In 2020, I became the Connecticut Fellow for the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation and pursued a second master’s degree in American History at Gettysburg College. This program, in conjunction with the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History, allowed me to take graduate-level courses with top leading historians. One of them was Ned Blackhawk of Yale, who taught a course on Native American History, a topic that is rarely taught in Connecticut schools. I was immediately hooked, so much so that I completed my capstone project on Native American History in Connecticut and, a year later, created a semester-long elective course for my high school.
I wanted my students to gain an understanding and appreciation of the Native community and a sense that their history is not over. Often when my students think of Indigenous groups, they think of pre-revolutionary battles with settlers and the first Thanksgiving. They never think of Indigenous groups today, even though members of the Golden Hill Paugussett tribe attend our high school.
Mrs. Boland created a bulletin board for her students featuring tribes in Connecticut, along with relevant locations and monuments throughout the country.
Looking for resources was extremely time-consuming until I came across Retro Report’s catalog! There I found the perfect introduction to Native activism for my course: a video on the occupation of Alcatraz Island.
The occupation was a catalyst for a national movement of tribal sovereignty and identity. The video highlights several other movements that were inspired by Alcatraz, including the more recent protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline project. After the lesson, we explored the interactive map “Indigenous Activism in the United States” together. My students enjoyed the ease of the timeline and the current relevance of the video. Each student picked an event or topic to research and present to the class. They were engaged and excited to work on their assignment.
Last December, the University of Connecticut entered into a historic partnership with the five tribes in Connecticut, and it was all over the news. One of my students connected it to the video and LaNada War Jack’s fight to set up a Native American studies center on Alcatraz to teach the accurate truth about their history. My student asked, “Wouldn’t War Jack be happy about this today?” What a moment in teaching!
I am proud to offer Native American History as a Social Studies elective to all Trumbull High School students. Native American History is American History, and the resources from Retro Report enliven the native voices and accurate accounts.
KATIE BOLAND is a Social Studies teacher and coach for the “We The People” civics competition at Trumbull High School in Connecticut. She is a Retro Report Ambassador.
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