9 A Call For Indigenous Educators
Revisiting our earlier discussion, I will again emphasize that, “education will not produce less racist institutions as long as white people control them. Expecting white educators to reconstruct racist institutions ignores that they face the sticky dilemma of attempting to educate the masses in a way that allows them accessibility to high status knowledge and places them on an equal footing to compete,” (Pewewardy 2000, pg. 19) (Gordon 1985, pg. 37). After centuries of colonialism, we cannot entrust white educators to do the work necessary to properly educate students on these matters. White educators have an internal bias resulting from a life of privilege, and perhaps an unconscious drive to maintain hegemony in fear of disrupting their place in society. This unconscious drive and the ability to properly educate students on the wrongdoings of colonizers and the lasting presence of colonialism may be mutually exclusive. Additionally, the histories and lessons which need to be taught in curriculums like these would not be best presented by non-Indigenous educators, though white educators dominate the wealth of information on these subjects from even text like this one to the textbooks used in schools.
“It is important to include American Indians in the textbook process because American Indians desire to have an opportunity to tell our own stories – not recited from a history text but told through the voices of our own members. It is important to help the outside world understand that these legends are important because they belong to [American Indians], not because someone outside our community can recite them,” (Duncan 1998, pg. 11) (Padgett 2015, pg. 166).
It is common in academia for information to be deemed as unreliable or irrelevant until it is told through a western perspective, often from a white author. The translation of important knowledge into a form viewed as more digestible by a white audience results in a loss of crucial lessons, and is yet another form of colonialism. Because of this, many Indigenous scholars fear, “that by bringing Indigenous knowledges into western institutions, we encourage ‘extraction of elements of Indigenous ways of understanding the world… to fit with the curriculum areas,’” (Murray and Campton 2023, pg. 14). In order to combat this worry, we must prioritize these subjects being taught by Indigenous educators themselves.
Despite the obvious boundary of discrimination in the workforce, the problem with the lack of Indigenous educators has far deeper roots. Besides the fact that our method of educating youth in the United States is based on a western lifestyle and way of doing, the history of Indian Boarding Schools has resulted in generational trauma and adversity to the public education system in many Indigenous communities. This history, as well as many others, has resulted in a deep distrust of any government system but especially those related to schooling, which rightfully prevents parents from fully supporting or encouraging their children’s participation in public schools. Additionally, the fact that Indigenous peoples are seldom reflected in curriculums does not encourage enthusiasm for education in these students. By excluding these teachings, Indigenous students do not see that their families—the basis of their identities—are valued by schools. Schools do not acknowledge the contributions of the current generation of Indigenous peoples, which does not lead students to view Indigenous students as an integral part of the United States. As Padgett states, “I also call for more research on modern American Indian issues, so that our children know that we still exist, and that their grandparents are real people and not stereotypes or sports logos,” (Padgett 2015, pg. 167).