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What is Native American Heritage Month? Facts for Kids

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The Hero Twins: A Story of the Navajo People

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The Hero Twins: A Story of the Navajo People

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The Hero Twins: A Story of the Navajo People | Native American Heritage Month

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Sesame Street: The Clutes | Celebrating Family Stories

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Sesame Street: The Clutes | Celebrating Family Stories

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The Clutes welcome us into their home to share the language and traditions of their Mohawk culture and community. Spend time with the Clutes as they celebrate their family story by honoring the beauty of their Indigenous identity as well as explore the honest history of being among the first people in a region now known as New York State.

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Sesame Street: The Clutes | Celebrating Family Stories

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Native American History for Kids | An insightful look into the history of the Native Americans

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History of Native Americans in Manhasset

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History of Native Americans in Manhasset

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Long before the terms Native American or Indian were necessary, the tribes were spread all over the Americas. Before any white man set foot on this land, it was settled by the forefathers of bands we now call Sioux, or Cherokee, or Iroquois.

For centuries, the American Indian developed its customs and heritage without interference. And that history is fascinating.

From Mayan and Incan ruins, from the mounds left in the central and southern regions of what is now the U.S. we have learned much. It's a tale of beautiful art and deep spirituality. Archaeologists have unearthed highly elaborate buildings and public works.

While there was inevitable tribal conflict, that was just a slight blemish in the experience of our ancestors. They were at peace with this beautiful continent and intensely connected to nature.

The European Settler Arrives

When European leaders dispatched the first vessels in our direction, the goal was to explore new resources - but the quality of environment and the bounty of everything from timber to wildlife soon changed their tune. As those leaders heard back from their explorers, the drive to colonize spread like wildfire.

The English, French and Spanish rushed to slice up the "New World" by shipping over poorly prepared colonists as fast as they could. At the outset, they skirmished with the surprised Indians of America's eastern seaboard. But that ultimately gave way to trade, because the Europeans who came ashore here learned their survival was doubtful with no Indian help.

Thus followed decades of relative peace as the settlers got themselves established on American soil. But the pressure to push inland came soon after. Kings and queens from thousands of miles away were restless to locate even more resources, and some colonists came for independence and adventure.

They required more space. And so began the process of forcing the American Indian out of the way.

It took the form of cash payments, barter, and famously, treaties which were nearly uniformly neglected once the Indians were pushed from the land in question.

The U.S. government's policies towards Native Americans in the second half of the nineteenth century were influenced by the desire to expand westward into territories occupied by these Native American tribes. By the 1850s almost all Native American tribes, approximately 360,000 in number, lived to the west of the Mississippi River. These American Indians, some from the Northwestern and Southeastern territories, were confined to Indian Territory located in contemporary Oklahoma, while the Kiowa and Comanche Native American tribes shared the area of the Southern Plains.

The Sioux, Crows and Blackfeet dominated the Northern Plains. These Native American groups experienced adversity as the constant stream of European immigrants into northeastern American cities delivered a stream of immigrants into the western lands already occupied by these diverse groups of Indians.

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Find Native American Indian Jewelry in Manhasset, New York

The early nineteenth century in the United States was marked by its continual expansion to the Mississippi River. However, due to the Gadsden purchase, that lead to U.S. control of the borderlands of southern New Mexico and Arizona along with the authority over Oregon country, Texas and California; America's expansion would not end there. Between 1830 and 1860 the U.S. roughly doubled the amount of land under its control.

These territorial gains coincided with the arrival of hordes of European and Asian immigrants who wanted to join the surge of American settlers heading west. This, combined with the discovery of gold in 1849, presented captivating possibilities for those ready to make the extended journey westward. As a result, with the military's protection and the U.S. government's assistance, many settlers began establishing their homesteads in the Great Plains and other parts of the Native American tribe-inhabited West.

Native American Tribes

Native American Policy can be defined as the regulations and procedures established and adapted in the United States to outline the relationship between Native American tribes and the federal government. When the United States first became an independent nation, it implemented the European policies towards the native peoples, but over the course of two centuries the U.S. tailored its own widely varying regulations regarding the evolving perspectives and requirements of Native American regulation.

In 1824, in order to execute the U.S. government's Native American policies, Congress created a new agency within the War Department referred to as Bureau of Indian Affairs, which worked directly with the U.S. Army to enforce their policies. At times the federal government recognized the Indians as self-governing, separate political communities with different cultural identities; however, at other times the government attempted to force the Native American tribes to give up their cultural identity, surrender their land and assimilate into the American culture.

