This unit has been developed with the intention of showing the American Indian, a history so unique that to not share its distinctiveness of heritage makes the study of American history hollow. To only talk about the arrivals and not those who made this their home would be greater than a simple omission by the powers that be. To ignore the question of identity as these tribes are forcibly moved and removed from their ancestral lands and striped of the resources they need for survival as individual American Indian communities would be equivalent to talking about the Civil War with only the whispered mention of slavery. The urgent need to talk about Native American history is due to the number of cultural communities that have suffered at the hands of “modern” internationally recognized governments and associated agencies. The stories, narratives and most importantly the wisdom and truths as told by the natives themselves hold the power to heal many societally displaced communities. In order for our students to fix what they perceive to be injustices of society, they have to be exposed to the historical injustices of their own nation as told by those who have suffered and their descendants.
The unit attempts to humanize the experience of American Indians with the recognition that their diverse cultural distinctions were erased by the Europeans who viewed them with insignificant culturally-distinguishable features and felt comfortable in labeling them as all the same. In doing this, hundreds of geographically, linguistically and religiously separate Indian nations became monolithic groups of people. In this “history as written by the victors” worldview, the natives were so different from the European arrivals that they were seen as souls ripe for the saving, labor free for the using, and unenlightened owners of raw materials that squandered the lands potential.
Throughout the United States history course primary subjects and related secondary subjects will identify the experiences of Native Americans. Initially were addressed as political equals, natives were replaced by the motives for a Protestant Republic—a republic that over time became more confident of its place in the world and outnumbered the original inhabitants. In addition to the idea of Manifest Destiny, the influx of Western European immigrants and tensions between the North and South over its economic future may have turned away at a pivotal moment in Native American history that would further fuel a cultural genocide.
Students will evaluate the concept of agency(advocating for sovereignty and recognition as a foreign yet domestic nation), and how the Department of the Interior and the Department of Indian Affairs have put the hundreds of tribes in the United States through a gauntlet of legal issues. As tribal citizens of the United States become more aware of their rights, the sovereignty of Indian nations became supported but the political landscape in which the modern U.S. government has to act responsibility to these nations has been uneven. Through plays like Mary Kathryn Nagle’s “Sliver of a Full Moon” students will see the reenactment of modern Indian activists. Finally in using Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and other works of fiction, we will evaluate the issues of modern American Indians and their lack of opportunities and what happens as a result of generational poverty on their reservations.