"Old myths never die––they just become embedded in textbooks"
–– Thomas Bailey
"In the fateful year 1492, probably no more than 4 million Native Americans padded through the whispering, primeval forests and paddled across the sparkling virgin waters of North America."
–– Excerpt from The American Pageant
In this chapter, Loewen turns a corner in his argument. Not only are textbooks telling half-truths and misinformation, many times they are continuing the mis-history even when it has been clearly shown to be wrong. The excerpt I quoted above is a clear case of this; the author states that this information was shown to be false when it was first written in 1956. He estimates that there were well over 20 million Indians in North America alone. As well, most Indians in the time of Columbus were farmers. So, why are these stories continued? Upon reflection, I believe Loewen hits on several key reasons. I will share on two of them.
First, the author wrote, "Textbook authors still write history to comfort descendants of the "settlers" (Loewen, 95). I think this is an interesting idea that seems true from my experience with textbooks. I will keep this in mind as I review textbooks in the future. What he means by this is that the way stories and "history" is presented is with a view to make white Americans feel better about themselves. I feel bad to say, but when I read the escaped slave notice on page 103, I felt sympathy for the slave-owner and a twinge of annoyance with the enslaved Indian. When the slave owner wrote that his slave had a guilty countenance, I immediately had a visual of a typical indian from many older movies. Yet, what would an American Indian feel if he read this in a textbook. How would he/she feel if this topic were coldly and unemotionally discussed in a school classroom. Most likely, the American Indian would go away red-eyed, and the white American would go away cross-eyed!
Second, Loewen wrote, "All of the textbooks are locked into the old savage-to barbaric-to-civilized schools of anthology dating back to L.H. Morgan and Karl Marx." This has been something I have noticed and been frustrated about for several years. I was surprised to find out that this is Marxist thinking; and equally surprised to see how modern this view is yet how pervasive it is in academia. In America we have historically resisted Communism and Marxist thought, yet this way of thought does not seem to have been challenged in American education.
I feel that this kind of thought is strongly influenced by evolutionary theory. If evolution is true, than it would make sense that earlier people were ignorant, crude, and less humane than today. In this case, the savage-to barbaric-to-civilized model makes perfect sense. Yet, if there is another explanation, such as humans having been created by God, then it could be possible to think that in the distant past people might have been smarter and more advanced than today. Without making a definitive statement on this issue, I believe as educators we need to offer up more than one viewpoint and let the students work through them. This leads to my final thought of not making history so neat and clean with THE right answer given.
I really like Loewen's call for giving students multiple theories, and letting them do the research to seek out truth. This is a perfect intersection between this book and teaching history! We need to spark the fires of interest in our students for ferreting out answers for themselves. So, in the case of American Indians, I would like to start with the present and work backwards, seeking to understand real historical Indians. I would like to have the class pick one modern Indian tribe, research about them, then work backwards: how did they arrive where they are, what is their history, what has been their historical interaction with the U.S. government, what is the earliest known story in their culture, etc. If possible, I would want my students to be able to talk with real Native Americans and hear their story. We could use Skype, e-mail, video, or a field trip. Why do this? I believe that the only way to truly know and understand another is to talk with them.
Big Question: How can we as social study teachers effectively remove old myths and promote real history in the short amount of time that we have with our students?
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This site is an interactive way to learn more about Native Americans through video, story, and music.
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