Find Native American Indian Art in Manhasset, NY

With the steady stream of settlers into Indian controlled land, Eastern newspapers circulated sensationalized reports of savage native tribes committing widespread massacres of hundreds of white travelers. Although some settlers lost their lives to American Indian attacks, this was certainly not the norm; in fact, Native American tribes routinely helped settlers cross the Plains. Not only did the American Indians offer wild game and other necessities to travelers, but they served as guides and messengers between wagon trains as well. Despite the genial natures of the American Indians, settlers still anticipated the risk of an attack.

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To quiet these fears, in 1851 the U.S. government placed a conference with several local Indian tribes and established the Treaty of Fort Laramie. Within this treaty, each Native American tribe consented to a bounded territory, allowed the government to construct roadways and forts in this territory and pledged not to assault settlers; in return the federal government agreed to honor the boundaries of each tribe's territory and make total annual payments to the Indians. The Native American tribes responded quietly to the treaty; in fact the Cheyenne, Sioux, Crow, Arapaho, Assinibione, Mandan, Gros Ventre and Arikara tribes, who entered into the treaty, even consented to end the hostilities between their tribes to be able to accept the terms of the treaty.

Navajo Jewelry is Celebrated Worldwide by American Indian Art Collectors

This peaceful accord between the U.S. government and the Native American tribes didn't stand long. After hearing testimonies of fertile land and tremendous mineral wealth in the West, the government soon broke their pledge established in the Treat of Fort Laramie by allowing thousands of non-Indians to flood into the area. With so many newcomers moving west, the federal government established a policy of confining Native Americans to reservations, small swaths of land within a group's territory that was reserved exclusively for their use, in order to offer more property for the non-Indian settlers.

In a series of new treaties the U.S. government compelled Native Americans to give up their land and migrate to reservations in exchange for protection from attacks by white settlers. In addition, the Indians were given a yearly payment that would include money in addition to food, livestock, household goods and farming equipment. These reservations were created in an attempt to pave the way for increasing U.S. growth and administration in the West, as well as to keep the Native Americans separate from the whites in order to decrease the potential for friction.

History of the Plains Indians

These agreements had many challenges. Most importantly many of the native people did not completely grasp the document that they were confirming or the conditions within it; furthermore, the treaties did not respect the cultural practices of the Native Americans. In addition to this, the government departments accountable for applying these policies were overwhelmed with awful management and corruption. In fact many treaty terms were never accomplished.

The U.S. government almost never fulfilled their side of the deals even when the Native Americans relocated quietly to their reservations. Unethical bureau agents often sold off the supplies that were intended for the Indians on reservations to non-Indians. Additionally, as settlers required more territory in the West, the government constantly cut the size of Indian reservations. By this time, many of the Native American people were dissatisfied with the treaties and angered by the settlers' persistent demands for territory.

A Look at Native American Symbols

Angered by the government's dishonorable and unjust policies, several Native American tribes, including bands of Cheyennes, Arapahos, Comanches and Sioux, battled back. As they fought to preserve their territories and their tribes' survival, over a thousand skirmishes and battles broke out in the West between 1861 and 1891. In an effort to coerce Native Americans onto the reservations and to end the violence, the U.S. government responded to these skirmishes with costly military campaigns. Obviously the U.S. government's Indian regulations required an adjustment.

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Native American policy changed drastically after the Civil War. Reformers believed that the policy of pushing Native Americans on to reservations was too severe while industrialists, who were concerned about their land and resources, viewed assimilation, the cultural absorption of the American Indians into "white America" to be the only long-term means of assuring Native American survival. In 1871 the federal government passed a critical law stating that the United States would not treat Native American tribes as autonomous entities.

This legislation signaled a major shift in the government's relationship with the native peoples - Congress now considered the Native Americans, not as nations outside of its jurisdiction, but as wards of the government. By making Native Americans wards of the "" government, Congress imagined that it would be better to make the policy of assimilation a widely acknowledged part of the cultural mainstream of America.

More On American Indian History

Many U.S. government officials considered assimilation as the most effective solution to what they viewed as "the Indian problem," and the sole lasting strategy for protecting U.S. interests in the West and the survival of the American Indians. In order to accomplish this, the government pushed Native Americans to relocate out of their established dwellings, move into wooden dwellings and become farmers.

The federal government enacted laws that required Native Americans to reject their established appearance and way of living. Some laws outlawed customary spiritual practices while others ordered Indian males to cut their long hair. Agents on more than two-thirds of American Indian reservations established courts to impose federal regulations that often prohibited traditional ethnic and religious practices.

