On the Road to Cultural Bias A critique of "The Trail" CD-ROM By Bill Bigelow

he critics all agree : The Oregon Newsletter. Susan Schilling, a key choices, they may appear education- Trail is one of the greatest edu- developer of II who was ally progressive . CD-ROMs seem tai- cational computer games ever later hired by Star Wars filmmaker lor-made for the classrooms of producedT . In 1992, Prides' Guide to George Lucas to head Lucas tomorrow. They are hands-on and Educational Software awarded it five Learning Ltd., promised new interac- "student-centered." They are general- stars for being "a wholesome, tive CD-ROMs targeted at children ly interdisciplinary - for example, absorbing historical simulation," and and concentrated in math and lan- Oregon Trail II blends reading, writ- "multi-ethnic," to boot . The newer guage arts. ing, history, geography, math, sci- version, Oregon Trail II, is the "best Because interactive CD-ROMs ence, and health. And they are useful history simulation we've seen to like The Oregon Trail are encyclope- in multi-age classrooms because they date," according to a 1994 review by dic in the amount of information they allow students of various knowledge Warren Buckleitner, editor of offer, and because they allow stu- levels to "play" and learn. Children's Software Review dents a seemingly endless number of But like the walls of a maze, the

Women played a different kind of role on the cross-country journey than the Oregon Trail CDs portray.

A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION Beginning of the Oregon Trail : Independence, Missouri .

choices built into interactive CD- Playing the Game you were that character (Provenzo, ROMs also channel participants in 1991) . In Oregon Trail, a player very definite directions. The CD- In both Oregon Trail and Oregon quickly bonds to the "pioneer" maneu- ROMs are programmed by people Trail 11, students become members of vering through the "wilderness " people with particular cultural biases families and wagon trains crossing In preparation for this article, I've - and children who play the com- the Plains in the 1840s or 1850s on played Oregon Trail II until my eyes puter games encounter the biases of the way to the Oregon Territory . A became blurry . I can see its attraction the programmers (Bowers, 1988) . player's objective, according to the to teachers . One can't play the game Just as we would not invite a stranger game guidebook, is to safely reach without learning a lot about the geog- into our classrooms and then leave the Oregon Territory with one's fam- raphy from Missouri to Oregon . the room, teachers need to become ily, thereby "increasing one's options (However, I hope I never have to ford aware of the political perspectives of for economic success ." another virtual river ever again .) CD-ROMs, and need to equip our The enormous number of choices Reading the trail guide as one plays students to "read" them critically. offered in any one session - what to teaches much about the ailments con- At one level, this article is a criti- buy for the journey ; the kind of fronted on the Oregon Trail, and cal review of the Oregon Trail CD- wagon to take ; whether to use horses, some of the treatments . Students can ROMs. I ask what knowledge is high- oxen, or mules ; the size of the wagon learn a tremendous amount about the lighted and what is hidden as stu- train with which to travel ; whom to details of life for the trekkers to dents play the game. But I also reflect "talk" to along the way ; when and Oregon : the kinds of wagons on the nature of the new electronic where to hunt ; when to rest ; how fast required, supplies needed, vegetation curricula, and suggest some ques- to travel - is a kind of gentle seduc- encountered along the route, and so tions teachers can ask before choos- tion to students . It invites them to "try forth. And the game has a certain ing to use them with our students. on this world view; see how it fits ." In multicultural and gender-fair veneer And I offer some classroom activities an interactive CD-ROM, you don't that, however limited, contrasts that might begin to develop students' merely identify with a particular favorably with the white male domi- critical computer literacy. character, you actually adopt his or nated texts of yesteryear. her frame of reference and act as if But as much as the game teaches,

