Native American Heritage + Thanksgiving
November is Native American Heritage Month and a time to celebrate harvest and abundance on Thanksgiving. I recently ordered Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story, a children’s picture book focused on the first Thanksgiving from a Native American perspective. It is written and illustrated by four Indigenous creators: Danielle Greendeer (Mashpee Wampanoag), Anthony Perry (Chickasaw), Alexis Bunten (Unangan/Yup'ik) and Garry Meeches Sr. (Anishinaabe). As the mom of a toddler, I want my child to have a fuller perspective than the stories I grew up with. Here are some more resources to expand your worldview and story.
StoryCorps: StoryCorps is committed to the idea that everyone has an important story to tell and that everyone’s story matters. The organization is a resource for recording your own or a loved one’s story through the StoryCorps app and other tools. They have also launched initiatives to record stories in specific communities including: conversations between people who don’t agree politically; military voices; and stories of refugees, asylees, immigrants and Muslims living in the United States. This year Butterball (of Butterball Turkey) is partnering with StoryCorps to invite people across America to have meaningful conversations about their Thanksgiving traditions.
Native American Poetry & Culture: A selection of poets, poems, and articles exploring the Native American experience. Poetry Foundation editors have curated this collection of Native American poets, both established and widely read ones along with voices of a new generation, from some of the many US tribes. Their poems bear historical witness, demonstrate the strength of the Native American spirit, argue crucial political and social issues, while illuminating a vibrant cultural heritage.
National Museum of the American Indian: A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego. This month, they will celebrate Native American Heritage Day in DC and New York, as well as run a fully online and on demand Native Cinema Showcase from November 22-29, 2024.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown: The landmark, bestselling account of the crimes against American Indians during the 19th century, now on its 50th Anniversary. First published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century.
An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States, Kyle T. Mays: The first intersectional history of the Black and Native American struggle for freedom in our country that also reframes our understanding of who was Indigenous in early America.