The Oklahoma State Board of Education approved revised 5th-grade social studies materials Thursday that reclassify the forced removal of the Cherokee, Muscogee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole nations as “a group walk undertaken for various reasons.” The new 80-word unit, which replaces an earlier 11-page chapter, encourages students to “imagine the camaraderie” and includes a journaling prompt titled “A Long Walk I Have Taken.” Board chair Doyle Mertens, 67, called the revision “warmer” and “honestly more relatable to today’s kid.” A retired Cherokee Nation language teacher, reached for comment, exhaled audibly into the phone for eleven seconds and then hung up.