I was having a discussion with a friend about the injustices of Native American people, overall they obviously suffered from mass killings, and in Canada they suffered from residential schools. And it got me thinking, being born in a South American country, I never really thought about indigenous people from South America. Sure there was the conquistadors and everything until around maybe 16th-17th century (from the little knowledge I have) but you don't hear anything about the treatment about Native Americans/indigenous people of south america. Is there any reason why?
Hi there! You’ve asked a question along the lines of ‘why didn’t I learn about X’. We’re happy to let this question stand, but there are a variety of reasons why you may find it hard to get a good answer to this question on /r/AskHistorians.
Firstly, school curricula and how they are taught vary strongly between different countries and even even different states. Additionally, how they are taught is often influenced by teachers having to compromise on how much time they can spend on any given topic. More information on your location and level of education might be helpful to answer this question.
Secondly, we have noticed that these questions are often phrased to be about people's individual experience but what they are really about is why a certain event is more prominent in popular narratives of history than others.
Instead of asking "Why haven't I learned about event ...", considering asking "What importance do scholars assign to event ... in the context of such and such history?" - the latter question is often closer to what to what people actually want to know and is more likely to get a good answer from an expert. If you intend to ask the 'What importance do scholars assign to event X' question instead, let us know and we'll remove this question.
Thank you!