Teaching Hard History

As longtime readers know, I've been working on creating a fourth grade Montana history curriculum. The first units, Montana Today: A Geographical Study and Montana's First Peoples are done and ready to use.

The next units will focus on the push-pull factors that brought newcomers to Montana, their lives once they arrive, and the consequences of Euro-American settlement and federal Indian policy for the people who were already here.

As I've been writing, I've been thinking a lot about how to introduce difficult and emotional topics like tribal land loss and the boarding school experience in a way that's appropriate for fourth graders.

I don't want the white kids to feel guilty, a counterproductive and useless emotion. And I don't want Indian students to feel disempowered. At the same time, I believe, in the words of Teaching Tolerance, that "our youngest students deserve a truthful, age-appropriate account of our past."

How do you deal with difficult topics and the emotions that they may bring up in your classrooms? What would help you do this better? 

I've been scouring the internet and, in addition to the Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians, the best thing I've found so far on this topic is Teaching Tolerance's “Teaching Hard History: A Framework for Teaching American Slavery.”  (If you have other things you think I should read, please send along your suggestions!)

I’ve excerpted and modified some of their suggestions below, mostly, but not exclusively, by substituting “federal Indian policy” for “slavery.” I've also added a few thoughts of my own. Let me know what you think of this as a framework. Is it useful?

1. Prepare yourself for difficult conversations. Remind students that no one chooses their parents. No one is responsible for the actions of their ancestors. What’s important is how we choose to act now.

2. “Be ready to talk about race” and colonialism. “You can’t reasonably discuss [federal Indian policy] without talking about race, racism, white supremacy,” and imperialism—"something that makes many teachers, particularly white teachers, uncomfortable.” (How can we become more comfortable with this?)

3. Students can be proud of their ancestors while recognizing the hardships they faced and/or the advantages they had.

4. “Teach about commonalities” first, and “center the stories” of native people. “One common mistake is to begin by discussing the evils” of federal Indian policy. “Doing so subtly communicates that [indigenous people] lacked agency and culture. Instead, start by learning about the diversity [of tribal nations], including their intellectual and cultural traditions.”

5. “Embed civics education. When students learn about the history of [American Indian policy], they have ample opportunities to explore the many dimensions of civics. First, students should consider the nature of power and authority. They should describe what it means to have power and identify ways that people use power to help, harm and influence situations. Beginning with examples from their classroom, families and communities, students can examine how power is gained, used and justified.” (This one seems hard to me--how do you do this in your classroom?)

6. “Teach about conflict and change." The history of Federal Indian policy “is a story of terrible oppression; at the same time, it is also a story of incredible resistance and resilience.” Teachers should show students ways that indigenous people resisted, such as preserving cultural traditions and native languages, and bringing home the new skills they learned at boarding schools to help their people.

7. Help students recognize that indigenous people worked to maintain their cultures while building new traditions that continue to be important. Through all the change, Montana’s indigenous people kept their culture and traditions alive through story-telling, art, religious ceremonies, and music.

8. Make explicit the connection between racism and the treatment of American Indians. “Differences, whether real or perceived, can make some people feel that it is okay to treat others badly, to exploit other people and to believe that some people are better than others.” Those who stood to profit from Indian land loss “adopted and spread false beliefs about racial inferiority, including many that still impact us today.”

9. Not every white person wanted to oppress American Indians. Some joined groups that tried to convince people in power to help Indians. Sometimes what these groups thought was helpful actually caused harm. Other times they did help. For example, Charles M. Russell and Frank Linderman worked with tribal leaders like Little Bear and Rocky Boy to lobby for the creation of Rocky Boy’s Reservation.

10. Bring the conversation forward, “encouraging discussion of circumstances that students and their families face. Students should study examples and role models from the past and present, and ask themselves: ‘How can I make a difference?’”

Adapted with permission of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. https://www.tolerance.org/frameworks/teaching-hard-history/american-slavery [tolerance.org/]