46 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2 it mis-teaches more . In fundamental Without acknowledging it, Women decided where to look for respects, Oregon Trail II is sexist, Oregon Trail maneuvers students into firewood or buffalo chips, how and racist, culturally insensitive, and con- thinking and acting as if they were all what to cook using hot rocks, how to temptuous of the earth . It imparts bad males - and, as we'll see, white care for the children, and how to values and wrong history . males . The game highlights a male resolve conflicts between travelers, lifestyle and poses problems that his- especially the men . They Look Like Women, But ... torically fell within the male domain : These were real life decisions, but, whether and where to hunt, which with the exception of treating illness, To its credit, Oregon Trail 11 route to take, whether and what to they're missing from The Oregon includes large numbers of women . trade, to caulk a wagon or ford a Trail. Students are rarely required to Although I didn't count, women river. However, as I began to read think about the intricacies of preserv- appear to make up roughly half the more feminist scholarship on the ing "the home in transit" for 2,000 people students encounter as they Oregon Trail, I realized that women miles . An Oregon Trail II information play. But this surface equity is mis- and men experienced the Trail very box on the screen informs a player leading . Women may be present, but differently. It's clear from reading when "morale" is high or low, but gender is not acknowledged as an women's diaries of the period that other than making better male- issue in Oregon Trail. In the opening women played little or no role in oriented decisions, what's a player to sequences, the game requires stu- deciding whether to embark on the do? Oregon Trail offers no opportuni- dents to select a profession, special trip, where to camp, which routes to ties to encounter the choices of the skills they possess, the kind of wagon take and the like . In real life, Trail as women of the time would to take, the city they'll depart from, women's decisions revolved around have encountered them, and to make etc . Class is recognized as an issue - how to maintain a semblance of com- decisions that might enhance com- bankers begin with more money than munity under great stress, how "to munity, and thus "morale ." As Lillian saddlemakers, for example - but not preserve the home in transit" Schlissel concludes in her study, gender or race - a player cannot (Faragher and Stansell, 1992 ; Women's Diaries of the Westward choose these . Schlissel, 1992 ; Kesselman, 1976) . Journey (1992) : "If ever there was a

A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION 47 time when men and women turned over our festivities . The question between people, would focus on how their psychic energies toward oppo- arose as to where we are to obtain the experience affects our feelings site visions, the overland journey was the material for the flag . One lady about each other, would feature how that time. Sitting side by side on a brought forth a sheet . This gave women worked with one another to wagon seat, a man and a woman felt the ladies an idea . Quick as survive and weave community, as different needs as they stared at the thought another brought a skirt for women's diary entries clearly reveal . endless road that led into the New the red stripes . .. Another lady ran As I indicated, large numbers of Country." (p. 15). to her tent and brought forth a blue women appear throughout the Oregon Similarly, Oregon Trail fails to jacket, saying: "Here, take this ; it Trail simulation, and they often give represent the texture of community will do for the field." Needles and good advice, perhaps better advice life on the Trail. Students confront a thread were soon secured and the than the men we encounter. But seemingly endless stream of prob- ladies went at their task with a Oregon Trail's abundance of women, lems posed by Oregon Trail program- will, one lady remarking that and its apparent effort to be gender- mers, but rarely encounter the details "necessity is the mother of inven- fair, masks an essential problem : The of life, especially that of women's tion," and the answer came back, choice-structure of the simulation lives. By contrast, in an article in the "yes, and the ladies of our compa- privileges men's experience and virtu- book America's Working Women ny are equal to the task" (Hill, ally erases women's experience . (1976), Amy Kesselman includes a 1989, p . 58). passage from the diary of one female African Americans as Tokens trekker, Catherine Haun, in 1849 : From the game's beginning, when We women folk visited from Oregon Trails a player starts off in Independence or wagon to wagon or congenial St. Joseph, Missouri, African friends spent an hour walking treatment of Americans dot the Oregon Trail land- ever westward, and talking over African scape. However, by and large they are our home life "back in the no more than black-colored white states" telling of the loved ones Americans people. Even though Missouri was a left behind; voicing our hopes slave state throughout the entire for the future in the far west and reflects a very Oregon Trail period, I never encoun- even whispering, a little friend- tered the term "slavery" while play- ly gossip of pioneer life . High superficial ing the game. I found race explicitly teas were not popular but tat- acknowledged in only one exchange, ting, knitting, crocheting, multiculturalism . when I "talked" to an African- exchanging receipts for cook- Black people are American woman along the trail : ing beans or dried apples or "I'm Isabella . I'm traveling with the swopping food for the sake of present, but Raleighs and their people . My job is variety kept us in practice of to keep after the cows and watch the feminine occupations and their lives aren't . children. My husband Fred is the ox- diversions* (Kesselman, 1976, driver - best there is ." Are they free, p. 71). are they enslaved? Are we to assume The contrast between the the Raleighs are white? I asked to The male orientation of Oregon "yahoos"/gunfire of Oregon Trail and know more : "I was born in Delaware . Trail is brought into sharp relief in the collective female exhilaration My father used to tell me stories of the game's handling of Independence described in the diary excerpt is strik- Africa and promised one day we'd Day commemoration . Students as ing. This comparison alerted me to find ourselves going home . But I pioneers are asked if they wish to something so obvious that it took me don't know if I'm getting closer or "Celebrate the Fourth!" Click on this awhile to recognize. In Oregon Trail, farther away with all this walking ." option, and one hears loud "Yahoos" people don't talk to each other, they The end. Like Missouri, Delaware and guns firing . Compare this to the all talk to you, the player. Everyone was a slave state in antebellum days, communal preparations described in in the Oregon Trail-constructed but this is not shared with students . Enoch Conyers' 1852 diary (but not world aims her or his conversation at Isabella offers provocative details, in The Oregon Trail) : you - underscoring the simulation's but they hide more than they reveal individualistic ideology that all the about her identity and culture . A little further on is a group of world exists for you, controller of the Oregon Trail's treatment of young ladies seated on the grass mouse. An Oregon Trail more alert to African Americans reflects a very talking over the problem of manu- feminist insights and women's expe- superficial multiculturalism. Black facturing "Old Glory" to wave riences would highlight relations people are present, but their lives

