Native American Heritage

 

During National Native American Heritage Month, we celebrate Indigenous peoples past and present and rededicate ourselves to honoring Tribal sovereignty, promoting Tribal self-determination, and upholding the United States’ solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations.

America has not always delivered on its promise of equal dignity and respect for Native Americans.  For centuries, broken treaties, dispossession of ancestral lands, and policies of assimilation and termination sought to decimate Native populations and their ways of life.  But despite this painful history, Indigenous peoples, their governments, and their communities have persevered and flourished.  As teachers and scholars, scientists and doctors, writers and artists, business leaders and elected officials, heroes in uniform, and so much more, they have made immeasurable contributions to our country’s progress.

We must do more to ensure that Native Americans have every opportunity to succeed and that their expertise informs our Federal policy-making.

We will always honor the profound impact Native Americans continue to have in shaping our Nation and bringing us closer to the more perfect Union we know we can and must be.

President Joseph R. Biden

A PROCLAMATION ON NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH 2022

  

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN - SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE

Visit the Native Knowledge 360° Education Initiative. Native Knowledge 360° (NK360°) provides educators and students with new perspectives on Native American history and cultures. Most Americans have only been exposed to part of the story, as told from a single perspective through the lenses of popular media and textbooks. NK360° provides educational materials and student webinars, and teacher training that incorporate Native narratives, more comprehensive histories, and accurate information to enlighten and inform teaching and learning about Native America. NK360° challenges common assumptions about Native peoples and offers a view that includes not only the past but also the vibrancy of Native peoples and cultures today.

 

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: LIVING NATIONS, LIVING WORDS - A GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS

This guide offers teachers and other educators ideas for using U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's signature project, "Living Nations, Living Words," in the classroom.

 

U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRESENTS: POET LAUREATE JOY HARJO AND SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR DEB HAALAND

To kick off Native American Heritage Month, Joy Harjo, the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate, joined Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary, in a conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

 

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE (ADL) - NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE RESOURCES

In schools and classrooms, Native American Heritage Month is good time to explore Native American history and culture as well as the injustices faced by them and how that injustice has been and continues to be confronted and overcome. However, as with other similarly themed months, it is important not to isolate Native American history and culture into one month during the year. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has curriculum and other educational resources to bring the themes of Native American Heritage Month to your classroom in November and throughout the year.

 

NEA: NATIVE AMERICAN AND ALASKA NATIVE HERITAGE RESOURCES

Explore, affirm and honor Native American people and culture during November or any time during the school year with lessons, activities, and resources from the National Education Association (NEA).

 

PBS LEARNING MEDIA: NATIVE HERITAGE COLLECTION

Take a look at PBS Learning Media's Native Heritage Collection of Indigenous art, history, and culture as told through the historians, artists, students, and scientists in this featured resource collection of lessons, videos and media galleries.

 

 

75+ NATIVE AMERICAN CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Colours of Us shares book titles for all age group to teach your children about Native American culture.

SOCIAL JUSTICE BOOKS: AMERICAN INDIANS / INDIGENOUS PEOPLES / NATIVE NATIONS

This "List of Best Books" is by Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL). AICL provides critical perspectives and analysis of indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books, the school curriculum, popular culture, and society.