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November may be the only month our students learn about American Indians — and then, it is often a distorted Thanksgiving story. According to a detailed study, “a staggering 87 percent of references to American Indians in all 50 states’ academic standards portray them in a pre-1900 context.”

Let’s help change that. At the Zinn Education Project, we highlight lessons and other teaching resources on contemporary Native Americans, including stories of resistance.

In Ursula Wolfe-Rocca’s lesson, students learn about climate activists: Indigenous leaders in the Climate Justice Movement, valve turners using civil disobedience to stop the flow of oil, and the legal team that uses the “necessity defense” in the courts. Based on the documentary film, Necessity: Oil, Water, and Climate Resistance, students engage with excerpts from the film and a mixer activity based on the real-life subjects of the film.

The National Museum of the American Indian Native Knowledge 360° initiative offers lessons and other resources for teaching outside the textbook about Native American history. These include The Impact of the Gold Rush on Native Americans of California — teaching ideas, along with extraordinary primary sources, maps, images, and background information.

Here is a list of books on Native Americans for pre-K–12, drawn from recommendations by Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children’s Literature and posted at Teaching for Change’s Social Justice Books.

Join Us in Boston

Annual Social Studies Teachers’ Conference

The Zinn Education Project team will be at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in Boston on November 22–23, 2024

We have a booth in the exhibit area and we are offering a number of workshops. We’ll have information about our Reconstruction report, Teach Climate Justice campaign, Teaching for Black Lives study groups, and all our people’s history lessons. Visitors can take a photo with our #TeachTruth frame and/or record comments in our story booth.

Let us know if you’ll be there (or at NCTE). Our booth is always a gathering place of people’s history educators.

This Day in People’s History

Alcatraz Occupation

On Nov. 20, 1969, a group of Native Americans launched a 19-month occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and issued a set of grievances and demands.

Other upcoming days in people’s history include the 1887 Thibodaux Massacre, the 1919 Bogalusa Labor Massacre, the 1927 Lum v. Rice Supreme Court ruling, and the 1961 Albany Movement.

The Fight for Justice on Native Land

An Interview with Rebecca Nagle

In the video above, Cherokee writer and journalist Rebecca Nagle speaks on Democracy Now! about By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land. In the new book, the generations-long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma is told through a contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance.

Also see the Democracy Now! interview with Nick Tilsen of the NDN Collective about Native American boarding schools.

Hundreds of educators register for free each month at the Zinn Education Project to access lessons and other resources. We love hearing the reasons why and thought you might, too.

Check out events hosted by the Zinn Education Project and our colleagues, including:

• Nov. 7: Teaching Truths: Educators Speak on Justice & Liberation in the Classroom
• Nov 15–16: Freedom Teaching Roundtable
• Nov. 18: An American Coup: Wilmington 1898
• Nov. 22–23: NCSS Conference
• and more.

Teachers are under attack for teaching truthfully about U.S. history. Please donate so that we can continue to offer free people’s history lessons and resources, and defend teachers’ right to use them.

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