Using Retro Report to Teach About Native American History

For centuries, Native American voices and those of their ancestors were silenced by the federal government under policies that pushed for assimilation and the eradication of Native history and culture. Moreover, a 2019 report by the National Congress of American Indians found that 87 percent of state history curricula do not mention Native American history after the year 1900. Data collected by the N.C.A.I. also found that K-12 curriculum in 27 states never mention any individual Native American person.

Recently, state education agencies, Native American education advocates and tribal colleges have called for requiring Native American education for all K-12 students, but many teachers have a hard time gathering the resources necessary to do so.

This is where Retro Report can help. Teachers can use the following videos and related classroom materials to teach about Native American history. The larger goal of the lessons is to develop empathy and to consider how the policies of the past continue to affect Native American communities today

Government-run Boarding Schools
“Forced Into Federal Boarding Schools as Children, Native Americans Confront the Past”

Beginning in the early 19th century, the federal government began establishing boarding schools for Native American children. While there, students were forced to change their names, cut their hair, stop speaking their native language and endure severe discipline. Diseases were common, and basic medical attention was not provided to students.

On the site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, the first federally funded school are the graves of over 180 students who died during the school’s 30 years in operation.

These schools were formed to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. Through the video and accompanying lesson plan, students will learn about how these schools fit into the larger assimilation policy of the federal government.

The Indian Child Welfare Act
“In the Long Fight to Protect Native American Families, a Law Stands Guard”

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act, a law passed in response to a long history of Native American children being separated from their families. The legislation protects Native American families and tribes by giving them preference in the adoption and foster care placement of Native American children.

During the 1950s and 60s, Native children were forcibly taken from their families by social workers and placed for adoption by white families. Some of the adopted children were exploited and abused. “We call it the scoop era, because your children weren’t safe playing in their front yards,” an Indigenous woman told Retro Report.

Students will learn about this policy and hear first-hand accounts of how it affected Native American communities in the video and accompanying lesson plan.

The Occupation of Alcatraz

“The 1969 Occupation of Alcatraz Was a Catalyst for Indigenous Activism”
In 1969, a group of Indigenous activists occupied Alcatraz Island, the site of an abandoned federal penitentiary, to reclaim land that was no longer being used. The occupation sparked a national conversation on the forced relocation and limited sovereignty of Native tribes.

The occupation ended in June 1971 with the forced removal of the occupiers, but it brought about change. President Richard Nixon persuaded Congress to pass a series of bills that ushered in a new period of tribal sovereignty.

LaNada Means War Jack, a leader of the occupation, wanted to set up a Native American studies center on Alcatraz to teach a more accurate version of American history. Students will hear from War Jack throughout the film and learn about her efforts in the accompanying lesson plan.

DAGMAR ROTHSCHILD is an education intern at Retro Report. She is an undergraduate at Georgetown, studying International Relations. Stay up to date. Subscribe to our newsletters.