Interview · South Dakota · Nadine Eastman · Sherry Johnson · OSEU 5
Themes: Kinship & family, Storytelling & oral tradition, Education & learning, Values & generosity, Culture & continuity, Racism & representation, Listening & observation
Learn About questions
In what ways do our textbooks teach a “slanted” version of history?
What does it mean for textbooks to be “pro-American?”
How are biases created when using certain resources?
What perspectives are represented in the books I use to learn? Do I have access to more than one perspective?
Learn From questions
Do I have stories from my own family history that conflict with other stories from history that are taught or shared with me?
How might I gain a more rounded perspective of the world I live in?
Am I aware of biases that affect me?
Transcripts
Biased History Texts - Dr. Sherry Johnson & Dr. Nadine Eastman - OSEU #5
Watch this interview on YouTubeRight now our textbooks and our textbooks in school that we actually use are teaching a slanted history that is slanted towards the non-native, the colonialism, and we just, it's just not the truth. It doesn't give a perspective on both sides. It doesn't give a fair value of this person to that person. It's not only the native cultures, it's the other ethnic groups also.
There's the Spanish and the French and different people that... right now our textbooks are pro-American, which are there for a reason, but it's pro-American and we never can get, we can't get a fair shake out of the history books. It's a perverted, twisted history that we're really getting, and so when we bring teachers in and if we have non-native teachers teaching, you know, we have to work with our teachers and educate our teachers on what is it, the truth that you want to bring out there, but you also want to bring it out and not create other...
From all perspectives. Yeah, and not create biases from any other lens either. So we might use a textbook as a base foundation in our social studies curriculum, but we supplement a lot, and we supplement just from narrative and verbal, which would still be some storytelling, and then we also have some good native literature that you can supplement some information from there. There are stories and essays that really have a good perspective from the native perspective, and you can bring that in to supplement it and make it a more, less biased curriculum.
Resource text
From the current WoLakota source page:
Biased History Texts
Sherry Johnson & Nadine Eastman
Transcript
(deep listening, information)
(deep listening, transformation)
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Source materials
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Additional source transcripts
Biased History Texts
Biased History Texts - Dr. Sherry Johnson & Dr.
Nadine Eastman - OSEU #5
Right now our textbooks and our textbooks in school that we actually use are teaching a
slanted history that is slanted towards the non-native, the colonialism, and we just, it's
just not the truth. It doesn't give a perspective on both sides. It doesn't give a fair value
of this person to that person. It's not only the native cultures, it's the other ethnic groups
also.
There's the Spanish and the French and different people that... right now our textbooks
are pro-American, which are there for a reason, but it's pro-American and we never can
get, we can't get a fair shake out of the history books. It's a perverted, twisted history
that we're really getting, and so when we bring teachers in and if we have non-native
teachers teaching, you know, we have to work with our teachers and educate our
teachers on what is it, the truth that you want to bring out there, but you also want to
bring it out and not create other...
From all perspectives. Yeah, and not create biases from any other lens either. So we
might use a textbook as a base foundation in our social studies curriculum, but we
supplement a lot, and we supplement just from narrative and verbal, which would still be
some storytelling, and then we also have some good native literature that you can
supplement some information from there. There are stories and essays that really have
a good perspective from the native perspective, and you can bring that in to supplement
it and make it a more, less biased curriculum.