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Scholar Jean M. O'Brien contributed an essay titled "Indians and the California Gold Rush" to the book Why You Can't Teach United States History Without American Indians (The University of North Carolina Press, 2015). She begins, "The California gold rush is stock-in-trade of U.S. history textbooks. And no wonder: it is a story packed with drama." She goes on to list slavery and abolition, Manifest Destiny, westward expansion, the Mexican War, Chinese immigration, labor history, and capitalism as playing a role in the drama of the gold rush.
Next, O'Brien gets to her point. "How do Indians, or more broadly, indigenous peoples, fit into these themes? If the textbooks are to be taken as proof, then, it turns out, not very well, and in the case of California, almost not at all."
If you teach about the California gold rush, this album represents the Native voices, along with primary and secondary sources, still largely missing from typical textbook accounts of that period. It is more of an exploration of available resources than a complete story in all its complexities.
Let us start building a more accurate set of resources that will help students begin to question the myths perpetrated by textbooks. Let's work together to build a newly centered narrative, complete with teaching ideas and follow-up discussions. All member contributions welcome!
3 - 5 9 - 12 13+ Social Studies/History California Gold Rush bestof
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