Quick summary:
November is Native Heritage Month, and this weekend, many Americans will turn their attention to the travel, family time, and turkey just around the corner. Yet it’s important to not lose sight of the fact that the Thanksgiving holiday is not cause for celebration for Indigenous communities. Today, we’ll discuss how Native stories are typically told, how it impacts our society, and what to consume instead, featuring reporting from Native News Online.
Need a Thanksgiving dinner table topic?
Hey, y’all,
Any day of the year is a good time to honor Indigenous peoples around the globe, and Native Heritage Month in the U.S. is no exception.
This month, and year round, how are you listening to and learning from Indigenous stories and voices? It probably happens less than you think, and to me, that’s partly by design.
Anyone raised in a United States school is likely to have received a specifically narrow type of education about Native Americans, one that positions them wholly in the past. Even there, they are not active participants or tellers, only characters in history. Colonization was just that effective.
In truth, Native lives and traditions have always been a part of this land’s present moment — long before the first European boot touched sand — and they always will be.
Then why, you might ask, don’t we hear or see more than a handful of Native people in the media, in movies, in politics? Why is education, research, and discourse still so solely focused on Indigenous pasts, and so avoidant of their here and now?
To answer that question, we must interrogate what telling more relevant and complete Native stories would mean in this country. It would certainly uplift representation across the board. Yet it would also force a deeper, still-needed reckoning, from classrooms to Congress, of the atrocities the U.S. has committed against Native peoples over time, and how they are still mistreated today.
Only then, with a clarified reality that does not exclude Native communities from every section of the library besides history, can we move forward.
This month, take the opportunity to begin or continue that work with a different kind of library: a list of timely, Indigenous-led stories from Native News Online, other URL Media partners, and more.
(P.S. Not sure whose land you’re on? Find out here.)
Inside Tribal Nations
- Cherokee Nation to dub Prime Video content in Cherokee
- A new marine sanctuary will protect homelands and ocean waters of Chumash peoples
- Yurok Tribe receives $18M for restoration, resumes revegetation work on undammed Klamath River
- Navajo President Buu Nygren says remediation fund, cleanup of sites is solution to contamination
- Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women: Tribal leaders press lawmakers to solve crisis
- You can’t gangster a horse: Native youth connect with culture to break cycles of addiction
- Native women from White Earth are reinventing opioid treatment
Land Rights and Sovereignty
- Mattaponi Indian Tribe files for federal recognition
- NDN Collective completes landback deal In Alaska
- National Park Service issues landmark order for Tribal consultations
- Comanche Nation Chairman explains treaties to students
Leaders and Makers
- 10 Native American Artists and Musicians You Should Know
- Exploring Native American Identities through Indigenous Art
- Rep. Tom Cole: A Heritage to be Proud Of
- Mary Peltola, First Alaska Native Member of Congress, Defeated by Trump-backed Candidate Nick Begich
Building Community
- Indian Country Responds to President Biden’s Historic Apology
- NDN Statement on Election Results: ‘Remember we are Warriors!’
- Native woman-led organization builds power for Native people
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