Reflection On Ted 252

TED 252 has taught me more about the realities of the world’s ongoing battles with racism, stereotypes, and oppression than any of my past teachers and history textbooks have in the last 12 years of my education combined. In this past week I have learned a great deal about the Native American’s perspective on the longstanding issues they have had with the American government since the time of the first arrival of European settlers. Being completely frank, I have come to a conclusion that I cannot accept an association with such catastrophically destructive group as the white European culture; I want to make changes to society by educating its young people. In any case, people of European decent are the ones that started this mess, so we need …show more content…
With all this in mind, we, as a nation, have dealt poorly with Native American relationships since the time of the first European encounter in the colonist age. We have lied, tricked and cheating our way into the unlawful ownership of Native American lands. Articles including Martin 's, "The Theft of the Black hills", "Treaty Rights", as well as, Bigelow 's, "Once Upon a genocide: COLUMBUS THING PUT REAL TITLE IN", all touch base on the subject of America 's negligence of the lives of other cultures. Martin in his article, "The Theft of the Black Hills", seriously takes a look at America 's past careless acts against the Native Americans with the theft of their land during the time of the Gold Rush. Americans didn 't care whether or not the Native Americans living on the land surrounding the Black Hills had enough resources to survive, they only cared about the profits that they could make by mining the Gold from the Black Hills. After decades of abuse from false and broken treaties, Native Americans made a desperate attempt to fight back with the demand of the return of their land as a result of the misappropriation that occurred. But, Native Americans, despite ample …show more content…
Anti-racist educators, however, have to pay special attention to the stereotypes and discrimination that Native American students in this day in age are battling. School curricula need to be modified to include the other long-ignored side of the story of Columbus and contributions made by Native American tribes. Such adjustments are model in the American Indian History, Culture And Language: Native American Contributions Curriculum. Contributions stemming from economy, spiritual, medicine, and even technology are included in this Native American based curriculum. America has a lot of work to do in the realm of recreating a culturally responsive education system, one that includes and embraces, rather than ignores and excludes. We cannot hide from our past wrongdoings, nor can we hide from where we came from, it is time as a nation to come to terms with the influences Native Americans have had on this country and teach these contribution to our future