Native American Archives

Dirty Oil and Shovel-Ready Jobs: A Role Play on Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Pipeline

Teaching Activity. By Abby MacPhail. Rethinking Schools. 17 pages.
A lesson on the Keystone XL Pipeline battle.

Chickadee

Book — Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. 2012. 208 pages.
The fourth book in the series following the Ojibwe girl Omakayas and her family as their lands are invaded by white settlers.

The Export of Colors

Article. By Manlio Argueta. From Cuzcatlán, Donde bate la mar del sur.
An excerpt from a novel of historical fiction about the impact of an export economy on peasants in El Salvador.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

Book — Non-fiction. By Ronald Takaki, with a foreword by Clint Smith. 2023. 576 pages.
A multicultural history of the United States, in the voices of Indigenous people, African Americans, Jews, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and others.

The Game of Silence

Book — Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. 2006. 288 pages.
The second in a series of novels for middle school and high school students about an Ojibwe family in the mid-19th century. The story parallels the time of the widely-read Little House on the Prairie series.

House of Purple Cedar

Book — Fiction. By Tim Tingle. 2014. 326 pages.
A young girl's story of growing up in Indian Territory in pre-statehood Oklahoma.

Hurricane Dancers

Book — Fiction. By Margarita Engle. 2011. 160 pages.
Historical fiction in the form of poetry about the conquest and resistance.

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

Book — Fiction. By Joseph Marshall III. Illustrations by Jim Yellowhawk. 2015. 176 pages.
A contemporary Native American boy learns about the history of Crazy Horse in a journey with his grandfather.

Incident at Oglala

Film. By Michael Apted. Narrated by Robert Redford. 1992. 90 minutes.
Documentary about the conviction of Native American activist Leonard Peltier.

Indigenous Heroes

Poster. Features eight indigenous heroes.

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States

Book — Non-fiction. By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. 2015. 312 pages.
Four hundred years of Native American history from a bottom-up perspective.

Chief Hinmton Yalaktit Joseph

Profile. Chief Joseph Hinmton Yalaktit (1840 -1904), a Nez Percé Indian chief in what is now northeastern Oregon.

Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong

Book — Non-fiction. By James Loewen. 2019. 464 pages.
The mis-education provided by monuments and historic markers across the United States.

Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus

Poster and booklet. By James W. Loewen. 2006; updated 2014.
Graphic corrective to the traditional textbook narratives about Columbus.

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos

Book — Non-fiction. By Rodolfo Acuña. 2020 (9th Edition). 464 pages.
A leading textbook on Chicano history.

Teaching Activity by Rodolfo Acuña

On the Road to Cultural Bias: A Critique of The Oregon Trail

Article. By Bill Bigelow. Rethinking Schools.
Critique of the popular "Oregon Trail" computer game.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

The Porcupine Year

Book — Fiction. By Louise Erdrich. 2010. 224 pages.
The third in a series of novels for middle and high school students about an Ojibwe family in the mid-19th century. The story parallels the time of the widely-read Little House on the Prairie.

Lucy Gonzales Parsons

Profile. By William Loren Katz.
Lucy Gonzales Parsons (c. 1853 – March 7, 1942) was a labor organizer and orator.

Teaching Activity by William Loren Katz

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years

Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 2003. 192 pages.
Readings and lessons for grades 5 to 12 about the impact and legacy of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Time to Abolish Columbus Day

Article. By Bill Bigelow. 2015. If We Knew Our History Series. When the school curriculum celebrates Columbus, children are taught that it’s OK for white people to rule over peoples of color and that militarily powerful nations can bully weaker nations. By his own account, Columbus enslaved people, destroyed cultures, and terrorized those who challenged his rule. It’s time to abolish Columbus Day.

Teaching Activity by Bill Bigelow

Unlearning “Indian” Stereotypes

Slideshow on DVD. 1977, updated in 2008. Rethinking Schools and the Council on Interracial Books for Children.
Native American history through the eyes of Native American children.

book cover showing freedom riders protesting near a bus

A Young People’s History of the United States: Revised and Updated

Book — Non-fiction. By Howard Zinn, adapted by Rebecca Stefoff with additions by Ed Morales. 2022. 544 pages.
A young adult version of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States, ideal for 6th through 9th grade students.

Christopher Columbus: No Monuments for Murderers

By Bill Bigelow

A New York Times article said the symbolism of Christopher Columbus is "murky.” But there is nothing murky about Columbus’ legacy of slavery and terrorism in the Americas. The record is clear and overwhelming. The fact that the New York Times could report this with such confidence — adding that “most Americans learn rather innocently, in 1492 [Columbus] sailed the ocean blue until he discovered the New World” — means that educators and activists still have much work to do.

Why We Should Learn About the FBI’s War on the Civil Rights Movement (If We Knew Our History) | Zinn Education Project: Teaching People's History

Why We Should Teach About the FBI’s War on the Civil Rights Movement

By Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

On March 8, 1971 — while Muhammad Ali was fighting Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden, and as millions sat glued to their TVs watching the bout unfold — a group of peace activists broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole every document they could find.

Delivered to the press, these documents revealed an FBI conspiracy — known as COINTELPRO — to disrupt and destroy a wide range of protest groups, including the Black freedom movement. The break-in, and the government treachery it revealed, is a chapter of our not-so-distant past that all high school students — and all the rest of us — should learn, yet one that history textbooks continue to ignore.

Preaching and Farming at Mission Delores by Anton Refregier | Zinn Education Project

Lying to Children About the California Missions and the Indians

By Deborah A. Miranda

In California schools, students come up against the “Mission Unit” in 4th grade, reinforcing the same lies those children have been breathing in most of their lives. Part of California’s history curriculum, the unit is entrenched in the educational system and impossible to avoid, a powerfully authoritative indoctrination in Mission Mythology to which 4th graders have little if any resistance.

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