Popular Culture, Curriculum, and Historical Representation: The Situation of Native Americans in American History and the Perpetuation of Stereotypes

AbstractAn examination of how Native Americans come to be represented in classroom history lessons demonstrates how the shared cultural biases of teachers and students mediate the representation of different racial and ethnic groups in American history. Although multiple representations of Native Americans are present in the curriculum, a romanticized and stereotypical representation of Native Americans as nomadic, buffalo-hunting Plains Indians is privileged over alternative representations in the classroom. This is due not only to the influence of popular images of Indians found in mainstream American culture, but also to the use of a Eurocentric narrative that emphasizes the presence of nomadic Plains Indians in American history while marginalizing the existence of other Native Americans. These findings suggest that efforts to create a multicultural history curriculum through the addition of women and people of color to the existing narrative of American history may do little to challenge the perpetuation of racial and ethnic stereotypes. (Sociology; Education; Culture)