Can a government legitimately claim territory, even when other people already live there? If land is not being farmed or developed, does someone else have a right to use it?
Greg Hinchliff’s 11th-grade history students grappled with these questions on a recent morning at Bonsall High School.
They moved to different parts of the room depending on what they thought, gathering around signs that ranged from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.”
Then, they repeated the activity from the perspectives of Native Americans, European settlers, monarchs and religious leaders.
“European religious leaders,” Hinchliff said to a group of students. “What would they say about this statement, that explorers can claim that land?”
“That they can claim it because they’re Christians, basically,” a student responded.
“Right, because it goes back to that doctrine of discovery,” Hinchliff said.
The activity comes from California’s Native American Studies Model Curriculum. Published in 2025, it has hundreds of free lesson plans and teaching materials. Hinchliff helped write it.
There are lessons for elementary school students about Indigenous and colonial place names. Eighth graders can learn about tribal sovereignty and federal recognition. High schoolers can learn about cultural fire practices.
“The lesson plans available with the model curriculum can be interwoven into a bunch of different content areas,” Hinchliff said. “The great thing about this curriculum is, so many educators struggle with how to approach complicated topics. This gives them the tool kit to be able to do that.”
In 2021, the California Department of Education allocated $4 million to develop the curriculum. Joely Proudfit (Luiseño/Payómkawichum, Tongva), director of the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at CSU San Marcos, was one of three people from across the state selected to lead the project.
“We really wanted tribal communities to take the lead in helping us write this curriculum,” Proudfit said.
They held dozens of meetings with tribal communities throughout the state. There are 109 federally recognized tribes in California, plus many other tribal communities that aren’t recognized.
“There's not a lesson plan for every single tribe in the state,” Proudfit said. “This is merely the first step in the right direction.”
Teachers can continue in the right direction, she said, by building relationships with members of local tribal communities.
“The tribes have to be at the table. It has to be community-centered,” she said. “The more buy-in and the more folks involved, the better.”
Hinchliff is collaborating with John Machado. He’s on the executive committee for the Pala Band of Mission Indians elected by the general council.
He’s also a Cupeño language instructor. He makes vocabulary flashcards and games, and he’s shared them with Hinchliff’s class. He’s also hosted class visits to the Cupa Cultural Center and the Wilderness Gardens County Preserve.
“We had a trip out there to discuss the plants and the nature, and we incorporated the TEK — the traditional ecological knowledge — of the wildlife out there,” Machado said.
Hinchliff said the experience helped connect his class to the community.
“We were learning about traditional ecological knowledge in class, and then boom, we were able to go out into the environment, go through some brochures, do like a scavenger hunt, and learn about how those plants were being used at the time and what their current uses are, too,” he said.
Some of Hinchliff’s students are Indigenous themselves. In the eight years he’s been teaching Native American studies, feedback from students, parents and community members has been positive, he said.
“I think for many of our students, it's a show of support and a commitment to authenticity that maybe, especially in this population, they haven't always felt coming from school systems,” he said.
Starting in the late 1800s, the U.S. government forced many Native American families to send their children to boarding schools. They were punished for speaking their language and practicing their culture.
In Pala, Machado said multiple generations weren’t able to pass down the Cupeño language. Roscinda Nolasquez, the last fluent speaker, died in 1987.
“Our language was an oral language. It was never written down. Everything was passed on generation to generation — songs, stories, the words themselves,” Machado said. “So what we have now is through that hardship.”
He hosts language groups with seniors in the community. Sometimes they’ll remember words or phrases they heard from their parents or grandparents.
“It’s awakening that inner Native language in you, that culture that you have in you that’s buried away and needs to be awoken,” he said.
Machado said the new curriculum is a step toward rebuilding trust in schools.
“We’re not just behind museum glass,” he said. “It’s important that people know that we’re still here.”
Challenges remain. San Diego County leaders are training teachers and school administrators on how to use the new curriculum, but Proudfit said they don’t have enough funding to reach every teacher.
“You can create the best curriculum, but if nobody knows how to use it or has the confidence to use it, then what is the point?” she said. “We want to provide a history that inspires, that showcases our Native people as the engineers, as the land protectors, as the scientists, the artists and the historians that we are. That’s going to take real resources in a state like ours.”
Proudfit hopes the next governor’s administration makes a bigger investment in training teachers on Native American studies.
She also wants its instruction to be mandatory.
“I always ask the question, do you want to be considered a settler or a guest?” she said. “And if you're a good guest, you would ask and learn and want to know about the people.”
Teachers can find the full curriculum and other resources on UC Davis’ website.
