In this article, I focus on making settler colonialism explicit in education. I turn to social studies curriculum as a clear example of how settler colonialism is deeply embedded in educational knowledge production in the United States that is rooted in a dialectic of Indigenous presence and absence. I argue that the United States, and the evolution of its schooling system in particular, are drenched in settler colonial identities. Thus, to begin to decolonize we must first learn to account for settler colonialism. To do so necessitates that we grapple with the dialectic of Indigenous presence and absence that is central to settler colonialism in the United States and its social studies curriculum.