Indigenous Concerns Resources

California, A Slave State Jean Pfaelzer, Yale University Press, 2023. Ch.7 “Indian Slavery in a Free State: A Deadly Illogic” p.163.
“At the cusp of the Spanish invasion in 1769, 310,000 Native Americans lived in California, the highest density of Indigenous people in North America. When the United States invaded California in 1846 at the start of the U.S. – Mexican War, only 150,000 remained. From 1846 to 1873, landowners, vigilantes, and U.S. soldiers slaughtered some sixteen thousand California Natives and seized the survivors of the massacres to labor in bondage. By 1880 the population of California Natives fell to 16,227, as they died from slaughter, hunger, and epidemics of new diseases.”

California Mandates Native American History in Schools with New Law
California enacted Assembly Bill 1821 (AB 1821), mandating the inclusion of Native American history and perspectives in public education. The act was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 27, 2024, the legislation went into effect on January 1, 2025. 
AB 1821 amends the California Education Code to ensure that social science instruction at the elementary and secondary levels incorporates Native American perspectives. For students in grades 1 through 6, the curriculum must include a foundational understanding of the Spanish colonization of California and the Gold Rush Era, emphasizing the treatment of Native Americans during these periods. For students in grades 7 through 12, the law requires that any instruction covering the
Spanish colonial or the Gold Rush Era also addresses Native American perspectives. 
The new law has particular significance for 4th-grade students, as this grade traditionally focuses on California history, including the missions, the Gold Rush, and the state’s path to statehood. 

Caring, Not Competing: The meaning and relevance of indigenous economic theory
https://nativesciencereport.org/2019
Dr. Ronald L. Trosper offers an alternative economic perspective. From his article: “The wealth inequalities created by individualism threaten world peace. The principles of indigenous economic theory need to be understood and utilized for the sake of the earth.”
Similar ideas are offered in Robin Kimmerer’s Serviceberry.

Cherokee Dispossession Through Claimant Self-Declaration: Assessing Cherokee Heritage Claims in the 2020 U.S. Census
Journal: Genealogy, Volume 9, Issue 4
Despite extensive and multigenerational efforts by the three federally recognized Cherokee tribes to educate the larger public about the sovereign right and authority of Cherokee governments to determine affiliation, well over a million unaffiliated and unsubstantiated American claimants still declare Cherokee heritage in official records, deforming public understanding and reinforcing dangerously anti-Native racial logics. This article considers the problems associated with the “Cherokee” population categories in the 2020 U.S. census, its relationship to genealogical stereotypes in mainstream family history research, its dangers to Cherokee nationhood, and its consequences for Indian Country as a whole.

Dark Winds
A series of TV-like programs based on the Tony Hillerman novel, Listening Woman. Watchable on Netflix.
Non-Indigenous people may find these programs informative of a modern Indigenous perspective. Some bits of Indigenous history and Diné (Navajo) culture are included here and there. All Indigenous characters are played by Indigenous actors.

Diné Bizaad Becomes the Official Language of Navajo Nation
https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/dine-bizaad-becomes-the-official-language-of-navajo-nation
On Christmas Eve, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren signed long-awaited legislation to have the Navajo language used, taught and supported by appropriations.  With his signature, Diné bizaad, is now the official language of the Navajo Nation.

“It’s Denali”, Sen. Lisa Murkowski Co-sponsors Legislation to Formally Recognize Its Native Name
nativenewsonline.net/currents/sen-lisa-murkowski-it-s-denali-co-sponsors-legislation-to-formally-recognize-its-native-name
 U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced legislation today on February 14th, 2025 to officially recognize North America’s highest peak as Denali, the name given by Alaska’s Koyukon Athabascans. The bill mandates that all references to the mountain in U.S. laws, maps, regulations, and records use the name Denali.
“In Alaska, it’s Denali,” Murkowski said. “Once you see it in person, and take in the majesty of its size and breathe in its cold air, you can understand why the Koyukon
Athabascans referred to it as ‘The Great One.’ This isn’t a political issue – Alaskans from every walk of life have long been advocating for this mountain to be recognized by its true name. That’s why today I once again introduced legislation that would officially keep this mountain’s quintessential name, ‘Denali.’”