*The original spelling and phrasing have been retained in material cited here . 48 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2 The Dalles on the . aren't. Attending to matters of race well-to-do pioneers . Race may not isfying ." Although the Oregon Trail requires more than including lots of have seemed important to the Oregon simulation never acknowledges it, Black faces, or having little girls Trail programmers, but race mattered "Bill" must have been white, because "talk Black"-"I think it's time we a great deal to Bush : Along the Trail, in 1850 the U.S. Congress passed the be moving on now ." (This little girl he confided to another emigrant that Oregon Donation Land Act granting reappears from time to time to repeat if he experienced too much prejudice 640 acres to free white males and these same words . A man who looks in Oregon, he would travel south to their wives - only. It is unlikely that Mexican likewise shows up frequent- California or and seek a Black man, much less a Black ly to say, with heavy accent: "Time is protection from the Mexican govern- woman, would have been granted a-wasting. Let's head out!") ment (ibid, p . 19). land in 1855 or been allowed to start Even though one's life prospects And Bush had reason to be appre- a business in Medford some years and worldview in the 1840s and hensive: African Americans arriving later. 1850s - as today - were dramati- in Oregon Territory during the 1840s Why were whites so insistent that cally shaped by one's race, this factor and 1850s were greeted by laws bar- Blacks not live in Oregon? The pre- is invisible in Oregon Trail. Players ring Blacks from residency . Black amble of one Black exclusion bill know their occupations but not their exclusion laws were passed twice in explained that "situated as the people racial identities, even though this Oregon Territory in the 1840s, and a of Oregon are, in the midst of an knowledge is vital to decisions par- clause in the Oregon state constitu- Indian population, it would be highly ticipants would make before leaving tion barring Black residency was rat- dangerous to allow free negroes and on the journey as well as along the ified in 1857 by a ratio of 8-1- a mulattoes to reside in the territory way. clause, incidentally, not removed or to intermix with the Indians, For example, many of the consti- until 1926 . instilling in their minds feelings of tutions of societies that sponsored Upon completion of one of my hostility against the white race. .. ." wagon trains specifically excluded simulated Oregon Trail journeys, I (McLagan, 1980, p . 26). And Samuel Blacks from making the trip west . clicked to see how I turned out: "In Thurston, a delegate to Congress Nonetheless, as Elizabeth McLagan 1855, Bill built a home on 463 acres from Oregon Territory explained in points out in her history of Blacks in of land in the Valley of 1850 why blacks should not be enti- Oregon, A Peculiar Paradise (1980), Oregon," experienced only "moder- tled to homestead in Oregon : Blacks did travel the Oregon Trail, ate success" and later moved to some as slaves, some as servants, and Medford, "establishing a small busi- The negroes associate with the at least some, like George Bush, as ness that proved more stable and sat- Indians and intermarry, and, if

