McHenry Times

Gov. JB Pritzker is expected to sign a bill requiring the state's public schools to teach Midwestern Native American history starting in the 2024-25 school year, a recent Yahoo News story republished from the Chicago Tribune said.

“The Native American history is in our DNA,” Democratic state Rep. Maurice West of Rockford, the bill’s sponsor, said in an interview with the Tribune. “It’s our obligation to truly know our history as a state.” 

Pritzker's staff agrees. “Gov. Pritzker believes that history should be taught in a way that conveys the story of our country and state as it actually happened,” a spokesperson for Pritzker told the Tribune in an email. “Including Native American history in the classroom … ensures students are given the tools to understand and empathize with one another.”

The bill passed the Illinois House this month on a 44-8 vote. It stipulates that all public elementary and high school social studies courses that cover American history or government must include instruction on “events of the Native American experience and Native American history within the Midwest and this state.”

The bill is the latest in a recent series of history requirements passed by the Illinois legislature, including one in 2021 requiring that Asian American history be taught, making Illinois the first state in the nation to do so.

The curriculum will be developed with consultation from members of the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative, the news report said. The bill also requires that the State Education Equity Committee include a member from an organization that works for the betterment of Native Americans, as well as an “individual with a disability” or with a statewide advocacy group on behalf of individuals with disabilities.