Nettie Gray and her Osage family were relieved to receive an email last week informing them that Nettie’s world history teacher, Erich Richter, no longer works at Skiatook High School.
As an uncertified teacher with an expired emergency certification, Richter not only proved unprepared in the classroom when he assigned a controversial research paper on Christianity and the Bible but also posed a danger to student safety when he mentioned his violent past to students during class. A frightened Nettie and other students were ultimately relieved at Richter’s departure after school officials concluded their investigation into the accusations.
The relief was short-lived, as allegations of beatings emerged at Skiatook Elementary School where the Grays have young relatives in school. Although none of their grandchildren were in the class where the beatings allegedly took place, the quick succession from Biblical indoctrination to threats of violence and then corporal punishment left them with thoughts of the boarding school era.
According to The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, “There were more than 523 government-funded, and often church-run, Indian Boarding schools across the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries. Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their Native languages.” This indoctrination also included the urging of several denominations of Christianity, such as Catholicism and Methodist teachings.
There are approximately 110 Osage students enrolled in Skiatook public schools, according to the ON Education Department.
Echoing a history of ‘indoctrination’
The Grays called Richter’s teaching “indoctrination” because the research paper he assigned instructed his students to address questions of religious faith – such as whether “Satan is real” and who “started [the world]” – by using research sources presented in APA Style.
For the Grays, this was harmful.
“There was enormous harm done by indoctrinating Indian children and if you’re going to teach the Bible as a history document, then you’re going to have to absorb the effects and include the impact it had on Indigenous communities in this state,” said former Osage Nation Principal Chief Jim Gray, Nettie’s father. “No state had more Indian boarding schools than Oklahoma. We were the epicenter to that whole indoctrination process.”
Walters’ directive could present a “teaching opportunity,” Gray said – by inviting curriculum that addresses policies sourcing from the Bible, such as Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery. Gray explained that these concepts were used to justify the seizure of Indigenous peoples’ land because “[Natives were] not ‘saved.’ It was like marching orders,” he said.
But House Bill 1775 seeks to limit such lesson plans, by banning any curriculum which could lead students to feel shame, he said. His feeling was that schools need to either “teach the whole story, or don’t teach it.”
As a result of concepts sourcing from some interpretations of Bible-based teachings, it was justifiable for settlers to “ruin the lives of millions of people in North and South America, in the name of God,” he said. “If you’re an Indigenous student going to Oklahoma public schools and this information is not taught, I think you are missing a very important point.”
A former Osage SHS student, Kiaus Bigheart, said he has lived the Skiatook Public School system and knows that HB 1775 is not applied to all students, but is used to protect the white students. Oklahomans have always been offended to hear about their ancestors’ killing minorities, he said – but they don’t worry about what upsets Natives.
He took to Facebook to process the controversy about Skiatook High School. “An Osage doesn’t want to hear about Christianity, and ya’ll have a problem?” Bigheart wrote. “Ya’ll can be honest. You can admit you care more about your kids learning about Jesus than you do about them learning about our state’s mistakes. But you can’t turn around and suddenly act like this is anything new and that it’s the fault of the left. Okies have always been butt hurt and sensitive when it comes to controlling what their kids learn about. Why lie? Why be a liar? Do you want Christian Oklahoma kids protected from their feelings and not minorities? … Ya’ll can’t hold yourselves accountable to be better. You gotta attack a kid and side with the adult no questions asked.”
The adult Bigheart referenced was Richter, who took to Facebook status updates to express his gratitude for his faith: “Although we are not always able to control the outcome of a given situation, we can control our own actions after the outcome!!” Richter wrote. “I’m at peace knowing that I’m a child of God and He has already won the battle!! Thank you Lord for these challenges and the lessons learned!!!! All of the glory goes to God!!” he wrote on August 28.
It was the next day, August 29, that Richter did not come to school and the Grays found out that he did not work at the school anymore. But rather than “the battle,” their thoughts were centered on what Gray called “the culture war” in Oklahoma, and its dangerous implications for students.
A ‘culture war’
“This is a culture war [Walters] is trying to focus on the radical left,” said Jim Gray, “but I don’t identify with that. The fight came to us and we responded.” Nettie’s mother, Jim’s wife Olivia Gray agreed, noting that the ongoing issues are taking place on Osage land. “All of this is happening on our reservation,” she said. “It’s all our jurisdiction.”
As an advocate who writes protective orders for victims of abuse, Olivia Gray pays close attention to the changing landscape of Indian Law in Oklahoma, especially the McGirt case and what it did for the Muscogee Nation in winning back its reservation status. She said it’s clear to her that the Osage Nation will eventually get court recognition to govern the whole of their reservation. “Not only criminal matters,” she said, “but in everything.”
Skiatook Public Schools Superintendent Rick Loggins said he was troubled by the sudden appearance of dramatic issues in public schools, after 14 years of working in a relatively peaceful educational environment. “I honestly do not know what is going on,” said Loggins. “I’ve talked to several superintendents who are struggling with the teacher shortage. That therein is the challenge. If someone does not have a teaching certificate [but wants to teach] … does that necessarily mean they have the characteristics to make them an effective teacher?”
While Loggins said the school would closely scrutinize future uncertified hires to make sure they have the disposition to teach, the Grays see Walters’ Bible mandate and the loophole allowing uncertified teaching as a combo inviting dangerous scenarios.
“Where there is a teacher shortage and they’re literally hiring people off the street, you’re going to get people like [Richter] that are going to take advantage of the situation and advance Ryan Walters’ vision for a mono-religious culture in Oklahoma,” said Jim Gray.
School works around dubious laws
Amidst his focus on the teacher shortage, Superintendent Loggins said he had not yet read HB 1775, but he planned to. Additionally, contrary to Walters’ directive that public schools teach the Bible, he said that Skiatook public schools would continue to focus their curriculum on “different world religions” rather than emphasizing Christianity.
Loggins students need to reflect on difficult topics, including boarding schools, in order to avoid “repeating history.”
“I do believe it’s important, in our country’s history, to reflect on everything,” he said. “My pastor, he and his wife, both ended up at Chilocco Indian School. Having known him—what that was like being in a boarding school separated from his family … that part of history [has been] left out [in school curriculum.] I loved Oklahoma history, but I don’t ever remember hearing the story from ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’” Loggins reflected.
Nettie is feeling better about going to school now that Richter is gone, said her mother. “She is relieved that she won’t have to adjust her entire class schedule,” said Gray, adding that Nettie has also maxed out her school absences due to avoiding Richter.
Nettie’s mother does not expect the Oklahoma school system to leave her children without harm, however. She recalled when her older daughter, Oli Ramirez, was put into ESL classes “because she told them she [also] spoke Osage … when they asked what languages she spoke at home.”
Ramirez is a fluent English speaker who can also speak Spanish, but the assumption that Gray’s children “can’t speak English,” because they speak a tribal language is yet another thing that smacks of boarding schools to the Grays.
She said they may have fixed her daughter’s world history classroom, but “it’s not fixed as a system.”
