Six on History: Native Americans
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1) Native American Heritage: Outdoors, Science, and Environmental Justice Diversity Resources - New York Almanack
"November is Native American Heritage Month. Here are some resources to help educators incorporate Indigenous knowledge and history:
Edutopia’s Lessons Learned in Teaching Native American History by a non-native middle school teacher, chronicles some important lessons she has learned from teaching Native history for many years. She suggests to be humble: we can always, and should always, continue to listen and learn from the many Native voices speaking, writing, and sharing their history.
Ensure that students are taught that Native history is not separate from American history and that there are many Native people living in the United States today.
Land Acknowledgments are also discussed by Native academics in “The Conversation.” Watch Natural Curiosity: ‘From Acknowledgement to Action: Workshops for Educators’.
DEC’s Native American Heritage Month page features information about the agency’s cooperation with Indigenous people on natural, cultural, and subsistence resources.
The Canadian-based website, Take Me Outside, offers suggestions of activities with students and Indigenous resources for educators.
Listen to Green Teacher’s Talking with Green Teachers podcast Episode 21: Indigenous perspectives in inquiry-based learning.
Want to look at children’s books that portray Indigenous ways and life accurately? Visit American Indians in Children’s Literature blog run by a professor (and former school teacher) from the Nambé Owingeh.
Visit SUNY Environmental Sciences & Forestry’s Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
By Kaitlin Smith, November 10, 2021
"This November is Native American Heritage Month--a national observance that draws our attention to the histories, contemporary experiences, and insights of Indigenous peoples of the United States. As valuable as this heritage month can be for drawing increased attention to this area that demands greater attention in our classrooms and in the wider society, Native American Heritage Month also beckons to the importance of surfacing and centering these themes all year long. One common hurdle that undermines these efforts is the struggle to identify appropriate resources that are written by and about Native peoples with the adolescent in mind. There are a host of books and other materials that we can turn to as we construct lesson plans and recommend reading to our students, and what follows are five texts to consider."
The winding cord of highways, unkempt
gravel roads and the trails of animals—
a record of who and what has passed over,
an agony of secrets.
In the end, they have all borne witness,
eyes like glass beads that can never blink.
The dull light of motel neon shines ominously.
An engine growls across the landscape.
Brittle men who are splintered like glass
thrown from a second story window
and we are the room they leave behind.
They are pathetic husks, feeble in spirit.
Fragments fall along fields and shallow ditches,
in overlooked alleyways or underpasses.
A cold, empty breeze rising from the debris.
The first and last moment of her.
It is rage that pulls her up from this place.
She spews out the wretched and miserable
as particles of dawn-lit soil illuminate her skin.
Her hair is a two-edged sword.
She stitches together the collective story of origin,
her body a map: descended from the stars,
on the backs of animal sisters,
carried to safety in a bird’s beak.
Copyright © 2020 by M. L. Smoker. This poem originally appeared in Living Nations, Living Words, November 2020. Used with permission of the author.
See about for more information about this project.
2019 Teacher’s Guide"We are pleased to present our new and revised Teacher’s Guide, released March 2019. This version includes detailed instructions on how to use Native Land, as well as exercises for use by teachers of different levels, from kids to adults. The Guide discusses the pros and cons of the map itself, the importance of learning more about colonialism, and provides resources for teachers to learn more.
We would love to hear your suggestions and corrections to our guide. You can download it here:"
cobwebs and the husks of yellow jackets ornament the basement.
While we were away our neighbor and friend who always invited us over
for salmon and potatoes died in his sleep on the couch.
Two healthy babies have been born, twins and nephews.
Someone broke in through a window downstairs–
took three televisions, two star quilts, a Pendleton shawl, the chainsaw
and one large bottle of laundry detergent.
They smoked cigarettes on the couch and drank pop from the fridge.
II.
The way the horizon bends itself around
our lives here might make us think
we are exceptional. Walking the giant plain,
wind-drenched, we found the fox kits
we had been watching the previous summer.
Small bodies at the bottom of the open well.
Probably at play, lost their bearings,
and still too young to know any better.
III.
Almost as ghosts, we come and go from this place, not at all
like the known spirits who reside here, some at tranquil rest, others–
one man died who died here fifty years ago poisoned his young wife
and raised their newborn son in a neglectful and angry home.
The boy grew up neglected and angry and killed his father.
Oh, the sum of these moments and our own, atoms and particles in constant motion.
Peel back their stratum, hang them on the clothesline in the breeze.
"This week, to highlight Native American Heritage Month, we shared a week’s worth of Tiny Desk concerts by Indigenous musicians. We asked NPR’s Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, who produced the series, to tell us about the performances:
Conversations about Indigenous people are usually in the past tense: Who were they? What were their lives like? And Indigenous music forms are often discussed the same way, with antiquated notions of drums and flutes. But Native musicians today are engaging with genre, unsurprisingly, the same way any other artists might be — in exciting and vibrant ways.
This month, in honor of Native American Heritage Month, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite Indigenous artists making music today, those especially who are defying notions of what kind of music Indigenous people can make. Our lineup from the week:
- William Prince, the Juno Award-winning Winnipeg-based singer who brings a bit of gospel to the Tiny Desk, informed by his identity as a Christian and a member of Peguis First Nation.
- Ya Tseen, the project of Tlingit/Unangax̂ musician and visual artist Nicholas Galanin, who hails from Sitka, Alaska.
- Raye Zaragoza, the L.A.-based folk musician who proudly sings from her perspective as a Japanese-American, Mexican and Indigenous woman.
Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, NPR’s Code Switch
