As November comes to an end and some of us get more into the holiday spirit, I want us to continue to have conversations about our Native American and Native Alaskan communities. For years November is a month many of our classrooms learn about the first Thanksgiving and review some brief facts about Native Americans. Here are some helpful resources and topics that we can use in our classrooms to increase awareness of Native American and Native Alaskan communities. There are over 500 tribes in the U.S that fall into the Native American and Native Alaskan categories. Each tribe is unique and has contributed to the foundation of the land that we currently live in. We constantly see Native Americans represented as one large group of people in our textbooks without acknowledging the impact that each tribe had on the land. Bringing alternative resources into our classroom can help us educate others about the different tribes, customs, rituals, and power dynamics that those before us had. It allows us to present a different point of view from the one most of us found in our textbooks. I hope you use this information to continue to have conversations and celebrate the richness of our Native American community. I also want to acknowledge some of the challenges our Native American communities have and continue to experience due to the ongoing trauma that they have experienced in their own land. I have added some information to spread awareness of some of the challenges that Native American communities face.
This poster that describes the meaning of the first Thanksgiving to the different tribes and their contributions to our agriculture system.
This poster that describes the meaning of the first Thanksgiving to the different tribes and their contributions to our agriculture system.
The Smithsonian's feature on the National Museum of American Indians provides videos and topics to continue the conversations in our classrooms.
And finally. the non-profit, Native Hope, works to address the injustices done to Native Americans, in part by promoting healing through sharing their stories.
Blog Post by Mariana Aranda, Assistant Director of School Partnerships
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