If you feel a little icky about celebrating American Thanksgiving, you aren’t alone. While gratitude is always a good thing, the roots of the holiday aren’t great, and it’s important to honor the indigenous people who were already here and for whom this day isn’t a celebration.
With that in mind I thought I would share some native people you should know, whose biographies can be incorporated into your lesson plans at any time of year. Have kids research a particular figure and do a little writing or a presentation about their life. You may also be able to find activities related to some of them if you want a more detailed unit study, as well as books about them.
Have Fun with History has a good overview of 13 famous indigenous people from history, including Sitting Bull, Sacajawea, Jim Thorpe, Maria Tallchief and more. Most of these are pretty well-known historical figures, but it’s a fine place to start. Stacker has another quick list that includes some more current names, and very brief biographies that will get you started.
Here are a few more indigenous people you should know to get you started on your own explorations.
Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American to receive a medical degree. Inspired by a white doctor’s unwillingness to treat an Indian patient, she served the Omaha tribe and surrounding areas in Nebraska, treating both white and Native patients. Her lifelong dream was to see a hospital opened on the reservation, which happened in 1913, two years before she died. The hospital today includes a museum dedicated to her work and the local tribes. (Source: National Institutes of Health)
Edmonia Lewis was a renowned sculptor whose father was African American and her mother was Chippewa (Ojibwa). She was orphaned at an early age and grew up in her mother’s tribe. She worked as an artist in the United States and eventually moved to Rome, where she began to work with marble and insisted on doing all her own carving so people wouldn’t give credit to someone else for her work. (Source: Smithsonian Institution)
John Herrington is a member of the Chickasaw Nation and was the first Native person to go to space on a NASA mission, in 2002. During his mission he carried a Chickasaw Nation flag. (Source: Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame)
Deb Haaland is the current Secretary of the Interior and the first Native American to be a cabinet secretary. She’s a 35th generation New Mexican and member of the Pueblo of Laguna. She became the first Native American woman elected to lead a state party after running for Lieutenant Governor in New Mexico, and she was one of the first two Native American women elected to Congress. (Source: Department of the Interior)
Joy Harjo was one of three Poet Laureates to serve three terms, and the first Native American poet to be named to the post. She’s a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and her work honors the land and the people of the American Southwest. Watch her read her poem “Remember.” (Source: National Poetry Foundation)
Josie “Little Doe” Baird has worked tirelessly to document the Wampanoag language, which was unspoken for years but she’s developed a dictionary that includes 11,000 words and aims to preserve the language further with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project. (Source: USA Today)
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