To accelerate the assimilation operation, the government established Indian schools that attempted to quickly and forcefully Americanize Indian youth. As per the director of the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, the schools were developed to "kill the Indian and save the man." To be able to achieve this goal, the schools forced pupils to speak only English, dress in proper American clothing and to replace their Indian names with more "American" ones. These new regulations brought Native Americans nearer to the conclusion of their original tribal identity and the start of their life as citizens under the full control of the U.S. government.

Native American Treaties with the United States

In 1887, Congress approved the General Allotment Act, the most important element of the U.S. government's assimilation program, which was developed to "civilize" American Indians by educating them to become farmers. In order to accomplish this, Congress wanted to establish private ownership of Indian land by dividing reservations, which were collectively owned, and offering each family their own block of land.

In addition to this, by forcing the Native Americans onto limited plots of land, western developers and settlers could purchase the remaining acreage. The General Allotment Act, also known as the Dawes Act, required that the Indian lands be surveyed and each family be given an allotment of between 80 and 160 acres, while unmarried adults were given between 40 to 80 acres; the rest of the acreage was to be sold. Congress expected that the Dawes Act would split up Indian tribes and increase individual enterprise, while trimming the expense of Indian supervision and producing prime property to be purchased by white settlers.

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The Dawes Act proved to be catastrophic for the American Indians; over the next generations they lived under policies that outlawed their traditional approach to life yet didn't provide the crucial resources to support their businesses and households. Dividing the reservations into small parcels of land led to the significant decrease of Indian-owned property. Inside three decades, the people had lost more than two-thirds of the region that they had controlled before the Dawes Act was passed in 1887; the majority of the remaining land was sold to white settlers.

Regularly, Native Americans were duped out of their allotments or were required to sell their land in order pay bills and feed their own families. Consequently, the Indians were not "Americanized" and were routinely unable to become self-supporting farmers or ranchers, like the creators of the Act had intended. It also generated animosity among Indians for the U.S. government, as the allotment practice often ruined land that was the spiritual and social location of their activities.

Native American Culture

Between 1850 and 1900, life for Native Americans changed dramatically. Through U.S. government policies, American Indians were forced from their places of residence because their native lands were parceled out. The Plains, which they had previously roamed alone, were now filling with white settlers.

The Upshot of the Indian Wars

Over all these years the Indians ended up defrauded out of their property, food and way of life, as the federal government's Indian policies shoved them inside reservations and attempted to "Americanize" them. Many American Indian bands didn't endure relocation, cultural destruction and military defeat; by 1890 the Native American population was lowered to less than 250,000 people. As a result of generations of discriminatory and dodgy policies implemented by the United States government between 1850 and 1900, life for the American Indians was altered permanently.

[google-map location="Manhasset NY"

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Native American Tribes & the Indian History in | American Indian

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Long before the terms Native American or Indian were necessary, the tribes were spread all over the Americas. Before any white man set foot on this land, it was settled by the forefathers of bands we now call Sioux, or Cherokee, or Iroquois. For centuries, the American Indian developed its customs and heritage without interference.

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Smithsonian Native American Dance and Music

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Smithsonian Native American Dance and Music

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Performance Videos | Smithsonian Institution

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Many of these performances feature traditional music and dancing while others feature contemporary music by Native American artists. ... Learn more

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Fry Bread A Native American Family Story  - A Celebration of Food, Family, and Culture - Read Aloud

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Native Knowledge 360°â€"Early Encounters in Native New York: Did Native People Really Sell Manhattan?

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This online lesson provides Native perspectives, images, documents, and other sources to help students and teachers understand how the 17th century fur trade brought together two cultures, one Native and the other Dutch, with different values and ideas about exchange. #NK360

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WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Read Aloud 

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WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Read Aloud 

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WE ARE WATER PROTECTORS | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Read Aloud | Preschool | Story | Native American

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Snail Girl Brings Water | Navajo | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Oral Storytelling 

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Snail Girl Brings Water | Navajo | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Oral Storytelling 

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Snail Girl Brings Water |  Navajo | Indigenous Peoples' Day | Oral Storytelling | Read Aloud | Story

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   Native Americans for Kids: Cherokee, Apache, Navajo, Iroquois and Sioux | Kids Academy

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   Native Americans for Kids: Cherokee, Apache, Navajo, Iroquois and Sioux | Kids Academy

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Native Americans for Kids: Cherokee, Apache, Navajo, Iroquois and Sioux | Kids Academy

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Welcome to Native American Heritage Month!

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Welcome to Native American Heritage Month!

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Welcome to Native American Heritage Month!

