Native American Classroom Inclusion: Power,

Transcript:Native American Classroom Inclusion: Power,:
Native American Classroom Inclusion: Power, Literacies & Epistemologies The Indian survived out open intention of wiping them out. And since the tide has turned they have even weathered our good intentions toward them, which can be more deadly. --John Steinbeck What & How We Know Often Fall Semester, I heard colleagues say that Reading Tommy Orange’s There There was challenging, and it was, but the challenges were not due to its Native American Author, the narratives of Native American people, nor that it ends, as it began with slaughter, but because Western Epistemology and literacy are ill-equipped to make sense of a story not its own. Color Blind Literacy : Who Can and Cannot Know Western approach to literacy, New Criticism, a formalist approach that views the text as an object separate from context, is easily recognizable as the most common method of literary analysis in US schools (qtd Borsheim-Black and Tatiana Sarigianides 72). It focuses on close reading and examination of literary elements, such as theme, plot, character, and symbol. The problem with this method of literary analysis is that ignores issues of race, to include Whiteness. Critical Race Theory Majority White Teaching Force working in majority-minority schools White-Dominant—educational context in which currently or in the past—student demographics and communities are predominantly White CRT assumes racism is endemic CRT challenges colorblindness and Abstract Liberalism CRT values the voices of experiences of people of color CRT prioritizes Social Action CRT considers racial identity in interpretation of text https://teachingwhilewhite.org/podcast/2018/8/18/white-fragility-part-one https://teachingwhilewhite.org/podcast/recoveringthevoiceofnativeamericansinschool Indian Head: “This was just a test.” (4) Massacre as Prologue A series of “successful” massacres, extermination , prologue to the conclusion ”At Sand Creek, we heard it said that the mowed us down with howitzers.” They did more than kill us. The tore us up. Mutilated us. Broke our fingers to take our rings, cut off our ears to take our silver, scalped us for our hair…They tore unborn babies out of bellies, took what we intend to be, our children before the were children, babies before they were babies, they ripped them out of our bellies. The broke soft heads against giant tees. Then the took or body parts as trophies.” (8) The Massacre of Culture Identity Destruction of of identity through education, assimilation and appropriation Culture The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and