New Water Plan Threatens the Trinity River, the Klamath’s Largest Tributary by Regina Chichizola, SCS Executive Director
California Water Justice News, vol. Fall/Winter 2025, californiasalmon.org
The fate of the Klamath and Trinity Rivers is being decided now. A Biological Opinion (Bi-Op) is a plan that allocates water to both endangered species and water users. The Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes and the Bureau of Reclamation are the co-leads working with NOAA fisheries to develop a Bi-Op for the Trinity River to address issues not covered in previous agreements. When Donald Trump returned to the Presidency he signed an Executive Order on his first day in office to try to override the new Central Valley Bi-Op by prioritizing deliveries to water users, not endangered species. A first draft of the Trinity River Bi-Op, expected this fall, will be the first issued under the Trump administration. Based on recent experience, the Trump administration will interfere with or even dismiss the new plan.

Oglala Sioux Tribe Rejects ICE Conditions for Information on Detained Members
https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/oglala-sioux-tribe-rejects-ice-conditions-for-information-on-detained-members
Leaders of the Oglala Sioux Tribe are demanding the immediate release of tribal citizens held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are pushing back on federal conditions for information about their whereabouts.
Tribal President Frank Star Comes Out said in a memorandum to Department of Homeland Security officials that three of four tribal members detained during immigration enforcement activity in Minneapolis remain in ICE custody at the Fort Snelling facility, a site with historical significance for Indigenous people. One of the four has since been released.
Comes Out said the tribe sought detailed information from federal authorities about the detainees’ identities and legal status, but was provided only first names and was told additional information would be released only if the tribe agreed to enter into a formal “immigration agreement” with ICE. Tribe officials said they have no intention of signing such an agreement.

Tiwahe’ Sculpture Memorializing Lost Children Unveiled in South Dakota
ictnews.org/news/boarding-school-memorial-statue-unveiled-in-south-dakota/
Standing tall at the site of a former boarding school is a roughly seven foot tall statue of a Lakota family, memorializing survivors and victims of the over 100 year federal boarding school era. The statue is one of the first of its kind in the nation, as more Native nations work towards healing from the generations of trauma at the hands of the government and Catholic church as well as Quaker meetings.

Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization, is set to return 31,000 acres from a Maine timber investor to the Penobscot Nation, which would be the largest return of its kind to an indigenous tribe in U.S. history. Link to article: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17112024/massive-land-return-to-maine-penobscot-indigenous-tribe/

Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians observe 100 years of U.S. citizenship by walking together to vote on Election Day
https://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/article_4d4daa86-9bd9-11ef-aeab-5bbbdf99c4da.html

Violating precedent, Native Voters lose the Right to be Heard
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/60-years-after-the-voting-rights-act-native-voters-still-fight-to-be-heard
Sixty years ago in August, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 into law. On this 60th anniversary, the Native  American Rights Fund released the following statement: “This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), a cornerstone of the civil rights movement that aimed to eradicate racial discrimination in voting. Its passage was a monumental achievement, won through decades of organizing, protest, and sacrifice. It promised a future where the right to vote would be equally protected for all.”
But today, 60 years later, Native American voters are still fighting to access that promise. Across the country, Native communities continue to face voter suppression, racial discrimination, systemic barriers to the ballot box, and, now, a new and alarming threat to their ability to defend their rights at all.
A clear example of this ongoing discrimination is the case of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Michael Howe. In that case, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the Spirit Lake Tribe, and individual Native voters challenged North Dakota’s state legislative map under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The plaintiffs argued that the map illegally diluted the voting power of Native people by dividing Tribal communities across districts — thereby denying them an equal opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.
The federal district court agreed. It found that the legislative map violated Section 2 and ordered the state to draw new districts that would fairly represent Native voters. But then the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals stepped in with a shocking decision. It ruled that private individuals and groups, like the Tribes and Native voters in this case, do not have the right to bring lawsuits under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. According to the court, only the Department of Justice can enforce those protections.

