Native American History

Discussion in 'Homeschooling' started by Blizzard, Oct 9, 2012.

  1. Blizzard

    Blizzard Member

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    How do you handle Native American history? Any favorite resources?

    Right now I'm really torn on the topic and have avoided a lot of US history because I wasn't sure how I felt about it. My husband is half NA, so he is a little sensitive about how things were handled during the founding of this country. His opinion was that "we" came in and pretty much scammed and stole the land from the Indians, basically destroying their way of life.

    I was taught history from a Christian perspective, which did include some of the bad things that happened, but it was minimal and a little watered down, imo. Really, I'd love to just teach the facts of what happened on both sides, without a slant either way. Are their any good books/web sites you have used that really get into this subject?
     
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  3. Embassy

    Embassy New Member

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    I'd just tell it like it was and not water it down. If you don't think your kids could handle it I'd just wait until they were older. I think most books designed for kids are slanted towards looking at the founding fathers and explorers in a good light. Everything has a slant though. The best thing I have found so far is Howard Zinn's book A Young People's History of the United States.

    I've been a little torn in the past too. My kids are citizens of two countries and this year is the anniversary of the war between the two countries. I've avoided US history until my kids can understand and appreciate the complexities involved. I didn't want to do anything watered down at all. Next year my oldest is jumping in and will get a good dose of reality when he explores US history.
     
  4. Embassy

    Embassy New Member

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  5. Laura291

    Laura291 New Member

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    Check out Sonlight's list of books. We are doing Sonlight American History Core D right now, and I've been impressed with the books assigned. I think it has done a good job of pointing out that the "white people" where not heros, but not all of them were bad either. It does a good job of showing examples of how the Native Americans lived before they were forced off their land. Here are the books we've read so far that we've enjoyed:

    Pedro's Journal, by Pam Conrad
    Walk the World's Rim, by Betty Baker
    Pocahantas and the Strangers, by Clyde Robert Bulla
    The Sign of the Beaver, by Elizabeth George Spear (our favorite so far!)
    Incans, Aztecs, Mayans by John Holzmann

    These are all fictional stories, but do a good job of showing, through story, what life was like and the events that took place.

    Good luck!
    Laura
     
  6. JosieB

    JosieB Active Member

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    We're just touching on NA and Early American History now.

    The problem is, is every book on the planet has a slant one way or another.

    My guess is, as with most things, the real truth will never be known, one side will make it seem worse, the other better.

    (though I'd venture to say NA/EA history was much worse than my PS history books claimed-those are very slanted AND watered downed! LOL)

    Much of history, to quite honest, is much too gruesome for me not to offer a bit of a watered down version to my children. There isn't much I change when we read our old books, but I have one sensitive child and something like "this one Indian chief's son was killed and they chopped his head off, stuck it on a pole and it was placed in the town square for all to see and remained there for years" is just not a story he could handle very well, so I'm choosing to wait a bit about the details of some of the history until I feel he can emotionally handle it.
     
  7. mschickie

    mschickie Active Member

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    You can also check out Sonlight's Indian Prayer guide. It does tell when Christians were not living up to the name Christian when it came to the Native Americans. It also gives a lot of great cultural information about various tribes along with some history. I did not think I would like that book but it turned out to be a great resource. They also have a book called Vostaas:White Buffalo's Story of the Plains Indians...that is written by a native american.

    There are also lots of resources from various tribes themselves. The one for the Onondaga Nation is pretty good http://www.onondaganation.org/
     
  8. crazymama

    crazymama Active Member

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    I totally feel ya.

    What we use for US history just skims the Native American topics. I think it's a "let's try to not start a debate" thing. They cover lots of info before white man came, but once white man arrives it's a bit sugar coated.

    Hubby is half Blackfoot. I always was bothered by the way Native American's were treated before I had children whose ancestors were robbed of their homes, land, and ways of life. I tell my kids like it is, it's not nice to take things that don't belong to you.
     
  9. pecangrove

    pecangrove New Member

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    From what I have learned, there were tribes that weren't peaceful, and explorers that weren't peaceful. Once the fighting began, it was near impossible to stop. I do believe that the majority of the fault belonged to the explorers, though, as this was not their land to inhabit.
    We try to teach our children both sides of every story, and while we don't water things down, we don't go into gory detail either. I think it is difficult to tell both sides without some kind of slant, but we do our best and hope we teach them right.
     
  10. Blizzard

    Blizzard Member

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    Thanks for the replies and suggestions everyone! I've really been dreading and putting off US history for this very reason. I guess I'm not interested in going into the gruesome details, but more of just the true story. It is just so hard to know which angle to go with....
     
  11. sweetsarahbeth

    sweetsarahbeth Member

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    Resurrecting this thread to see if anybody else has any ideas, suggestions or input. We are in the same spot. It's a subject I'm excited about starting, but don't want to unintentionally mistreat.
     
  12. Maybe

    Maybe New Member

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    I am part Indian and I have family still living near Indian reservation and an uncle who used to work for the state and is an expert in Indian history. (yeah, I am saying Indian, my ancestry, my choice). I let him tell the kids a lot and they get to see a lot of his things he has, as back before/when the laws changed making it illegal to keep things from federal lands, the Governor let him keep some of the things from his digs. I try to remember what I can and repeat it to the kids.

    I wish he would write on this. He is thinking of writing this down, for his grandkids. I wish he would. It is the non-PC version. (hint:the North American Indians were not simply one big peace loving cohesive group that sat around smoking peace pipes and loving one another).
     
  13. m0m0f3boys

    m0m0f3boys New Member

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    I am also at a loss as to how to teach this. Good things happened, bad things happened. My goal is to be honest about it.
     

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