Celebrating and Digging Deeper Into Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month

Nov 10 2020

Celebrating and Digging Deeper Into Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month

Did you know that November is Native American and Alaska Native Heritage month?

The Grand Rapids Christian Schools Cultural Competency Task Force and GRCS parent Camie Castaneda compiled resources for our students and staff to discover more about Native American Heritage and Culture.

GRCS parent, Camie Castaneda, was a part of the group that helped usher in Indigenous Peoples' Day here in Grand Rapids. Learn more about Indigenous Peoples' Day Grand Rapids.

The city of Grand Rapids and the Grand Rapids Public Museum supported the Grand Rapids Native American community in putting together a video that shares songs, dances, and also some language.

Be sure to watch for GRCMS student, Aanzheni Dandridge dancing with the Women’s Fancy Dance at the 20:12 mark. Aanzhenii is a federally recognized tribal member of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi Tribe. Aanzhenii was introduced to the Pow Wow Circle in 2008 when she was old enough to enter into the circle on her own and she has been dancing ever since!

Indigenous People's Day Virtual Celebration

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Did you know that Grand Rapids Christian Elementary School Iroquois Campus is built on Native land and is named for the Iroquois People? The Iroquois are any member of the North American Indian tribes speaking a language of the Iroquoian family. The peoples who spoke Iroquoian languages occupied a continuous territory around Lakes Ontario, Huron, and Erie in present-day New York state and Pennsylvania (U.S.) and southern Ontario and Quebec (Canada) (source).

Indigenous people have existed in North America for thousands of years, and their history far predates recorded initial contact. Michigan is home to the Odawa, Ojibway, and Bodwéwadmi people. The Three Fires Confederacy, or Alliance, promoted mutual interests between the Bodéwadmi (Potawatomi), Ojibwe (Chippewa), and Odawa (Ottawa) Tribes. The Tribes have always been able to rely on one another.

We would like to recognize the People of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples, and specifically the Grand River Bands of the Ottawa Indians as the original caregivers of Grand Rapids (Bawating), on whose land students and staff at Iroquois gather each day.

The Three Fires People are indigenous to this land, which means that this is their ancestral territory. We are guests on their land, and one way to practice good relations is to develop genuine ways to acknowledge the histories and traditions of the people who originated here first, who are still here, and who tend to the land always. As we make this land acknowledgment, we know it is an essential first step and that there are many more that we need to take when we decide to engage in the critical work of social justice.

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Did You Know? (source)

6.9 million. The nation's American Indian and Alaska Native population alone or in combination with other race groups in 2019 (source).
10.1 million. The projected American Indian and Alaska Native population alone or in combination with other race groups on July 1, 2060. They would constitute 2.5% of the total population (source).
334. The number of distinct federally recognized American Indian reservations in 2019, including federal reservations and off-reservation trust land (source).
574. The number of federally recognized Indian tribes in 2020 (source).
142,972. The number of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in 2019 (source).

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Discover More

Listed below are more videos and books the students at Grand Rapids Christian Elementary School Iroquois Campus will be watching, reading, and learning about this month as they discover more about Native American and Alaska Native Heritage.

Videos

Learn more about the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians*

*Check out this video from the Grand Rapids Public Museum — hear from Ron Yob, Chairman of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians, about the history of the first people who called Grand Rapids home. Did you know that the Three Fires People have used these waterways and have established trade routes for thousands of years? These same routes are still used, in fact, some of our routes have turned into the highways we use today.

Read Aloud: The Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Make Your Own own Husk Doll

Corn Husk Doll Making and Storytelling

The Wampanoag Way