Every November in the United States is National Native American Heritage Month (also called Native American Heritage Month or National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month). It’s a time set aside by federal proclamation to honor the histories, cultures, and ongoing contributions of Native peoples—but it only scratches the surface of what’s owed.¹ ² ³
This post offers:
- A brief history of how this month came to be
- Key accomplishments and contributions of Native peoples
- Current realities and responsibilities we share
- Concrete ways to celebrate and support Native communities—this month and all year
Throughout, we’re writing about Native peoples, not for them. Whenever you can, prioritize Native voices and sources—this month is a great entry point, not a substitute.
A Brief History of Native American Heritage Month
From single day to full month
The idea of a dedicated time to honor Native peoples has roots over a century old:
- 1916 – New York becomes the first state to recognize American Indian Day in May, thanks in large part to the efforts of Seneca activist Arthur C. Parker.⁴
- 1986 – The U.S. Congress authorizes and requests the President to proclaim “American Indian Week” in November, moving the observance to the fall and giving it national focus.¹ ²
- 1990 – President George H. W. Bush signs a joint resolution designating **November 1990 as “National American Indian Heritage Month.”**¹ ² ³
- 1994 onward – Presidents continue issuing annual proclamations under titles like “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month,” solidifying November as an annual observance connected to major federal cultural institutions.¹ ²
Today, agencies like the Library of Congress, National Archives, Smithsonian, National Park Service, and others collaborate each November to highlight Native histories and traditions.¹
But Native presence is not a “heritage month” thing
While November creates a focal point, Native presence is:
- Ancient: Indigenous peoples have lived across the Americas for tens of thousands of years.⁴
- Continuous: Despite colonization, forced removals, and attempts at cultural erasure, tribal nations endure and adapt.⁴ ¹⁹
- Political, not just cultural: There are currently 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States—distinct nations with government-to-government relationships with the U.S. federal government.⁴ ⁵
Honoring Native American Heritage Month means recognizing that these are living nations and communities, not “peoples of the past.”
Key Contributions and Accomplishments
Trying to list “Native contributions” in a couple of sections is like trying to summarize all of Europe in one paragraph. What follows is a tiny sampling meant to spark curiosity, not define the full story.
1. Agriculture, food systems, and land stewardship
Many foods considered “staples” around the world today were first developed by Indigenous peoples of the Americas through sophisticated agriculture and selective breeding:
- Corn (maize) – a human-created plant, not found in the wild in its current form; its development radically reshaped global agriculture.⁷ ⁸
- Beans, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, cacao, and more – countless crops that now anchor global cuisines originated in Indigenous agricultural systems.⁷ ⁸
In addition to crops, Native peoples developed sustainable land and water management practices, such as controlled burns, terracing, and intricate irrigation systems, many of which are now studied as models for climate resilience and ecological restoration.⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹
2. Inventions and everyday technologies
Some everyday items and technologies trace directly back to Native innovation, including:
- Snowshoes – enabling efficient travel across deep winter snow
- Early syringe-style tools used for medicinal purposes
- Baby bottles and cradleboards – tools for caring for infants
- Lacrosse – originally a spiritual and communal game
- Parkas and cold-weather clothing essential in Arctic and sub-Arctic climates
You’ll find these and similar examples highlighted in modern overviews of Native accomplishments and inventions.⁷
3. Governance, diplomacy, and models of democracy
Many Native nations have long used forms of consensus-based governance and intertribal confederacies, where decision-making emphasized balance, accountability, and community participation.⁴
Historians and political theorists have argued that the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy’s Great Law of Peace influenced early American democratic thought, offering a living example of federalism and shared governance.⁴
At the same time, the U.S. has repeatedly violated its own treaties with Native nations, even while those treaties acknowledge Native groups as sovereign polities, not merely ethnic interest groups.⁵
4. Military service and defense of homelands
Native Americans have served in the U.S. military at higher rates per capita than any other ethnic group.¹⁰ ¹¹
From the Revolutionary War to the present day—through the famed Navajo and other Native code talkers of World War II and modern service members—Native people have contributed significantly to national defense, even while their own communities faced broken treaties and ongoing discrimination.¹⁰ ¹¹
5. Arts, literature, and cultural renaissance
Native artists, writers, and cultural leaders have shaped both Indigenous and mainstream culture. A few examples among many:
- N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) – whose novel House Made of Dawn won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969 and helped catalyze the “Native American Renaissance” in literature.¹²
Across the continent, Native nations sustain rich traditions of storytelling, song, regalia, dance, beadwork, carving, pottery, and more, evolving with each generation and often bridging traditional forms with contemporary media.¹²
6. Leadership in law, policy, and environmental protection
Native leaders and activists have been at the forefront of movements for:
- Land and water rights, including treaty enforcement and protection of sacred sites.⁴
- Religious freedom, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978), which finally recognized the right to access sacred sites and use sacred items in ceremony.¹⁹
- Violence prevention, especially around the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIW/MMIP), which has inspired federal task forces and state-level alert systems for missing Indigenous people.¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵
More recently, leaders like Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo)—the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history—have used federal roles to center Native issues like land restoration, climate policy, and the MMIP crisis.¹⁶
The Beauty and Diversity of Native Cultures
One of the most important truths to hold in mind:
There is no single “Native American culture.”
