Those of you reading the current Global Book Club selection have most likely been gaining a greater knowledge about the forced relocation of a large number of the indigenous people of the America, the American Indians, that occurred in the 1800s.
Cultural assimilation is a major theme in the book, and it is an issue that has been relevant to Americans Indians from the moment new cultures arrived in America. A few members of the PTPI staff traveled to Lawrence, Kansas USA to visit with Dr. Dan Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation and a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University, to learn from him and to hear his thoughts.
Dr. Wildcat provided a welcome in his native Yuchi language to all those reading the book with PTPI. View it here.
At the Cultural Center and Museum on campus, we learned about Haskell Indian Nations University, past and present:
- Near the end of the 1800s, the United States created boarding schools for American Indian children, forcibly removing them from the reservations where they lived. The goal of the schools was to assimilate the children, removing their ties to their tribes and in effect, stealing the tribe’s future by taking the children.
- Dr. Wildcat recommends the movie “The Only Good Indian” to gain a better insight on the subject
- Haskell opened in 1884 and provided industrial training in subjects such as tailoring, wagon making, blacksmithing, farming, sewing, cooking and homemaking.
- The school evolved over the years and in 1993 officially took the name it has today. On average, over 1,000 students enroll each semester, representing federally recognized tribes from all parts of the continental United States and Alaska. Recently, as many as 176 nations were represented in one school year.
Next we asked Dr. Wildcat to share his views on the way the history of the American Indians is taught in schools:
- American history is taught from a colonial perspective; American Indians have a very different history.
- Dr. Wildcat remarked that most students learn about how America was “discovered” and the indigenous people ask “discovered by whom?”; they also learn about “how the west was won” and American Indians ask “won from whom?”
- According to Dr. Wildcat, a way to change this (so long as students are using large history books) is to do supplemental reading by those who write about American history from a Native American perspective.
- One author recommendation for supplemental reading is Joseph Epes Brown
Tags: Global Book Club, Haskell Indian Nations University, Trail of Tears, Yuchi
I love the video of Dr. Wildcat! I also very much appreciate the comment about “How America was Discovered” and “How the West was won.” It definitely is thought provoking and insightful. Thanks for sharing!