
Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, sought to one day recognize the contributions of the first Americans. The first Presidential proclamation came from Calvin Coolidge, who declared the second Saturday in May as American Indian Day. Seventy five years later, George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution which designated November 1990 as the first National American Indian Heritage Month.
To commemorate National American Indian Heritage Month, the Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, and other institutions have exhibits and collections on display, along with selected resources made available for teachers to use as well.
In addition to the aforementioned resources, Annenberg Learner has a handful of sources to supplement teaching Native American heritage in the classroom. Native American history is an important part of U.S. history; the following resources highlight its richness, struggles and triumphs.
The first unit of American Passages: Literary Survey, “Native Voices,” explores the deeply established oral tradition of Native Americans. Learn about prominent Native American authors, like Luci Tapahonso and Simon J. Ortiz (whose Acoma name is Hihdruutsi). Students can use the literary timeline to place when important native texts were published, along with historical contexts for those texts.
After Columbus’s initial arrival to the New World, encounters between Native American and Europeans dramatically altered the natives’ way of life. Use unit themes to specifically address how these changes affected Native Americans in America’s History in the Making, unit 2, “Mapping Initial Encounters.”
The struggles of Native Americans, Asian Americans, and blacks are placed in context of the traditional white Progressive movement in A Biography of America, program 19, “A Vital Progressivism.” The program includes a detailed timeline of accomplishments for minority groups in America, which includes the founding of the Society of American Indians in 1911.