According to Texas’ fourth-grade social studies standards, Indigenous peoples from Texas, including the Lipan Apache, Comanches, and Caddo, exist only in the past tense. Students study their way of life when the tribal nations “lived” in the different regions of the state before Europeans arrived to “explore” the land. 

These are but a few of the many misconceptions about American Indians that Kelly Tudor, a Lipan Apache, has found in Texas’ curricular standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). 

“What’s taught about us is not from a cultural insider perspective, but from an outsider perspective, and it’s usually very biased. I’ve learned that I’ve had to break down all those false ideas first before students can hear you,” Tudor said. 

Growing up, Tudor and her family had been called “Prairie N—.” School teachers called her family “stupid” when her sister attempted to correct false information about American Indians being taught from the textbook. Even after she became a curriculum consultant and Indigenous educator, teaching both young students and other teachers about American […]