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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 do what we can to change that. At the Zinn Education Project, we highlight lessons and other teaching resources on contemporary Native Americans, including stories of resistance.

A demonstration in Bismarck, on Nov. 21, 2016, to protest police violence against Standing Rock Water Protectors. Source: Barbara Miner

This lesson helps students recognize the issues at stake in the historic struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux to block construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline — a struggle that continues to this day.

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.

Teaching Resources

One cannot understand the crisis in the Middle East without acknowledging its history. As educators, our role is to help students grasp and analyze this history.

While many education groups are providing resources to teach about the crisis as a “conflict” rooted in antisemitism and Islamophobia, that sole emphasis is misleading. Students need to study how the current catastrophe was shaped in large part by settler colonial history, land, water, conditions of apartheid, and the geopolitical motivations of world powers.

We offer a growing collection of resources to help students learn the roots of the current crisis, including lessons and articles from Rethinking Schools, books for K–12, podcasts, calls to action, and infographics.

We also add our voice to the call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Let us know if you have teaching stories to share — or have been restricted on what you can teach. 

Join Us in Nashville

Annual Social Studies Teachers’ Conference

Are you going to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference in Nashville in early December?

If so, check out our workshops on Reparations, the Black Panther Party, climate justice, and more. Visit our interactive booth to learn about our people’s history lessons, climate crisis timeline, Reconstruction report, and Teaching for Black Lives study groups. Meet Rethinking Schools editors and see a collection of Rethinking Schools publications.

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.

Free Spanish Edition

A Young People’s History of the United States

Seven Stories Press is offering 150 free copies of their new book, La historia del pueblo de Estados Unidos para jóvenes to public school teachers, school librarians, and teacher educators, who have a plan for using and promoting the text. This is a Spanish translation of the recently updated and expanded A Young People’s History of the United States, with two new chapters on Latinx history by Ed Morales.

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.

Thanks to the generous support of Dave Colapinto, a former student of Howard Zinn’s, all donations from now through #GivingTuesday (Nov. 28) will be DOUBLED up to $15,000.

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PO BOX 73038, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20056 

202-588-7205 | zinnedproject.org