HOMELAND - For Educators, Lesson Three

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LESSON THREE: Getting at the Truth

Standards | Lesson | Extensions | Resources

Topic

Getting at the Truth: Who should take responsibility for our history?

Age Group Grades 9-12

Introduction

None of us were living when the land was taken away from the Indians or slaves imported into the United States. Can we agree that nevertheless we all benefit from the country that was forged with the resources of that stolen land and the work done by that stolen labor? Can we agree that the government we praise as one of the best democracies in the world has done some terrible things "in the name of the people"? If we can recognize the injustices of the past, what, if any responsibility do we share?

Learning Objectives

To learn what American leaders have said about our treatment of Native Americans.
To learn how other countries have faced painful events in their own past.
To consider what options are open to American citizens as individuals, in groups, and as a collective nation.
To consider the problem of righting all the various "wrongs" of history including injustices not only to Indians, but to women, the handicapped, African Americans, animals, forests, etc.
To learn history through primary source materials.
To research recent history on the Internet.
To develop debate skills.

Overview

How do we imagine today's Germans learn about Hitler's concentration camps or today's South Africans try to understand apartheid? How much do Americans need to know about the treatment of Native Americans? Should children in schools be taught facts that show their government making mistakes or treating people cruelly? Other nations have tried some of these strategies to address the problems they recognize in their own past. If they can do it, could the United States? Should we? Is it too little? Is it too late?

When the white president of South Africa let Nelson Mandela out of jail and began to negotiate for a new government which, for the first time would represent all the people of South Africa, many people cheered, but many also worried. If the repressive government of South Africa, which represented less than 20 percent of the people, suddenly offered freedom to the 80 percent, which had been so horribly treated under apartheid, what would happen? Would there be were years of anger and resentment? Where would that anger go? Would the blacks force the whites to leave the country as they have in other African nations? During the painful years of apartheid there had been violence and bloodshed on both sides. Who should be punished?

After serious deliberation the South African government came up with the concept of a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" to study this issue. The goal of the commission was to find out the truth and to try to find a means to reconcile former enemies. Those who had battled on both sides (some as terrorists and others as policemen) were told to come forward and to admit their crimes. In exchange, if they were genuinely truthful, the government said, they might be forgiven. Not everyone came forward, and not everyone told the whole truth. Not everyone was forgiven, but in the process or these hearings, which played on South African television day after day, the South African people came to feel that at least some of the pain they had endured had been recognized.

Of course those who were involved in the violent encounters with American Indians or slaves are no longer here to tell their stories, but would an historical "truth and reconciliation" commission serve a purpose? What if all the facts about battles for Indian Land and all the facts about slavery were portrayed on television night after night? Would anyone watch? Would anyone feel better?

Standards

This lesson addresses the following national standards, established by McREL.

Language Arts

Grades 6-8
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts (e.g., textbooks; biographical sketches; letters; diaries; directions; procedures; magazines; essays; primary source historical documents; editorials; news stories; periodicals; bus routes; catalogs; technical directions; consumer, workplace, and public documents)

Understands techniques used to convey viewpoint (e.g., word choice, language structure, context)

Uses content, style, and structure (e.g., formal or informal language, genre, organization) appropriate for specific audiences (e.g., public, private) and purposes (e.g., to entertain, to influence, to inform)

Writes expository compositions (e.g., states a thesis or purpose; presents information that reflects knowledge about the topic of the report; organizes and presents information in a logical manner, including an introduction and conclusion; uses own words to develop ideas; uses common expository structures and features, such as compare-contrast or problem-solution)

Grades 9-12
Analyzes techniques (e.g., language, organization, tone, context) used to convey viewpoints or impressions (e.g., sarcasm, criticism, praise, affection)

Uses a variety of criteria to evaluate the clarity and accuracy of information (e.g., author's bias, use of persuasive strategies, consistency, clarity of purpose, effectiveness of organizational pattern, logic of arguments, reasoning, expertise of author, propaganda techniques, authenticity, appeal to friendly or hostile audience, faulty modes of persuasion)

Uses text features and elements to support inferences and generalizations about information (e.g., vocabulary, structure, evidence, expository structure, format, use of language, arguments used)

Writes expository compositions (e.g., synthesizes and organizes information from first- and second-hand sources, including books, magazines, computer data banks, and the community; uses a variety of techniques to develop the main idea [names, describes, or differentiates parts; compares or contrasts; examines the history of a subject; cites an anecdote to provide an example; illustrates through a scenario; provides interesting facts about the subject]; distinguishes relative importance of facts, data, and ideas; uses appropriate technical terms and notations)

Civics

Grades 6-8
Understands how politics enables people with differing ideas to reach binding agreements (e.g., presenting information and evidence, stating arguments, negotiating, compromising, voting)

Understands major ideas about why government is necessary (e.g., people's lives, liberty, and property would be insecure without government; individuals by themselves cannot do many of the things they can do collectively such as create a highway system, provide armed forces for the security of the nation, or make and enforce laws)

Understands competing ideas about the purposes government should serve (e.g., whether government should protect individual rights, promote the common good, provide economic security, mold the character of citizens, promote a particular religion)

