When Wilma Mankiller was growing up, there was, she said, "a single view, an Ozzie-and-Harriet-Nelson view, of what it meant to be an American." Mankiller, the first woman to be elected Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, reminded educators that in the public schools of her generation, the histories of Native Americans, African Americans, and other ethnic people "were simply absent from the curriculum."
Photo by Mark Regan
Much has changed, Mankiller conceded, but not enough—as evidenced by the "ridiculous stereotypes" that still exist about Native Americans and all people of color.
"I've heard them all," she stated. She remembered talking with one reporter who asked if she had ridden a horse to work that day. And she was astonished when a psychologist once asked her whether Native American people had mental health problems. "Did he not think we are human?" Mankiller wondered.
Such stereotypes exist because "there's such a lack, even today, of accurate information about Native Americans in the public school system or even in the popular culture," Mankiller asserted. She pointed out that she and other tribal people "know an awful lot about Caucasian people. We go to your public school system, we read your literature, we listen to your music." But, she added, "except for things like this particular conference, there is nothing in society that encourages you to learn about us."
Still, Mankiller is optimistic. She's found that most teachers, if given the curriculum, are willing to teach about the contributions of all cultures to society. Therefore, "part of the challenge for tribal people is to develop a curriculum for schools to use." She added, however, that this is not the responsibility of tribal people alone. All educators, Mankiller maintained, share the responsibility of including Native Americans, and all people of color, in the curriculum.
What's more, including a Native American perspective in the curriculum "doesn't have to be complicated," Mankiller insisted. When it's time for children to learn about Columbus, for example, the teacher simply needs to make it known that "vibrant cultures existed" well before the explorer's arrival. "Just doing something simple that acknowledges the existence of tribal people" makes all the difference, Mankiller said. "And that one Native American student will sit a little straighter, be a little stronger, if her history is acknowledged."