University Honors

This project examines several historical institutions that have been used to educate Nativepopulations and the impacts of these respective schooling systems. This project analyzescurricula and living conditions within these schooling systems so that their cultural and historicalimpacts may be better understood. To understand the full impact that varying educationalopportunities have on Native communities, this project spans from as early as colonial schoolingattempts in the seventeenth century until education about and for Native peoples in the modernday. By first examining the type of education offered to Indigenous populations and how thisaltered the lives of Native people, the issues within modern public school curricula regardingNative history can have harmful consequences. This project will also touch upon the changesthat have been made in modern curricula to provide more accurate depictions of Nativecommunities and their histories. By showcasing historical forms of Native education as well asmodern representations of Indigenous histories in academia, I strive to bring awareness to andinvalidate holdovers of European hegemony over education. It is only by understanding the waysin which the hegemon controls the historical narrative of Native people and their culture thatsociety can begin to reform the way that Natives are viewed and treated via better education.This project aims to point out the harm being done to Native communities by misrepresentationin order to bring about better representations and educational opportunities for the communityand end a cycle of hurt that has been ongoing for generations.