This week (Sept. 20, 2021), South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem asked the state education department to delay the process of updating social studies standards for public schools. The order didn’t specify what exactly prompted the action, but said more public input is needed. The plan, released in August 2021, differed from a draft proposal put together by a working group earlier in the summer.
The latest version of the plan has seen public backlash over removing several references to Oceti Sakowin. which covers Native American history and culture.
Sarah White is the director of education equity at NDN Collective and lead facilitator for the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition. She says delaying the process allows the state to “kick the can down the road” rather than address a lack of Native American teachings.
“This was another clear evasion of responsibility – for Indigenous students, for inclusion, for anything of that nature.”
White says what’s happening in South Dakota is part of a broader and longstanding failure to tell a more robust story of Native American history in classrooms.
“We haven’t, as a nation, admitted or even faced the truth of what happened with Indigenous people.”
In neighboring Montana, state officials face a lawsuit over claims their curriculum about Native American history fails to meet constitutional requirements.
Tribal groups opposed to the plans say they’ll keep pushing for inclusion.
(Greater Dakota News Service contributed to this story.)
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