Honoring Indigenous Identity, History & Culture Through Books
/Last November we did a mini-unit on Indigenous Peoples of North America (Canada and US) and we all learned SO much. I was so impressed with the resources that we used that I featured them in my Instastories and promised to share a blog post rounding them all up. And then Advent began, and then the New Year, and best laid plans and all that. But I have not forgotten about it and finally pulled together all the amazing books we’ve read over the last few years (many by First Nations authors/illustrators themselves), chapter books/read aloud options for the older set and some adult books (fiction/nonfiction) that I've been using to further close the gaps that I had in my own education. I did take a Native Peoples of the Pacific NW course in university but other than that and a recent trip to South Dakota, all my knowledge has been self-learned. And disclaimer to fellow parents/educators: I did not shy away from discussing residential schools, forced migration, etc but know your audience! Since the curriculum we used was Canadian, there was more discussion about residential schools and the recent tragic discovery of mass graves, as well as the reparations done by the Canadian government...I decided mine were old enough to hear most of this (ages 7-12 at the time) but I did use discretion around my youngest. With my older two I used it as a jumping off point to discuss topic such as what reparations and reconciliation look like from a US perspective. Spoiler alert: I have no answers to these questions, but it is amazing to engage your older kids on these topics because they have some strong feelings about injustice! We wrapped up our unit with Peacemaker as our read-aloud which was perfect.
While this list is by no means exhaustive, I hope that this is a good start for anyone look to augment their learning on indigenous peoples’ identity, history and culture. May we move forward in a posture of humble learning.
-Natalie d’Aubermont Thompson, Living by the Page
The curriculum I used organized First Nations by region so I’ll do that here as well. And again, it was a Canadian curriculum so not as focused on US SE or SW First Nations. We personally added a Lakota/Sioux ‘deep dive’ since we had spent a week in South Dakota prior to school starting.
In the chapter book section, the ones listed are ones that we have either read aloud together or ones that my kids have read independently. The adult fiction/nonfiction are ones I have read and recommend. Again, I hope to add to this as we continue our learning!
Pacific NW and British Columbia
The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale
Great Lakes up through Newfoundland
Birchbark Brigade: A Fur Trade History
Pocahontas: Princess of the New World
US Midwest/Plains
Awâsis and the world famous Bannock
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
Southeast
Lakota and Sioux
Tatanka and the Lakota People: A Creation Story
Tasunka: A Lakota Horse Legend
Red Cloud: A Lakota Story of War and Surrendur
Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People
The Ledgerbook of Thomas Blue Eagle
Thematic Picture Books
Nickommoh: A Thanksgiving Celebration
When We are Kind/Nihá’ádaahwiinít’íigo
Longer Read Alouds/Chapter Books
Takini: Lakota Boy Alerts Sitting Bull
Adult Fiction/Nonfiction
An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America 1890 to the Present
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants