Irene Kearns recalls what it was like to learn California history that didn’t align with what she’s learned from her parents as a child — including the field trips to Gold Rush territory and local missions — only to turn around and be expected to teach much of the same one-sided history to fourth graders 20 years ago.
A former Napa Valley Unified School District teacher, Kearns noticed the lack of Indigenous perspective in lessons about the founding of California missions. She invited her brother, an archeology professor who was getting his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, to speak to her class.
“We had a completely different unit around Indigenous people. The lesson was really about resilience, survivance, persistence. Our cultures are still here,” Kearns said. “I wanted my students to know there was more to this story. It was much deeper than what we were told we needed to teach in the history books, which was really just through the lens of the Spanish missionaries, Junipero Serra — all of those things we’d learned.”
Kearns ultimately left the classroom, earned her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction at the University of Washington, and now serves as digital program manager for Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°).
Native Knowledge 360°
By incorporating Native narratives and primary sources, NK360° offers supplemental materials and resources to allow educators across the country to provide more comprehensive histories and accurate information to students in classrooms today.
Provided by the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian, NK360° provides educational materials, virtual student programs, online and in-person professional development opportunities developed in collaboration with Native communities.
Materials were created for different grade ranges, covering topics likely to come up during Native American History Month, such as the impact of the Gold Rush on the Native Americans of California, Thanksgiving through the lens of the Wampanoag people and survival and resilience during the mission period.
The suite of resources also includes source investigations “where students are able to investigate with primary documents and become historians themselves and utilize those materials to answer the broader compelling question for the lesson,” Kearns said. “And then you can get really in depth — we have what’s called ‘inquiry design models,’ where you could spend weeks if you’d like, or less. In all of our longer materials, you’ll find a way to adapt if you have shorter amounts of time or longer amounts of time. Our writers are all former teachers, so we really understand what a classroom teacher struggles with.”
For Kearns, the tribal collaboration also sets NK360° materials apart.
“I think what drew me to working at the National Museum of the American Indian is that our relationships with tribal communities are so strong and important,” she said. “Our materials are created with consultation from the tribes, from the people whose story is being told. As a teacher and an educator, you try to get as close to a primary resource as you can. The textbooks have already been whitewashed for us. All the historical documents have already been analyzed for us and critiqued for us.”
Resources provided through NK360° offer students a chance to critically analyze the materials, questioning ‘Where did this come from? Who created it?’ and more.
“We’re creating a boarding school resource right now, and it’s really important that when you’re looking at a photograph, for example, you need to know why it was taken, who took it and for what purpose,” Kearns continued. “I’m not a historian, but I know that the primary sources are valuable and important, and we’re trying to get to as close to that as we can and replicate that for students as we can.”
How governance teams can help
Local educational agencies should be working to establish relationships with the tribes around their area, Kearns said. “For a school board, my advice is to first educate yourself about the history of the land in which you live. Get to know their history, get to know who leads their education departments — most tribes will have an education department, so I would reach out. Most times you’ll find partnership and eagerness to work with you.”
California, she noted, is going through the process of creating a state tribal curriculum.
In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the California Indian Education Act, which encourages LEAs to create California Indian Education task forces to develop curriculum about the history and culture of tribes native or residing in their region. A follow-up bill (Assembly Bill 1801) signed in September requires public schools teaching elementary, middle or high school students about Spanish colonization and the California Gold Rush to include instruction on the mistreatment and contributions of Native Americans during those periods. The California Department of Education must also consult with tribes when it updates its history and social studies curriculum framework after Jan. 1, 2025. (Learn more about this and other California legislation promoting accurate and inclusive Indigenous education here)
“What’s really critical and important and why things are going so well in Washington State with tribal curriculum is that the tribes are honored and partnered and put in high regard when they create materials and resources for classrooms,” Kearns said. “These lessons were created alongside tribes and communities.”
Are you planning to attend CSBA and the Association of California School Administrators’ 2025 Coast2Coast Federal Advocacy Trip to Washington, D.C., April 28-30? Sign up for a pre-conference activity on Sunday, April 27 — The Indigenous D.C. Tour, which includes a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian and a tour of significant Indigenous sites.
