DOCUMENT RESUME ED 433 158 RC 020 972 Juhel, Jean-Marc AUTHOR A Review of the Portrayal of American Indians in a Selection TITLE of U.S. History Textbooks and Recommendations for a Supplementary Curriculum. Columbia Univ., New York, NY. Esther A. and Joseph INSTITUTION Klingenstein Center for Independent School Education. 1996-00-00 PUB DATE NOTE 111p. Reports PUB TYPE Evaluative (142) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC05 Plus Postage. *American Indian History; *American Indians; *Curriculum DESCRIPTORS Development; Ethnic Bias; Ethnocentrism; Federal Indian Relationship; High Schools; *History Textbooks; Instructional Material Evaluation; Stereotypes; *Textbook Bias; Trust Responsibility (Government); *United States History; World Views IDENTIFIERS *Eurocentrism ABSTRACT This paper examines the treatment of American Indians in six high school U.S. history textbooks, published 1990-95 and used in several geographically diverse private schools and one public school in New York. The study aimed to determine whether all sides of the stories that make up U.S. history were presented, to clarify what specific areas are in need of improvement, and to suggest supplementary resources to compensate for textbook shortcomings. Chapter 1 considers the visibility of American Indians in history textbooks and finds that American Indians are left out of texts and illustrations, coverage of pre-Columbian America is disproportionately short, the lack of coverage of 20th-century American Indians perpetuates the "vanishing American" myth, and no primary source pertaining directly to Native Americans is in any of the textbooks. Chapter 2 discusses the lack of American Indian perspectives in the textbooks, noting that White historians dismiss Native oral sources as unreliable but use White oral sources, and that not only are Native primary sources absent, but different views of the issues are not presented. Chapter 3 finds that European perspectives regarding Native American history fall into classifications such as the hierarchy of civilizations, savages, generic or acquiescent Indians, manifest destiny of Euro-American colonists, barrier to progress, and the minimal effects of colonization. Chapter 4 presents a sample supplementary high school curriculum designed to address the shortcomings of traditional classroom material with respect to American Indian issues. Chapter 5 lists useful resources. Contains a 34-item bibliography. (TD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** KLINGENSTEIN CENTER- - A REVIEW OF THE PORTRAYAL OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN A SELECTION OF U.S. HISTORY TEXTBOOKS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A SUPPLEMENTARY CURRICULUM OF EDUCATION U.S. DEPARTMENT "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Research and Improvement Office of Educational MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY INFORMATION TIONAL RESOURCES EDU - CENTER (ERIC) as .led n been reproduced Mar- C_ his document has person or organization received from the originating it. to improve have been made CI Minor changes reproduction Quality. this docu- opinions stated in otticiat Points of view or necessarily represent TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ment do not policy. OERI position or INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Jean-Marc Juhel, Ph.D. Teachers College, Columbia University New York, New York -1996- BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 METHODOLOGY 3 CHAPTER ONE VISIBILITY OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN TEXTBOOKS 1. OBSERVATIONS 5 2. CONCLUSIONS 19 3. RECOMMENDATIONS 20 CHAPTER TWO AMERICAN INDIAN PERSPECTIVES 1. OBSERVATIONS 23 2. CONCLUSIONS 33 3. RECOMMENDATIONS 37 CHAPTER THREE EURO-AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES 1. OBSERVATIONS 39 2. CONCLUSIONS 62 3. RECOMMENDATIONS 62 CHAPTER FOUR SAMPLE SUPPLEMENTARY CURRICULUM 1. OVERVIEW OF SUGGESTED CURRICULUM 64 2. RATIONALE FOR THE COURSE 65 3. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT NATIVE AMERICANS? 71 4. FOUR CASE STUDIES 73 uuut 3 85 5. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND THE UNITED NATIONS 86 6. ADDITIONAL ISSUES CHAPTER FIVE RESOURCES 88 1. RESERVATIONS 89 2. BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS AGENCIES 90 3. INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS 90 4. CONGRESS 91 5. STATE INDIAN COMMISSIONS 91 6. OTHER ORGANIZATIONS 91 7. MUSEUMS 92 8. LIBRARIES 92 9. STATISTICS 92 10. MAPS 92 11. SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES 93 12.TRIBAL COLLEGES 13. NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES PROGRAMS 97 AND DEPARTMENTS 97 14. NEWSPAPERS 98 15. VIDEOS 98 17. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 100 CONCLUSION ii 4 U BIBLIOGRAPHY 102 1. REFERENCE BOOKS 102 2. TEXTBOOKS 103 3. BOOKS 104 4. AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 104 5. ARTICLES iii 5 L, INTRODUCTION American history classes and textbooks have traditionally been the mere reflection of our past as it is perceived by the Christian white male elite which controls the political and academic life of the country. is It claimed, however, that more recently, following the growing awareness of the multicultural complexity and richness of our world, scholars have made some progress towards the inclusion of groups of people, previously ignored, who contributed, voluntarily or involuntarily, to the making of American society. One of the purposes of this project is to examine and document how much progress has actually been made in the case of the treatment of American Indians by U.S. history textbook authors. My guiding principle was not to act as censor of the veracity of historical accounts, a rather presumptuous task. In fact, I do believe that rare are the occasions in which accounts of historical events can be taken at face value. This is not to say that there are no such things as historical facts. But I often feel that history, written or told, is no more than a work of fiction in which facts are often distorted to satisfy the narrator's