A History of Racial Injustice <maya@eji.org> 
Nineteen Hopi Leaders Imprisoned in Alcatraz
On January 3, 1895, federal authorities imprisoned 19 Hopi leaders at Alcatraz Island on sedition charges for opposing the U.S. government’s forced education and
assimilation of Indigenous children. 
In the late 1800s, the U.S. government sought to “Americanize” Native American children by forcing them into white-run assimilationist schools, often far from their
homes and families. In 1887, the government established Keams Canyon Boarding School in modern-day Arizona and pressured Native American parents from the Hopi tribe to enroll their children. Hopi families that complied with the government’s order and sent their children to school were deemed “Friendlies,” while those who refused were branded “Hostiles.” When most parents refused to part with their children voluntarily, the government resorted to force, sending soldiers to round up children and send them to Keams Canyon.
At the same time, tensions were rising regarding the limited land that the government claimed to still belong to Hopi communities. In October 1894, 50 Hopi returned to plant on land that had traditionally belonged to their tribe. The U.S. government, claiming to act in defense of the rights of Friendlies, responded by ordering troops to arrest the Hopi leaders. Justifying the order for military involvement, one government official wrote that “[t]he Friendlies must be protected in their rights and encouraged to continue in the Washington way.”
After the January 1895 arrests, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that “[n]ineteen murderous-looking Apache Indians” had been imprisoned at Alcatraz, “because they would not let their children go to school.” The paper added that they “have not hardship aside from the fact that they have been rudely snatched from the bosom of their families and are prisoners and prisoners they shall stay until they have learned to appreciate the advantage of education.” The Hopi leaders were imprisoned in the wooden cells of Alcatraz for nearly one year.

Cahokia Mounds, Illinois – Largest Archaeological Site in North America
Preserving the remains of an ancient Native American city near Collinsville, Illinois, the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. Covering more than 2,000 acres, Cahokia is the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico.
Best known for large, man-made earthen structures, the city of Cahokia was inhabited from about A.D. 700 to 1400. Built by ancient peoples known as the Mound Builders, Cahokia’s original population was thought to have been only about 1,000 until about the 11th century when it expanded to tens of thousands.
At its peak from 1,100 to 1,200 A.D., the city covered nearly six square miles and boasted a population of as many as 100,000 people. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/il-cahokia/

California, A Slave State, 2023, Yale University Press, Jean Pfaelzer, Chapters 1-3.
Specific conditions and historical accounts of invasion, oppression, slaughter, and rape as well as accounts of resistance and wars provide the reader with much more than the usual general summary descriptions of California missions. A-new-to-me note on page 77:
“On September 22, 2015, the Catholic Church canonized Father Junipero Serra, the friar who led the Spanish invasion of California in an absolutist system of brutality and
bondage, and he became the first Hispanic saint in the Unites States.”

Deaths at Boarding Schools
A year-long investigation by The Washington Post has documented that at least 3,104 students died at boarding schools between 1828 and 1970, three times as many deaths as reported by the U.S. Interior Department earlier this year. Link to report: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/native-american-deaths-burial-sites-boarding-schools/

Grants of Land in California Made by Spanish or Mexican Authorities, Jan 1, 1982
The colonization of California began with the Spanish Empire’s ”discovery” of New Spain. Along with Mexico, the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and other lands, made up what was once known as New Spain.
California was one of the last of these Spanish territories to be occupied. From the first settlement at San Diego, the Spanish and Mexican governments founded four presidios, four pueblos, and 21 Catholic missions, along with granting vast amounts of rancho lands to private individuals. These grants of land are known as Rancho Grants, and were granted in order to encourage agriculture and industry, reward soldiers, and to provide for settlers who held no property. This report is helpful for those wanting to know the history of their particular area. https://www.slc.ca.gov/land-types/grants-of-land-in-california-made-by-spanish-or-mexican-authorities/

NEYM Quaker Indian Boarding School Research Group (QIBS) produced its 62 page Research Findings, dated August 2024. Pages 3 to 17 contain the findings.
Quoted from the Summary of that research:
“Quakers were central figures in the creation of the federal government’s ‘civilize and Christianize’ strategy to pacify Native People and eliminate barriers to the settlement and exploitation of lands west of the Mississippi following the Civil War. New England Friends were involved at every level of the development and implementation of the federal Indian Boarding School program from its inception in the 1870s.”

