Native American History Readings and Resources

This resource was developed for the AHA’s 2024 AHA Online Teacher Institute: Native Peoples and the Architecture of US History. 

 

The Value of History Education

College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards (2013)

American Historical Association 2016 History Discipline Core

American Historical Association History Gateways initiative

Perspectives on Indigenous History

Seth Archer, “Precedents for a Pandemic” (2020)

Liza Black (Cherokee), “Native TV in 2021” (2021)

Brenda J. Child (Red Lake Ojibwe), “Searching for Lutiant: An American Indian Nurse Navigates a Pandemic” (2022)

Scott Fralin and Jessica Taylor, “The Story Doesn’t Always Fit in a Grid” (2021)

Holly Miowak Guise (Iñupiaq), “Listening to Alaska Native Elders” (2022)

Pekka Hämäläinen, “The Futures of Native American History in the United States” (2012)

Noah Ramage (Cherokee), “We Have Always Been Global” (2022), “Sovereignty Is Not So Fragile” (2022), and “Not Just Native Sovereignty” (2023)

John Rosinbum, “Decolonizing the US History Survey” (2018)

Coll Thrush, “Seeing Past the Totem Poles: Seattle’s Native Histories” (2004)

Points of Entry for Historical Scholarship

Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Un-Making of U.S. History (Yale University Press, 2023)

Brenda J. Child, “Contemporary Indigenous Art and History,” American Historical Review 129.1 (2024): 93-96.

Brooke Bauer and Elizabeth Ellis, “Indigenous, Native American, or American Indian: The Limitations of Broad Terms,” Journal of the Early Republic 23.1 (2023): 61-74.

Emilie Connolly, “Fiduciary Colonialism: Annuities and Native Dispossession in the Early United States,” American Historical Review 127.1 (2022): 223–253.

Christopher Heaney, “Skull Walls: The Peruvian Dead and the Remains of Entanglement,” American Historical Review 127.3 (2022): 1071–1101.

Caroline Dodds Pennock, “Aztecs Abroad? Uncovering the Early Indigenous Atlantic,” American Historical Review 125.3 (2020): 787–814.

Susan Sleeper-Smith, et al, eds. Why You Can’t Teach United States History Without American Indians (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).

Ned Blackhawk, American Indians and the Study of US History (AHA, 2012).

Resource Guides, Digital Projects, and Primary Source Collections

Akomawt Educational Initiative, A Quick Reference Guide to Indigenous Terminology

Chickasaw Cultural Center Virtual Exhibits

Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Historical Resources and Documents

Confederation of Michigan Tribal Education Departments, Maawndoonganan Anishinaabe Resource Manual

Nancy Fitch, The Conquest of Mexico (American Historical Association)

Thomas Kole, et al. A Portrait of Tenochtitlan: A 3D Reconstruction of the Capital of the Aztec Empire

Library of Congress

American Folklife Center Collections: Indigenous Peoples of the Americas

Navajo Code Talkers: A Guide to First-Person Narratives in the Veterans History Project

Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Online Exhibits and Virtual Tours

Minnesota Humanities Center, Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, and Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Why Treaties Matter Educator Guides

Native-land.ca

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

Native Knowledge 360°

Northern Plains Treaties: Is a Treaty Intended to Be Forever

The Impact of the Gold Rush on Native Americans of California

The First Thanksgiving: “How Can We Tell a Better Story?” (IDM)

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces

Understand Native Minnesota, Guide to Reliable Native American-Related Teaching Resources

Understand Native Minnesota, Native American Essential Understandings for Educators

University of Utah American West Center, et al. Utah American Indian Digital Archive

Lesson Plans, Education Research, and Curricula

Dakota Wicohan (MN), Mni Sóta Maḳoce: The Dakota Homelands Curriculum

National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, boarding school curriculum resources

Teaching Westward Expansion: K—12 Educators Workshop (AHA Annual Meeting 2017)

State Agency Curricular Resources

Hawaii State Department of Education, Hawaiian Studies

Maine Department of Education, Maine Native Studies Curriculum

Montana Office of Public Instruction, Montana Indian Education for All

Nevada Department of Education, Nevada American Indian Curriculum Guide

North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, North Dakota Native American Essential Understandings

Oklahoma State Department of Education, Oklahoma Indian Tribe Education Guides

Oregon Department of Education, Tribal History/Shared History

South Dakota Department of Tribal Relations, Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings

Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Since Time Immemorial

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, et al. Wisconsin First Nations Education