Until very recently, she says, a standard college-level U.S. history textbook would typically explain America’s expansion into the West without detailing the fact that this expansion was a claim to territory held by American Indians. Lands and places that the United States claims and owns, she notes, are situated within American Indian homelands.
Mt. Pleasant says she thinks that U.S. citizens would have a better understanding of present-day land claims issues if they understood the process by which colonial powers and the United States came to exercise jurisdiction over those areas.
“Our school system has done a disservice to American citizens by not sharing more information about American Indian history,” she says. “My challenge is to offer them a basic understanding of the contours of that history.”
She says she emphasizes the concept of place in her teaching, pointing out that Native people’s identity is rooted in their connection to a place. She includes the history of tribes from the Northeast region, where Yale is located, to give students an appreciation for tribes both locally and regionally. Ultimately, she says she wants her students to see how their own nationhood is rooted in place.
--Mary Annette Pember
There are currently 0 comments on this story.
Click here to post a comment
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
