think of Indians they refer back to Thanksgiving and them sharing a meal with Pilgrims. They usually aren’t taught about the Trail of Tears or the forceful relocation till high school. When students read about what happened in textbooks it is usually sugar coated and not really as truthful as it should be. In movies Native Americans are usually portrayed as savages and always confronting whites.
I think the only thing we can do as a society to make up for what happened is educate students at a young age. Books can only go so far though. By showing them video clips or taking them to current reservations it might open their minds
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It's hard at times to appreciate exactly how bad the popular image of native Americans is for me. I, like the kids the girl mentioned, grew up having heard Native Americans called Indians, and they were often characterized as having the feathers in the hair and being armed with a bow. I remember those times fondly, and it seemed so innocent back then. But now that I've gotten some more perspective on life, I can see the problem with how I used to view Natives. Besides the ignorant nature of the name "indian," it's wrong that their culture has been reduced to being militant savages. While I don't think it's a good idea to introduce to children the full story of the fate of the natives ( I don't think they'd handle the whole genocide thing well) the least we can do is give their culture the justice it deserves.
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The difficult part with starting an early education on describing the Native American culture to little children is exactly how to portray them to younger children. For the longest time, Indians have been seen to children the same way that knights are, or a GI Joe, as a toy or almost fictional character. I know that most kids growing up played common games such as cowboy’s and Indians, or with little GI Joe’s, and for some reason despite the green coloring of these action figures, there was always a common idea that they were white. Maybe the reasoning behind this is because of certain movies like Pocahontas, and the Indian in the cupboard, where we have made not only the Indian people look smaller than white people, but also dependent on them as well. The white person was always the one helping the inferior culture and therefore whenever these children played these games, they wanted to be superior and therefore placed themselves among the white culture. Personally I think that certain figures such as Indians are something that is vital to a children’s production, so rather than try to teach children about Native Americans at an early age, maybe we should try to re examine our image of an Indian itself. Why is it that we can’t make Indians to be white as well as Native American, and we make Cowboys Native American as well as white? If we start to mesh all of the cultures into an idea that anybody can be anyone, than children would learn at a young age that we are all the same. This would hopefully establish a universal idea that there are no differences between us all, and that we all come from the same place. We would then be able to worry about the history and origin of how we came to become one America comprised of different cultures later in a child’s development. I found it very interesting to learn in class that based on someone’s racial background, the likelihood of helping out that individual was significantly greater if they were white. A step like this may hopefully enable children to be more willing to help out every culture because they would see from a start that we are all the same and have all worked together in the past under the same scenarios. This may also help out the job market for those of different ethnic backgrounds because growing up the children will see that we are all capable of doing the same work. Then again these are all hope and dreams, there is no telling what exactly will establish a commonality among cultures and a fairness within different cultures’ households.
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The question of when to start educating kids about native Americans is actually pretty interesting. I personally think kids should start learning about the native Americans at an early age. Not necessarily about the horrible killings and bad things that happened but about the history of the land, how they survived, what they had to eat and drink and who these people really are instead of thinking of them as just an Indian with feathers and leather dresses. I think that it is really sad that kids today only have limited knowledge of the native American culture and what they do know comes from what they see on TV or in movies .
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Learning about the native Americans for me started when I was in about 4th grade and it was just a very brief lesson that didn’t amount to anything because I remember very little from that class. Everything today focuses on local and state history more then on the history of our country and our land. Many kids associate Native Americans with Thanksgiving and pilgrims because that is basically all they know about them. It seems like the teachers when they do talk about the native American history like to focus on all the good and cheerful things like the pretty headdresses and dances that are associated with native Americans. Instead of telling kids about what really happened back then. Now I know kids shouldn’t learn about the really bad things at a young age but maybe focus alittle more in depth when kids are in middle school and into the early stages of high school.
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The learning experience will be expanded for me over spring break I am planning on going on a mission trip to south Dakota to stay and work for a week on a native American reservation with the Lakota tribe. While here I will be rebuilding homes and buildings working with children doing things like tutoring and after school programs as well as food and clothing distribution. We will also be able to learn first hand about subjects like Sioux history,culture, health issues, social issues that are still around today . I will be doing all of this while learning more about the native Americans that are still living on the land. So as for me I am looking forward to learning more about the native Americans that I don’t know and what better place to learn from then the source.