A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION their free ingress is encouraged or to avoid contact with each other. used. It exists for us, outside of us, allowed, there would a relation- Such meetings are often the source and we have no obligations in ship spring up between them and of misunderstandings, sometimes return. the different tribes, and a mixed with regrettable consequences . The consequences of the Oregon race would ensue inimical to the Trail for the Plains Indians, the whites; and the Indians being led Emigrants often spread disease, Indians of the Northwest and for the on by the negro who is better according to the guidebook, which earth were devastating. In fairness, as acquainted with the customs, lan- made the Indians "distrust and dis- they play Oregon Trail, students may guage, and manners of the whites, like" the emigrants . The guidebook hear some of the details of this than the Indian, these savages further warns Oregon Trail players upheaval . For example, on one trip I would become much more formi- not to overhunt game in any one encountered a "Pawned Village." Had dable than they otherwise would, place as "few things will incur the I paid attention to the warning in the and long and bloody wars would be wrath of the Indian peoples more guidebook to "avoid contact" I would the fruits of the comingling of the than an overstayed welcome accom- have ignored it and continued on my races. It is the principle of self panied by the egregious waste of the trip. But I entered and "talked" to the preservation that justifies the action natural resources upon which they people I encountered there. A of the Oregon legislature depend." Pawnee woman : "Why do you bother (McLagan, 1980, pp . 30-31) . What orientation is highlighted me? I don't want to trade . The things and what is hidden in the simulation that we get from the white travelers Thurston's argument carried the programmed for students to follow? don't make up for all that we lose." I day. But Oregon Trail programmers The ideology embedded in Oregon click to hear more. "We didn't know have framed the issues so that race Trail I and II is selfish and goal-driv- the whooping cough, measles, or the seems irrelevant . Thus, once students- en: Care about indigenous people smallpox until your people brought as-pioneers arrive in Oregon, most of insofar as you need to avoid "misun- them to us . Our medicine cannot cure them will live happily after ever - derstanding" and incurring the wrath these strange diseases, and our chil- never considering the impact that race of potentially hostile natives . Oregon dren are dying." I click on "Do you would have on life conditions . Trail promotes an anthropocentric have any advice?" Angrily, she says, earth-as-natural resource outlook . "No. I just want you to leave us Just Passing Through? Nature is a thing to be consumed or alone." The implication is that if I just overcome as people traverse the "leave them alone" and continue on Oregon Trail programmers are country in search of success in a far- the trail I can pursue my dream with- careful not to portray Indians as the away land. The simulation's structure out hurting the Indians . "enemy" of westward trekkers. coerces children into identifying with However, this interpretation miss- However, the simulation's superficial white settlers and dismissing non- es the fact that the Oregon Trail itself, sympathy for Native groups masks a white others . It contributes to the not just contact with the so-called profound insensitivity to Indian cul- broader curricular racialization of pioneers, devastated Indian cultures tures and to the earth that sustained identity students absorb - learning and the ecology of which those cul- these cultures . The simulation guide- who constitutes the normalized "we" tures were an integral part . For exam- book lists numerous Indian nations by and who is excluded . ple, pioneers - let's begin to call name - and respectfully calls them Oregon Trail players need not them their Lakota name, Wasi'chu, "nations." The Oregon Trail guide- take into account the lives of others "greedy persons"* - cut down all book explains that emigrants' fear of unless it's necessary to do so in the cottonwood trees found along the Indians is "greatly exaggerated:" order to accomplish their personal rich bottomlands of plains rivers - objectives . Thus the cultures of trees which "offered crucial protec- Some travelers have been Plains Indians are backgrounded. tion during winter blizzards as well known to cross the entire breadth The game marginalizes their view of as concealing a village's smoke from of the continent from the Missouri the earth. Contrast, for example, the its enemies . In lean seasons, horses River to the Sierra Nevadas with- Indians' term "mother earth" with fed on its bark, which was surprising- out ever laying eye on an Indian, the Oregon Trail term "natural ly nourishing" (Davidson and Lytle, except perhaps for occasional resource ." 1992, p . 114). brief sightings from a The metaphor of earth as mother The Oregon Trail created serious distance. suggests humans in a reciprocal wood shortages, which even the This is all well and good, for it relationship with a natural world Wasi'chu acknowledged. "By the is probably best for all parties con- that is alive, nourishing us, sustain- Mormon guide we here expected to cerned for emigrants and Indians ing us. A resource is a thing to be find the last timber," wrote overlan-

