Connecticut’s tribal nations, Department of Education partnering to develop Native American studies curriculum: ‘To tell our true, tragic, yet also very wonderful history’

Representatives from Connecticut’s five sovereign tribal nations, the governor and other state leaders met in Hartford Wednesday to announce a historic collaboration between the Native American tribes and the Connecticut State Department of Education to put forth a new Native American studies model curriculum for primary and secondary students.

The partnership with the Golden Hill Paugussett, Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Eastern Pequot and Schaghticoke tribes is a result of legislation passed in 2021 that requires Connecticut public schools to incorporate Native American studies in social studies lessons.

“We acknowledge the importance of this historic legislation for our history, passing it on to teachers and then into the hands of students,” Mitchel Ray, chairman Eastern Pequot Tribal Councilors, said. “We look forward to working with the Department of Education and moving this curriculum forward.”

CSDE Chief Academic Officer Irene Parisi said the department aims to roll out its statewide K-12 curriculum covering the “past, present and future” of Connecticut’s Native American and Northeastern Woodland tribes by January of 2024.

“We want to ensure our students here in Connecticut have a strong understanding of the wisdom, perspectives, and contributions of diverse cultures and tribal nations, both here in Connecticut and nationwide. It is part of our collective history and deserves to be an integral part of the narrative and story here in Connecticut,” Parisi said.

The CSDE Academic Office said it plans to publicly release the model curriculum and educational resources on GoOpenCT.org as early as this June.

State Senator Cathy Osten, who proposed plans for a Native American studies curriculum to the legislature in November 2020, called the action “long overdue.”

“This is the most important piece, the most important piece because it recognizes where we stand today and that we will no longer silence the voices of those that were here before us,” Osten said.

Beth Regan, vice chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe Council of Elders, said that the Mohegan have been providing educators with tribal history curriculum for decades. Regan said that the Mohegan feel honored to collaborate with Connecticut’s tribes and Department of Education to bring this knowledge, history and culture to the rest of the state.

“Today is such a good day. Now with implementing native curriculum into our social studies curriculum, now all Connecticut students can learn about our roots through the voices of our people. Not through the colonizer’s voice, but through the voices that have been left out, to tell our true, tragic, yet also very wonderful history,” Regan said.

Director of Cultural Resources for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe Wayne Reels cautioned that some lessons will be difficult.

Wayne and others spoke about the challenges that come with addressing the darker sides of Connecticut history, such as the Pequot Massacre, where colonial and Mohegan forces slaughtered an estimated 500 Pequot men, woman and children in present-day Groton, or the Treaty of Hartford, which resulted in the execution and enslavement of the entire Pequot tribe and a ban on their language after the Pequot War.

“There’s two sides to the story. Both sides need to be told. And that’s what we’re doing here. We’re not saying one thing’s right, one thing’s wrong,” Reels said.

“We’re not looking for reparations. We’re not trying to cancel culture,” Reels added. “The only reparation we want from history is [for it] not to be repeated moving forward. We don’t want anything from the past. Nobody here is responsible for killing any Pequot in the massacre. But if we go on canceling our culture, ignoring it and not telling the truth about it, then you are responsible. We can all be responsible for what we do today. We can’t be responsible for what happened yesterday.”

Laughing Woman is the spiritual leader of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the vice chairwoman of the tribe’s Elders Council. She said that as the state and Native American leaders move forward with the curriculum, love and forgiveness must guide the collaboration.

“I did not think I would live to see the day where the Mohegan Tribe and the Pequot Tribe [would be] working together,” Laughing Woman said. “We will never forget the atrocities in the genocide, which is still going on with Native American people. But in order to move on, we may not agree, we may never agree with each other, but we have to be respectful of each other and listen. Please listen carefully to our story. We want to tell our own story, not what is already written down.”

Alison Cross can be reached at across@courant.com.