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YouTube channel for Indigenous Read Alouds

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YouTube channel for Indigenous Read Alouds

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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IN COUNTRIES SUCH AS NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA, CANADA, AND AMONG TRIBAL NATIONS IN THE U.S., it is commonplace, even policy, to open events and gatherings by acknowledging the traditional Indigenous inhabitants of that land. While some individuals and cultural and educational institutions in the United States have adopted this custom, the vast majority have not. Together, we can spark a movement to change that.
We call on all individuals and organizations to open public events and gatherings with acknowledgment of the traditional Native inhabitants of the land.
Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people's history and culture and toward inviting and honoring the truth. Imagine this practice widely adopted: imagine cultural venues, classrooms, conference settings, places of worship, sports stadiums, and town halls, acknowledging traditional lands. Millions would be exposed-many for the first time-to the names of the traditional Indigenous inhabitants of the lands they are on, inspiring them to ongoing awareness and action.

For more than five hundred years, Native communities across the Americas have demonstrated resilience and resistance in the face of violent efforts to separate them from their land, culture, and each other. They remain at the forefront of movements to protect Mother Earth and the life it sustains. Today, corporate greed and federal policy push agendas to extract wealth from the earth, degrading sacred land in blatant disregard of treaty rights. Acknowledgment is a critical public intervention, a necessary step toward honoring Native communities and enacting the much larger project of decolonization and reconciliation. Join us in adopting, calling for, and spreading this practice.

We are eager to share this #HonorNativeLand Virtual Acknowledgement Pack as an effort to renew our commitment to acknowledging place and the ancestral and contemporary stewards of these irreplaceable resources of land, air, water and cosmos.

With this release of these digital tools, we encourage folks to find creative ways to weave in acknowledgment as they host events and staff meetings in the digital space.

In this pack you will find:

A series of images formatted to share as a series on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or elsewhere. These images reinforce why it is important to continue the practice of acknowledging space, even in the digital world.

Our #HonorNativeLand poster series. You can print these to use at home, a house of worship, a school, wherever you find yourself building a home base.

Please stay tuned for more information about the #HonorNativeLand work as we embark on Phase 2: moving from acknowledgement to action.

Download the GuideCreated in partnership with Native allies and organizations, the Guide offers context about the practice of acknowledgment, gives step-by-step instructions for how to begin wherever you are, and provides tips for moving beyond acknowledgment into action.
WHY INTRODUCE THE PRACTICE OF LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT?

Offer recognition and respect.

Counter the "doctrine of discovery" with the true story of the people who were already here.

Create a broader public awareness of the history that has led to this moment.

Begin to repair relationships with Native communities and with the land.

Support larger truth-telling and reconciliation efforts.

Remind people that colonization is an ongoing process, with Native lands still occupied due to deceptive and broken treaties.

Take a cue from Indigenous protocol, opening up space with reverence and respect.

Inspire ongoing action and relationship.

Acknowledgment by itself is a small gesture. It becomes meaningful when coupled with authentic relationship and informed action. But this beginning can be an opening to greater public consciousness of Native sovereignty and cultural rights, a step toward equitable relationship and reconciliation.

We urge organizations, collectives, institutions, and agencies to publicly commit to practicing traditional Native land acknowledgment. To stand and be counted and to inspire others with your commitment, take the pledge.

As a step toward honoring the truth and achieving healing and reconciliation, our organization commits to open all public events and gatherings with a statement acknowledging the traditional Native lands on which we stand. Such statements become truly meaningful when coupled with authentic relationships and sustained commitment. We therefore commit to move beyond words into programs and actions that fully embody a commitment to Indigenous rights and cultural equity.

Hundreds of organizations have pledged to #HonorNativeLand in their spaces and events, including:

Artist's Laboratory Theatre

Arts in a Changing America (ArtChangeUS)

California Indian Culture & Sovereignty Center

Dancing Earth

Democracy at Work Institute

Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles

Indigenous Women Rise in Gallup

Ink People, Inc.

IU First Nations Educational & Cultural Center

Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection

Marietta Ohio Arts Innovation Lab

National Council for Science and Faith

Native American Music Awards

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation

New Economy Coalition

Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA)

Artivists LA

Kamiah Community Library

Peñasco Theatre Collective

Self Help Graphics & Art

YWCA Olympia

We are grateful to all of the partners whose work inspired this campaign. Special thanks to the following individuals who offered insight and support in its creation: T. Lulani Arquette (Native Hawaiian), Daniel Banks, Sherry Salway Black (Oglala Lakota), Mary Bordeaux (Sicangu Lakota), Ron Martinez Looking Elk (Isleta Pueblo), Lori Pourier (Oglala Lakota), Shirley Sneve (Rosebud Sioux), Rulan Tangen (mixed Indigenous heritage), Josh Reid (Snohomish), Tanaya Winder (Duckwater Shoshone/Pyramid Lake Paiute/Southern Ute), Warren "Guss" Yellowhair (Northern Cheyenne/Oglala Lakota), and Larissa FastHorse (Sicangu Nation Lakota) and Ty Defoe (Ojibwe/Oneida) of Indigenous Direction. Thank you to Nicholas Ward, Connie Fitzpatrick, and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation for use of their photographs, and Keith BraveHeart (Oceti Sakowin: Oglala Lakota), Bunky Echo-Hawk (Pawnee/Yakama), jetsonorama, Warren Montoya (Tamaya & Kha'po Owingeh), Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota), Bryan D. Parker (Muscogee Creek/ Choctaw/White Mountain Apache), Remy (Diné), Jaclyn Roessel (Diné), and William Wilson (Diné) for the use of their artwork. Any omissions or errors are the responsibility of the USDAC.

