If PHS wants to pride itself on being an advocate for all students of diverse identities, it should reflect on its efforts when it comes to representation of the Native American student body. While Princeton High School has events throughout the year for various identities, from a Hispanic Heritage assembly to Asian Fest, the school lacks in promoting important events for Native cultures. As Native American Heritage Month comes to an end, the inadequacy of dedication towards this group of students is even clearer.

This oversight of an entire culture has extensions into the PHS education system. With notice drawn to the administration’s dedication to educating students about racial issues, programs like Princeton Introduction to Racial Literacy and the Racial Literacy & Justice class have blossomed; these classes, however, largely trend towards educating only about Black history. The goal of our education should be for all students to understand the diversity of people of different ethnic backgrounds. There isn’t anything more important than learning about a non-Eurocentric history teaching of all races — simply, what students currently learn in the classroom does not provide enough focus on different perspectives, leading to a homogenized, and often inaccurate, view of humankind.

In the past, Native Americans have been depicted as uncivilized savages who had to be “rescued” by Europeans. Fortunately, we’ve generally come to realize that conception is inaccurate, but there are still gaps in the education system. For instance, in our history books, Natives have been described almost solely in terms of their importance to European settlers. Their social, political, and economic structures prior to settlement are rarely ever explored; instead of also focusing on their rich history, our curriculum primarily chooses to emphasize the effects of settlement, only to completely forget about them as soon as a more consequential event happens for “real Americans.” When was the last time we learned about traditional Navajo sandpainting or the Red Power movement of the 1960s?

Yet, it would be incorrect to overlook the contributions of people at PHS who take the effort to educate others about Indigenous peoples. Several teachers already take time out of the beginning of class to recognize the Native land that was settled, respecting and regarding the history of the land that PHS now occupies. For instance, humanities teachers also frequently integrate Native history into their curriculum by going above their assigned curriculum to teach about the importance of this culture. Many APUSH teachers also supplement the current curriculum with lessons on the Dawes Act, legislation that allowed the government to seize Native land and unfairly reallocate it to heads of Native families. English teachers also provide texts by Native authors, which provides unheard and underrepresented Native perspectives, rather than solely sticking to the hegemony that is the white narrative. However, these examples only highlight the lack in our curriculum. The material should be implemented into our classwork rather than only appear as supplemental materials.

At PHS, it is important that we dedicate time to celebrate Native heritage. Many Native Americans do not have equal representation in events and are often an afterthought when it comes to celebrating a race, simply because they do not have as large of numbers as other races. Rather than perpetuate this, PHS needs to flip these narratives so that we can truly appreciate Native Americans and the culture and point of view that they bring to the Princeton community