Probably the most interesting thing I have learned in this class, is that so much of what I know about native American history is complete bunk! One such example is the video game "Oregon Trail" which we all played in computer class in second grade. The Indians would attack, and if you were lucky, they would kill your brother (if you were unlucky, you had to hope he would fall under the wagon wheel, or succumb to the oh-so classic "You have died of Dysentery"). This is a horrible misconception. Fewer than 350 white settlers were killed while crossing Native lands during the time, and Indians were much more frequently aides than enemies.
Another great example is Custer's Last Stand, or more appropriately, the battle of Little Big Horn. In popular knowledge, poor Custer was nobly doing his duty to his country, when he was viciously attacked by savages! But have no fear, he died with honor, defending his country to the end. This misnomer was just reaffirmed in an E-mail I received last week. Horrible! In reality, Custer attacked during a ceremony and hoped to slaughter an unsuspecting village. Fortunately, justice was on the side of the Lakotas, and they routed him. There is a super neato photo essay in the book on 357 about this!
How did these misnomers begin and why are they so heavily propagated despite their blatant contradiction of historical evidence? I would say the problem originates with our inherently racist society and our 'othering' of Native peoples. Of course Hollywood can take some blame, but they cannot force us to devour films which contradict our morals. No matter how disgraceful, any successful Hollywood endeavor must reflect, on some level, the moral constitution of society. This tells me our society is pretty weak sauce :(
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I have never even heard of this Oregon Trail video game, let alone played it in school. Why they would allow children to participate in something like this is incredible to me. How would this make children of Native American descent feel to have to play this game? I would be outraged if I had a child in a school that allowed this. I was also given a very unrealistic version of Custer in school. He is portrayed as such an American hero. I know some of the history should be presented in a way that makes it appropriate for children to listen to but changing it to outright lies is really not necessary.
I think the main reason we have a lot of misinformation about Native history and what happened is due to the fact that most people don't view Native history as part of American history. In most US history courses Native history is only taught when it relates to settlers. If history courses barely touch on Native history how do you expect people to not have a skewed view?
Dude! Despite that game being terribly inaccurate, you have to admit that is a pretty ballin game. I think I am going to wip that game out right now a play some ole, Oregon Trail. Anyway, I commented on some other issues of racism and how we never address the issues of that toward Indian peoples. Its kinda sad when you get down to it.
Yeah, i remember that game. I played it when i was younger and gave no thought to it about shooting my own people. Crazy. Anywayz, that game has to be the worst game out there. I wonder what the teachers were thinking who were watching over us thought.
I remember that I thought I was so cool because I got Oregon Trail at my house before the school got it. The classic version which is definitely the best was horribly inaccurate. I have also played a new version which had a lot better graphics and seemed to be more accurate, but I forgot a lot of the details. Regardless, I feel sorry for anyone that had to play that game as an educational tool, and had no follow up course on Native American history.
I totally know what you mean about the computer game. I still play Oregon Trail to this day and for some reason I ALWAYS die of dysentary or cholera. I do think that while the game is completely unrealistic to the truth of what traveling the trail was like, they tried to introduce the idea of "middle ground" or alliances by giving you the chance to trade with native groups you encounter or get aid from them. This might be a newer version of the game and it doesn't happen very often but it was a bit of truth in the stereotypes followed by the game.
My kids and I have played the newer versions of Oregon Trail, and there isn't any killing or attacking of Indians on it. My daughter remembers trading with the Indians. The game could still talk about hostile Indians, which we know is inaccurate, but I believe it has been updated. The version I remember did have hunting of buffalo and other game to feed your family, but limited the amount you could get, because it talked of waste. And they still played it in schools.
I remember playing Oregon Trial as well. As my family and I marched across the endless prairies of Nebraska, we ran out of food. On the brink of starvation, a local group of Indians picked some berries for us that lasted until the next trading post.
Obviously this game wasn't extremely realistic, but the I also remember the portrait of Indians to be a positive one in this game. Maybe some of the newer versions are trying to paint a more realistic picture, which not only includes Indians, but also Indians and settlers working together.
The thing I most remember from that game is heinous runs of smallpox terrorizing my family. One would go down, and then everybody would get sick, ruining my voyage to Oregon. I'm not even going to mention trying to ford the rivers...
Anybody remember trying to float the Dallas River? Anyway, you do bring up a good point. What message do little kids take from being attacked by "crazy Injuns", some of whom kill their family or oxen or whatever. I know that at eight years old, I would be more affected by a video game than something I half-way learned in history class
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