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#HonorNativeLand - U.S. Department of Arts and Culture

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A call to action and guide to open public events and gatherings with acknowledgment of the traditional Native inhabitants of the land. Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people's history and cultu

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President Obama “It’s really important for us to remember our history.”

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President Obama “It’s really important for us to remember our history.”

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"Unless you're Native American, you came from someplace else."

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Are you a parent, grandparent, or other caregiver wondering what to do for Indigenous Peoples' Day this year while you and your family are home? Perhaps you're a college student, discussing social justice and hoping to do something meaningful that also respects public health guidance on in-person gatherings?

To date, 14 states- Alabama, Alaska, Hawai'i, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin-and the District of Columbia, more than 130 cities, and growing numbers of school districts celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day in place of or in addition to Columbus Day. And many people reach out to the National Museum of the American Indian to ask about appropriate ways to honor the Native peoples of the Americas. Here are my top five suggestions for engaging with the spirit of Indigenous Peoples' Day during this unusual year.

Plant Native! Native plants support healthy ecosystems. For example, they sustain insects, cornerstones of a healthy environment. Insects in turn provide needed energy to birds and help fuel their migration in the fall. Most people know about the relationship between milkweed and monarch butterflies. But consider the pawpaw, a native tree widely distributed in most of the United States and common east of the Mississippi. (My tribe, the Shawnee, call this time of year when the pawpaw fruits ripen the pawpaw moon.)Outside the Deep South, the pawpaw is the only host species for caterpillars of the zebra swallowtail butterfly. Think of the impact you can have by planting native species and returning health to your yard and neighborhood. The U.S. Forest Service has all sorts of resources about gardening with native species on its website Celebrating Wildflowers.

Read an Indigenous writer. Consider reading a board book with the youngest in your family. Social Justice Books, a project of Teaching for Change, shares a list of books recommended by Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambé Pueblo), founder and co-editor of American Indians in Children's Literature. Dr. Reese's list includes everything from illustrated storybooks for young children, to middle-school fiction and nonfiction, to titles for young (or not so young) adult readers. For high-school students, and perhaps you, I recommend An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People, adapted by Dr. Reese and Jean Mendoza from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's more academic An Indigenous People's History of the United States. The young people's edition has discussion questions at the back that families or classmates can talk about together at home or on Zoom.

Attend an online Indigenous Peoples' Day celebration. Monday, October 12, at 1 p.m. Eastern time, the museum is streaming an Indigenous Peoples' Day program for middle- and high-school students, though all are welcome. The third webinar in a new monthly series titled Youth in Action: Conversations about Our Future, October's program brings young Native activists Brook Thompson (Yurok and Karuk), Julian Brave NoiseCat (Canim Lake Band Tsq'escen and Lil'Wat Nation), Lina Krueck (Oglala Lakota), Dylan Baca (White Mountain Apache), and Alberto Correa III (Taíno) together virtually to talk about the tension between history and memory, and how each shapes current social movements happening across America. Hip-hop artist Frank Waln (Sicangu Lakota) contributes a musical performance. This roughly one-hour conversation is introduced by Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the National Museum of the American Indian, and moderated by cultural interpreter Michaela Pavlat (Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians). You can watch earlier Youth in Action webinars via the archive on our website.

The Indigenous Peoples' Day Convergence, October 10, 11, and 12, also spotlights Indigenous leaders, change-makers, and artists working on important contemporary issues. Organized by the Greater Cincinnati Native Coalition, the convergence is ticketed, but the coalition makes clear that donations can be as little as one dollar.

Help teach a more truthful history of Columbus and the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean Islands. A Washington, D.C., preschool teacher shared this lesson, which uses puppets to teach three- and four-year-olds about empathy and different perspectives in age-appropriate ways. It's never too early to start telling more accurate histories about the Americas in relation to Native people.

Middle- and high-school students may want to learn more about the history and culture of the Taíno people. Content for this downloadable guide in English and Spanish was developed by the Smithsonian Latino Center in collaboration with the museum for the exhibition Taíno: Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean | Taíno: Herencia e identidad indígena en el Caribe.

Learn more by visiting Native Knowledge 360°, and advocate for Indigenous Peoples' Day. Native Knowledge 360°, the museum's National Education Initiative, is working to transform teaching and learning about American Indians. One practice we recommend is to acknowledge the lands you live on and name the Indigenous people originally from there. The museum can help with things to consider when thinking about Land Acknowledgements.

See if you're shown on this map of places that recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day. If your town or school district isn't listed but has adopted Indigenous Peoples' Day, email [email protected] to put your community on the map as part of this growing movement!

Renée Gokey (citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma) is the teacher services coordinator at the Smithsonian' s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

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Five Ideas for Celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day 2020

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On Monday, October 12, 14 states and the District of Columbia, more than 130 cities, and growing numbers of schools will observe Indigenous Peoples' Day.

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Resources for Indigenous People's Day