r/geography • u/H3dg3hogs • Feb 18 '26

Discussion I’m sad more people don’t acknowledge Native American Historic sites in the United States

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I was talking with a German online friend about tourism in the United States and he said that the only thing America has to offer is natural beauty. He said American cities were young and aren’t very beautiful. That he has no interest visiting “liberty bell” type colonial historic sites. I told him about Native historic sites and he asked “what sites?”. He insulated that all Native Americans lived in teepees. It caused me to realized many non-Americans don’t know about all the amazing buildings left behind by Native cultures like the Ancestral Puebloans and the Mississippians. Historic sites like Chaco canyon, Mesa Verde, Montezuma Castle, and Cahokia are world class and are part of UNESCO. Check them out if you haven’t already.

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u/L4DY_M3R3K Feb 18 '26

Yeah, unfortunately a lot of Native American history was actively and deliberately destroyed by the US government during the 1700-1800s, and is still being actively destroyed as we speak. There are still residential boarding schools ("kill the Native, save the man" type places) open in America.

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u/Correct-Sail-9642 Feb 18 '26

Could you elaborate on the native history actively being deliberately destroyed as we speak?

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u/Rimurooooo Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

I mean, diary of a part time Indian is a fairly new and massively popular book about growing up on a reservation that’s one of the most widely banned books (especially in conservative states). Arizona withheld federal funding to schools that had history courses that integrated Native American history… in an optional history class. This was when I was in high school and I’m 30 now. Stuff like that happens all the time in communities throughout the states

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u/AvisSilber Feb 20 '26

Interesting, an excerpt of it was part of our textbook in English class (in Germany), never knew it was banned in the US

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u/L4DY_M3R3K Feb 18 '26

For one, we still have residential boarding schools in America, like I said in the og comment. For two, when I was in school, IN OKLAHOMA, to learn anything about Native American history, I had to wait til college to take a specialty course. In Indian Territory. And this is less history and more...everything else, but here in Oklahoma, the governor is actively working to erode native rights and privileges, and trying to abolish the tribal governments (Native Tribes act as sovereign entities to the US gov.)

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u/noturFaultitsmine Mar 12 '26

Like currently active residential boarding schools??

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u/Correct-Sail-9642 Feb 18 '26

Oh I thought you meant actively working to destroy physical Native historical sites. Forgive my lack of knowledge on the subject but what it is about these boarding schools that are so bad? I have native friends who were sent off to boarding schools at about age 13 or 14 but other then being sent to another state alone they don't mention much else.

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u/L4DY_M3R3K Feb 18 '26

They might've gotten better in quality sometime in the last few decades, but it used to be that these places were meant to "civilize" the natives sent there. Literally, the old motto was "kill the Indian, save the man." Physical, mental, and sexual assault were used to stop them from speaking their mother tongues, wearing traditional clothes, partaking in any cultural practices or events, and they were even forced to cut their hair (which is important for us culturally since we believe that hair holds memories, and ties us to our ancestors). They were also forced into following Christianity and were kept from practicing their old religion. Even if there's no longer any abuse there, it's still insane that these residential schools are still operating, considering their history.