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Yeah I think we should start education on diversity and the correct language to use early. Maybe with more exposure to all the different kinds of people and the different nationalities out there in the world their would be less ingrown prejudice. Like when we are kids we learn what they think we can handle, but I've learned that kids are really very bright, they understand the differences in people and they probably would be fine with learning the language to use. It is important to show kids diversity young so they know what is going on and can open minded about the people in the world.
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I think, as Professor Richards has said multiple times during class, that the first step we need to take towards raising Americans' awareness as a whole, is to acknowledge what we have done to Native Americans in the past. When it comes down to it, we did steal THEIR land. I guess growing up I never really looked at it in that way, nor did I ever stop and take a moment to think deeply about the movies/television shows I watched as a kid portraying the Plains-Indian Wars. I remember whenever I used to visit my grandma and grandpa as a kid, I used to always watch a movie called Son of the Morning Star. It was based on the battle of the Little Bighorn (Custer's Last Stand), and now that I take a different perspective while watching it, I realize that this country really does have a negative view towards Native Americans. It really baffles me as to how we have come to view Native Americans with such a negative stigma. What we need to do is issue a formal apology to these poor people. For over two-hundred years we've taken their lands, killed off their main sources of food, and overrun their land with factories and other sources of industry, leaving them with just a mere shadow of what their culture once was. All the while, we have allured them with false promises of gold, property, and equal opportunity. Oh yeah, and not to mention the millions and millions of innocent men, women, and children we have killed while doing so.
The most important thing we need to do if we're going to break this cycle of unfair treatment of Native Americans is to educate our youth early and often about their hardships. I feel as though when I was growing up, schooling almost glorified Indians versus Cowboys types of things. I mean, one of the most glorified rivalries in all of sports does just that with the Dallas Cowboys and the Washington Redskins. How ironic I might add that our nation's capitol, the city of Washington D.C. so proudly cheers for the Redskins every football season. Back to my point, if we never let our children know what really happened to these poor people, genocide, then how will they be able to help them out any more than we have? Native Americans today are suffering all over the United States from poverty, alcoholism, and high suicide rates. The reservations in which Native Americans live on today try to continue the traditions of their ancestors, but with such a tough transition into our culture, their struggles remain. I feel as though something has to be done for the benefit of the Native Americans who grown up dealing with such struggles.
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Before the lecture on Native Americans, I had no idea some of the information we talked about. First, I did not realize that the slaughter of Native Americans was the largest genocide in human history. I also had no idea that Native Americans had the highest suicide rates, highest drug and alcohol abuse rates, and lowest income rates. As I am during almost every lecture, I was shocked. In my school district we never discussed Native American history to its full extent. We typically learned that yeah, there were Native Americans living in North America when European settlers came over to America, and yeah they killed the Native Americans in order to acquire land and maintain their newly discovered land, and eventually white men made Native Americans move to reservations. We never discussed in detail all the violence and tragedy the Native Americans faced. I think that many American students are unaware of the extent of the struggles the Native Americans experienced. I think we definitely need to create awareness of the entire side of Native American history in students today. Students should start learning about Native Americans in early grade school, like many schools do already. However, I think that around fifth or sixth grade teachers should introduce the history of the Native Americans’ genocide and teachers should continue to teach about the history of Native Americans throughout the following years of grade school. A big aspect that teachers should talk about is where Native Americans are at today. Like I said before, I had no idea that the group had the highest suicide rates, lived in such poverty, and abused drugs and alcohol so much. I had no idea about this information due to what I learned in my history classes in high school. After discussing the movement of Native Americans to reservations, my school district pretty much ended teaching us about Native Americans and where and how they live today. In our discussion group, I stated that I really forget about Native Americans and that they still are around today. I do not think I have ever seen a Native American in my life. Schools definitely need to raise awareness about the history and current status of Native Americans today. Also in our discussion group, we talked about how professional sports teams use images and names of Native Americans in different ways. For example, the Washington Redskins were brought up in conversation. I learned that the term redskin was a highly derogatory term. I was not aware of this, I think, mainly because of my lack of knowledge about Native Americans. We talked about how some people are very upset by the fact that the United States uses images of Native Americans for teams and names teams after different native groups. Before our discussion, I experienced absolutely no feelings of anger or frustration when I saw images or heard names of sports teams named after Native Americans. Then, after our discussion, I realized that it is not right for us to keep images and names like that around. In conclusion, relating back to the video response, I think that people are okay with these icons and names because we lack the awareness. We NEED to start educating students about the continuing history of the Native American peoples.
