“There Are No Living Indians”: Exploring the Inadequacies of Education in the US Midwest Regarding Native Americans

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In the US Midwest, most students are exposed only briefly to the precontact history in the fourth grade and then not again unless they opt for archaeology as an elective in college. The Ohio Board of Education requires teachers to merely state that American Indians lived in Ohio, participated in the War of 1812, and then died or left the area. Unfortunately, that is the end of the story for many students. This leads to disturbing trends, including the belief that American Indians are no longer living, the perpetuation of damaging stereotypes about American Indians, and the disregard and destruction of archaeological sites. This study chronicles the prevalence of these trends in our students based on formal interviews of field school students along with a sample of educators, other university students, and visitors at a few archaeological sites. After presenting the findings from the survey, we explore how we can remedy the problem. The hope is that by doing so we can be of service to American Indians that are descendants of this land to reconnect in a variety of ways.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35976.0