According to federal and scholarly sources, there are 574 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, each with its own governance, stories, languages, and ways of life.⁴ ⁵
The National Museum of the American Indian’s “Native Knowledge 360°” framework emphasizes several “essential understandings,” including:
- Native peoples are diverse in culture, language, and lifeways.⁶ ¹⁸
- Native nations are contemporary peoples with dynamic cultures, not frozen in the past.⁶
- Tribal sovereignty and treaty rights are central, not side notes.⁶
When we talk about the “beauty of Native cultures,” we’re talking about things like:
- Languages that encode unique ways of relating to the world, many of which are being revitalized through community-led immersion schools and language programs.⁶
- Ceremonies and lifeways that connect community, land, and spirituality in ways that resist commodification and exploitation.
- Art and regalia that carry generations of meaning in each bead, design, or carving.
- Relationships with land that frame humans as part of ecological systems, not above them—an understanding that’s increasingly recognized in conversations about climate and sustainability.⁹ ¹⁰ ¹¹
At the same time, beauty is not a tourism brochure. It exists alongside painful histories and ongoing harm. Truly appreciating Native cultures means refusing to romanticize them while ignoring the realities Native communities are fighting every day.
Present Realities: Honoring Truth, Not Just Heritage
To honor Native heritage honestly, we have to acknowledge both historic and ongoing injustices:
- Colonization and forced removals: Many Native nations were violently uprooted from ancestral homelands through warfare, broken treaties, and removal policies like the Trail of Tears.¹⁹
- Boarding schools and cultural suppression: Federal and church-run schools sought to “kill the Indian, save the man,” punishing Native children for speaking their languages or practicing their traditions.¹⁹
- Economic and health disparities: Many Native communities face disproportionate poverty, limited infrastructure, and inequitable access to healthcare—problems rooted in historical and structural racism, not cultural “deficits.”⁴ ¹⁹
The crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples
One of the most urgent issues today is the epidemic of gendered and community violence:
- Native women and girls face dramatically higher rates of murder and disappearances than the national average in some regions.¹³ ¹⁴
- Native communities report high rates of assault, abduction, and murder, often tied to domestic and sexual violence, trafficking, and failures of law enforcement to respond.¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵
- Federal and state agencies are only beginning to build better data systems and coordinated responses, including specialized units and alert systems for missing Indigenous people.¹³ ¹⁵ ¹⁶
Recognizing this crisis is not separate from celebrating Native heritage—it’s part of respecting the right of Native people to live, to be safe, and to remain in community.
How to Honor Native American Heritage Month (and Beyond)
If you’re not Native, this month is a chance to practice better allyship—not just post a land acknowledgment and move on. Here are some concrete ways to engage:
1. Learn whose land you’re on
Use Native-led or vetted resources to learn about the tribal nations connected to the place where you live. One widely used starting point is the interactive map from Native Land Digital.¹⁷
Then go deeper:
- Learn their names, both historical and present.
- Learn some of the treaties that govern that land.
- Look up tribal websites and see what those nations say about themselves.
2. Read, watch, and listen to Native voices
Seek out works by Native authors, filmmakers, musicians, and scholars, especially those from nations tied to your region. This might include:
- Books and poetry
- Documentaries and films
- Podcasts and lectures
- Native-run news outlets and organizations
Whenever possible, buy directly from Native creators or Native-owned businesses to support their work materially as well as intellectually.