Knows major conflicts in American society that have arisen from diversity (e.g., North/South conflict; conflict about land, suffrage, and other rights of Native Americans; Catholic/Protestant conflicts in the nineteenth century; conflict about civil rights of minorities and women; present day ethnic conflict in urban settings)

Knows ways in which conflicts about diversity can be resolved in a peaceful manner that respects individual rights and promotes the common good

Knows conflicts that have arisen regarding fundamental values and principles (e.g., conflicts between liberty and equality, conflicts between individual rights and the common good, conflicts between majority rule and minority rights)

Grades 9-12
Understands how politics enables a group of people with varying opinions and/or interests to reach collective decisions, influence decisions, and accomplish goals that they could not reach as individuals (e.g., managing the distribution of resources, allocating benefits and burdens, managing conflicts)

Understands some of the major competing ideas about the purposes of politics and government (e.g., achieving a religious vision, glorifying the state, enhancing economic prosperity, providing for a nation's security), and knows examples of past and present governments that serve these purposes

Understands how the purposes served by a government affect relationships between the individual and government and between government and society as a whole (e.g., the purpose of promoting a religious vision of what society should be like may require a government to restrict individual thought and actions, and place strict controls on the whole of the society)

Knows examples of conflicts stemming from diversity, and understands how some conflicts have been managed and why some of them have not yet been successfully resolved

Knows why constitutional values and principles must be adhered to when managing conflicts over diversity

Understands issues that involve conflicts among fundamental values and principles such as the conflict between liberty and authority

Lesson Three: Getting at the Truth

Vocabulary

apartheid
reconciliation

Day 1 (40 min.): Assign students to research the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the responses to it in South Africa. Some people believe the Commission's work is just "window dressing" and that it made South Africa look better in the eyes of other countries, but didn't change things at home.

Web site on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Encourage all students to begin on this site which has tremendous primary source material and links to further sites. Also direct students to the PBS Facing the Truth website about the legacy of apartheid.

Day 2 (40 min.): Review the material on the HOMELAND website in the Timeline and Reservation Yesterday. Debate: The United States government should invest in an historical "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" campaign to publicize the injustices it made in the past and to educate Americans about why it is necessary that we never forget. (Depending on the curriculum, this debate could be limited to just truth about Indians, or broadened to include slavery and other issues.)

Homework: Students write their own conclusion about the value of such an historical commission.

Alternative Assignment: For students who do not have time for research or do not have Internet access, here is a portion of a speech by Desmond Tutu, the highly respected South African minister who chaired the Truth and Reconciliation commission.

Excerpts from Desmond Tutu's Address to the First Gathering of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, December 16, 1995

Everyone is aware that we have been assigned a delicate task whose execution, successful or otherwise, will have critical and far-reaching consequences for our land and nation. It is an awesome responsibility.

... Absolutely central to our concern in the work of our Commission is helping our land and people to achieve genuine, real and not cheap and spurious reconciliation. Some view the Commission with considerable misgiving and indeed suspicion and even hostility because they have convinced themselves that the Commission is going to degenerate into ...a witch-hunt...

...We are a wounded people because of the conflict of the past, no matter on which side we stood. We all stand in need of healing. We on the Commission are no superhuman exceptions. We too need forgiving and to forgive. I hope that our churches, mosques, synagogues and temples will be able to provide liturgies for corporate confession and absolution.

... It is not dealing with the past to say facilely, let bygones be bygones, for then they won't be bygones. Our country, our society would be doomed to the instability of uncertainty - the uncertainty engendered by not knowing when... another skeleton would be dragged out of the cupboard.

We will be engaging in what should be a corporate nationwide process of healing through contrition, confession and forgiveness. To be able to forgive one needs to know whom one is forgiving and why. That is why the truth is so central to this whole exercise.

But we will be engaging in something that is ultimately deeply spiritual, deeply personal. That is why I have been appealing to all our people - this is not something just for the Commission alone. We are in it, all of us together, black and white, coloured and Indian, we this rainbow people of God.

Web site with Desmond Tutu's entire speech

Extending the Lesson

Research the work of the International Court in The Hague, Netherlands, the one which intends to try Slobidan Milosovic. If the Sioux Nation cannot find justice in American courts, should it take its case to International Court in The Hague.
Teach the concept of the "statute of limitations" and ask students to discuss why some crimes have short limits, and some crimes, like murder, have no limits. Should crimes that are more than 100 years old be considered past a "statute of limitations"? Why or why not?
In 1980 the Supreme Court was asked to consider the claims of the Sioux Nation in a case known as United States v. Sioux Nations. The court determined that this United States was at fault for breaking treaties. Justice Rhenquist dissented. Here is the final paragraph of his opinion.

Justice Rhenquist (dissenting)

"That there was tragedy, deception, barbarity, and virtually every other vice known to man in the 300-year history of the expansion of the original 13 Colonies into a Nation which now embraces more than three million square miles and 50 States cannot be denied. But in a court opinion, as a historical and not a legal matter, both settler and Indian are entitled to the benefit of the Biblical adjuration: "Judge not, that ye be not judged."
- United States v. Sioux Nations (1980)

Do you agree that we dare not judge? What does it mean for a judge in the Supreme Court to suggest that we should "judge not"?

Resources

HOMELAND Timeline and Reservation Yesterday

United States v. Sioux Nations (1980)

Native American Law

PBS Online: Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers

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