Quaker Corruption and the Modocs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modoc_Nation
The information was taken from the study, “Frank Modoc: An Analysis of Quakers and the Violence of Civilizing Efforts Through the Life of the First Full-Blooded Native
American Minister of the Society of Friends” by Julian Quinones.

The Other Slavery, Professor Victoria Sutton 
nativenewsonline.net/opinion/the-other-slavery
“That Native Americans did not make very good slaves made little difference in the commerce of slavery in early colonial America.
The enslavement of indigenous peoples of the Americas is part of our history that is not well known. Two books that attempted to shed light on this history won book awards in 2003, The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717 and 2017, The Other Slavery: The uncovered story of Indian enslavement in America. The beginnings of the slave trade arose first in areas colonized by Spain —the southwest and the southeast U.S., beginning with Christopher Columbus’s kidnapping of about 500 Taino people from the Caribbean to be enslaved in Europe.
The Spanish enslaved Indigenous peoples through systems like the encomienda and repartimiento, which gave settlers the right to a certain portion of land and Indigenous people as slaves. The British soon found it useful to replace a dwindling fur trade. By 1772, every British colony had Indian slaves. It also means that these Native Nations from these regions share this history which other Native Nations in America do not, and may be unaware how devastating it was.”

The Promise of Citizenship
https://narf.org/the-indian-citizenship-act-at-100-years-old/
One hundred years ago, on June 2, 1924, the United States government conferred citizenship on Native American people by passing the Snyder Act, also known as the
Indian Citizenship Act. Prior to that time, Native Americans had been explicitly denied citizenship—first in the United States Constitution and, later, through the
14th  Amendment. However, while the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 ensured that all Native Americans born within the United States had citizenship, the Act failed to fulfill the promise of citizenship because Native Americans were not also granted voting rights. It would be decades before all 50 states granted Native American citizens the right to vote. And even today, due to the inequities that Native Americans endure when accessing registration, early voting, and Election Day polling places, the promise of full citizenship remains broken.
While the 15th Amendment declared that the right to vote could not be denied on account of race, many states were able to find other ways to deny Native American people the vote—residence on a reservation, tribal enrollment status, taxation, and incompetency were all used by states as reasons to disenfranchise Native people. One tragic outcome was that thousands of Native American veterans— including American Indian Code Talkers returning from World War II— found themselves prohibited from participating in basic civil liberties in the nation that they had risked their lives to protect.

The Story of the Orange Shirt. Through the Eyes of a 6-Year-old Child, Orange Became a Symbol of an Indigenous Movement
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/through-the-eyes-of-a-6-year-old-child-orange-became-a-symbol-of-an-indigenous-movement-3
The color orange was chosen because of something that happened to Phyllis Webstad when she was only six years old. It was September 30, 1973, the first day she attended St. Joseph’s Mission Residential School in British Columbia. Her grandmother had bought Webstad a brand-new shiny orange shirt to wear, adding to the young student’s first-day-of-school excitement. 

US Presidents in Their Own Words Concerning American Indians, Native News Online
https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/us-presidents-in-their-own-words-concerning-american-indians
The article quotes various presidents since President George Washington and up to President Donald Trump. The quotes here do not include all presidents. However, there are quotes from every president since President Franklin Roosevelt.
The quotes provide a sense of how the hostility towards American Indians have generally lessened during the past 200-plus years. Just as federal policies toward American Indians have changed, so too have attitudes by presidents.

All Around Us
by Xelena González (Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation), illustrated by Adriana M. Garcia
https://www.leeandlow.com/books/all-around-us/
A mestizo grandfather draws a grandchild’s attention to circles in nature, in their bodies, around their neighborhood, and in generational cycles. Muralist Adriana M. Garcia portrays people with realism, while using light to suggest “the part we cannot see”. Could seed lessons on gardening, nature walks, remembering ancestors, ways into contemplation, and tai chi. For ages 3-7.
Tai chi workshop based on book with author: https://youtu.be/ruAMNUCuXn4

Circle of Love
by Monique Gray Smith (Cree/Lakota/Scottish), illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt (Diné)
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/circle-of-love-monique-gray-smith
A celebration of community, queer Native families, and Indigenous joy, with vivid illustrations of a meal and ceremony at an intertribal cultural center. Back materials
include an author’s note on her own two-spirit identity, more cultural context, and a teaching activity. For pre-K through early elementary.

