Observations
Dustin White

Growing up in North Dakota, one would expect that the topic of American Indian history, or culture would be the focus of at least one course. However, it wasn’t until college that I actually had a class that dealt with the subject.

It wasn’t like I was a slouch in high school either. Well, at least not when it came to social studies.

Yet, while I did attend a number of schools, I don’t recall any one having a section dealing with either American Indian history or culture. Even when I took my A.P. course in U.S. history, there was no section on those subjects.



Having taken this U.S. history course in Mandan, a city built upon an Indian village, and named after a tribe, one would think that such a section would be quite important.

However, the history of the U.S., at least in high school textbooks, appeared to begin with the European discovery. Thousands of years that preceded that one instance seemed to disappear.

It wasn’t until my final year at college, when I took a course specifically on American Indian history, that I got an introduction to the subject.

However, it was only one single course, during a limited time. And that really is the problem.

Teachers only have a limited amount of time to try to cover vast swaths of history. So there becomes a lot of picking and choosing as to what is taught in the course, and what is left out. Regretfully, it is often topics relating to American Indians that get the cut.

The problem though is that by deleting these portions of history from school courses, a lot of important information is being left out, which can have tremendous impacts.

Looking at the European discovery of North America, for instance, one gets an incorrect picture if they don’t have the proper background.

It is often pictured that when the first Europeans began settling this continent, they had to tame the wild land around them. The truth is quite a bit more interesting.

Long before Europeans ever landed in North America, American Indians had been managing the forests, prairies and the land in general. Many historians now agree that if it wasn’t for the American Indians maintaining the forests, such as with controlled fires, Europeans would not have been able to spread so quickly.

Knowing a bit more about American Indian history also plays a big part in understanding current relations between tribes and the U.S. government.

The reservation system is a major subject that is often misunderstood by many. One of the main issues is that many fail to realize that tribal nations are recognized as dependent domestic nations.

These nations have entered into a number of treaties with the U.S., with many of them having stipulations that they last for eternity; as long as the grass grows and the waters run. Over time, the U.S. has broken some of them, while keeping others.

Without having some knowledge about these treaties, and the events that led up to them, the manner in which the U.S. now deals with various tribes can be quite confusing. It can also make the reservation system, as a whole, seem frustrating. However, they were not created in a bubble.



The history is important, and can shed important light on not just the past, but also the present.

In particular, living in Mandan, and learning the history of the Mandan Indians, can give us a better understanding of our own area.

After all, there is a reason why we built out town on the same location as an ancient Mandan village. There is a reason why Fort McKeen, and later, Fort Abraham Lincoln, picked the location they did for their military outposts, which happened to be on the site of a previous Mandan village.

And maybe, if we learn from the mistakes that the early European settlers made with the American Indians, we can find better ways to live with others. If nothing else, we can form a better understanding of both our country as a whole, as well as our state in particular.