Nez Perce Tribe, Lapwai educators call on Critchfield to reconsider endorsement of curriculum

The Nez Perce Tribe and Lapwai educators are calling on the Idaho Department of Education to reconsider its endorsement of PragerU’s controversial conservative curriculum.

The curriculum is “heavily biased,” Nez Perce tribal leaders wrote in a Nov. 13 letter to state superintendent Debbie Critchfield, and its historical content “seems to have the sole purpose of justifying actions and decisions that profoundly impacted minority groups and Indigenous peoples.”

The Nez Perce Tribe said a final decision about the curriculum “should not be made until there has been a more thorough input by all stakeholders.”

Leaders at Lapwai School District, which is located on the Nez Perce Reservation, joined the calls for the state to withdraw its endorsement of the curriculum via letters sent last week.

Scott Graf, the IDE’s communications director, confirmed the state had received the letters.

“We have been engaged with the tribes on this matter and will continue to discuss it with them in the coming weeks,” he wrote in an email to EdNews.

The IDE announced its endorsement of the curriculum in October, with reactions ranging from celebration to concern.

The curriculum is supplemental and not required; it must be approved by local school boards before teachers can use it in their classrooms.

In their letter, Nez Perce leaders characterized PragerU, and curricula like it, as “attempts to rewrite the history of this country.” Efforts to “wash away the parts some people do not like to acknowledge are misguided and harmful,” they wrote. “Indoctrinating students with a watered-down curriculum will only foster the growth of racism and resentment in Idaho.”

On Nov. 14, the Nez Perce Tribe also released an official statement about the curriculum, calling it a “step backward from the progress that has been made in developing a fuller and more complete curriculum in Idaho related to tribes.”

Iris Chimburas, the director of Indian Education for Lapwai School District, joined the calls for the IDE to reconsider its support for the PragerU curriculum. In a Nov. 22 letter, she urged the state to instead “uphold the standards that prioritize culturally responsive education.”

The PragerU curriculum, and especially its videos about Native American histories and cultures, are “misaligned with Idaho’s social studies standards” and “contribute to adverse educational outcomes against Native American students,” she wrote.

“(The curriculum) magnifies the colonial stereotypes by justifying colonization and the erasure of Indigenous cultures, while ignoring the ongoing impacts of intergenerational historical trauma,” she wrote. “It suppresses cultural identities, reinforces stereotypes, and negatively impacts students’ identity, engagement, and achievement.”

D’Lisa Penney, a Lapwai School District administrator, wrote in a Nov. 21 letter to Critchfield that she is “more concerned” for the curriculum’s impact on non-Native students, “who will continue to not have true and accurate educational learning opportunities about people of color, Indigenous people, and the history of the United States of America.”

She urged Critchfield to reconsider her support for PragerU, and said it is critical for the state to consult with tribal nations in good faith.

In October, EdNews asked Critchfield whether some of PragerU’s content undercuts her efforts to include accurate Native American perspectives in the classroom, and how she would respond to students or tribes who might feel attacked by the content.

“Like any other supplemental … material, there may or may not be places that it’s applicable, and this may be one of those places where it isn’t,” she said.

She also said that the IDE doesn’t “put out materials that are intentionally harmful to any student, not just minorities, but to anyone.”