Native American Historical Inquiry
How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history and contemporary social, cultural and political realities?
Seminar Reflection
In this project, we explored the history of European interactions with Native American cultures. We read a short story collection by Sherman Alexie, as well as personal essays from Native American students. This gave us a more personal view. We also read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States, and some primary sources about the Battle of Little Bighorn. This began to give me the impression that the things I'd learned in textbooks so far about these topics were not necessarily complete data-sets.
This lead me to some other realizations. I have quite a few stereotypes of Native Americans that I need to overcome. I was raised on old westerns with the hordes of Indians charging over the horizon. This is, on several levels, wrong. This project made me aware of the atrocities committed against Native Americans, and about my own prejudices. It evoked a strong urge to do better, to improve as a human being, and to search for new perspectives, as opposed to just sticking to my guns on the ones I have.
A Socratic Seminar is a method of learning we use here at Animas, in which we discuss the subject we're learning about and ask each other questions. We used the literature in the first paragraph as the basis for our discussion, and we used it as a tool to make sure we understood what we were reading. We primarily discussed the philosophy of it, the necessity of "skeletons", as you can read about in my essay above, and the competitive part of human nature. An aspect that I found particularly interesting was the discussion of Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is a policy that allows minorities a better chance of getting into college because of their minority status. My opinions on it aside (This isn't a political blog), the discussion of the past and how it affects the present as it pertains to this issue was fascinating to me.
So, now to answer my own question. How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history and contemporary social, cultural and political realities? I think it boils down to something rather simple. If you trust in one voice to tell you the truth, then you will be using that speaker's truth. To find your own truth, to find a perspective that is accurate, you have to listen, to research, to look for all the answers you can. That's how you'll find an understanding of history and modern times that works for you.
This lead me to some other realizations. I have quite a few stereotypes of Native Americans that I need to overcome. I was raised on old westerns with the hordes of Indians charging over the horizon. This is, on several levels, wrong. This project made me aware of the atrocities committed against Native Americans, and about my own prejudices. It evoked a strong urge to do better, to improve as a human being, and to search for new perspectives, as opposed to just sticking to my guns on the ones I have.
A Socratic Seminar is a method of learning we use here at Animas, in which we discuss the subject we're learning about and ask each other questions. We used the literature in the first paragraph as the basis for our discussion, and we used it as a tool to make sure we understood what we were reading. We primarily discussed the philosophy of it, the necessity of "skeletons", as you can read about in my essay above, and the competitive part of human nature. An aspect that I found particularly interesting was the discussion of Affirmative Action. Affirmative Action is a policy that allows minorities a better chance of getting into college because of their minority status. My opinions on it aside (This isn't a political blog), the discussion of the past and how it affects the present as it pertains to this issue was fascinating to me.
So, now to answer my own question. How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history and contemporary social, cultural and political realities? I think it boils down to something rather simple. If you trust in one voice to tell you the truth, then you will be using that speaker's truth. To find your own truth, to find a perspective that is accurate, you have to listen, to research, to look for all the answers you can. That's how you'll find an understanding of history and modern times that works for you.