own beliefs. This is particularly true in the case of Indian-White relations, where two diametrically opposed conceptions of the world collided, and where the effects of the armed conflicts and defeated and massacres, which left the indigenous peoples of the American continent colonized, pervade. Thus, neither was it my intention, nor within my ability, to determine what is right or wrong in U.S. history textbooks. Instead, I focused on examining whether all I considered three specific areas: sides of the stories which make up history were presented. ouut 6 the visibility of American Indians in history textbooks, the presence or not of American Indian perspectives and finally, the nature of the Euro-American perspectives. Therefore, my specific observations of the various textbooks I reviewed pertain to the quality of the authors' presentation of American Indian history, both within and outside the context of their interactions with non-Indian people. Nothing else is implied as to the overall quality of the textbooks. The rationale for this project goes beyond the examination of the portrayal of to use my findings in order to determine specific areas American Indians. My intention is where improvement is needed and to provide the reader with suggestions for a supplementary curriculum as well as a selection of potential resources to compensate for the shortcomings of traditional classroom material. In sum, this project is not meant to be a rhetorical diatribe on the flaws of U.S. history books, but rather a practical tool for teachers committed to improving their students' understanding of Native Americans.' In this project, the term "Native American" does not include Native Hawaiians or Native . American Pacific Islanders. 2 METHODOLOGY El-Hi Textbooks and Under the heading "Social Sciences/American History", the 1995 oversized-format pages of U.S. Serials in Print'` contains seventeen small-print, three-column, would review was a history textbooks in print. Needless to say, the choice of textbooks that I ranking texts. Thus, I difficult one. This project, however, is not primarily concerned with if patterns chose to look carefully at a selection of American history books in order to see discovered are what emerged in their treatment of American Indians. The shortcomings that I project. guided me in presenting the supplementary resources in Chapters 4 and 5 of my In order to establish the list of American History books that would be appropriate to review, I consulted with several geographically diverse private schools and one public school other in the State of New York. It is important to note that New York State, along with many States, does not have a list of approved U.S. history textbooks. I did not look at the textbooks used to teach the history of each individual state, and focused on the high-school level only. I reviewed the editions that seemed to be the most commonly used in the schools mentioned above. In one case, I chose to examine the "brief' edition of the textbook, as it is sometimes used in non-A.P. courses. Finally, note that I did not review any of the supplementary material developed by some authors to accompany their textbooks. The list of the books I reviewed is as follows: Bailey, Thomas, and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. Tenth ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1994. 1995, 123rd. ed. (New ed., El-Hi Textbooks and Serials in Print, 2. R.R. Rowker, Providence, N.J.: Reed Reference Publishing Company, 1995). 3 uouL 8 United States. Boorstin, Daniel J., and Brooks Mather Kelley. A History of the Needham, MA: Prentice Hall, 1990. Howard Boyer, Paul, Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, Thomas L. Purvis, People. Sitkoff, and Nancy Woloch. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1990. Brinkley, Alan. American History: A Survey. 2 vols. 9th ed. New York, N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995. Divine, Robert A., T.H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, and Randy Roberts. America: Past and Present. Brief 2nd ed. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1990. Norton, Mary Beth, David M. Katzman, Paul D. Escott, Howard P. Chudacoff, Thomas G. Paterson, and William M. Turtle, Jr. A People and a Nation: A History of the United States. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1994. Note that in the interest of concision, I use the last name of the first author mentioned on the title page when I need to make reference to a particular book. For the development of a sample course (Chapter 4) and the listing of available resources (Chapter 5), I relied extensively on the reading that I did for both my Master's thesis on Indian militancy and my doctoral dissertation on Indian self-determination in higher education, the field research I conducted on reservations and my experience as the Native American Student Council adviser at Fountain Valley School, Colorado Springs, Colorado. 4 9 00(h.. CHAPTER ONE VISIBILITY OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN TEXTBOOKS 1. Observations A few years ago, when I was in New York City for the month of June, I went to an exhibit at the Jewish Museum, then temporarily located on the Upper West Side. The theme of the exhibit was Jewish-African American relations throughout history. The great quality of the exhibition notwithstanding, I was somewhat bothered to read on the caption of one of the photographs displayed: "Jews, like all other Americans, with the exception of African Americans, came to America to escape poverty, and religious and political persecution." American Indians had been left out of the picture. What puzzled me was that the exhibit organizers were probably well intentioned and did not mean to ignore the fact that not all Americans fit in their classification. This caption shows, in fact, that no matter how well meaning we have become, the myth of the American Indian as the vanishing American is still so deeply rooted in the collective consciousness that scholars and others tend to omit the Indian presence, not only in the past, but also, and more 5 OUL, 10