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I totally agree that we should change the way that children are taught about American Indians. Yes the education should be taught and this should be known. People really need to know the true history of what has happened in America. Ashamed of it or not. This is something that affects so many lives today and if people understood this at a very young age then possibly many more people would care about the treatment of American Indians. This is something that people should not forget about it is a part of history and should be taught to young Americans to better suited for the real world and learn more about the truth of American history.
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I don’t think the government or school system will allow for the genocide of the Native Americans to be taught in schools. In school, we learn that they were here before us but we are only told that they died from diseases. We are never really told that there was a genocide that almost completely wiped out the entire Native American population. If we are told about how the Native Americans were transported over to reservations in handcuffs and on foot, it is only a brief sentence or two in a textbook. The government would not allow for it to be taught as a genocide that was committed so we could benefit from the “newfound land” because in doing so they’d be admitting that the United States of America is not the great country it’s perceived to be. Also, the American citizens may want to help the Native Americans once they understand how unfairly they are being treated and this may cause a revolution which is not something the government wants.
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You know this really is a good question. I remember back in grade school and learning about how the "Indians" and the Pilgrims had their thanksgiving feast and such. And I never really learned the depth of anything that the settlers did to the Native Americans or how they were taking over their land. I guess I just assumed that they co-habited together and things were good for the Pilgrims and Native Americans. I know that a child will never be able to understand the true meaning behind a genocide or kicking people out of their homeland because they are so young and they don't exactly know how to relate to things, because thats how we learned when we were kids. Being able to apply things to what we already know and then learning new things and building off of them. I know that it would be good for children to know about how poorly people like them had treated the people who were here first, but you can't expect a child to know what to do or to even think about something like that until they are older so that they will actually learn and understand. Children don't know inequality or genocide or civil rights or anything they just know who is mean and pushed them on the play ground and which teachers are nice and gives them candy on fridays when school is out. The thing is it would be pointless to teach children something that even adults have a hard time understanding and I would never want to corrupt the mind of child like that. The point that I'm trying to make here is that even though we could teach children about how the Native Americans were really treated when the Pilgrims came over and settled their land would be informational but rather pointless. Children just need to know simple easy to understand things when they are young and until they can really grasp it. Genocide is something that people like to put behind themselves and try to ignore, and this is adults. Adults are old enough to understand the wrongs of this world and putting something like that into children is just cruel. Everyone will learn about it as they get older and if they don't they are ignorant about how the world really is. I say don't try to push something like that into schooling, its not fair. I don't know how I would have turned out if instead of learning about the thanksgiving feasts and recess I would have been taught about genocide and wars. Leave children with their innocence, they don't need to be burdened with the wrongs of this world just yet. give them their peace.
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I think in addition to providing better education and teaching respect for Native Americans, our country as a whole needs to work on changing the way we portray them as a people. We do not have baseball teams and high school mascots named after different factions of any other race, so why Native Americans? Plastering cartoon images of once well respected Native American tribes all over sports paraphernalia teaches our society that they do not need to be taken seriously. By continuing to use these images that represent the little we know about Native Americans, we are adding to our country's ignorance and disrespect of the entire race.
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I think it is definitely important to start education early. I do not mean to teach the kids about all the brutal murders and other horrible things done to the Native Americans, but to begin to teach against discrimination and the stereotypical ideas about other cultures. Obviously, people are becoming more aware of discrimination. Now instead of sitting "Indian style" in kindergarten, you sit "criss cross apple sauce." The teachers think that this is enough. In phrasing it in more of an appropriate way, I think the kids would take to the stories of the struggles that have happened on this land in the past. Even if we start with the basics, it will eventually lead to long-term understanding of what really happened.
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I feel as if this situation and question is bigger than all of us. It will take a lot of education to help bring equality and justice to the Native Americans. We can educate children early on in school, but that will not happen until this reaches the national level. Politicians and other people of power would have to get involved in order to properly integrate this education into the school systems. However, we have to start somewhere no matter how small it is. We never want to see our own faults, and that is why Americans do not ever talk about the genocide that occurred here. Something I find interesting is that we call them Native Americans. So, in a sense, we do acknowledge that they are the original inhabitants of America. I just thought that was interesting to note.
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The massacre that happened to the American Indians is one that cannot be ignored and should be addressed. The racism that still happens against Native Americans today stems from American’s general ignorance of their history and culture; and the best way to solve this issue is to start with education. I think this is a good point to make, that we should start with education, but I think the waters are murky in regards to choosing what age to start teaching the brutal truth of the situation.
