An Indigenous Curriculum of Place

The longest desegregation lawsuit in American history, involving Louisiana’s political, judicial and educational institutions, was recently settled. Like many African-American communities in the south, members of the United Houma Nation did not have access to "White" systems of public education, or to African-American schools, until the mid-1960s. This book illustrates how the Louisiana state apparatus historically dictated educational exclusion through its infamous Jim Crow policies of racial segregation. Utilizing a combination of ethnography, historiography, and oral history methods, its research narratives are specifically concerned with the life histories of United Houma Nation elders who experienced firsthand the complexities and difficulties of institutional racism. An Indigenous Curriculum of Place is essential reading for curriculum scholars, teachers, and community leaders. The narratives in this book not only have the potential to teach us about alternative ways of knowing, but also to understand the limits of our colonized worldviews.

Nicholas Ng-A-Fook received his doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Louisiana State University, after which he began working with the United Houma Nation. He is currently Assistant Professor of Curriculum Theory at the University of Ottawa.