Native Americans are not and must not be props in a sort of theme park of the past, where we go to have a good time and see exotic cultures. โWhat we have done to the peoples who were living in North Americaโ is, according to anthropologist Sol Tax, โour Original Sin.
James W. LoewenSo long as our textbooks hide from us the roles that people of color have played in exploration, from at least 6000 BC to the twentieth century, they encourage us to look to Europe and its extensions as the seat of all knowledge and intelligence. So long as they say โdiscover,โ they imply that whites are the only people who really matter. So long as they simply celebrate Columbus, rather than teach both sides of his exploit, they encourage us to identify with white Western exploitation rather than study it.
James W. LoewenStudents will start finding history interesting when their teachers and textbooks stop lying to them.
James W. Loewen