A new report by Wabanaki leaders and civil rights advocates blasts Maine’s enforcement of a 21-year-old law that requires Wabanaki history be taught in all Maine schools.
In a report released Monday — Indigenous Peoples Day — by the Wabanaki Alliance, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Abbe Museum and the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission, the group found that despite a 2001 law requiring the history and culture of the Wabanaki people be taught in public and private schools in Maine, the state’s Department of Education has failed to ensure Wabanaki studies are consistently and appropriately included in school curriculum and that the law is not being meaningfully enforced.
The state’s Wabanaki studies law requires that Maine Native American history and culture be taught in all elementary and secondary schools. That legislation was drafted and pushed through the Legislature by the Penobscot Nation’s representative at the time, Donna Loring, who has more recently served as Gov. Janet Mills’ senior adviser on tribal affairs and now serves on the University of Maine System board of trustees.
The ACLU, Wabanaki Alliance and the Abbe Museum filed public records requests with the Department of Education and 10 school districts in the state to investigate the rollout of the law.
Those records, according to the report, showed that the law hasn’t been “meaningfully enforced” across the state. While there have been successes, school districts have generally failed to “appropriately” include Wabanaki studies in the curriculum, and teacher training on the topic has been “insufficient.”
The group cited Portland Public Schools’ collaboration with Wabanaki tribes and experts to rework lesson plans as a success. Additionally, at Calais High School, some classes are taught in the Passamaquoddy language, according to the report.
“Despite these successes, most schools that we evaluated failed to cover all of the areas required by the statute — including Wabanaki history, economic systems, political systems and culture,” the report said.
One of the schools from which the group requested records did not provide any records in response, while another admitted it did not systematically include the required information in its curriculum, according to the report.
Another key failure the group found is that when Wabanaki studies have been implemented, Wabanaki people are almost always referred to in the past tense, insinuating that Wabanaki people do not still exist.
In terms of training, the state has not implemented any requirements that teachers learn about Wabanaki history or culture to become certified. In addition, the State Board of Education has not required Wabanaki studies as an area of professional development or continuing education, according to the report.
The report includes a number of recommendations, including that the state:
— reinstate the Wabanaki Studies Commission;
— update the Maine Learning Results — which outline the skills and knowledge Maine students need to learn at each grade level — with specific learning outcomes for Wabanaki studies;
— hold school districts accountable for following the 2001 law through a review of comprehensive education plans; and
— require Wabanaki studies as part of teacher certification and continuing teacher education.
Maulian Dana, the Penobscot Nation’s tribal ambassador, said Monday that the report is meant to be a constructive document that is an honest reflection of where the state is in terms of implementing the 2001 law.
“I think there’s a lot of really great information in this report, and I really love how the recommendations sum it up in a real factual way,” she said. “This is what’s happened, this is where we’re at right now and this is how we move forward together.”