NATIVE AMERICAN

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

November is Native American Heritage Month, or as it is commonly refered to, American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknoledge the important contributionds of Native people.

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

November is Native American Heritage Month, or as it is commonly refered to, American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. The month is a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories and to acknoledge the important contributionds of Native people.

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SYMBOLS

biography

DWELLINGS

DANCE

Books

NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES

There are 574 federally recognized Indian Nations (variously called tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities and native villages) in the United States. Approximately 229 of these ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse nations are located in Alaska; the other federally recognized tribes are located in 35 other states. Additionally, there are state recognized tribes located throughout the United States recognized by their respective state governments.

NATIVE AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

It’s one of, if not the oldest, universal sign language of any kind. Historians still dispute about the beginning of NASL—some claim it has been around for thousands of years, though many claim that historical accounts of NASL have only existed since the 16th century. What’s the most intriguing about NASL? It’s an intertribal language and not specifically for deaf people. While there are many dialects of NASL, it’s universal for the most part, and two-thirds of tribes in America used it—which allowed a population with over 500 different dialects to interact with each other.

The Code Talkers used native languages to send military messages before World War II. Choctaw, for example, was successfully used during World War I. But the Marine Corps needed an “unbreakable” code for its island-hopping campaign in the Pacific. Navajo, which was unwritten and known by few outside the tribe, seemed to fit the Corps’ requirements.

When European explorers arrived in America, Native Americans did not communicate through writing as we know it. Instead, they told stories (oral histories) and created pictures and symbols.

NATIVE AMERICAN SYMBOLS

Pocahontas, later known as Rebecca Rolfe, was a Native American who assisted English colonists during their first years in Virginia.

Sitting Bull was a Teton Dakota Indian chief under whom the Sioux tribes united in their struggle for survival on the North American Great Plains.

BIOGRAPHY

Geronimo was a Bedonkohe Apache leader of the Chiricahua Apache, who led his people's defense of their homeland against the military might of the United States.

Native American Jim Thorpe won the pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Olympics but was stripped of his gold medals for violating amateur eligibility rules.

Sacagawea was a Shoshone interpreter best known for being the only woman on the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the American West.

Wilma Mankiller worked for several years as a leading advocate for the Cherokee people and became the first woman to serve as their principlal chief in 1985

SEQUOYAH, WAS A NATIVE AMERICAN POLYMATH OF THE CHEROKEE NATION. IN 1821 HE COMPLETED HIS INDEPENDENT CREATIONS OF A CHEROKEE SYLLABARY, MAKIN READING AND WRITING IN CHEROKEE POSSIBLE

sherman joseph alexie jr. is a spokane-coeur d'alene-american novelist, short story writer, poet, and filmaker. his writings draw on his experiences as an Indigenous american with ancestry from several tribes.

NATIVE DWELINGS

NATIVE AMERICANS LIVED IN MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF HOUSING. SOME TRIBES WERE NOMADIC (THEY MOVED AROUND) WHILE OTHERS SETTLED DOWN IN ONE PLACE. ALSO, HOUSING FOR A WARM CLIMATE WOULD BE VERY DIFFERENT THAN FOR COLD TEMPERATURES.

NATIVE AMERICAN DANCE

IN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES, DANCE IS A WAY OF EXPRESSION, A LANGUAGE IN ITSELF. DANCING PROMOTES COMMUNITY INTERATION AND MEDITATION. DANCES CELEBRATE EVENTS SUCH AS HARVEST OR SEASONAL CHANGES, MARRIAGES, AND REPRESENTIATIVES FROM OTHER TRIBES OR NATIONS.POWWOW, IS A CELEBRATION OF AMERICAN INDIAN CULTURE IN WHICH PEOPLE FROM DIVERSE INDIGENOUS NATIONS GATHER FOR THE PURPOSE OF DANCING, SINGING, AND HONOURING THE TRADITIONS OF THEIR ANCESTORS. THE TERM POWWOW, WHICH DERIVES FROM A CURING RIUTAL ORIGINATED IN ONE OF THE ALGONQUIAN NATIONS OF THE NORTHEAST INDIANS

BOOKS AVAILABLE