APPLYING MULTICULTURALISM TO THE AMERICAN HISTORY CURRICULUM

Ignorance is one of the greatest barriers to understanding between two peoples. If we don't understand each other, if we do not know the culture, the language, or the history of each other, we are unable to see each other as human beings with value and dignity. This is especially true in relations between Indians and non-Indians.
- WILLIAM C. WANTLAND, Seminole

The multiculturalism debate is only about 15 years old and is infiltrating the curriculum at an excruciatingly slow pace. Biased education is heavily ingrained in American classrooms and, as illustrated by the attacks on multicultural education, many people are comfortable with the old approaches and methods and unwilling to let them go. Native Americans, and other groups that have been victims of distorted history, have only recently recognized their right to insist upon accurate and unbiased accounts of their history and culture (Pepper). Educators, textbook publishers, and policymakers acknowledge that they can no longer ignore this demand.

The extent to which multiculturalism is implemented in a school system depends heavily on the state in which the school system resides. In my study of the Washington Metropolitan area, I found a clear division between Maryland and Virginia in terms of multicultural education implementation-Virginia does not address multiculturalism and Maryland does. The four Virginia school systems that I contacted have approved textbook lists, consisting of either one or two textbooks which the teacher must use. Maryland, on the other hand, uses recommended lists, which gives the teacher the option of whether or not to use the listed books. While some of the Maryland counties use an approved textbook list, it is a comprehensive list that is used in tandem with a supplemental list.

Montgomery county in Maryland is far ahead of other school districts in terms of its commitment to implementing multicultural education in the school system. The social studies supervisor for grades one through five in the county, Dr. Dawn Thomas, has spent two years developing a multicultural curriculum. Copies of the text materials that she has approved, for the fifth grade alone, fill four shelves of the bookcase in her office. The approved list of textbooks consists of eight titles; the supplemental textbook list consists of five series; and the huge library of supplemental historical references include 14 titles related to Native Americans. There is also a core reading list, but Dr. Thomas admits that it still needs work. In fact, Dr. Thomas is constantly reviewing new books to add to the entire collection. In addition to providing teachers with a vast library from which to choose, she conducts workshops to educate and help guide teachers. Since the teachers rarely have time to read all of the books on the list, Dr. Thomas carefully scrutinizes books before approving them, and then conducts the workshops to assist teachers in tailoring a curriculum. The teachers are no longer limited to one text, but they must keep themselves educated, given that the lessons are no longer hand-fed to them.

In eighth grade, Montgomery county students spend one month on Native American history. The teachers use several historical books and reading materials during this period, instead of a textbook.

In all practicality, a large library of supplemental textbooks and reading materials is necessary to a multicultural curriculum, given the content of the traditional textbooks. None of the textbooks I analyzed covered the Native American experience very thoroughly. I felt the most important test that the textbooks I examined had to pass was how much coverage was given to twentieth century Native America. Considering that children apply what they learn in school to the real world, if Native Americans are not covered in the textbooks as modern people, students are going to apply that omission to real life. All of the textbooks failed my criteria miserably. None of the textbooks devoted more than a page to the American Indian civil rights movement. The textbooks ignored some of the most important current Native American issues, such as the movement to free Leonard Peltier, the continued destruction of resources on Native lands, and plans to fill the last spot left on the Mall in Washington, DC with the National Museum of the American Indian. Only one textbook, A History of US: All the People, covered one of the more important events for Native Americans in recent history, the economic revitalization of many tribes through reservation casinos.

I had expected A History of US to be the exception, the one textbook to cover Native Americans in the twentieth century as they should be. After all, A History of US was far superior to the other textbooks in its coverage of early American history, and it has been praised by teachers, educators, students, and critics. Michael Dirda, the children's book editor of "Book World" in The Washington Post, reviewed the last of the ten volumes of the series, All The People, in the March 5, 1995 issue of "Bookworld":

While visiting my local elementary school recently, I ran into its librarian. . .who asked me if I knew about Joy Hakim's 10-volume History of US. Almost before I could answer. . ., this professional bookperson started burbling with the kind of unabashed enthusiasm they try to stamp out of us at Critics and Reviewers School. When a more stately composure finally reasserted itself, my librarian friend calmly stated that Hakim's was the best children's history of the United States she had ever seen. . . . This is the word from a real front-lines veteran, one who takes on children mano a mano every day. And she is absolutely right. (11)

