Alexa Murray
The conflict that I chose to focus on is between the American Indian community and the federal education system. As a part of the original treaty in which American Indians gave land to the US government, they were promised full federal educational funding. Unfortunately, the US government has abused this agreement for many years, leading to a major failure of the education system in many American Indian communities. Despite many American Indian students attending US public schools instead of the schools provided on reservations, they are still the ethnic group least likely to graduate high school in four years. Often times they face bullying and racism at school. Even most US history textbooks teach early US history through a racist lens. Due to the failure of this social system (education) the American Indian community has begun trying to challenge it. Some schools which lacked promised government funding for even basic supplies, have filed lawsuits. In some cases, individuals have stepped up to begin reforming there local school’s curriculum. These challenges to the current system are likely to continue, as current preposed policies would cut even more funding from American Indian education funds.
Bibliography
Clarren, Rebecca. “How America is Failing Native American Students.” The Nation, January
24.2017. https://www.thenation.com/article/left-behind/
Green, Erica, Waldman, Annie. “ ‘I feel invisible’: Native Students Languish in Public Schools.”
New York Times, December 28, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/28/us/native-
american-education.html
Brenna, Susan. “Why are Native Students Being Left Behind.” Teach For America, December
11, 2014. https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/why-are-native-students-being-left-
behind