* The Lakota "used a metaphor to describe the newcomers . It was Wasi'chu, which means `takes the fat,' or `greedy person: Within the modern Indian movement, Wasi'chu has come to mean those corporations and individuals, with their governmental accomplices, which continue to covet Indian lives, land, and resources for private profit . Wasi'chu does not describe a race ; it describes a state of mind" (Johnansen and Maestas, 1979, p . 6) . 50 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2 der A.W. Harlan, describing the Oregon Trail programmers don't offer , "but all had been used The natives explicitly empha- students-as-trekkers is the choice to up by others ahead of us so we must sized that the throngs of overlan- harm Indians . Doubtless MECC, pro- go about 200 miles without any pro- ders were killing and scaring ducer of Oregon Trail, is not anxious visions cooked up ." A few weeks away buffalo and other wild to promote racism toward Native peo- later, in sight of the Black Hills, game, overgrazing prairie grass- ples. However, because simulation Harlan wrote : "[W]e have passed es, exhausting the small quantity players can't hurt or even speak ill of many cottonwood stumps but no tim- of available timber, and depleting Indians, the game fails to alert stu- ber " (p. 115) water resources. The tribute pay- dents that white hostility was one fea- Wasi'chu rifles also killed tremen- ments... were demanded mainly ture of the westward migration . The dous numbers of buffalo that Plains by the Sac and Fox, Kickapoo, omission is significant because the Indians depended upon for survival . Pawnee, and Sioux Indians - the sanitized, nonviolent Oregon Trail One traveler in the 1850s wrote that tribes closest to the Missouri fails to equip students to reflect on the "the valley of the Platte for 200 miles River frontier and therefore those origins of conflicts between whites presents the aspect of the vicinity of a feeling most keenly the pressures and Indians . Nor does it offer students slaughter yard, dotted all over with of white men increasingly any insights into the racial antago- skeletons of buffaloes" (ibid p 117) . impinging upon their domains nism that fueled this violence . In all Very soon after the beginning of the (1993, p. 169). my play of Oregon Trail I can't recall Oregon Trail the buffalo learned to any blatant racism directed at Indians . avoid the Trail, their herds migrating Wasi'chu travelers resented this But as John Unruh, Jr., points out: both south and north. Edward Indian-imposed taxation and their "The callous attitude of cultural and Lazarus points out in Black racial superiority so many overlan- Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation ders exemplified was of considerable Versus the - 1775 to significance in producing the volatile the Present : "But the Oregon Trail The sanitized, milieu in which more and more did more than move the buffalo ; it nonviolent tragedies occurred" (p. 186) . destroyed the hunting pattern of the Sioux, forcing them to follow the Oregon Trail The End of the Trail herds to the fringes of their domain and to expose themselves to the raids fails to equip Soon there will come from of their enemies" (1991, p . 14). students to the rising sun a different kind of However, wrapped in their man from any you have yet seen, cocoons of self-interest, Oregon Trail reflect on the who will bring with them a book players push on, oblivious to the and will teach you everything, mayhem and misery they cause in origins of after that the world will fall to their westward drive. This is surely pieces. an unintended, and yet intrinsic, part conflicts - Spokan Prophet, 1790 of the game's message : Pursue your (Limerick, 1987, p. 39) goal as an autonomous individual, between whites ignore the social and ecological con- and Indians. Someone can spend two or three sequences . Look out for number one . hours - or more - playing one game of Oregon Trail before finally No Violence Here reaching Oregon Territory. Once we resentment frequently turned to hos- arrive, the game awards us points and Oregon Trail never suggests to its tility and violence, especially in the tells us how our life in Oregon turned simulated pioneers that they should later years of the Trail. The Pawnees out. And yet it fails to raise vital seek permission of Indian nations to were "hateful wretches," wrote Dr. questions about our right to be there travel through their territory . And Thomas Wolfe in 1852, for demand- in the first place, and what happened from this key omission flow other ing a 25-cent toll at a bridge across to the people who were there first . omissions . The simulation doesn't Shell Creek near the North Platte In its section on the "Destination," inform players that because of the River (ibid p . 171). Shell Creek and the guidebook offers students its wis- disruptions wrought by the daily other crossings became flashpoints dom on how they should view life in intrusions of the westward migration, that escalated into violent skirmishes a new land . It's a passage that under- Plains Indians regularly demanded resulting in the deaths of settlers and scores the messages students absorb tribute from the trekkers . As John Indians. while engaged in the simulation. Unruh, Jr ., writes in The Plains Despite the increasing violence These comforting words of advice Across: along the Oregon Trail, one choice

A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION End of the Trail : Oregon City.

and social vision are worth quoting at continent, building a glorious objective in a despicable fashion . For length: future for generations to come! example, he refused to have the treaties translated into the Indians' Once you reach the end of your The Lakota scholar/activist Vine languages, instead favoring journey, you should go to the near- Deloria, Jr., in his book, Indians of the "Chinook jargon," a non-language of est large town to establish your , (1977) offers a less fewer than 300 words good for trad- land claim . If there are no large sanguine perspective than that includ- ing, giving orders, and little else . towns in the area, simply find an ed in the CD-ROM guidebook . Dart's mandate was to move all the unclaimed tract of land and settle People coming in on the Oregon Trail Indians east of the Cascades, but he down.... As they say, possession is "simply arrived on the scene and decided some tribes, like the nine-tenths of the law, and if you started building . If there were Indians Tillamooks and Chinooks, should have settled and worked land that or previous settlers on the spot they keep small amounts of land as cheap hasn't yet been claimed by anyone were promptly run off under one pre- labor reserves : else, you should have little or no text or another. Lawlessness and trouble legally establishing your thievery dominated the area" (p . 53). Almost without exception, I claim at a later time . From 1850 on, using provisions of the have found [the Indians] anxious As more and more Americans Oregon Donation Act, thousands of to work at employment at com- move into the region, more cities "pioneers" invaded "with impunity ." mon labor and willing too, to work and towns will spring up, further As Deloria points out, there were at prices much below that demand- increasing one's options for eco- some in Congress who were aware ed by the whites . The Indians nomic success . Rest assured in the that they were encouraging settlers to make all the rails used in fencing, facts that men and women who are steal Indian land, and so shortly after, and at this time do the boating willing to work hard will find their Congress passed the Indian Treaty upon the rivers : In consideration, labors richly rewarded, and - that Act requiring the United States to get therefore, of the usefulness as you, by going west, are helping to formal agreements from Indian labourers in the settlements, it was spread American civilization from tribes. Anson Dart, appointed to believed to be far better for the ocean to ocean across this great secure land concessions, pursued this Country that they should not be