The librarian has good reason to be excited about Hakim's series. There is one word that I can apply to the other 19 textbooks I studied that I cannot apply to A History of US, and that word is "boring!" The publisher of A History of US, DC Heath, comments in its catalog that "It has also been praised by students because it does not cover history-it uncovers history by letting live people and events speak for themselves." Reading the other textbooks was a chore, but I enjoyed reading this series. As Dirda says in his review, "All The People is masterly, irresistibly readable." (11)

Additionally, the introduction in the first volume, which explains to the student why we study history, is by far the best explanation given in any of the textbooks. It explains why coverage of the bad, as well as the good, aspects of history is important: "When we read about the mistakes people made in the past, we can try not to make them ourselves. Nations and people who don't study history sometimes repeat mistakes" (11). Although it states that the basic premise of the book is that the United States is perhaps the most remarkable country in the world, it does not pretend that it is a perfect country. "Some people will tell you of evil forces in the United States. They will tell of past horrors like slavery and war. They will tell of poverty and injustice today. They will be telling the truth. We didn't say the United States was perfect. Far from it . . . arguing with the theme of this book is okay" (12). No other textbook says that it is acceptable to argue with the information it presents. This problem is addressed by Bill Bigelow in his essay "Columbus in the Classroom":

Most of my students have trouble with the idea that a book-especially a textbook-can lie.
. . . .
Textbooks fill students with information masquerading as final truth and then ask students to parrot back the information in end-of-the-chapter "checkups." The Brazilian educator Paulo Friere calls it the "banking method": students are treated as empty vessels waiting for deposits of wisdom from textbooks and teachers. (Columbus 123-136)

This is true of all the textbooks, save Hakim's series. Hakim intersperses questions throughout the text, instead of at the end of the chapter, and asks the students to consider the situation further and draw their own conclusions. "We hope that if a student is able to maintain a critical distance from the written word," Bigelow explains, "then it's possible to maintain that same distance from one's society: to stand back, look hard and ask, 'Why is it like this, how can I make it better?'" (136) Finally, A History of US does not threaten the concept of America as one people, which so many people are worried about:

History is especially important for Americans. In many nations, citizens share a common background. That isn't true of us . . . We don't look alike. Sometimes we don't think alike. But as Americans we do share something. It is our history. We Americans share a common heritage. If you are an American, then the Indians, the Vikings, the Pilgrims, and the slaves are all your ancestors. You will want to know their stories. (12)

A History of US is a breath of fresh air in the textbook arena, but it falls far short of covering Native Americans in the twentieth century as adeptly as it covered Native Americans in earlier centuries. In Volume Nine, War, Peace, and All That Jazz, which spans from 1915 to 1945, Native Americans are mentioned twice, briefly. In All The People, which spans from 1945 to 1995, Native Americans are mentioned three times, totaling less than three pages. Like all the other textbooks, A History of US stops devoting much text to Native Americans after the section on the Indian Wars.

Due to the absence of the complete Native American experience in the textbooks, even in a promising textbook like A History of US, educators must use supplemental materials to fill the gaps left in the textbooks. There are countless guides available to assist teachers who wish to build a multicultural classroom: the American Indian Institute offers a 300-page book of lessons in all subject areas for students from preschool through high school; the REACH Center, which stands for Respecting our Ethnic and Cultural Heritage, has a training program and guide for multicultural studies that include Native American experiences; Native Peoples Magazine has developed an education program which includes secondary classroom material for students and teachers; the National Association for the Education of Young Children published a guide called Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children; the American Indian Resource Center provides curriculum ideas about Native Americans; the Network of Educators on the Americas offers a catalog, entitled Teaching for Change, full of multicultural resources. These are only a few of the resources available to teachers.

One of the best tools for teachers-concerning the Native American experience-is the book Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children. It discusses the aspects of the Native American experience that need to be confronted in school, such as the Columbus myth and the First Thanksgiving, as well as the use of Native American stories and poetry. The most useful sections for teachers are the extensive book reviews of 112 children's books and their guidelines for how to tell the difference between a biased and un-biased book about Native Americans.

