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In response to President Biden’s recent apology for abusive Indian boarding school policies, Michigan educators will engage in training to improve teaching Indigenous history.
Comprehensive Indigenous Education Advances with New Initiative
The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is launching a series of webinars aimed at helping educators enhance how they teach Indigenous history and culture. These efforts align with the recent statement from President Joe Biden, who, on October 24, issued a formal apology for the U.S. government’s role in forcibly removing Indigenous children to boarding schools—a practice that led to widespread abuse and death among Native children for over 150 years. Biden’s apology, marking an overdue acknowledgment of this dark historical chapter, reinforces the need for inclusive and accurate educational approaches.
As part of its commitment to comprehensive history instruction, MDE is preparing teachers to tackle sensitive topics, such as race, xenophobia, and Indigenous issues, that have been overlooked in many traditional history curricula. State Superintendent Dr. Michael F. Rice emphasized the importance of confronting difficult historical truths, asserting, “As educators, we have an obligation to teach our children the fullness of our history, including searing topics such as racism and xenophobia.”
Michigan’s Horrid History With Indian Boarding Schools
Michigan’s Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School, which indoctrinated 300 children each year until 1934, also had schools in Baraga and Harbor Springs. For decades, the US took thousands of Native American children and enrolled them in off-reservation boarding schools. This was government policy to assimilate an entire people by forcibly removing children from their families and indoctrinating them into the Anglo language, religion, and way of life.
New Library Classification to Reclaim Indigenous Knowledge
Kicking off on December 11, MDE will host a webinar titled “Maawn Doobiigeng,” or “Gather Together,” which introduces a community-led library classification system tailored for Indigenous resources. Developed by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, this initiative aims to center Indigenous knowledge in Tribal libraries, challenging and redefining how such materials are categorized and accessed. Webinar presenters, Ms. Anne Heidemann, Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Librarian, and Ms. Melissa Isaac, MDE’s Indigenous Education Initiative leader, will discuss the project’s impact on Indigenous cultural preservation.
The new system is more than an educational tool; it is part of a larger movement to reclaim Indigenous identity and history. Ms. Isaac highlighted the significance of Biden’s apology in this effort, expressing gratitude with the Ojibwe word “Miigwetch.” She noted, “Federal Indian boarding school policies aimed to erase Indigenous peoples and our ways of being and knowing. Yet, despite this dark chapter in American history, Indigenous Knowledge Systems have endured.” Isaac emphasized that including Indigenous perspectives enriches public education by fostering respect, cultural understanding, and interconnectedness.
Future Webinar to Deepen Understanding of Michigan’s Indigenous Communities
To further broaden teachers’ awareness of Indigenous history and perspectives, MDE will host another webinar on April 30, 2025. Titled “Honoring Connection: Essential Understandings for Michigan,” this session, created by the Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments and MDE’s Indigenous Education Initiative, aims to deepen understanding of Michigan’s Indigenous communities. The event promises educators foundational knowledge of the Tribal nations that share Michigan’s geography and insight into the customs, values, and resilience of these communities.
Educators can learn more about these initiatives and register for the webinars on the MDE Teaching Comprehensive History website.
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