Our culture is one full of censorship and tries to not pollute the minds of children. For example, some measures that have been taken like the “explicit content” label that appears on music that is supposed to advise parents to not allow their children to listen to that album/song. Also, there are many programs that parents can download onto their computer that prohibit anyone from visiting porn sites or other promiscuous websites. These two examples go to show that we do value censoring some information from children. However, it is difficult to decide at what age should the censors be lifted? This goes for anything, whether it be lifting the ban from promiscuous sites, revealing embarrassing family history, or the truths of racism.
With this in mind, I think the way the facts are presented to preschoolers should not be too different from the way they are presented now. I don’t think that 3 and 4 year olds can comprehend the enormity of the situation, but it would be acceptable to incorporate some truth when the history of the Pilgrims is taught. Like mentioning that there were people here first but the Pilgrims made them move away is reasonable. And once the history of the Pilgrims is taught more in depth that is when the honest and brutal truth should come out. My guess is that age is around 2nd or 3rd grade, I can’t quite remember when that particular part of history was discussed but that’s my best guess.
If we begin to teach the truth at an early age it would clear up any confusion about the history of the United States and hopefully encourage a more respectful attitude. I think different measure should be taken in the areas with a greater amount of American Indians, anti-racist measures I mean. Perhaps some sort of conflict resolution camps or classes. Whatever it may be, education is the most promising way to try and chip away at the racist block that exists. I realize this isn’t the answer, and that it will still exist even if new classes are implemented but it’s a start. As for those who aren’t decedents of American Indians or consider themselves one, I think it’s important to just understand the truth of the situation and respect the them.
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Frankly I don't think it is possible to integrate the genocide of Native Americans into the public school system. Whether or not it is the right thing to do is moot, because I think that myself and many others would agree that educating and spreading the word is the "right" thing to do at an early age. American History, as taught in public school in America, is required to paint a picture of the mainstream view, because if it were otherwise, then the vision of genocide would be implanted in enough peoples' brains to cause a widespread dismissal of the traditional viewpoint (Manifest Destiny) of how America was created. Of course, this will never happen. This isn't even an issue of special interests in DC. I can honestly say that I thought I knew all the details but it turns out that I didn't know the half of it. I know that, to fit in to "our" (society's) collective view on things, the genocide is something to not mention. But if this is learned at a younger age, it would be more implanted into kids' brains that it was a horrible tragedy and they may not know better but to be vocal about it. So as long as people find out the truth later in life, the system can continue.
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I thought the person in this video posed an excellent question. When exactly should we start educating students about Native Americans and what exactly happened to them? Also, how do we go about doing this? One reason I am particularly intrigued by this question is because I am an elementary education major. I started to wonder about this question myself while Sam was lecturing about Native Americans.
As a kid, I was taught that Christopher Columbus was some sort of hero. I was also taught that Thanksgiving was a feast celebrating the cooperation of the settlers and the Native Americans. Clearly, kids are misled. I did not even realize that the killing of Native Americans is the largest genocide of all time until this class. As I got into middle school and high school, I began to realize that we essentially stole the Native Americans' land and we killed many of them to take their land. However, I had no idea the killings were on such a large scale. In junior high school and high school, I felt like my history teachers would almost beat a dead horse when the topic of the holocaust came up. I realize that the holocaust was terrible, but a larger genocide occurred right here in our country, but no one seems to even bat an eye. It's as if history teachers ignore the topic all together, because America can do no wrong of course, but we are quick to point the finger at Germany and the Nazi party for the holocaust.
As far as when exactly we should start teaching children about the genocide of Native Americans, it is tough to say. To tell every detail to a kindergarten student may be a little overwhelming. I feel like the best way to tell children about the topic is to introduce it slowly. All you may want to tell a kindergarten child is that we stole land from the Native Americans. You can then discuss with the kids why taking something that does not belong to you is bad. As the kids become older, you can begin to give them more and more details on what really happened. It is also important not to lie to children. I feel angry now that I was misled as a child about this topic. I would say maybe third grade would be the proper time to go into detail with children about this topic. At that age, they are better able to comprehend the information you are sharing with them and really take it into perspective.
When I become a teacher, I fully intend on educating my kids on what really happened. To what degree I educate them depends on what grade it is I am teaching. I will make sure though that I will not lie to my students and I will not mislead them, as my teachers did to me as a kid.