Most non-Native teachers are victims of the biased education system, and may not know what to look for in choosing the best books for children that portray Native America. The reason teachers need to be so careful in choosing amongst these books is that so many of them have been written by whites. In one of the book reviews, the authors comment: "It is not that non-Native people should never try to do Native stories. It is that, if they are going to, they should at least learn enough so that they are not going to trash someone else's culture" (213). Teachers want to avoid constructing a list of Native American books written exclusively by whites, for who can describe Native American culture more accurately than Native Americans? Beverly Slapin, one of the authors of Through Indian Eyes, explains her encounter with a teacher who asked for Slapin's thoughts on a multicultural booklist the teacher was working on:

There were three categories: African-American, Asian-American, and Native American. All of the books on the African-American list were written by African-American authors; all of the books on the Asian-American list were written by Asian-American authors; and all of the books on the Native American list were written by -- did you guess? -- whites. Variations of this story are often shared among Native people, who, time and again, have to explain to well-meaning educators why a "multicultural" list of books written by whites is not "multicultural." It is, if I may coin a term, "unicultural. . . ." (2-3)

The information about Native Americans has been so distorted in all venues of American society-including books, films, television, sports, and the news media-that any non-Native could easily distort Native American culture without even realizing it. As the authors pointed out, only non-Natives who are highly educated on Native America should attempt to write children's books.

Due to the high levels of misrepresentation of Native Americans in children's books, teachers should consult sources such as Through Indian Eyes before selecting a book. Failure to do so could result in hurting the Native children in the class and implanting bias in the non-Native children. For example, one of the reviews critiques a book called Return of the Indian (1986, grades 4-6), which, according to the review, has won critical acclaim for fine writing and for having a wonderful collection of characters (120). The review includes an excerpt from the book:

He saw an Indian making straight for him. His face, in the torchlight, was twisted with fury. For a second, Omri saw, under the shaven scalplock, the mindless destructive face of a skinhead just before he lashed out. . . . The Algonquin licked his lips, snarling like a dog. . . . Their headdresses . . . even their movements . . . were alien. Their faces, too-their faces! They were wild, distorted, terrifying masks of hatred and rage. (121)

The reviewer reacts to this excerpt:

My heart aches for the Native child unfortunate enough to stumble across, and read, these books. How could s/he, reading this, fail to be damaged? How could a white child fail to believe that s/he is far superior to the bloodthirsty, sub-human monsters portrayed here? Not any amount of fine writing excuses such an abuse of the child audience. (121)

Most of the books reviewed, however, do not demonstrate as much overtly damaging text as The Return of the Indian. Many of the books that received negative reviews in Through Indian Eyes are guilty of misrepresenting Native American culture and/or fostering Indian stereotypes. For example, the reviewers say that Sweetgrass (1984, grades 5-up), which received the Canada Council's Children's Literature prize for 1984 and was the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for children, "is demeaning and inaccurate in so many ways, that I would not consider it, even as an alternative" (173). The book is about a Blackfoot girl who is obsessed with getting married. Not only are the portrayals of the women characters "appalling," but the author "seems to have little understanding of the patterns of tribal life" (172-73). Another book to include misrepresentations of Native culture is Knots on a Counting Rope (1987, grades 3-6): "Most non-Native readers will have no way of knowing that there is very little of Knots on a Counting Rope that is true to any specific Native culture. . . . It is a crass, and deliberate, rip-off-an insult to all of us, and most of all to the people of the Navajo Nation" (183). In some of the books, the illustrations were more of a problem than the text, typically in books aimed at young children in which illustrations are more prevalent. In Doctor Coyote: A Native American Aesop's Fables (1987, grades 2-4):

All of the characters are animals dressed up like Indians; not from back then, but right now. Coyote wears blue jeans, a squash blossom necklace, and a windband; and drives a pickup. The female coyotes wear shawls and big silver-and-turquoise bracelets. Coyote lives in a stereotypical reservation shack-you know, yard full of junk, outhouse in the back.
. . . .
Given the historical tendency of white people to think of the Native population as being somewhere between animals and real human beings, these pictures are, to say the very least, unfortunate. (125-26)

The tendency of the white population to think this way stemmed from the portrayal of Indians as savages in so many textbooks and other media. The "savage" image is utilized in Three Fools and a Horse (1975, grades 1-2) in which the three Apache Indians on the cover of the book more closely resemble the typical image of the "wild caveman" than three human beings. Illustrator Glen Rounds epitomizes the stereotypical image of Indians as animals by giving them scraggly hair and dumb looks on their faces. The reviewers sum up this book as follows: "This is a very bad book" (118).

