Recently, fourth- and fifth-graders at the Silverton School learned about the history of Chinese residents in Silverton, as well as a variety of cultures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really want the students to develop an understanding of the various cultures that have played a role in our state\u2019s history, and we kind of talk about that in terms of opportunities and challenges,\u201d said Silverton School teacher Whitney Gaskill.<\/p>\n
In April, the class took a weeklong road trip to visit sites around Colorado. Students visited Camp Amache in Granada, a Japanese internment camp during World War II and the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir job is really now to be in Silverton and figure out what stories aren\u2019t being told here and figure out how they\u2019re going to tell it,\u201d Gaskill said.<\/p>\n Discrimination against Chinese immigrants is an example of stories that have not often been told.<\/p>\n To better tell Silverton\u2019s story, the students have been writing letters to the History Colorado Center museum to request artifacts be sent to the town\u2019s museum in Silverton. They are also planting a garden with Chinese vegetables, like the immigrants used to do in Silverton.<\/p>\n About half of Gaskill\u2019s class is learning English as a second language, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI only think that makes it more relevant to be digging into some of these topics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Chinese immigrants probably arrived in Silverton in the 1880s, Esper said. They worked in the lumber and restaurant businesses, and as general laborers.<\/p>\n They operated restaurants with low prices, so there was a notion that they were undercutting white business owners.<\/p>\n During the Gilded Age, from the 1870s to about 1900, laborers were not making a lot of money. This can partially explain why there was anger toward the Chinese, Esper said.<\/p>\n The Chinese did not mine much in Silverton, he said, but they did work in the mines in other locations throughout the West.<\/p>\n White miners did not like the Chinese miners because they were willing to work longer hours for less pay, said Andrew Gulliford, professor of history at Fort Lewis College.<\/p>\n The whole town of Silverton was unionized, and the labor unions voted that the Chinese must go, Esper said.<\/p>\n At the time, The Standard agreed with the unions that the Chinese residents should go, but afterward, the newspaper said that what occurred had gone too far.<\/p>\n Similar events were occurring across the West, including a massacre in 1885, killing 28 Chinese miners in Rock Springs, Wyoming. A riot in 1880 killed one Chinese person in Denver\u2019s Chinatown, and in 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act limited Chinese immigration.<\/p>\n A strategy to teach about diversity is to celebrate cultures of the children within the classroom, said Di Ann Ryter, assistant professor of teacher education at FLC.<\/p>\n Ryter said that it is important to think about whose perspective history is being taught from. For example, is the story being told from the perspective of marginalized groups or from the perspective of white men?<\/p>\n The Silverton students learned that Chinese residents were not allowed to be buried in the Silverton Cemetery, Gaskill said.<\/p>\n Gulliford said that there was additional discrimination at the Silverton Cemetery, such as Catholics and Protestants being buried in separate areas.<\/p>\n An important lesson for children, he said, is to realize that racism and discrimination extended all the way to when people were dead.<\/p>\n Teachers should not shy away from talking about current events in a way that is age-appropriate, Ryter said.<\/p>\n Gaskill said the class does not focus a lot on current events, but it is important for students to make those connections. She says that it is pertinent that students study the history of discrimination to understand current issues.<\/p>\n The United States has a history of anti-immigration, and there is currently an anti-immigrant sentiment in the country. In 2017, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning immigrants from seven countries. In addition, Trump has repeatedly called to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n \u201cDealing with these issues are the things that allow our students to be productive and hopefully active citizens when they grow up,\u201d Gaskill said. \u201cAs they grow older, they will see that those same issues are continuing to play out in certain ways.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of their lessons, students performed a historical fiction play for an exhibit opening this week at the San Juan County Historical Society Museum.<\/p>\n