Indianz.Com > News > Harold Frazier: Native history ‘gutted’ in school curriculum

South Dakota Department of Education changes to workgroup suggestions on curriculum in South Dakota schools
Monday, August 16, 2021
EAGLE BUTTE, South Dakota — Recently, a workgroup was convened of more than 50 people who were responsible for this year’s review of drafting social study standards for South Dakota schools.
This group included K-12 educators, postsecondary representatives, parents and representatives of business and industry. The group put together an unprecedented curriculum designed to teach about the Lakota people, how our history has intertwined and our present-day situation.
Unfortunately, the bureaucrats and politicians who commissioned the workgroup gutted the portion of the curriculum regarding our Indigenous people. There is so much that must be taught to the children in order for them to understand the world they will inherit, and it begins with an understanding of one another. Removing the important lessons of who we are, where we came from and why things are the way they are, robs every young mind of the necessary understandings to overcome the hurdles of conflict, genocide, and historical trauma.

Harold Frazier is serving his second term as chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, an Indian nation based in South Dakota. He also serves as president of the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Association. He previously served as chair and vice chair of his tribe and as an area vice president for the National Congress of American Indians.
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