SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois public schools would be required to teach lessons on Midwestern Native American history beginning in the 2024-25 school year under a measure passed by state legislators that is expected to be signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
“The Native American history is in our DNA,” Democratic state Rep. Maurice West of Rockford, the bill’s sponsor, said in an interview. “It’s our obligation to truly know our history as a state.”
Under the bill, 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.”
