Robert M. Schwartz
Survival is a tremendously broad human topic. History teaches us that it is a concept most people have experienced in their lives – the need to survive: finding shelter, food and protection for ourselves and families. Students from a young age are taught a foundational basis of human survival as example of, really, how to avoid having to do the same. We teach history so that we do not repeat the mistakes of those who have come before us; and, while we often repeat them anyway, the point is so that we and posterity may thrive. The difference between surviving and thriving is, while less common a theme, an important one to note when preparing students for an increasingly global society – one where they have full access through online media to knowledge and digital experiences of others’ lives and stories.
Because of this, it has become increasingly important for American students to discover the original survivors of this continent – the Native people. Through a foundational study of American Indian experience and developing an understanding of what it means to be forced to survive, and to succeed in it through many generations, the modern student may be able to discover how to not only survive, but thrive in their own lives.
The following curricular unit utilizes foundational study of American Indian history – from migration to the North American continent and early atrocities of European settlers, to modern legal battles for sovereignty of tribal nations and civil rights – in order to enhance instruction in the reading intervention classroom (usable in a Read 180 classroom), and for the study of comparative American literature, in this instance for high school juniors.
Through the study of Native America and the experience of American Indians, one’s perspective on the human condition cannot help but be shaken, or at least jolted upright. Through in-depth research on this topic, it is near impossible not to come away affected by the gravity of this history; as a human being, not to take it personally. American slavery is an atrocity of which most of us can draw a clear mental schema; yet, less so in the forefront of our minds is the experience of the American Indian – as atrocious as that of the slave – and with it the disbelief that human beings can and did treat each other this way. Through basic academic inclusion and media, we are brought up to trust; to see the resilience and spirit of a people who have been massacred, nearly decimated, yet survived and thrive today, without giving their history the appropriate time or context in our curricula. This is why study of Native America is so effective, nay, important for English classrooms – everything about the Native experience incites emotion: passion, frustration and even anger, pride, inspiration. These themes are prevalent in both the study of Native peoples and in literature alike. And so it is that this curricular unit is the result of experience and research – a sliver of the academic, historical canon that documents the American Indian experience – and is chronicled here for inclusion in the reading intervention classroom and in the study of American literature.
