Jake Thibodeau
My Rant:
I found it interesting that I had only vaguely heard of the incident at Alcatraz. Again, this shows that when we talk about American history, we tend to leave out the only true Americans. For a future history teacher, this is very frustrating. This protest at Alcatraz was a big deal and at least equal to anything that the hippies did during their protests and rebellions during the 60’s. Why do we as teachers only teach what the whites were doing during these time periods? I know the answer is that whites write the history, but again I ask more vehemently, why do we as teachers only teach white Anglo history? I would like to be able to teach about these things, but will I be punished because I am not sticking to the curriculum or not teaching to the standards? It seems we could do a better job of bringing up minority issues and relating minority history to our students. This too is our history and to ignore it is at the least shameful and at most racist.
I would have liked to have heard more about the Native American Movements throughout school, but at least I heard them this week. These were very interesting and showed that Indians played a role in the developing counter culture that was so powerful during the 60’s. It seems ridiculous that the Indian story would be left out while discussing the counter culture because so many hippies were influenced by Native American perceptions. Most were stereotypical in their perceptions of Native Americans, but they were influenced none the less. In the future, I hope to learn more about these times and be able to pass them on to my future students.
4 comments:
I agree with your point about Alcatraz. I've toured Alcatraz twice and I have NEVER seen anything about the Indian protest there. There isn't a single mention of it in the museum or in the actual prison. Is Alcatraz ashamed that it happened? Or is it just another example of the gaping hole in American history.
I think its very disappointing what we don't learn about in history classes, american history isn't just about the majority
If your really interested in learning more about Native history and Red Power their are some books out their I would suggest to you that are written by Native authors. Any thing by Vine Delora Jr. is great reading material. He is was a very educated man, has degrees in several areas and he talks about Red Power and what the Government has done to the Native American from a Native perspective.
Also there is a book called Red Power by Josephy also a Native writer.
I took Intro. to American Indian Studies at Haskell and our class had to read these books.
I agree Jake, the sixties are my favorite subject of twentieth century history and the Native American Movement is completely under-represented. I hadn't ever heard of the occupation of the BIA until class.
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