“It’s Unwritten History”: The Long Fight for Native American and Indigenous Studies for Texas Public Schools, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

“It’s Unwritten History”: The Long Fight for Native American and Indigenous Studies for Texas Public Schools

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

November 10, 2025

This excellent, half-hour conversation on the unwritten history of the long struggle for the inclusion of Native American and Indigenous Studies for Texas schools is both clarifying and deeply engaging. It shines light on voices that have too often been excluded from our state’s curriculum — and on the persistence of those who have worked tirelessly to change that.

I encourage readers to pair this Fronteras segment with an earlier blog post I shared, “Texas State Board of Education renews American Indian/Native Studies course," by Riddhi Bora in Shift/Press, July 4, 2025,” by Riddhi Bora, published in Shift/Press on July 4, 2025. Together, these pieces trace a remarkable trajectory of advocacy, collaboration, and resilience that has brought us to this historic moment.

My heartfelt thanks to Norma Martinez, Marian Navarro, and Texas Public Radio for hosting this important conversation. Their coverage reminds us that Native Studies is not simply about adding another elective to the curriculum—it’s about restoring visibility and dignity to Indigenous histories and worldviews that have been systematically erased or distorted for generations.

As the program notes, the new American Indian/Native Studies course was formally approved by the Texas State Board of Education in June, giving districts across the state the option to offer it as an elective. Students who enroll will now have the opportunity to learn about the histories and living cultures of American Indian peoples and to understand contemporary issues from Native perspectives.

This victory follows years of organizing, from early pilot programs like the one launched in Grand Prairie ISD in 2021 to sustained advocacy by educators, tribal leaders, and allies such as Hawana Townsley—a descendant of Comanche leader Quanah Parker—who helped design the original curriculum. As Townsley so beautifully put it, “We want to ignite that spark of interest so that maybe these students… will take a lifelong journey to learn more about us now and historically.”

Equally inspiring are the words of Marisa Pérez-Díaz, a steadfast advocate on the State Board of Education: “If we provide resonant curriculums where our students can see themselves in the language and experiences, there's a connection there—a deeper commitment to their education, and we'll see more successes.”

And as Orlando Lara, co-founder of the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, reminds us, this victory is part of a much longer lineage: “The call for ethnic studies in Texas has a long, long history… there’s this long kind of unwritten history that we’re sort of starting to write now.”

Indeed, that history is being written—by educators, parents, students, and community leaders who refuse to let erasure define our collective memory.

As the Department of Education recently clarified in its letter to the National Indian Education Association, the teaching of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian history does not constitute “DEI” or “CRT.” It is, rather, an act of historical honesty and educational equity—something our democracy requires if it is to survive and thrive.

And similarly, the inclusion of Mexican American Studies and African American Studies in public schools does not constitute DEI or CRT—it is about rightful representation, rigorous scholarship, and honoring historically marginalized peoples whose intellectual traditions and lived realities have been excluded from mainstream curricula.

Clearly, there is more work ahead. But our progress is real, and it is worth celebrating.

You can listen to the full Fronteras episode here.

Fronteras: ‘It’s unwritten history’— The years-long fight to offer American Indian/Native Studies in Texas public schools

by Norma Martinez & Marian Navarro | Texas Public Radio | August 29, 2025

A photo from the North Texas Ethnic Studies Regional gathering in Ft. Worth, Texas 2019.
Jonathan Perez

Following approval from the Texas State Board of Education in June, school districts across the state now have the option to offer American Indian/Native Studies as an elective course.

Students who enroll in the course will learn about the history and living cultures of American Indians and understand issues and events from Native perspectives, according to the Texas Education Agency.

Approval came following a years-long process and amid a new state law that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public schools.

The basis of the Native American Studies course was piloted in 2021 in the Grand Prairie Independent School District.

Hawana Townsley — a descendant of 19th century Comanche leader, Quanah Parker —helped craft the curriculum from the beginning.

“We want to ignite that spark of interest so that maybe these students that are in the class will find an interest, and this will become a lifelong journey that they are taking to learn more about us now and historically,” she said.

Marisa Pérez-Díaz, a member of the Texas State Board of Education, has been a champion for ethnic studies.

“(If) we provide resonant curriculums where our students can see themselves in the language and in the experiences, there's a connection there,” she said. “There's a deeper commitment to their education, and we'll see more successes.”

Orlando Lara, co-founder of the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, agreed.

“The call for ethnic studies in Texas has a long, long history,” he said. “There's this long kind of unwritten history that we're sort of starting to write now.”

Read a recent letter from the Department of Education below on why American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian history is not classified as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or Critical Race Theory (CRT).

Letter From Department of Education to NIEA by Texas Public Radio 

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Norma Martinez can be reached at norma@tpr.org and on Twitter at @NormDog1
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History Is a Human Right, by Jesse Hagopian

Great piece by Jesse Hagopian. This quote connects well to the earlier piece on fascism that I just posted:

"We now live in an era defined by the rise of anti-truth and anti-history laws. The outlawing of an honest education represents a sharp turn toward authoritarianism in the United States — what historian Barbara Ransby has called proto-fascism — where now almost half of students are subjected to some form of banning of the truth about systemic racism and oppression.

