The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. How would you summarize the history of Indigenous peoples of North America as it is told by mainstream sources—middle and high school textbooks, movies, popular novels, and other traditional media?

Teaching Suggestion: If possible, students might bring in an assortment of textbooks, fiction, and films that treat this topic to share and briefly investigate through clips and excerpts. Students can work in small groups to complete a short summary, then share with the class. After each group presents, group members or the class as a whole can address these points: How do groups’ summaries compare? How are the example texts and sources represented in summaries? What, if anything, has changed in more recent media or texts?

• This article from Education Week expresses concerns about the depictions of Indigenous peoples in school history textbooks.
• This article from Zócalo Public Square shares both the personal experience of an Indigenous actor and historical background about depictions of Indigenous Americans in popular media.

2. What aspects of mainstream depictions of Indigenous peoples’ history do Indigenous historians likely find inaccurate or biased? How are their attempts to correct the record likely received by the larger culture?

Teaching Suggestion: This discussion question calls for speculating about a topic from another viewpoint. Students might benefit from reviewing or establishing speaking, listening, and writing guidelines for respectful and considerate contributions.

• This article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review discusses the impact of inaccurate history on Indigenous peoples and suggests how to improve the situation.
• This article by a Nambé Owingeh educator explains how misrepresentation of Indigenous peoples and their histories impacts all students and suggests that young people be exposed to books by Indigenous writers.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

How does inaccurate or biased history impact you, personally? When you encounter mainstream historical depictions of the various aspects of your identity (e.g., racial, ethnic, religious, and gender identity), do you generally see these depictions as accurate and unbiased? Cite examples you can recall or find. Do you notice potential inaccuracies and biases related to groups you do not identify with? Offer examples in your discussion. Connect your answers to the idea of power relationships in our society.

Teaching Suggestion: The intention of this prompt is to increase students’ engagement with King’s text by connecting his account to students’ own experiences. Some students, however, may have difficulty relating to the frustrations of those about whom mainstream history tells biased or inaccurate stories. These students might think about and discuss inaccurate sources of information such as biased reports or social media and their potentially negative impact and reach in society.