Understanding and Teaching Native American History

Description

Understanding and Teaching Native American History is a timely and urgently needed remedy to a long-standing gap in history instruction. While the past three decades have seen burgeoning scholarship in Indigenous studies, comparatively little of that has trickled into classrooms. This volume is designed to help teachers effectively integrate Indigenous history and culture into their lessons, providing richly researched content and resources across the chronological and geographical landscape of what is now known as North America.   Despite the availability of new scholarship, many teachers struggle with contextualizing Indigenous history and experience. Native peoples frequently find themselves relegated to historical descriptions, merely a foil to the European settlers who are the protagonists in the dominant North American narrative. This book offers a way forward, an alternative framing of the story that highlights the ongoing integral role of Native peoples via broad coverage in a variety of topics including the historical, political, and cultural.   With its scope and clarity of vision, suggestions for navigating sensitive topics, and a multitude of innovative approaches authored by contributors from multidisciplinary backgrounds, Understanding and Teaching Native American History will also find use in methods and other graduate courses. Nearly a decade in the conception and making, this is a groundbreaking source for both beginning and veteran instructors. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction | Kristofer Ray and Brady DeSanti Part One: Essential Topics in Native American History Before Columbus: Native American History, Archaeology, and Resources | Maureen Meyers The “Virgin” Soil Thesis Cover-Up: Teaching Indigenous Demographic Collapse | Tai S. Edwards Understanding and Teaching Native American Slavery: From First Slaves to Early Abolitionists in Four Myths | Denise I. Bossy Teaching the Indian Wars | Mark van de Logt Teaching the Broad and Relevant History of American Indian Removal | John P. Bowes Teaching the History of Allotment | Rose Stremlau Storied Lands; Storied Peoples: Teaching the History of Federal Indian Law through Native American Literature | N. Bruce Duthu Nation to Nation: Understanding Treaties and Sovereignty | Margaret Huettl Teaching Indigenous Environmental Histories | Paul Kelton and James D. Rice Teaching and Understanding Genocide in Native America | Gray H. Whaley Part Two: Reflections on Identity and Cultural Appropriation An Appropriate Past: Seminole Indians, Osceola, and Florida State University | Andrew K. Frank Looking Past the Racial Classification System: Teaching Southeastern Native Survival Using the Peoplehood Model | Marvin M. Richardson Teaching Native American Religions and Philosophies in the Classroom | Brady DeSanti Sustenance as Culture and Tradition: Teaching about Indigenous Foodways of North America | Devon A. Mihesuah Native American Art 101 | Nancy Marie Mithlo Land Acknowledgments in Higher Education: Moving beyond the Empty Gesture | Joshua Thunder Little and Miye Nadya Tom Part Three: Reflections on Teaching Native American History How I Learned to Teach Indian History: A Memoir | Theda Perdue Teaching American Indian History Using the Medicine Way | Donald L. Fixico Transnational History and Deep Time: Reflections on Teaching Indigenous History from Australia | Ann McGrath Being There: Experiential Learning by Living Native American History | Bernard C. Perley čwè·ˀn neyękwaˀnawè·rih: Reflections on Teaching Indigenous History from a Native Student | Taylor Hummel Contributors Index