Native American Studies

Starting this school year, Connecticut schools must include Native American Studies as part of their social studies curriculum. State statute stipulates that the instruction must focus on the Northeastern Woodland Native American Tribes of Connecticut, but the curriculum may expand beyond this emphasis.

CSDE said instructional resources for the new Native American Studies Model Curriculum are still under development in collaboration with the five state-recognized tribes in Connecticut: the Golden Hill Paugussett, Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Paucatuck Eastern Pequot, and the Schaghticoke.

Parisi said that the five tribes have been a “tremendous partner” in sharing and curating resources and that the department is working to make those resources accessible to school districts.

“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,” Beth Regan, the vice chairwoman of the Mohegan Tribe Council of Elders, said at a press conference announcing the partnership between CSDE and the tribes last November.

In a press release issued in tandem with the event, Gov. Ned Lamont said the “curriculum is an important part of acknowledging our past and historical connections with our tribal nations. We are going beyond acknowledgment by building meaningful relationships with our tribal leaders and this curriculum effort is a prime example of that.”