52 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2 Settlers in Oregon built their homes on the lands of Native Americans.

removed from the settled portion women, and children . This incident alone. No white man's foot had of Oregon if it were possible to do began the Rogue Indian war, which ever trod it. They believed it theirs so (Deloria, 1977, p . 51) . lasted until June 1856 (Beckham, forever. But the gold digger come, 1991, p. 103). Recall that this is the with his pan and his pick and Meanwhile, in southwestern same region and the same year in one shovel, and hundreds followed. Oregon white vigilantes didn't wait Oregon Trail session where "Bill" And they saw in astonishment for treaty niceties to be consummated . built a home and experienced "mod- their streams muddied, towns Between 1852 and 1856 self-pro- erate success" - but thanks to the built, their valley fenced and claimed Volunteers attacked Indians Oregon Trail programmers, learned taken. And where their squaws for alleged misdeeds, or simply nothing of the social conflicts dug camus, their winter food, and because they were Indians . In August swirling around him . their children were wont to gam- of 1853, one Martin Angel rode into Nor did Bill learn that, even as a bol, they saw dug and plowed, and the Rogue River valley gold mining white person, he could protest the their own food sown by the hand town of Jacksonville shouting, "Nits outrages committed against the of nature, rooted out forever, and breed lice . We have been killing Rogue River Valley Indians as did the ground it occupied appropriat- Indians in the valley all day," and one anonymous "Volunteer" in a pas- ed to the rearing of vegetables for "Exterminate the whole race." sionate 1853 letter to the Oregon the white man . Perhaps no malice Minutes later a mob of about 800 Statesman newspaper: yet entered the Indian breast . But white men hanged a seven-year-old when he was weary of hunting in Indian boy. In October 1855, a group A few years since the whole the mountains without success, of whites massacred 23 Indian men, valley was theirs [the Indians'] and was hungry, and approached

A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION the white man's tent for bread ; wagon specifications, ferry costs, substitutes . The teacher's role in ana- where instead of bread he received daily climate reports . Loaded with lyzing and presenting these devices curses and kicks, ye treaty kicking facts, it feels comprehensive . Loaded in a broader ethical context is men - ye Indian exterminators with people voicing contrasting opin- absolutely vital . Thus teachers across think of these things . (Applegate ions, it feels balanced. Loaded with the country must begin a dialogue and O'Donnell, 1994, p . 34) choices, it feels free . But the simula- toward developing a critical comput- tion begins from no moral or ethical er literacy. We need to figure out Oregon Trail hides the nature of standpoint beyond individual materi- ways to equip students to recognize the Euro-American invasion in at al success. It contains no vision of and evaluate the deep moral/political least two ways . social/ecological justice, and hence messages imparted as they maneuver In the first place, the Oregon promotes the full litany of sexism, within various computer software Trail CD-ROM simply fails to racism, and imperialism, as well as programs . inform simulation participants what exploitation of the earth. And simul- Before choosing to use CD-ROMs happened between settlers and taneously, it hides this bias . The com- that involve people and place, like Indians . To the Oregon Trail player, bination is insidious, and makes The Oregon Trail - or, for example, it doesn't feel like an invasion ; it interactive CD-ROMs like this one its newer siblings The Trail, doesn't feel wrong. After one of my more difficult to critique than tradi- The Amazon Trail, and arrivals, in 1848, "Life in the new tional textbooks or films . The forced - teachers can consider a series of land turned out to be happy and suc- questions. These include: cessful for Bill, who always cher- ished bittersweet but proud memo- • Which social groups are stu- ries of the months spent on the We need to dents not invited to identify with in Oregon Trail." (This struck me as a figure out ways the simulation? For example, Native rather odd account, given that I had Americans, African Americans, lost all three of my children on the to equip women, and Latinos are superficially trip.) present in Oregon Trail, but the stuff The only person that matters is students to of their lives is missing . the simulation player, in this case • How might these social groups Bill. I was never told whether life recognize and frame problems differently than turned out equally "happy and suc- evaluate the they are framed in the simulation? cessful" for the Klamaths, Yakamas, As we saw in this critique of Oregon Cayuses, Nez Perces, Wallawallas, deep Trail, women tended to focus more and all the others who occupied this on maintaining community than on land generations before the moral/political hunting. Native Americans had a pro- Wasi'chu arrived. foundly different relationship to the The second way the nature of the messages earth than did the Euro-American white invasion is hidden has to do "tamers of the wilderness ." with the structure of the simulation . imparted as • What decisions do simulation For a couple hours or more the play- they maneuver participants make that may have er endures substantial doses of frus- consequences for social groups not tration, tedium, and difficulty . By within various highlighted in the simulation? And the time the Willamette or Rogue what are these consequences? Even Valleys come up on the screen we, computer though the very existence of the the simulated trekkers, feel that we Oregon Trail contributed to the deci- deserve the land, that our labors in software mation of Plains and Northwest transit should be "richly rewarded" Indians, simulation participants are with the best land we can find . programs. never asked to consider the broader effects of their decision making . Data Deception What may be an ethical individual and What to Do About It identification of player with simula- choice may be unethical when multi- tion protagonist leaves the student no plied several hundred thousand option but to follow the ideological times. (In this respect, CD-ROM In the Beatles' song, all you need map laid out by the programmers . choice-making both reflects and rein- is love ; in Oregon Trail, all you need Nonetheless, my critique is not a forces conventional notions of "free- is data. Oregon Trail offers students call to boycott "edutainment" dom" that justify disastrous social gobs of information: snake bite reme- resources. But we need to remember and ecological practices .) dies, river locations and depths, that these CD-ROMs are not teacher

