For Native people, Native American Heritage Month is a month to celebrate diversity, cultures, civic power, and the resilience of ancestors. It’s also an important time to change the narrative about Native people. Too often, Native people are defined by deficits, not strengths. What a lot of people think they know about Indigenous peoples is based on stereotypes and narrow views of history taught in grade school textbooks, or stories in the media that advance similar narratives. Native people’s voices are too often absent in how they are portrayed.
Here are some facts about Native people:
- Native People are diverse. There are currently 574 federally recognized Tribal Nations and 175 Native languages across the United States. While Tribal Nations share similar experiences, they have unique cultures and histories.
- The Native population is on the rise. People indigenous to the United States are here and thriving. There are 9.7 million Native Americans/Alaska Natives in the United States. In Hawai’i, 298,000 Native Hawaiians make up 21% of the population.
- Most Native Americans (71%) live in urban areas, not on reservations.
- Most Tribes do not operate casinos, and only those near major urban areas are highly profitable. Of the tribes that do operate casinos, 75% use all profits to fund services for tribal members or to fund basic government.
The history of North America’s Indigenous peoples is a story of loss, hardship, violence, betrayal, and misappropriation. It is also a story of community, spirituality, diversity, honor, and resilience. Few history books capture the beauty and complexity of Indigenous life and the rich history in North America before the arrival of European settlers. None adequately traces the life, religious practices, and customs of the more than 600 tribes that lived above the Rio Grande before the 15th century.
Educate yourself about the history of the country that we share. Read a book this month!
- As Long as the Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock or All the Real Indians Died Off and 20 Other Myths – Dana Gilio-Whitaker (Confederated Colville Tribes)
- Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America – Michael John Witgen (Red Cliff Band of Ojibwe), Pulitzer Prize Finalist
- In Whose Ruins: Power, Possession, and the Landscapes of American Empire – Anna Puglionesi
- The Rediscovery of America, Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History – Ned Blackhawk (Te-Moak Shoshone)(winner of the National Book Award for Non-Fiction)
- An Indigenous People’s History of the United States – Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (NY Times Bestseller)