Native America Calling: Balanced lessons on missions and the gold rush in California

Indianz.Com > News > Native America Calling: Balanced lessons on missions and the gold rush in California

Monday, September 23, 2024

nativeamericacalling.com 180099native nativeamericacalling

Balanced lessons on missions and the gold rush in California

There is a flip side to the narrative about the cultural richness that Spanish colonists brought to California.

Likewise, the discovery of gold at Sutters Mill in 1848 did more than just spark the largest settler migration in the country’s history. In both cases, the damage to the lives and cultures of the state’s Indigenous populations was profound.

At the time, there were far more Indigenous people than the Spanish or European-descended Americans. In its effort to provide Native-led historical instruction, the National Museum of the American Indian has developed curricula that provides perspective about the people who were there long before anyone else.

Join Native America Calling to learn about NMAI’s educational goal and how it’s being used.

The Impact of the Gold Rush on Native Americans of California

A lesson from the National Museum of the American Indian about the California gold rush and its impact on Native peoples. Screenshot from americanindian.si.edu/nk360

Guests on Native America Calling

Irene Kearns (citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria), program manager for Native Knowledge 360 at the National Museum of the American Indian

Aaron Golding (Seneca Nation), co-chair of the education committee for the Chicago American Indian Collaborative and senior program administrator at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Illinois

Maria DesJarlait (Arikara from Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and Ojibwe from the Red Lake Nation), education presenter, children’s author, and teacher

Melissa Kiesewetter, vice chair of the Native American Heritage Fund in Michigan