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The Coyote and the Frog People | Native American Heritage Month

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If I Were a Kid at the First Thanksgiving: History of Thanksgiving

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If I Were a Kid at the First Thanksgiving: History of Thanksgiving

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If You Were a Kid at the First Thanksgiving Melissa Sarno

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We Are Still Here: An Introduction to Native American Communities in Southern New England Lesson Plans

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We Are Still Here: An Introduction to Native American Communities in Southern New England Lesson Plans

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These lessons will be taught near the beginning of a semester long study of Native Americans in Southern New England. Students will be introduced to some of the tribal nations in Southern New England, including Wampanoag, Narragansett, Niantic, Nipmuc and Mohegan. By examining and discussing photographs and images on their tribal websites an other social media, students will have the opportunity to reconsider many preconceptions they may have about Native Americans today. Students will learn about Strawberry Thanksgiving using the children's book Strawberry Thanksgiving written by Paulla Dove Jennings (Niantic and Narragansett) and illustrated by Ramona Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag). These lessons will serve as a reference point throughout the study as we consider aspects of culture and tradition in contemporary native communities.

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We Are Still Here: An Introduction to Native American Communities in Southern New England

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These lessons will be taught near the beginning of a semester long study of Native Americans in Southern New England. Students will be introduced to some of the tribal nations in Southern New England, including Wampanoag, Narragansett, Niantic, Nipmuc and Mohegan.

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Native Americans Today Grades 3-5 Lesson Plan

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Native Americans Today Grades 3-5 Lesson Plan

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We have launched the new ReadWriteThink.org and we would love to get your feedback: Give Feedback

Many people think that Native Americans are a vanished people-that they do not exist in the present day. In this lesson plan, teachers use photo essays and other texts to introduce students to Native children and their families, thereby countering the idea that Native people no longer exist. Students first brainstorm all they know about Native Americans, while the teacher creates lists of their comments on the board. Students then read books and explore Websites from provided lists highlighting contemporary Native Americans. Finally, they use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast their ideas about Native Americans at the beginning of the lesson with what they now know.

In their book Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children's Literature, Kathy Short and Dana Fox state that "literature serves a crucial role in multicultural education, social justice, and reform." In Using Multiethnic Literature in the K-8 Classroom, Rudine Sims Bishop identifies five functions of multicultural literature: to provide knowledge or information; expand how students view the world by offering varying perspectives; promote or develop an appreciation for diversity; give rise to critical inquiry; and illuminate human experience.

This lesson utilizes the powerful role of literature described by Short and Fox to help students address stereotypes and misconceptions about Native Americans in contemporary society by providing them with knowledge and information about present-day Native Americans. With this knowledge and information, children are introduced to different perspectives on family and community, and they have an informed knowledge base from which to critique stereotypical representations of Native people in their textbooks, literature, television programs, videos, and movies.
Further Reading

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.

2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.

3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

6. Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

Students will

participate in critical discussions about their knowledge of Native Americans, understanding that Native people are part of contemporary America.

work cooperatively in small groups.

access and gather information about Native Americans from Websites.

share information with others through discussion.

1. Begin by writing "Native American," "American Indian," and "Indian" on the board. Introduce each term, and briefly describe its usage.

2. Engage students in a brainstorming session during which they share all they know about Native Americans. Create lists of their comments on the board.

3. Divide the students into small groups and give each group one or two of the books from the book list. Ask them to notice how the ideas generated in the brainstorming list are similar to or different from what they see in the books.

1. In a computer lab or classroom, have students spend part of the session exploring the images and information at the Websites you selected.

2. Solicit general comments from the groups regarding their observations and discussions. Move to soliciting specific examples of how their prior knowledge was affirmed or challenged by the material they found in the books.

3. Have students use the interactive Venn diagram tool to map out their findings.

Students can visit Websites developed by people of the tribes featured in the books on the book list to learn more about the tribe.

Ask students to write an essay comparing the portrayal of a particular aspect of Native American culture in two different books or a book and a Website. Use the Comparison and Contrast Guide to introduce the aspects of comparison and contrast to students. Have students sketch out the details of their comparisons using the Compare and Contrast Map. Alternately, you can use the Teaching the Compare and Contrast Essay through Modeling lesson plan to model the writing process for students.

Student Assessment / Reflections

Observe student interactions as they communicate with each other as they go through the activities.

Engage students in conversations about what they have learned through this lesson, using the Reflection Questions as a guide or written activity.

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We have launched the new ReadWriteThink.org and we would love to get your feedback: Give Feedback Many people think that Native Americans are a vanished people-that they do not exist in the present day. In this lesson plan, teachers use photo essays and other texts to introduce students to Native children and their families, thereby countering the idea that Native people no longer exist.

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12-year-old pow wow performer dances for those who can’t