Native American Heritage Month
November 2023
104 Stat. 391; United States Statutes at Large, Volume 104, 101st Congress, 2nd Session
An act to authorize and request the President to proclaim the month of November 1990, and thereafter as "Native American Indian Heritage Month"; To authorize and request the President to proclaim the month of November 1990, and thereafter as "Native American Indian Heritage Month"; Public Law 101-343. https://uslaw.link/citation/stat/104/391
In recognition of this important declaration, we encourage District 196 teachers and staff to explore the rich history of Indigenous people from Mni Sota and around the United States. We have compiled resources to showcase and celebrate the contributions of Indigenous peoples within American society and history. And we hope this will further our district's knowledge and exposure to Indigenous lives and perspectives and those of the students we serve.
If you have any questions or would like assistance celebrating Native American Heritage Month at your school, please feel free to contact your American Indian Education Cultural Family Advocate or visit our American Indian Education webpage.
Upcoming Events to Celebrate Native American Heritage Month
Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists.
Celebrating the late We:wa - Zuni Artist
Celebrating Maria Tallchief - Osage Nation Prima Ballerina
Zitkala-Sa’s 145th Birthday - Yankton Sioux Writer, Musician and Activist
Celebrating Amanda Crowe - Eastern Cherokee Woodcarver and Educator
Celebrating James Welch - Blackfeet Writer
Celebrating Mary Two-Axe Earley - Mohawk Activist
Mary G. Ross’s 110th Birthday - Cherokee Scientist and Mathematician
Susan La Flesche Picotte’s 152nd Birthday - Omaha Physician
The Red Nation Podcast
The Red Nation is dedicated to the liberation of Native peoples from capitalism and colonialism. We center Native political agendas and struggles through direct action, advocacy, mobilization, and education.
Native Minnesota
This powerful podcast celebrates Native culture, personalities and accomplishments while helping dispel common myths and misconceptions about Indigenous peoples.
All My Relations
All My Relations is a team of folks who care about representations, and how Native peoples are represented in mainstream media. Between us we have decades of experience working in and with Native communities, and writing and speaking about issues of representation.
#26 Connor Dewar - Center - Minnesota Wild
Teton Saltes - Arlington Renegades (XFL)
Madison Hammond - Los Angeles’s Angel City FC
Dine' and San Felipe Pueblo
Lindy Waters III - NBA Oklahoma Thunder
Lindy is a citizen of the Kiowa Tribe located in Oklahoma. Star athlete at Oklahoma State and drafted to the Oklahoma Thunder for the NBA. Lindy also is a fluent Kiowa speaker.
Joy Harjo
Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She served three terms as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2019-2022 and is winner of Yale's 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry.
The author of ten books of poetry, several plays and children's books, and two memoirs, her many honors include the National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. www.joyharjo.com
Darcie Little Badger
Little Badger specializes in speculative fiction, especially horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Further, as a Lipan Apache woman, she develops her stories with Apache characters and themes. She has also added her voice to Indigenous Futurisms, a movement among Native artists and authors to write science fiction from their historical and cultural perspectives. www.instagram.com/dr.littlebadger/
Christine Day
Christine Day (Upper Skagit) grew up in Seattle. Her debut novel, I Can Make This Promise, was a best book of the year from NPR. Her second novel, The Sea in Winter, was a Top 10 Indie Kids’ Next List selection, a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and an American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book. She also wrote She Persisted: Maria Tallchief, an early reader biography inspired by Chelsea Clinton’s bestselling picture book. www.bychristineday.com/
The Summer They Visited (2014)
Two Loves
The versatile art forms of Steven Paul Judd (Kiowa) have made him a household name in Indian Country. Inspired by his two favorite artists, graffitist Banksy and comic-book author Gary Larson (The Far Side), he learned he could make a statement with a single image.
(We Are) Still Here
Dig It If You Can: a Video by Kyle Bell:
District 196 Land Acknowledgement
We want to acknowledge that District 196 resides within Mni Sota Makoce - A Dakota Place and that this land has been the homeland of the Dakota people and the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Seven Council Fire) for every generation since their creation at Bdote.
Mni Sota Makoce- the land where waters reflect the skies - is Dakota land.
Mni Sota is also the home of the Anishinaabe and many other Indigenous Peoples who have and do contribute to the overall foundation of this region.
We encourage all members of the District 196 community to join us in learning more about the people, contributions, sovereignty and treaty rights of the Dakota and Anishinaabe People. District 196 will continue to strengthen our relationship with Mni Sota’s eleven sovereign nations and Indigenous communities, families and students.