3. Support Native-led organizations
Look for Native-run nonprofits, cultural centers, and advocacy groups working on things like:
- Language and culture revitalization
- Land protection and environmental justice
- Health and education programs
- MMIW/MMIP advocacy and survivor support¹³ ¹⁵
Recurring donations—even small ones—help organizations plan for the long term.
4. Rethink familiar narratives
Native American Heritage Month is a powerful time to:
- Re-examine the stories you were taught about Thanksgiving, westward expansion, “frontier” history, and “discovery.”
- Replace “vanishing Indian” myths with stories that center Native survival, resistance, and creativity.⁶ ¹⁹
If you have kids in your life, this might mean choosing books and lessons created by Native educators and authors.
5. Advocate for policy change
Native communities have consistently identified key priorities such as:
- Addressing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples with better data, jurisdictional coordination, and survivor-centered support.¹³ ¹⁴ ¹⁵
- Protecting land, water, and sacred sites from exploitation and environmental harm.⁴ ⁹ ¹¹
- Upholding tribal sovereignty and treaty obligations at federal, state, and local levels.⁴ ⁵
You can:
- Learn your elected officials’ positions on tribal issues
- Support legislation endorsed by Native-led organizations
- Show up when tribal nations call for public solidarity
Closing: From Awareness to Relationship
Native American Heritage Month is a chance to:
- Celebrate the brilliance, resilience, and creativity of Native peoples
- Tell the truth about history and ongoing injustice
- Deepen relationships—with the land you live on, the communities around you, and the responsibilities that come with both
If there’s one big takeaway, it might be this:
Native history is not a chapter that ended. Native nations are here—sovereign, diverse, and very much alive.
Let this month be an invitation to ongoing learning, listening, and action, rooted in respect and a commitment to justice.
Sources & Further Reading
You don’t need to paste all of these into your blog if it feels like too much—just keep the numbering consistent with the footnotes in the post above. (You can also group them under headings if that fits your style.)
[1] U.S. National Archives – “Native American Heritage Month”
https://www.archives.gov/news/topics/native-american-heritage-month
[2] National Indian Council on Aging – “Native American Heritage Month”
https://www.nicoa.org/native-american-heritage-month/
[3] U.S. Census Bureau – “National Native American Heritage Month: November 2024 (Facts for Features)”
https://www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2024/aian-month.html
[4] Congressional Research Service – “The 574 Federally Recognized Indian Tribes in the United States” (R47414, 2024)
https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47414
[5] U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs – “Frequently Asked Questions”
https://www.bia.gov/frequently-asked-questions
[6] Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian – “Native Knowledge 360°: Essential Understandings”
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/about/understandings
[7] History.com – “7 Foods Developed by Native Americans”
https://www.history.com/articles/native-american-foods-crops
[8] USDA National Agricultural Library – “The Three Sisters of Indigenous American Agriculture”
https://www.nal.usda.gov/collections/stories/three-sisters
[9] National Park Service – “Indigenous Fire Practices Shape Our Land”
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/fire/indigenous-fire-practices-shape-our-land.htm
[10] World Resources Institute – “How Indigenous Leadership Can Reduce Extreme Wildfires”
https://www.wri.org/insights/extreme-wildfires-indigenous-community-leadership
[11] NRDC – “For Thousands of Years, Indigenous Tribes Have Been Planting for the Future”
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/thousands-years-indigenous-tribes-have-been-planting-future
[12] Pulitzer.org – “House Made of Dawn, by N. Scott Momaday (1969 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction)”
https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/n-scott-momaday
[13] U.S. Department of the Interior, BIA – “Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis”
https://www.bia.gov/service/mmu/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-crisis
[14] National Congress of American Indians – “Violence Against AI/AN Women & Girls – Key Statistics”
https://www.ncai.org/section/vawa/overview/key-statistics
[15] National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center – “Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives (MMIWR) Awareness”
https://www.niwrc.org/mmiwr-awareness
[16] U.S. Department of the Interior – “Secretary Haaland Creates New Missing & Murdered Unit…”
https://www.doi.gov/news/secretary-haaland-creates-new-missing-murdered-unit-pursue-justice-missing-or-murdered-american
[17] Native Land Digital – Maps
https://native-land.ca/maps
[18] Native Knowledge 360° – Essential Understandings Guide (PDF)
https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/pdf/nmai-essential-understandings.pdf
[19] San Diego Mesa College Library Guide – “Native American Heritage Month: Early History”
https://sdmesa.libguides.com/c.php?g=1193349&p=8728996
