The Misrepresentation of Native Americans in Textbooks in the United States

Voiceover

Presenter(s)

Haley Oroho

Abstract or Description

Primarily students from k-12 learn about the history of the United States, and a significant portion of that history includes Native Americans, yet their point of view is usually not included or limited in textbooks. This has been a reoccurring issue with American textbooks for decades for several reasons including racism, limited access to certain resources, and not having authors with a focus in Native American history. This paper will look at a range of different textbooks from the 1970s to the most recent editions in order to compare how certain events are portrayed in these textbooks over time. The paper will also provide evidence from primary sources connected to these events such as Columbus’s journal. The reasoning is to show how textbooks have different portrayals of a specific event, but the one consistency is that some of the information within textbooks is inconsistent with Native American accounts of the situation. This matter is continually being ignored and has caused issues in the past and continues to have repercussions not only on students but also Native Americans. Publishers and authors of textbooks need to realize this error and create a new set of standards that their books must have in order to be inclusive and accurately represent history.  

Mentor

Dr. Andrew Simpson