The goal of these laws is to deny young people access to the lessons of history that could aid in building struggles against inequity."

Let's not reproduce the nonsensical statement that we live in a
"post-truth" world when it's really fascism that's at play.

History absolutely is a human right—and it's essential to the fight against book bans and for trans rights, Ethnic Studies, women and genders studies, and so on. and youth and community empowerment. Go to this link by the Zinn Education Project if you want to connect to the June 10th national Teach The Truth mobilization happening on Saturday.

Great job, Jesse!

-Angela Valenzuela

#TeachTheTruth

History Is a Human Right

From Stone Mountain to the Stonewall Inn, the #TeachTruth National Day of Action fights back against anti-history legislation. 

Jesse Hagopian  May 24, 2023 Word in Black

Pasadena MD at Banned Books Photo Booth, June 2022, Photograph courtesy of Lynda Davis, Zinn Education Project

With almost half of all students in the United States attending a school whose educators have been given educational gag orders to prohibit them from teaching honestly about the history of systemic racism, a grassroots network of educators, parents, and students across the country are organizing a #TeachTruth National Day of Action on June 10, 2023, to fight back.

Research from the CRT Forward Tracking Project out of the UCLA Law School reveals that measures attacking truthful teaching about race have been passed at either the federal, state, or local level in every state except Vermont — laws that impact “over 22 million public school children, almost half of the country’s 50.8 million public school students.”

The impact of these anti-history laws is difficult to overstate. In Iowa, high school teacher Greg Wickenkamp asked his superintendent, “Knowing that I should stick to the facts, and knowing that to say ‘slavery was wrong,’ that’s not a fact, that’s a stance, is it acceptable for me to teach students that slavery was wrong?” Instead of giving the only morally acceptable answer—”Yes! Slavery was wrong” — Noll replied: “We had people that were slaves within our state. We’re not supposed to say to [students], ‘How does that make you feel?’ We can’t — or, ‘Does that make you feel bad?’ We’re not to do that part of it.”

Wickenkamp described another attack on an Iowa educator that highlights that the worst attacks have been perpetrated against women of color: “I had a colleague who was a Latina teacher. She was pushed out because of hostile treatment. The strain and hostility she faced was much worse than anything I faced. I don’t know if she’ll return to teaching or not, but she was the first generation in her family to go to college — her case is markedly more challenging because of systemic factors.”

Experiences such as those in Iowa have been all too common around the country as attacks on truthful teaching about race, gender, and sexuality are being used as a campaign strategy for the Republican Party. Chris Guerrieri, a 22-year veteran teacher from Duval County, Florida, explained to local media, “An admin of the district recently told the media specialist that if you’re teaching slavery, make sure you’re teaching the positive sides of it as well.”

An admin of the district recently told the media specialist that if you’re teaching slavery, make sure you’re teaching the positive sides of it as well.

Chris Guerrieri, 22-year veteran teacher in Florida

Another educator — in Florida, where a bill was recently passed to make it a third-degree felony (carrying up to five years in jail and a $5,000 fine) to be caught with verboten books on race, gender, or sexuality — responded to a survey by the Zinn Education Project (ZEP), saying, “I’m terrified to say anything about enslavement because it might make students ‘uncomfortable.’ I also can’t recommend ANY books because a parent might not like it and then I could be charged with a felony.”

Another spoke to the way these laws are discouraging many educators from engaging in antiracist lessons: “It is creating a chilling effect on education. We continue to teach the truth, but with much less certainty what the consequences will be for doing so.” As of June 2022, The Washington Post had identified at least 160 educators who lost their job or resigned because they taught about race or LGBTQ+ issues — and there are undoubtedly scores more charged with violating anti-truth laws who have been pushed out of the classroom that have gone unreported.

Faced with this assault on the truth, educators around the country are turning the world into their classroom on June 10 and defying the billionaires funding the attack on antiracist education with public pedagogy at an array of creative events. In Lansing, Michigan, organizers are gathering at the corner where Earl Little — father of Malcolm X — was almost certainly lynched by being thrown in front of a streetcar. They’re walking to the hospital where he died to deliver banned children’s books to the kids in their care. Along the way, they plan to chalk the sidewalks with historical information about the Black Freedom Struggle.


In Boston, the Ethnic Studies Organizing Committee is meeting at the former headquarters of the city’s Black Panther Party chapter to help educate people about history that often gets left out of corporate textbooks.

In New York City, there are multiple gatherings, including one at the Stonewall Inn, where legendary Black transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson helped lead a rebellion against a police raid that became the inspiration for the annual Pride demonstrations around the country.

