For Teachers

Lithograph displaying a family making tamales in a kitchen.

American Indian History and Heritage

This Teacher's Guide from the National Endowment for the Humanities will introduce you to the cultures and explore the histories of some groups within the over 5 million people who identify as American Indian in the United States, with resources designed for integration across humanities curricula and classrooms throughout the school year.

National Endowment for the Humanities

Image Credit: Long Walk Home—Gallup Downtown Murals—by Richard K Yazzir, 2005.

Selected Resources

Native American Voting Rights Native American Boarding Schools – Primary Source Set Living Nations, Living Words: A Guide for Educators Native American Voting Rights PALABRA Indigenous Voices

Native Communities Program American Indians - Primary Sources and Ready-to-Use Teaching Activities American Indian Voting Rights through History Analyzing a Photograph of a Young American Indian Analyzing the Petition Against the Treaty of New Echota Assimilation of American Indians Before and After Carlisle School The Impact of Westward Expansion on Native American Communities

Aacimwahkionkonci: Stories from the Land from Miami University, Oxford The Bigger Picture: This Photo Isn’t What It Looks Like EDSITEment's Learning Lab: Race, Gender, and the U.S. Military Interactive Lesson: A Cheyenne Odyssey (Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities) Language of Place: Hopi Place Names, Poetry, Traditional Dance and Song Learning the Lakota Language Miami-Illinois Digital Archive (site supported by NEH) Mukurtu: an Indigenous archive and publishing tool (site supported by NEH) Native Americans and the American Revolution: Choosing Sides NEH 50 States of Preservation project Not “Indians,” Many Tribes: Native American Diversity “Remember” by Joy Harjo The Bigger Picture: This Photo Isn’t What It Looks Like (NEH & PBS) The Sand Creek Massacre: The Betrayal that Changed Cheyenne and Arapaho People Forever Teacher's Guide: American Indian History and Heritage Teaching Native American Histories (in partnership with University of Massachusetts) You Are the Historian Game from University of Massachusetts, Boston and Plimoth Patuxet

Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians Head Chief of the Iowas Uncovering America White Cloud: A Hero to His People

Education Portal “Honoring Tribal Legacies” (co-sponsored by the National Park Service) Teaching with Historic Places

Americans: A Dialogue Toolkit for Educators (PDF) American Indian music on Smithsonian Folkways Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions Folklife Festival Program Book Articles Land and Native American Cultures Masters of Tradition: A Cultural Journey Across America Native Knowledge 360° Singing in the Harvest: Music from the Zuni Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center in Alaska Smithsonian Folkways Lesson Plans Trail of Tears: Music of the American Indian Diaspora

Filmmaker Billy Luther Explains How Frybread Face and Me Was a Labor of Love Good Medicine: Meda DeWitt on Tlingit Art, Healing, and Reclamation In the Pandemic, Sculptor Nora Naranjo Morse Remembers What Is Sacred The Journey of a Curandera Total: How María Cristina Moroles Heals Body and Spirit “Like This It Stays in Your Hands”: Reconciling the Colonial Legacy of the Yoeme Religion Moccasin Madness! Navajo and Apache Moccasin Game Songs Native Innovation in Video Games: An Interview with Game Designer Elizabeth LaPensée A Navajo/Anthro Perspective: Wesley Thomas on Diné Landscape, Identity, and Spirituality North American Indigenous Flute vs. “Native American Flute”: A Lesson in Tradition from Kevin Locke A Q&A with the Smithsonian's First Curator from the Lumbee Tribe Regrowing Our Connections: Diné Relief, Recovery, and Remembrance “Seeds Have Stories”: Connecting Cultural Diversity and Biodiversity Shishmaref: A Short Film and Field Notes from a Native Alaskan Village The Spirit Lives On in Art: Lily Hope’s “Chilkat Protector” The Struggle for Native Lands in Indianola, Washington Take It to the Courts: Amplifying Voices of Oakland’s Mam-Maya Community This Land Is Whose Land? Indian Country and the Shortcomings of Settler Protest Weaving Through Time, Pandemic, and Wildfire