November is Native American Heritage Month. Explore some of the curriculum and resources listed below to honor, celebrate and experience the rich Indigenous history shared in our state and across the country.
Resources from PBS Learning Media and SDPB Education
The American Buffalo
Watch Online/ Resources/ Grades: 6-12
This two-part, four-hour film takes viewers on a journey through more than 10,000 years of North American history and across some of the continent’s most iconic landscapes, tracing the American buffalo’s evolution, its significance to the Indigenous people and landscape of the Great Plains, its near extinction, and the efforts to bring the magnificent mammals back from the brink.
TATANKA: A WAY OF LIFE (SDPB Documentary)
The reclamation of identity, culture, and traditions are all involved with the reintroduction of buffalo. It is an inherent right for tribes to reintroduce and manage buffalo on their reservations to preserve their way of life.
Native American Boarding Schools
Video and Activity/ Grades: K-Elementary
Learn about Native American boarding schools and complete an interesting activity. This video is part of Activity Starters, which is an animated video series. In each episode, an animated character introduces a concept and an activity.
Check out additional resources from youth grades 6-12 from PBS Learning Media HERE.
National Indian Education Association Digital Learning Activities
NIEA has partnered with IllumiNative to create and disseminate digital education tools, lesson plans, and resources for more than 1 million students and families. Resources will be available for free and downloadable HERE.
Recommended Reading
Check out your local library to pick up these titles today or reserve your copy now from the Siouxland Library HERE
Title: Waterlily
Author: Ella Cara Deloria
Summary: The daily rituals of the Yankton Sioux in the Dakotas during the 19th century reveal their traditional values.
Title: Fry Bread: A Native American Story
Author: Kevin Noble Maillard
Summary: Using illustrations that show the diversity in Native America and spare poetic text that emphasizes fry bread in terms of provenance, this volume tells the story of a post-colonial food that is a shared tradition for Native American families all across the North American continent. Includes a recipe and an extensive author note that delves into the social ways, foodways, and politics of America’s 573 recognized tribes.
Title: Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
Author: Vine Deloria Jr
Summary: The author speaks for his people in this witty confutation of almost everything the white man “knows” about Native Americans.
Title: We are Water Protectors
Author: Carole Lindstrom
Summary: Water is the first medicine. It affects and connects us all… When a black snake threatens to destroy the Earth and poison her people’s water, one young water protector takes a stand to defend Earth’s most sacred resource. Inspired by the many indigenous-led movements across North America, this bold and lyrical picture book issues an urgent rallying cry to safeguard the Earth’s water from harm and corruption.
Title: In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse
Author: Joseph Marshall
Summary: Expertly intertwining fiction and nonfiction, celebrated Brulé Lakota author Joseph Marshall III chronicles the many heroic deeds of Crazy Horse, especially his taking up arms against the U.S. government. He fiercely fought against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Greasy Grass (the Battle of the Little Bighorn) and playing a major and dangerous role as decoy at the Battle of the Hundred in the Hands (the Fetterman Battle). With Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse was the last of the Lakota to surrender his people to the U.S. Army. Through his grandfather’s tales about the famous warrior, Jimmy learns about his Lakota heritage and, ultimately, himself.
