Country music singer Josh Logan released a record in 1989 entitled “Somebody Always Paints the Wall.” It is the story of a man who makes incremental progress in his life that is undermined by unfortunate circumstances. Every time he makes his mark, somebody always paints the wall.

This particular song could be the national anthem of Indian country as American Indians/Alaska Natives who are not very visible in our current government affairs, are nearly whitewashed out of American history altogether.

Sarah Shear, an Associate Professor of Social Studies Education at Pennsylvania State University in Altoona, PA along with other researchers spent two years analyzing US history standards to determine what students are learning about American Indians.

Their findings were hard to believe:

• 87% of references about American Indians in all 50 states depict them in the 19th Century.
• All 50 states left out any content regarding current American Indian events and issues despite the fact that American Indians live in all fifty states.
• 25 of the states did not mention one single American Indian tribe despite American Indians residing in every state of the union.
• The only American Indians mentioned were Sacagawea, Squanto, Sequoyah and Sitting Bull.
• 62 American Indian nations were included and the majority of those were mentioned by one state despite the fact there are 566 federally recognized Tribes in the USA.
• The Iroquois Nation was mentioned by six states.
• Only 4 states included any information regarding Indian boarding schools-Arizona, Washington, Oklahoma and Kansas despite evidence that Indian boarding schools existed in 16 additional states.
• New Mexico is the only state to identify a member of the American Indian Movement.
• Washington was the only state to mention the term “genocide” in its 5th Grade History standards.

Alysa Landry, an Indian Country Today writer found the same trend in her research of Indigenous issues through the lens of the Office of the Presidency. For 45 weeks she interviewed presidential biographers, read inaugural addresses, reviewed executive orders, scoured presidential papers. She was trying to identify each President’s relationship with Native people. What she discovered was our Presidents never had a lasting post-mortem connection to American Indians/Alaska Natives.

What makes this revelation so amazing is that many positive developments in Indian country happened due to the leadership of forward looking Presidents. Landry noted that the biographer for Andrew Johnson had never heard of the Navajo Treaty of 1868. Her Gerald Ford contact did not know that he signed the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. Her Lyndon Johnson connection did not realize that LBJ signed the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968.

According to Landry, other Presidents did great things for our country’s first citizens yet failed to mention these achievements in their autobiographies.

Calvin Coolidge gave American Indians the right to vote when he signed the Indian Citizenship Act in 1924. Yet, this accomplishment was not singled out in his autobiography.

Jimmy Carter turned the tide on the legacy of Indian Boarding Schools when he signed the Indian Child Welfare Act in 1978 to ensure Indian children was given the first choice to be adopted by Indian parents. Unfortunately, Carter never cited this breakthrough in his autobiography. Matter of fact, Carter left the term “Indians” out of his life story completely.

What holds this sad narrative together is the collusion of local, state and federal government stakeholders to remove American Indians/Alaska Natives from the coalition of past and present voices that make up the American experience? It is an experience that is worth remembering. It is an experience that Native People may have to end up writing by themselves.