I think Native American history is very important and overlooked. However, how would you fit it into the curriculum? That's so many years to cover. Also there's several Indian nations and cultures and how would you have time to learn the history of all of them when it already takes an entire semester/year to learn about post-colonial America?
2006-09-14 18:52:42 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
A) I have B) I'm IN college
2006-09-14 19:03:16 · update #1
Yes I know it's irrelevant to modern America but that doesn't mean it should be obscured and buried. We should have more respect for past people then that. We treat people of history like they're just characters but they're REAL people. How would you like it if someone in the future treated us like that?
2006-09-14 19:06:46 · update #2
Yep the documentation thing is a problem, but we need to preserve everything we can.
2006-09-14 19:09:58 · update #3
I would like you to have it as a requisite....... if necessary at the cost of teaching less pre-1492 European history.
I think it is valuable for you to know who had your land before you did, an outline of how they lived there, who they traded with and who they warred with, and how they came to lose the land to you. Were the European settlers morally better than the Natives, or did they just have more-effective weapons? Were they more united and cleverer? What did they have that allowed them to populate the land more densely than the Natives?
Words such as Iroquois, Hiawatha, Pueblo and Dineh should have some meaning to young Americans. Origins of names such as Minnesota and Massachusetts can be explained. Were they hunter-gatherers -- if so, what did they hunt and gather? Were they farmers -- of what? Did they war with each other -- when, who won, why?
I would want the teaching to aim to dispel three misperceptions. One is that the Native American past is meaningless or of no importance to today's Americans. The second quite widespread false idea is that Native Americans were all wise and lovely people who looked after the land in harmony. The third, which is showing in some of the answers here, is that history is only real if there is a written record of it.
I would show that the oral history of a people, combined with archaeology, can say a lot about a people and its past. We know there was a long and terrible drought c1200AD in N Arizona. We know that the people abandoned their ancestral lands because of it. Where did they go? The Hopi say they merged with the Pueblos to the east, such as the Zunyi. Let people hear about this.
As for the multitude of Native nations.... there is a multitude of European nations, and that's never stopped people teaching European history. I would suggest you introduce a general pattern, include some stories with wider implications like that drought, like the Trail of Tears, like the aggressive fierceness of the Comanche and how they terrorised Native and white alike on the Prairie until they were thrashed, like the conflict between the Hopi and the Dineh (=Navajo). And then add more depth for the history of the area you live in. Pre-colonial Maine feels more relevant if you live in Maine than if you are in Texas, doesn't it? You know the land and the landscape, you can picture ancient people hunting moose or fishing for lobster with similar or different tools to how your acquaintances do it.
2006-09-14 20:36:44 · answer #1 · answered by MBK 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The real problem is that there is almost NO documented history. Native Americans are also a very small segment of the population, even in the American West. If you want to know more about their cultures, go to the library and do a little independent study. Or take a course when you go to college.
2006-09-15 01:58:06 · answer #2 · answered by rainchaser77 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting question.
As others have pointed out some of the important life lessons we should learn from native americans is respect for land and a balance of nature.
I have always thought the idea that one cannot own anything was brilliant. We are simply here and users who should respect what we use so there is something left for those who come after us.
Certainly, Thoreau, had to be influenced by this notion of ownership. Do you own it or does it own you.
Those who believe family values are important should take a closer look at native american life.
On a more cynical note it seems obvious the white men had no sense of art, no sense of a world in balance, all that was important had to do, and still has to do with profit.
To quote a white hero, 'What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul'?
2006-09-15 02:14:57 · answer #3 · answered by Ben 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Trying to understand Native American is complicated because there are so many tribes with different histories. As previously mentioned, much of each tribes history was oral so a lot of that history is lost. The best way to teach about Native Americans is to teach about official US policies regarding Native Americans. Many of these policies and how they were enforced have parallels in contemporary US foreign policy; such topics include assimilation, forced relocation, and genocide. It's unfortunate that Pres. Bush never learned anything about history because he is repeating past mistakes.
2006-09-16 22:04:02 · answer #4 · answered by Kookiemon 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Sounds good to me. We could learn a lot from the Native American cultures. A semester course offered as an elective would probably be better than a requisite.
2006-09-15 02:40:04 · answer #5 · answered by Nora Explora 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Two main problems with this that I can see. First of all, there is very little written Native American history. Almost all of it was orally transmitted, and a great deal of that knowledge has died when the people who knew it died. Second, there are literally hundreds of Native American tribes and Native American languages. Which ones do you want to study?
I would recommend that you do some independent study of the tribes you are interested in, bearing in mind that there is very little documentation of their history.
2006-09-15 02:04:00 · answer #6 · answered by parachute 3 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I think that's a good idea, but as you say the curriculum is getting crowded as it is. IMO if the subject was taught in "noble savage" mode with a huge enviromental message, etc. that would be a kind of racism. We owe Native Americans the courtesy of teaching their history warts and all, just like we would any other history.
2006-09-15 02:33:44 · answer #7 · answered by michinoku2001 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
it is a good idea.but no. i don't think it would take too long to teach native american history. native americans don't really have too much actual history they have a lot of interesting culture,legends,languages, to cover that have survived over a long time, but not actual history, that only really starts a couple of hundred years ago when north america was colonized. so i dont think it should be a requisite. i live in north vancouver, b.c. and my highschool had a class called native american studies and it involved a lot more culture and language.
it was all natives in the class of course, maybe theres a way of letting everybody see the culture a bit more.
i did not take the course however but i would walk by it and my friend was in it.
2006-09-15 02:04:23 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
About time. Native American History can teach the value of the land, and freedom and that all is sacred, plus it is the roots of this country we love so much.
2006-09-15 01:57:08 · answer #9 · answered by Ahalia 3 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Misnomer..First Nation or Indigenous /Original People of Turtle Island (the name recognized by all Earth People of the land mass called North America) Definitely the herstory of Eskimos/Hawaiians/Virgin Islanders/Guamanians/Samoans/Seminoles etc needed to be taught by them. Columbus was lost = a looser =slaver/murderer/genocidist/racist
2006-09-15 05:41:51 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