It is important for teachers to consult a book like Through Indian Eyes, even if the social studies supervisor in their district has chosen the recommended books carefully. One of the books on the core reading list for Montgomery county is The Sign of the Beaver (1983, grades 4-7), which did not get a favorable review in Through Indian Eyes. The Sign of the Beaver is about a friendship between a white boy and the Indian boy who saves his life, set in the late eighteenth century during westward expansion. The reviewers are disturbed by the way the Indians are portrayed: "At no point in the book are the Native characters allowed to speak in other than this grade-B movie pidgin. 'That our way. All Indian understand'" (214). Additionally, the reviewers explain that the Indian women, ceremonial feasting, and treatment of animals are not portrayed accurately (214-15). In the end, the Indian characters "fade conveniently into the sunset, never to return, driven from their ancestral lands by the encroaching whitemen" (214).

Since teachers cannot be too careful when choosing which books to use in the classroom, the authors of Through Indian Eyes present guidelines for evaluating the text and illustrations of a book that is being considered for use in the classroom. First of all, look for stereotypes:

Are Native peoples portrayed as savages, or primitive craftspeople, or simple tribal people, now extinct? - or - Are Native peoples shown as human beings, members of highly defined and complex societies?
. . . .

Are Native cultures oversimplified and generalized? Are Native people all one color, one style? - or - Are Native cultures presented as separate from each other, with each culture, language, religion, dress, unique? (244-45)

Second, look for loaded words:

Are there insulting overtones to the language in the book? Are racist adjectives used to refer to Indian peoples? - or - Is the language respectful? (247)

Third, look for tokenism:

Are Native people depicted as stereotypically alike, or do they look just like whites with brown faces? - or - Are Native people depicted as genuine individuals? (248)

Fourth, look for distortion of history:

Is their manipulation of words like "victory," "conquest," or "massacre" to justify Euro-American conquest of the Native homelands? Are Native Nations presented as being responsible for their own "disappearance?" Is the U.S. government only "trying to help." - or - Is history put in proper perspective: the Native struggle for self-determination and sovereignty against the Euro-American drive for conquest?
. . . .
Does the story encourage children to believe that Native peoples accepted defeat passively? - or - Does the story show the ways in which Native peoples actively resisted the invaders?
. . . .
Are Native heroes only the people who, in some way or another, are believed to have aided Europeans in the conquest of their own people? - or - Are Native heroes those who are admired because of what they have done for their own people? (229-51)

Fifth, look at the lifestyles:

Are Native cultures presented in a condescending manner? Are there paternalistic distinctions between "them" and "us?" - or - Is the focus on respect for Native peoples and understanding of the sophistication and complexity of their societies?
. . . .

Is a culture portrayed in a distorted or limited way? Are religions described as "superstitions," with backward or primitive connotations? - or - Are Indian religions and traditions described accurately, in the context of their civilizations?
. . . .
Is there an ethnocentric Western focus on material objects, such as baskets, pottery, rugs? - or - Does the writer show an understanding of the relationship between material and non-material aspects of life? (252-55)

Sixth, look at the dialogue:

Do the people speak in either a sort of "early jawbreaker" or in the oratorical style of the "noble savage?" - or - Do the people use language with the consummate and articulate skill of those who come from an oral tradition? (257)

Seventh, look for standards of success:

In modern times, are Indian people portrayed as childlike and helpless? Does a white authority figure-pastor, social worker, teacher-know better than Native people themselves what is "good for them?" Are Indian children "better off" away from their families? - or - Are Native adults seen as mature individuals who work hard and make sacrifices, in order to take care of their families, and for the well-being of the people?
. . . .
Do Native people and their communities contrast unfavorably with the "norm" of white middle-class suburbia? - or - Are Native people and their communities seen as their own cultural norm?
. . . .