“At Stonewall, we will discuss what took place within those historic walls in 1969, and what action we can take to support LGBTQIA+ rights today,” organizers wrote. “We will share stories about LGBTQIA+ history that often go overlooked.”

In Stone Mountain, Georgia, the Stone Mountain Action Coalition, and other groups are organizing a rally at Stone Mountain Park, site of the largest Confederate monument in the world. The engraving on the side of Stone Mountain depicts Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.

Organizers will read aloud the picture book, “That Flag” (by Tameka Fryer Brown, illustrated by Nikkolas Smith), a story about two young girls — one Black, one white — whose friendship is tested when the white girl’s family displays the Confederate flag and they learn the truth about its racist history.

It is creating a chilling effect on education. We continue to teach the truth, but with much less certainty what the consequences will be for doing so.

In Harmony, Mississippi, organizers are planning an event to highlight the rich contributions to the Black Freedom Struggle that people from their town have made. During the summer of 1964, members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organized a Freedom School site in the Harmony community.

The Teach Truth Day of Action events respond to right-wing attacks that have deep roots. During the late 1940s and 50s, the second Red Scare (characterized by the attacks led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and others on anyone they wanted to discredit by labeling them communists) was accompanied by the Lavender Scare — the repression of LGBTQ+ people and their mass firing from government service. The combination of the Red Scare and the Lavender Scare led to the firing of thousands of teachers around the country.

Just as the Red Scare and Lavender Scare were used to purge teachers and prohibit discussion of social and racial justice in school, the attacks on what history deniers have labeled “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” are used today to fire educators and exclude discussions about structural racism, sexism, transphobia, and homophobia.

We now live in an era defined by the rise of anti-truth and anti-history laws. The outlawing of an honest education represents a sharp turn toward authoritarianism in the United States — what historian Barbara Ransby has called proto-fascism — where now almost half of students are subjected to some form of banning of the truth about systemic racism and oppression.

The goal of these laws is to deny young people access to the lessons of history that could aid in building struggles against inequity.

The goal of these laws is to deny young people access to the lessons of history that could aid in building struggles against inequity.

History is a human right. The struggle for social justice is many things. However, especially in this era, it must include the recognition of the right to learn honest history — particularly about social movements that have challenged injustice. Without truthful accounts of history and the truthful transmission of that history to the next generations, young people are robbed of the first condition of a democratic society — access to the knowledge needed to shape the future.

You, too, can join the #TeachTruth National Day of Action on June 10. Find an event near you. Or, organize your own. An increasing number of communities refuse to repeat the scapegoating and paranoia of the McCarthy era; we won’t let them use race, gender, and sexuality to divide and conquer us.

Tyler Walker, a high school language arts teacher from Austin, Texas, drove this point home when he signed the Zinn Education Project’s “Pledge to Teach the Truth” and wrote “Students need to know the wonderful stories of the brave folks that fought against systems of oppression and sparked hope and solidarity for the creation of a freer, kinder world.”

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Jesse Hagopian is a high school teacher in Seattle, an editor for Rethinking Schools magazine, an organizer with Black Lives Matter at School, and serves on the leadership team of the Zinn Education Project. Jesse is the author of the forthcoming book from Haymarket Books, Teach Truth: The Attack on Critical Race Theory and the Struggle for Antiracist Education, and the co-editor of the books, Teaching for Black Lives, Black Lives Matter at School, and Teachers Unions and Social Justice. You can connect with Jesse on Twitter, @jessedhagopian, or IG, @jessehagopian.

It's Like They're Proud Of Being Ignorant Cont.

This is embarrassing for those of us in Texas who indeed support a twenty-first century, diverse curriculum that develops multiple literacies for children in Texas and the nation. Angela 

 It's Like They're Proud Of Being Ignorant Cont. By Ta-Nehisi Coates We talked a few weeks ago about the efforts of Texas conservatives to turn the school textbook industry into an arm of the radical right. They have, evidently, succeeded: After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers' commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light. "We are adding balance," said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. "History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left." Battles over what to put in science and history books have taken place for years in the 20 states where state boards must adopt textbooks, most notably in California and Texas. But rarely in recent history has a group of conservative board members left such a mark on a social studies curriculum. Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state's large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, "They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don't exist." "They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians," she said. "They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world." From the deparment of "This Would Be Funny If It Weren't So Sad," the Texas conservatives have launched an attack on Thomas Jefferson: Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term "separation between church and state.") "The Enlightenment was not the only philosophy on which these revolutions were based," Ms. Dunbar said. This is one of those "Why I'm Not A Conservative" moments. It's not that the Left doesn't have its extremes, but the honest truth is that I find, say, marching against the War In Afghanistan right after 9/11 much more tolerable than attempting to erase Hispanics from history, or hating Thomas Jefferson. Or being racist. Check out the original Washington Monthly story, by Mariah Blake, for more. This article available online at: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/03/its-like-theyre-proud-of-being-ignorant-cont/37484/ Copyright © 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All Rights Reserved.