A Critical Case Study of Selected U.S. History Textbooks from a Tribal Critical Race Theory Perspective

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the portrayal of American Indians in U.S. textbooks selected for review in Hillsborough County, Florida's 2012 textbook adoption. The study identified which of the textbooks under consideration contained the greatest amount of information dedicated to American Indians and analyzed how that information was portrayed. The exploratory question that guided this study was, under what conditions can Tribal Critical Race Theory help illuminate how American Indians are portrayed in textbooks? The methodology used is a critical case study (Janesick, 2004; Rubin & Rubin, 2005). The Five Great Values, as developed by Sanchez (2007), are Generosity and Sharing, Respect for Women and the Elderly, Getting Along with Nature, Individual Freedom, and Courage and were used in the organization, coding, and analysis of the data. The theoretical framework that guides this study is Tribal Critical Race Theory (Brayboy, 2005), created in order to address issues from an indigenous perspective. This study found that while overt racism has declined, colonialism and assimilation were still used as models when American Indians were depicted in the five selected textbooks. It also discovered the portrayal of American Indian women to be particularly influenced by the models of colonialism and assimilation. Keywords: Tribal Critical Race Theory, Textbook Bias, American Indians, Critical case Study, Assimilation.Introduction and RationaleIt is difficult to determine a date for the first known biases towards American Indians. It could be right after 1492 when Europeans heard about the people Christopher Columbus had encountered. Of course, anyone from an American Indian community or who has spent significant time around one can confirm that some tribal stereotypes were developed long before Europeans began their Age of Exploration. Regardless of whether the stereotypes are intertribal or interracial, they are persistent and damaging.From a modern perspective, scholars are able to look back at over 500 years of documents regarding people now known as American Indians. These documents reveal hundreds of nations covering North America speaking hundreds of languages, practicing their own religions, and governing themselves in a way that worked for their time and place. The information gathered from these documents has been simplified for educational purposes and to support the United States' national myth. Textbooks are an important source of information to watch the national myth develop. For scholars studying education, textbooks provide an insight into what a nation believes is important for its youth to learn about history and to become productive citizens. In the United States, textbooks have varied over how, and if, they cover American Indians and their role in the founding and developing of this new nation.The United States' Constitution states that all powers not expressly given to the federal government are held in reserve by the individual states. Education is an example of this power, and each state develops its own curriculums and standards regarding what is taught in the classrooms. Textbooks are published by private companies, but they cater to the curricular needs of the states. This means that the information textbooks present, if any, regarding American Indians varies from state to state and textbook to textbook. Without a clear national standard, it is difficult for educational researchers to track the national myth or for American Indian communities to develop a strategy to combat negative stereotypes. However, this does not mean that nothing is, or can, be done.In 1939, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) published Anti-Negro Propaganda in School Textbooks. This pamphlet is one of the earliest published concerns regarding textbook bias. Other reports followed in the 1940s and 1950s, but it was not until the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s that textbook bias began to be seriously researched. …