Thanks Felice!
Greywolf
Native friends and associates,
I want to share with you my message below to State School Superintendent Torlakson. I'd like to help something effective happen to end the denial and to get the facts of the California Genocides taught in California schools.
Maybe a flood of similar letters to Torlakson on this would be helpful. if there is more I can do in this regard, please let me know.
Felice
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Felice Pace <unofelice@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Subject: The California Genocides and California's history curriculum
To: Superintendent@cde.ca.gov
Dear Superintendent Torlakson,
I am contacting you because I am a lifetime California credentialed history teacher and - at 65 year old - I recently discovered an aspect of California history of which I was substantially unaware. I am speaking about the organized and government promoted genocides which took place in Northern California in the years around and after statehood.
I knew that there had been certain events like the massacre at Indian Island in Humboldt Bay and the (alleged but largely denied and downplayed) poisoning of Shasta folks at Fort Jones. But I had no idea that these were part of an organized campaign sanctioned by the governor and other high officials and promoted, for example, with parades where folks displayed banners calling for "extermination"!
I recently had occasion to research the subject and I've published an article and a letter to the editor about what I found. I wrote these things because current racism and denial of the California Genocides are alive and well in California and are having a negative impact on current inter-group relations. Current education in California about Native-European relations in our state's history is perpetuating racial divisions; not helping to heal them. The unconscious conspiracy to suppress this history is not right and it is not good for our state.
I am also the father of two children who went through the California public schools K through 12 and who also attended and graduated from UC schools (Davis and Santa Cruz). In spite of always being on the honor roll, my children are substantially unaware of the organized efforts at genocide which took place in our state; that to me is a strong indictment of how we are teaching California history.
How does it happen that an history teacher and his children who went through the California schools K through BA level never learned about a major feature of the state's early history? And how does it happen that this aspect of our history is successfully denied and suppressed?
And most importantly of all, what should we - you, I, Native educators and educators state-wide - do about this situation?
I believe that our failure to educate our public school students about the organized, historic California Genocides plays an important roll in perpetuating the racism which Native people continue to experience - particularly in the rural parts of California where most of our tribes are based. In other words, our failure as educators to teach our kids about this aspect of California history is having negative impacts today. How can we claim that we are educating for a respectful, multi-ethnic society when we effectively refuse to include this important aspect of our history in the curriculum and/or to require that teachers teach this part of our history?
I am not Native; I am an Italian American. (I've also learned through this research that Italian Americans like me were not considered "white" during the early years of statehood.) Since moving to Northern California in 1975, I have worked and lived alongside Natives - including many Native educators. I know that, whether or not a Native person knows the details of these genocides, he/she has internalized attitudes based not only on the fact of the genocides but also on the ongoing denial that the genocides took place in the organized and officially sanctioned manner that history tells us was the case. Natives experience the current expressions of racism and they implicitly understand that denial of the history of Native-European relations practiced by white society plays a role in the durability of racist attitudes and behavior.
We should do something about this; you should do something about it. I am offering to bring together Native American educators with you and your staff to discuss the situation and develop a plan for adjusting curriculum and teaching to assure that this aspect of California history is taught and learned.
Please contact me if you are ready to do something.
Felice Pace
Klamath, CA 95548
707-954-6588
"we must always seek the truth in our opponents' error and the error in our own truth."
- Reinhold Niebuhr
From: Felice Pace <unofelice@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Subject: The California Genocides and California's history curriculum
To: Superintendent@cde.ca.gov
Dear Superintendent Torlakson,
I am contacting you because I am a lifetime California credentialed history teacher and - at 65 year old - I recently discovered an aspect of California history of which I was substantially unaware. I am speaking about the organized and government promoted genocides which took place in Northern California in the years around and after statehood.
I knew that there had been certain events like the massacre at Indian Island in Humboldt Bay and the (alleged but largely denied and downplayed) poisoning of Shasta folks at Fort Jones. But I had no idea that these were part of an organized campaign sanctioned by the governor and other high officials and promoted, for example, with parades where folks displayed banners calling for "extermination"!
I recently had occasion to research the subject and I've published an article and a letter to the editor about what I found. I wrote these things because current racism and denial of the California Genocides are alive and well in California and are having a negative impact on current inter-group relations. Current education in California about Native-European relations in our state's history is perpetuating racial divisions; not helping to heal them. The unconscious conspiracy to suppress this history is not right and it is not good for our state.
I am also the father of two children who went through the California public schools K through 12 and who also attended and graduated from UC schools (Davis and Santa Cruz). In spite of always being on the honor roll, my children are substantially unaware of the organized efforts at genocide which took place in our state; that to me is a strong indictment of how we are teaching California history.
How does it happen that an history teacher and his children who went through the California schools K through BA level never learned about a major feature of the state's early history? And how does it happen that this aspect of our history is successfully denied and suppressed?
And most importantly of all, what should we - you, I, Native educators and educators state-wide - do about this situation?
I believe that our failure to educate our public school students about the organized, historic California Genocides plays an important roll in perpetuating the racism which Native people continue to experience - particularly in the rural parts of California where most of our tribes are based. In other words, our failure as educators to teach our kids about this aspect of California history is having negative impacts today. How can we claim that we are educating for a respectful, multi-ethnic society when we effectively refuse to include this important aspect of our history in the curriculum and/or to require that teachers teach this part of our history?
I am not Native; I am an Italian American. (I've also learned through this research that Italian Americans like me were not considered "white" during the early years of statehood.) Since moving to Northern California in 1975, I have worked and lived alongside Natives - including many Native educators. I know that, whether or not a Native person knows the details of these genocides, he/she has internalized attitudes based not only on the fact of the genocides but also on the ongoing denial that the genocides took place in the organized and officially sanctioned manner that history tells us was the case. Natives experience the current expressions of racism and they implicitly understand that denial of the history of Native-European relations practiced by white society plays a role in the durability of racist attitudes and behavior.
We should do something about this; you should do something about it. I am offering to bring together Native American educators with you and your staff to discuss the situation and develop a plan for adjusting curriculum and teaching to assure that this aspect of California history is taught and learned.
Please contact me if you are ready to do something.
Felice Pace
Klamath, CA 95548
707-954-6588
"we must always seek the truth in our opponents' error and the error in our own truth."
- Reinhold Niebuhr
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