Members of the Wambli Ska Society perform a Lakota drum song at a ceremony on Sept. 13, 2022, in Pierre to celebrate the launch of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons liaison within the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office. (Courtesy of Attorney General’s Office)
BY: MAKENZIE HUBER
WHITE RIVER, S.D. (South Dakota Searchlight) – The state Department of Education “glaringly omitted” substantial Native American representation during its recent Civics and History Summit, alleges the South Dakota Education Equity Coalition.
In response, the department highlighted several efforts it made to include Indigenous perspectives and material.
The purpose of the conference was educating teachers about how to implement a new set of social studies standards to be taught to South Dakota public school students starting in 2025.
Native Americans were featured during lunch performances each day: a Dakota flutist and a drum group of elementary students from the White River School District. None of the session presenters were Indigenous, though there were some sessions discussing Native American history. The coalition said the sessions presented “inaccurate and problematic portrayals.”
South Dakota Education Equity Coalition Executive Director Sarah White said the state Department of Education should involve more Indigenous perspectives in its educational training and implementation. The coalition is an organization representing Native American education leaders throughout the state.
“Excluding Indigenous educators and experts from the SDDOE Civics and History Summit is not just an oversight; it is a significant setback for educational equity in South Dakota,” White said in a news release.
There are nine tribal nations and reservations within South Dakota boundaries. Native Americans account for 12.5% of the state’s child population, according to census data.
The South Dakota Department of Education said in an emailed statement that the lunch performances were not only a chance to highlight Native American culture, but also Indigenous perspectives. The elementary school performance specifically included a discussion about how creating a drum group as an extracurricular activity centered around Native culture is impacting student attendance, performance and behavior.
“The new Social Studies standards represent the largest emphasis on Native American history than any previous set of standards, for both the volume of references and the breadth of tribes covered,” the department’s statement said. “And these references are made throughout the grade levels, K-12, ensuring that students will be exposed to Native American history and government throughout their academic careers.”
The department also offered the South Dakota History Road Trip following the summit, including visits to sites with Native American significance, such as Sica Hollow in northeastern South Dakota and the Akta Lakota Museum and Dignity statue in Chamberlain.
The new social studies standards were criticized during the approval process due to what some educators described as the standards’ emphasis on rote memorization over inquiry-based learning. The social studies standards controversy started in 2021 because the department removed more than a dozen references to the Oceti Sakowin from a committee’s draft revision of the standards. Gov. Kristi Noem then formed a new work group and ordered the process to start over.
The state’s Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, which are a set of standards approved in 2018 for teaching students about Native American culture and history, are not required. “Oceti Sakowin” is the collective term for Lakota, Dakota and Nakota speaking Native Americans, many of whom live in South Dakota.
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