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I don’t think necessarily that teaching about the genocide to preschoolers is the best idea for the simple fact that I don’t believe that children of that age have the mental capacity to fully understand what genocide even is or how it affected this country or the native Americans. I do however think that it should be taught in schools. Most American history classes make little or no reference to these acts and the current struggles that face many Native Americans. I also feel that it would be a good thing for schools to teach about the different cultures of Native Americans even early in schools.
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I think that children should be taught about Native Americans and about what happened to them. Because there is little known information about the Native Americans and they were the first people of the land. When in school we learn about Christopher Columbus and his journey but what about all the people that came before him. Learning there history is good for children so that they are not just oblivious to the Native American culture in general. Also Native American were the first Native people of the United States. Also, mostly everything that surrounds you everyday has something to do with Native Americans and people should be aware of that.
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Education is one of the most important things when someone tries to change some phenomena, trend, social norms, etc. Nobody can stress enough how education is crucial especially young children learn about the world and how it goes.
When human beings are young, we tend to be vulnerable to every kind of information. We listen, we taste, we hear, and we see. By doing so, we learn what is wrong it what is right; we learn how we should think; we learn how to develop ideas. This is why teaching correctly and learning in a right way is so important.
In my opinion, schools and parents should start teaching their children about historical truths about Native Americans from their young age. When I was young, I used to think Native Americans were uncivilized people who wear feathers in their heads, bring stone-made weapons, and live in tents made in animal leathers. I used to sing “Ten Little Indians” in my pre-school. I did not know what was wrong about it when I was little, because that was what my teachers taught me.
Actually, even until I came to the U.S., I did not think about Native American discrimination issues that seriously. I thought blacks were the most discriminated people in the U.S. However, Sam’s lecture made me open my eyes again. Highest suicide rate? Highest poverty level? These are the real situation what Native Americans are facing until now. From the time when Europeans stole their Red Land, their territories to stand strong together also got stolen. Furthermore, wrong educational system is misleading many innocent children. As the girl said in the video, I am pretty sure that not many kids would understand what Native Americans are. I am sure that still many children would imagine red-faced people in feather head bands when they hear the term, “Indians.” Even Disney’s Peter Pan depicts Native Americans like that. When the situations are like these, what can our future generation learn? They will only get wrong images about Native Americans. As a consequence, future Native Americans generations will suffer from same problems that come from misunderstandings and discriminations.
In order to disconnect the chains of suffrage, the U.S. education system should be changed. We should not try hard to hide the facts; instead, we should teach our children to see the horrible truths, and how to see them in a clear way. Only in this way, they would feel for Native Americans more easily, and they would try to solve the sociological problems. I know it is getting better, but we should try harder to help Native Americans to get away from the shackles named discrimination by erasing the words selfishness and ignorance in our children’s minds.
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I agree that it is important to learn more about the Native American history, and it’s sad that almost no one has heard about the greatest genocide on United States soil. However, I don’t believe there is room in the curriculum to teach the history of the Native Americans. There is so many things missing from our typical school curriculum that I really think should be added, but it would be impossible to implement all these things into a typical school year. This is what college is for. In college we are given the opportunity to design our own course schedules and learn about the “extra stuff” that didn’t make it into the basic curriculum that we have in grade school and high school. Overall though, I think the standard curriculum that we have in grade school and high school is very flawed. There are so many courses that I spent countless hours studying for, and in the end, I will never use that material ever again in my career. The fact that I am an aerospace engineering student, I really don’t think that it was beneficial to learn the anatomy of the human body, or the classical literature of William Shakespeare because I will never apply it in my professional career. In my opinion, as an engineering student, I think that I was ill prepared for college in terms of mathematics. I really think that I should have been taught more calculus at an earlier age so that I would be more efficient at it at this point in my life. There was so much emphasis on classes like vocabulary and art, and I will probably never use that stuff ever again. I would have rather spent that time being productive and learning about engineering principles like moments of inertia, or torque. As a whole, the United States education system should be redesign. Grade school and high school are teaching the future of America, very broad ideas, and it isn’t until college that we actually learn the important ideas and concepts that we will use for the rest of our lives. I realize it is difficult to know what you want to do in terms of a career, when you are still in grade school, and I can see why the current education system gives students a sample of every little thing just so they can discover what they might want to do, but I feel like a lot of our youth is spent learning useless thing. In the end, we specialize in one field, and we often forget a lot of what we learned in grade school. I don’t know how to fix the education system, but it definitely needs to be updated.
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