54 RETHINKING OUR CLASSROOMS, VOLUME 2 • What decisions do simulation ingly disruptive presence of Wasi'chu casual felling of every cottonwood participants make that may have crossing their lands . tree along the Platte River? consequences for the earth and • Students might be asked to list • A Native-American elder or non-human life? Similarly, a simu- all the ways that African Americans activist could be invited into the lation participant's choice to cut would experience the Oregon Trail classroom to speak about the con- down trees for firewood may be differently than Euro-Americans cerns that are important to his or her "rational" for that individual, but may would - from planning to the trip people and about the history of also have deleterious effects on the itself. (It's unlikely, for example, that white-Indian relations . ecological balance of a particular every white person on the streets of • We could encourage students to bio-region . Independence, Missouri said a think about the politics of naming in • If the simulation is time-specif- friendly "Howdy," to blacks encoun- the simulation . They could suggest ic, as in the case of The Oregon tered, as each of them does to the alternative names for the Oregon Trail, what were the social and implied but unacknowledged white Trail itself. For example, one histori- environmental consequences after male Oregon Trail simulation player.) an of the American West, Frederick the time period covered in the sim- Merk, aptly calls the Oregon Trail a ulation? The wars between Indians "path of empire" (1978) . Writer Dan and U.S. Cavalry in the latter decades Oregon Trail Georgakas names it a "march of of the 19th century are inexplicable death" (1973) . Other names might be without the Oregon Trail as prologue . is sexist, "invasion of the West," or "the 20- • Can we identify the ideological year trespass." Just as with orientation of a particular CD- racist, Columbus's "discovery" of America, ROM? The question is included here naming shapes understanding, and simply to remind us that all computer culturally we need classroom activities to materials - indeed, all curricula - uncover this process. have an ideology. Our first step is insensitive, and • Students could write and illus- becoming aware of the nature of that contemptuous trate alternative children's books ideology. describing the Oregon Trail from the of the earth . It standpoint of women, African These are hardly exhaustive, but Americans, Native Americans, or the may suggest a useful direction to imparts bad earth. begin thinking, as CD-ROMs become • Now have them "play" The increasingly available and as they values and Oregon Trail again. What do they see come to cover more and more sub- this time that they didn't see before? jects. wrong history. Whose world view is highlighted and Finally, let me use the example of whose is hidden? If they choose, stu- Oregon Trail to sketch out a number dents might present their findings to of ways that teachers can begin to other classes or to teachers who may foster a critical computer literacy : • In playing the Oregon Trail sim- be considering the use of CD-ROMs . • Once we've identified some of ulation, students could assume a par- The Oregon Trail is not necessari- the social groups that are substantial- ticular racial, cultural, or gender ly more morally obnoxious than ly missing in a CD-ROM activity like identity, and note whether the choic- other CD-ROMs or curricular materi- Oregon Trail, we can make an effort es or experiences described in the als with similar ideological biases . to locate excerpts of their diaries, simulation make sense from the My aim here is broader than to mere- speeches, or other communications standpoint of a member of their ly shake a scolding finger at MECC, (to the extent that these cultures are group. For example, would a typical producer of the Oregon Trail series. print-oriented) and read these togeth- African American in Missouri in I've tried to demonstrate why teach- er. 1850 be allowed to choose which city ers and students must develop a criti- • We might then engage students to begin the trek west? cal computer literacy. Some of the in a role-play where, as a class, stu- • As we share with students the new CD-ROMs seem more socially dents face a number of Oregon Trail social and ecological costs of the aware than the blatantly culturally problems. For example, class mem- Oregon Trail, we could ask them to insensitive materials that still fill bers could portray women on the write critical letters to each of the school libraries and bookrooms . And Oregon Trail and decide how they "pioneers" they portrayed in the sim- the flashy new computer packages will attempt to maintain a communi- ulation . Some could represent Rogue also invoke terms long sacred to edu- ty in transit. Or they might role-play Valley Indians, Shoshoni people, or cators: student empowerment, indi- a possible discussion among Oglala even Mother Earth . For instance, how vidual choice, creativity, high inter- people as they confront the increas- does "Mother Earth" respond to the est. It's vital that we remember that

