Native American Heritage Month
What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the United States has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose. In 1990 President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations on “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month” have been issued each year since 1994.
General Information
The Library of Congress, along with the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, offers a site devoted to Native American Heritage Month
. Offering information on exhibits and collections, images, and audio and video, the site looks at such topics as “Native American Veterans” and “The Paintings of George de Forest Brush.”
Library Programming
Rapid City (S.D.) Public Library offered “Living Traditions,” and art exhibit featuring Dakota, Nakota & Lakota art; a display from the Black Hills Pow Wow Association; a “No School Discovery Day” where students can learn how to mke Native American jewelry; a book discussion on Fools Crow by Native American author James Welch; and a “Lunch & Learn” session on diabetes, with a special emphasis on
how it impacts the Native American community and featuring Native American food.
The Mount Holly (N.J.) Library offered a one-hour discussion featuring Chief Mark Gould, who discussed the ongoing history and continuing struggles of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape people.
Carroll County (Md.) Public Library will be offering a session on Native American crafts as part of their “Celebrating Cultures, Customs and Crafts” program.
Teaching Resources
Smithsonian Education offers a variety of program ideas, including “Hok-noth-da?,” a twenty-minute, hands-on reading program; and “Native Words, Native Warriors,” an interactive educational program about how American Indian code talkers used their Native languages to serve their country and continue the warrior tradition during World Wars I and II. They also provide ideas for language arts teachers for teach writing and poetry to young students.
The Library of Congress’s lesson plans “American Indian leaders and culture. Study essays, music, maps and images related to the treatment and portrayal of American Indians by European explorers and settlers. Examine treaties dating from 1778–1842 and images and documents relating to assimilating American Indians through education.”
The National Endowment for the Humanities offers archives of Native American Heritage Month resources on its Edsitement Web site. The pages provide general information as well as links to featured lessons and Web sites.
Other Resources
Posters are available from the USGS Native American Tribal Liaison Team. In addition, the following libraries have developed a variety of resource lists for Native American Heritage Month, including reading lists, film lists, and Web links:
- County of Los Angeles Public Library
- Las Vegas-Clark County Library District
- Dunn (N.C.) Public Library (PDF)
- Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
- Highline Community College Library, Des Moines, Washington
- Stow-Monroe Falls (Ohio) Public Library
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