Harvest House
by Cynthia Leitich Smith
https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/ya-books/ya_index/harvest-house/
A crossroads on the edge of town is the site of both a long-unsolved murder and a new haunted house attraction. This ghost story/mystery for ages 12 and up confronts Halloween tropes and cultural appropriation, and honors missing and murdered indigenous women.

I Can Make This Promise
by Christine Day
https://www.harpercollins.com/products/i-can-make-this-promise-christine-day
12-year-old Edie Green finds a box of keepsakes in the attic that uncover family secrets and inspire her own sense of Native identity. The closing scenes of the book are set in a real place of historical importance to Suquamish people. An engaging novel for ages 9 and up.

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story
by Danielle Greendeer (Mashpee Wampanoag), Anthony Perry (Chickasaw), and Alexis Bunten (Yu’pik and Unangan); illustrated by Gary Meeches Sr. (Anishinaabe)
https://www.charlesbridge.com/products/keepunumuk
A grandmother tells her grandchildren the story of the first Thanksgiving, centering their own Wampanoag ancestors and the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash) which they relied on, listened to, and shared with English settlers. Notes in the book, and activities on the publisher’s website, offer resources to support families and First Day Schools in decolonizing Thanksgiving. A rich picture book for ages 3-7.

Sisters of the Neversea
by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee Creek)
https://cynthialeitichsmith.com/kidbooks/kids_index/sisters-of-the-neversea/
Wendy Darling follows Peter Pan and his shadow to Neverland—but in this version her Muscogee Creek stepsister Lily overturns the stereotypes in J.M. Barrie’s original Peter Pan. Strong characters, lively adventure, and the eventual transformation of the narcissistic Peter can draw in readers 8 and up, and seed reflection about ways to shift assumptions and narratives.

This Land Is a Lullaby, by Tonya Simpson, illustrated by Delrée Dumont
https://www.orcabook.com/This-Land-Is-a-Lullaby
Written as a lullaby for the author’s daughter and featuring striking pointillism artwork, this lush lullaby of the land honors the beauty of the Prairies and the Plains and the spiritual connection between Indigenous children, ancestors and their Traditional Territories. Make up your own melody (the text rhymes but doesn’t scan) to soothe children to sleep and nurture deep connections to the land where you live.

We Are Still Here: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know, by Traci Sorell
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/652007/we-are-still-here-by-traci-sorell-author-frane-lessac-illustrator/
Twelve Native American kids present historical and contemporary laws, policies, struggles, and victories in Native life, each with a powerful refrain: We are still here! This picture book could support First Day School curriculum or discussions: the main story appeals to younger elementary ages, with more detail in the back for teachers or older kids.

Thunderous
by M. L. Smoker (Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux) and Natalie Peeterse, illustrated by Dale Ray DeForest (Diné)
https://indigenousreadsrising.com/book/thunderous/
Aiyana is tired of hearing Lakota stories and legends about her ancestors. When her class goes on a field trip to the mountains, she finds herself transported to a magical world, pursued by the trickster Raven. To make her way back to the human world, Aiyana has to complete several quests with the help of talking animal allies. A vivid graphic novel for ages 8-12.

When We Were Alone
by David A. Robertson (Cree), illustrated by Julie Flett (Cree-Métis)
https://werklund.ucalgary.ca/about/indigenous-education/books-build/when-we-were-alone
A young girl asks why her grandmother dresses colorfully, wears her hair long, speaks the Cree language, and spends so much time with her family. A boarding school had tried to take all these things away, but the grandmother treasured them in secret and passed them on. A gentle introduction for ages 4-8.
September 30 is Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day. It honors Indigenous children who were taken away through the Residential School System.

Winter’s Gifts: An Indigenous Celebration of Nature
By Kaitlin B. Curtice (Potawatomi), illustrated by Gloria Félix (Purépecha)
https://sites.prh.com/an-indigenous-celebration-of-nature-kaitlin-curtice/winters-gifts
Dani’s family celebrates the darkest season of the year with storytelling and feasting. She finds awe in the resting and waiting that winter teaches us, and shares with her friends how a gift of gratitude can transform the way we see the world. Colorful picture book to spark discussion with ages 3-7.