A RETHINKING SCHOOLS PUBLICATION 55 Letters and Diaries . Corvallis, OR : Kesselman, Amy. "Diaries and Oregon State University Press, 1994 . Reminiscences of Women on the Armstrong, David. (February 23, Oregon Trail: A Study in Computer 1996). "Lucas getting into education Consciousness", in Baxandall, programs are via CD-ROM." The San Francisco Rosalyn, Gordon, Linda, and Examiner. Reverby, Susan, America's Working not politically Beckham, Stephen Dow. Women : A Documentary History - "Federal-Indian Relations ." The First 1600 to the Present. New York: neutral in the Oregonians . Portland, OR : Oregon Vintage, 1976. Council for the Humanities, 1991 . Lazarus, E. Black Hills/White big moral Bowers, C .A. The Cultural Justice: The Sioux Nation Versus the Dimensions of Educational United States - 1775 to the Present. contests of our Computing : Understanding the New York : HarperCollins, 1991 . Non-neutrality of Technology. New Limerick, Patricia Nelson . The time. Inevitably, York: Teachers College Press, 1988 . Legacy of Conquest : The Unbroken they take sides . Davidson, James West and Lytle, Past ofthe American West. New York : Mark Hamilton . After the Fact: The W.W. Norton, 1987 . Art of Historical Detection . New McLagan, Elizabeth . A Peculiar coincident with the arrival of these York: McGraw-Hill, 1992 . Paradise: A History of Blacks in new educational toys is a deepening Deloria, Jr., Vine. Indians of the Oregon, 1788-1940 . Portland, OR : social and ecological crisis . Global Pacific Northwest . Garden City, NY: The Georgian Press, 1980 . and national inequality between Doubleday, 1977 . MECC. The Oregon Trail II. "haves" and "have-nots" is increas- Faragher, Johnny and Stansell, Minneapolis, MN, 1994. ing. Violence of all kinds is endemic . Christine. "Women and Their Merk, Frederick . History of the And the earth is being consumed at a Families on the Overland Trail to Westward Movement. New York : ferocious pace . Computer programs California and Oregon, 1842-1867", Knopf, 1978 . are not politically neutral in the big in Binder, Frederick & Reimer, Pride, Bill and Mary . Prides' moral contests of our time. David (Eds.), The Way We Lived: Guide to Educational Software . Inevitably, they take sides . Thus, a Essays and Documents in American Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1992 . critical computer literacy, one with a Social History, Vol. I. Lexington, Provenzo, Jr., Eugene F. Video social/ecological conscience, is more MA: D.C. Heath. Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo . than just a good idea - it's a basic Georgakas, Dan . Red Shadows: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University skill. ∎ The History of Native Americans Press, 1991 . from 1600 to 1900, From the Desert Schlissel, Lillian . Women's Bill Bigelow ( [email protected]) to the Pacific Coast. Garden City, Diaries of the Westward Journey. teaches at Franklin High School in NY: Zenith, 1973 . New York : Schocken, 1992, p. 15. Portland, Oregon and is a Rethinking Hill, William E. The Oregon Trail: Unruh, Jr., John, D . The Plains Schools editor. Yesterday and today . Caldwell, ID : Across: The Overland Emigrants and Caxton, 1989, p . 58 . the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840- References Johansen, Bruce and Maestas, 1860 . Urbana and Chicago, IL : Applegate, Shannon and Roberto. Wasi'chu: The continuing University of Illinois Press, 1993 . O'Donnell, Terrence. Talking on Indian wars. New York: Monthly Paper: An Anthology of Oregon Review, 1979 .

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