tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post7484620562406917272..comments2024-03-27T14:08:51.191-05:00Comments on American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL): About the much celebrated Oregon Trail... Debbie Reesehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14972409006633565859noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-90903702259168948622014-06-09T20:54:20.881-05:002014-06-09T20:54:20.881-05:00Believe it or not, they still use Oregon Trail in ...Believe it or not, they still use Oregon Trail in classrooms, in a non-computer format.<br /><br />My son's 6th grade class "played" it this spring...on paper. And the only mention of indigenous peoples was when the teacher informed students (who were all white settlers, of course) that they had been "attacked" and either killed or had supplies stolen.<br /><br />Yikes. I expressed my concerns and got a blank look.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-14877605997325431412014-06-08T18:13:10.540-05:002014-06-08T18:13:10.540-05:00Interesting, I see the use of the Oregon Trail gra...Interesting, I see the use of the Oregon Trail graphic as an ironic statement about the backwardness of the game and the finally overturned outdated idea of DOMA. Kind of like "we've come a long way baby!" I don't remember the details of the game, but isn't there the concept of one's character getting married to a "wife" or a "husband" and it always being the opposite gender? At least in the game of "Life" one could do two blue people or two pink people as marrieds. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-66511164782405164512014-06-08T07:06:30.050-05:002014-06-08T07:06:30.050-05:00Bill Bigelow of Rethinking Schools wrote a critiqu...Bill Bigelow of Rethinking Schools wrote a critique of the Oregon Trail software a number of years ago. Included in that, he raises the question of whose perspective the game is played. So, even if "you" can "talk" with people of various ethnicities, who does that make "you" and where will your sympathies and understanding lie? <br />http://zinnedproject.org/materials/on-the-road-to-cultural-bias/Deborah Menkarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01688851742052653903noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27760240.post-17894152429212125302014-06-05T15:50:02.723-05:002014-06-05T15:50:02.723-05:00The 5th Edition of Oregon Trail (released 2002) do...The 5th Edition of Oregon Trail (released 2002) does have characters of different ethnicities that you can "talk" to. At least seven are American Indians of various tribes. Several of them emphasize how contact with White people has harmed their tribe. Although the game itself is still about colonialism, at least Native people are represented. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07758709888046254630noreply@blogger.com