By Kaylyn Belsha, Chalkbeat, August 4, 2021
When Jaylyn Suppah was a high school student, she had a lot of questions for her civics teacher.
Why were their lessons on Native Americans about tribes from the Midwest, with no mention of regional tribes like hers, the Warm Springs, Wasco, Shoshone-Bannock, and Yakama? Why did the textbook only spend a few pages on their history? And why were critical topics, like the forced assimilation of Native American children at U.S. boarding schools, missing?
Arguing with her teacher, Suppah recalls, got her kicked out of class. The experience stuck with Suppah, who advocated for an Oregon law over a decade later that now requires public schools to teach from a fuller, more accurate history of the Native American experience.
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