Many Idahoans were stunned recently when state Sen. Dan Foreman lashed out at a member of the Nez Perce Tribe who is running for the Idaho Legislature during a candidate’s forum in northern Idaho.

“Why don’t you go back to where you came from,” Foreman told Trish Carter-Goodheart, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe. Of course, afterward, Foreman denied saying it, but there were plenty of witnesses who confirmed what he said.

What is surprising about his comment – and a great irony – is that Foreman is a transplant from Illinois who, in historical time compared to the Nez Perce people, has lived in Idaho the equivalent of a gnat’s lifetime. The Nimiipuu people, which translates in English to “We the People,” have lived in the northern Idaho region for thousands of years.

But what is not surprising is Foreman’s lack of historical knowledge which gives one perspective, context, and even compassion when serving in public office. One would think he would be especially aware of the First Peoples who live in his legislative district and on whose sacred ground he makes his home.

If Foreman knew his history, he would know that Lewis and Clark may not have made it to the Pacific Ocean without the Nez Perce who saved them from starvation in September 1805. He would also know that in the late 1800s the Nez Perce were being forced off their native land so white settlers could mine, ranch, and farm it.

If he knew his history, Foreman would know about the Nez Perce War of 1877 where one of the greatest and most inspirational leaders in American history, Chief Joseph, led his people, including women, children, and old men, on a thousand-mile journey across Idaho, into Yellowstone National Park, and back into Montana while being pursued by U.S. Generals O.O. Howard and Nelson Miles.

He would know that Joseph, a man of integrity and peace, lost a decisive battle with the U.S. Army 40 miles short of the sanctuary he was seeking in Canada. Joseph announced at the surrender, “From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever.” He was later banished to a reservation in eastern Washington where he died without ever having the freedom to visit his homeland again.

The story of the Nez Perce, the tragedy of being driven from their ancestral land, and the trek to freedom should be taught and analyzed in every high school in Idaho. There is plenty of material to draw from – histories, biographies, and even a Hollywood movie. Sadly, one wonders how many Idahoans know the whole story. Obviously, Sen. Foreman is not aware of this history, or he would not have told Carter-Goodheart to go back from where she came.

In recent years, Americans have studied less and less history, especially with the emphasis on STEM programs in our schools. Once history was one of the leading majors in U.S. colleges – now cynics sneer at the idea that anyone should major in history.

Yet at a recent appearance at Stanford University, retired Marine four-star General and Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, told students that whatever their major they should study history. In fact, he said, if he could go back to school he would major in history.

“Because once you know how other men and women have dealt with a situation, either successfully or unsuccessfully. . . then you can better guide yourself. And if you cannot do this, if you cannot do applied history, then you are always going to be like you went to the florist and bought some cut flowers and then stuck them in the ground and said, ‘Now grow.’ They’ve got no roots. They’re going to die.”

But it’s not enough to study just any history. One should study authentic history, which I define as history based in facts, legitimate research which uncovers the good and the bad of past events and is subjected to intelligent analysis and peer review. Unfortunately, in today’s America too many want to teach a sugar-coated, sanitized version of history rather than one that explores all aspects of past events.

Which leads me to the recent announcement that the Idaho Department of Education has adopted the PragerU version of history. PragerU, which is not an accredited or degree issuing university, despite the U in its title, was co-founded in 2009 by talk show host Dennis Prager to battle what he considered historians who teach a liberal view of American history.

A close examination of PragerU’s version of the holocaust, American slavery, and the treatment of American Indians like the Nez Perce makes one shudder at the thought that Idaho’s students might be exposed to a simplified version of history which has just enough truth to sound credible and enough of a slant to border on indoctrination.

For example, in a video on American Indians the Prager video says that Indigenous people moved frequently and defeated other tribes to gain their natural resources. Further, the video says that it is a myth that Indigenous people stayed in any single place to make the land their own. This overlooks historic facts that the Nez Perce, for example, had lived in what became eastern Oregon and north central Idaho for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Even the U.S. government recognized the right of the Nez Perce to live in their ancestral lands in an 1855 Treaty that was violated and contributed to the Nez Perce War.

In the video on the Holocaust, Prager downplays the role of racism in Hitler’s campaign to exterminate Europe’s Jews. Instead, the video emphasizes the economic and social aspects of Hitler’s murder of six million Jews. Again, just enough truth to be credible, but discounts the central fact that the holocaust targeted a specific group of innocent people. The supremacy of the Aryan race and the extermination of another race he considered inferior was at the heart of Hitler’s “final solution.”

In discussing slavery, Prager downplays the enslavement of Black people in the United States for 246 years, saying slavery had been present across the world throughout human history. Yes, it is true that slavery was widespread in various societies, but the video excuses American slavery with the cop out that everyone else did it too.

Furthermore, the Prager video does not discuss how after Reconstruction Blacks were systemically marginalized and denied their constitutional rights in the Jim Crow South and in states north of the Mason-Dixon line. There is no mention of the civil rights movement, the courage of Rosa Parks, or the beating John Lewis and other marchers endured on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

What the Prager version of history demonstrates more than anything is how history can be twisted, distorted, and disguised behind half-truths to indoctrinate students and adults, especially when a state department of education puts its stamp of approval on it. That’s why it is essential for Americans to read, study, and research history deeply with a critical mind. Question and verify. Find historians that they trust and ones that challenge them to see the good and bad which always exists in authentic history and biography.

Yet the real threat to American democracy is not that our citizens are taught too much history – it is that authentic history is often ignored and now a days even banned in many states. This only leads to ignorance of our past which is dangerous to democracy.

As the philosopher George Santanya warned, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Next week Americans will decide one of the most consequential elections in our history, and many think the most consequential one. Not only will Donald Trump and Kamala Harris be on the ballot – but American democracy will be too.

Voters will be fulfilling what the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis called the “most important” role in our country – that of citizen. No doubt the amount of authentic history our citizens know will determine the future of our country – and of our democracy.