Does it take "white" standards for Native people to get ahead? - or - Are Native values of hard work, sharing, honesty, and courage seen as integral to growth and development? (258-60)

Eighth, look at the role of women:

Are women completely subservient to men? - or - Are women portrayed as the integral and respected part of Native societies that they really are? (261)

Ninth, look at the role of the elders:

Are elders treated as a dispensable burden upon their People to be abandoned in times of trouble or famine; querulous, petulant, demanding, nagging, irritating, and boring? - or - Are elders treated as loved and valued custodians of a People's history, culture, and lifeways? Are they cherished in the words of the writer as they were and are in the reality of the lives of the People? (262)

Tenth, look for the effects on a child's self-image:

Is there anything in the story that would embarrass or hurt a Native child? - or - Are there one or more positive role models with which a Native child can identify? (263)

And finally, look at the author's or illustrator's background:

Is the background of the author or illustrator devoid of the qualities that enable them to write about Native peoples in an accurate, respectful manner? - or - Is there anything in the author's or illustrator's background that qualifies them to write about Native peoples? (264)

The authors give specific examples for each guideline to help teachers apply the guidelines to the text. The Council on Interracial Books for Children published similar guidelines, called Guidelines for Selecting Bias-Free Textbooks and Storybooks, reproduced in Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children. Although they are not specifically geared toward Native American books, they are very similar to the guidelines in Through Indian Eyes. The only additional guideline the Council suggests is to look at the copyright date. Books on minority themes suddenly began appearing in the 1960s to meet the new market demand, but they were written, edited, and published by whites (145). "Not until the early 1970s did the children's book world begin to even remotely reflect the realities of a pluralistic society" (145).

By applying these guidelines to supplemental texts, educators can build a multicultural classroom that includes the total Native American experience. There are more than enough materials available that meet the anti-bias guidelines, and they are readily available. All textbook publishers have reading and literature sections in their catalogs, but a better selection can be found at local bookstores, such as Super Crown. Some publishers are developing multicultural sections of their catalogues that provide multicultural resources. Addison Wesley provides both resources for instructing educators and resources to be used in the classroom. Planning and Organizing for Multicultural Instruction, for example, offers a step-by-step process for implementing multiculturalism in the classroom and is designed for teachers, curriculum advisors, principals, and district administrators (102). Cultural Awareness for Children is a book full of activities that help students learn about other cultures in "an atmosphere of acceptance and respect" (103). It consists of eight units that each cover a different culture, and "each unit has been reviewed by a native of the respective culture to ensure authenticity" (103). Steck-Vaughn offers an entire catalog of K-12 supplementary materials, including a section on Native American stories.

Educators must be careful when examining these materials as well. MacMillan/McGraw-Hill was the only publishing company to send me a complete teacher's kit along with the textbook. The teacher's edition presents a two-page spread describing how multiculturalism has been addressed in their textbook series, entitled "The World Around Us." Yet, the textbook, United States and Its Neighbors, ended up last on my list of the currently used textbooks for acceptable coverage of the Native American experience. The teacher's kit included a book called Social Studies Anthology which includes excerpts from many primary resources. Yet it includes no Native American sources under the Twentieth Century section. What about the "Alcatraz Proclamation to the Great White Father and his People" of 1969, or "Leonard Peltier's Pre-Sentencing Statement" of 1977, or President Clinton's "Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on Government-to-Government Relations with Native American Tribal Governments" of 1994, or one of the many beautiful poems written by contemporary Native American poets? Apparently, not one modern Native American story, poem, speech, or document warrants inclusion in this anthology.

Applying multiculturalism, in terms of the Native American experience, to the American History curriculum, is not difficult if educators are committed to doing so, as evidenced by Montgomery county. It requires extra effort from the district administrators, to search out and approve the textbooks and other reading materials, and conduct the multicultural education workshops. Moreover, it requires extra effort from the teachers, who must attend the multicultural education workshops, investigate the books chosen, and tailor a curriculum for their classes. For the most part, multiculturalism is a prevalent topic in today's education arena and will eventually be addressed by all parties involved in decisions concerning education in America. However, there is more information available on integrating the African-American experience than there is on the Native American experience, and educators may have to seek out Native American material more actively. For example, at the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) conference, held in February 1995 in Washington, DC, only two of the 170 sessions addressed the Native American experience. Both sessions concerned teaching American Indian students, not teaching all students about Native Americans. Until Native American issues are considered important by all textbook publishers, teachers, school systems, policymakers, administrators, and educational associations, those who are committed to true multicultural education must apply extra effort to reach their goals.


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