November is National Native American Heritage Month. For this week’s blog we welcome guest writer, Dr. Susan Stone, Professor of English.
Indigenous people have lived in what we now call North America for over 20,000 years. Currently, there are 574 federally recognized tribes, each with their own unique language and customs, and Native Americans made up 3% of the US population in the 2022 census. Although this number is significant, it could have been much larger if Europeans hadn’t arrived in the 15th century. It is estimated that almost 95% of the millions of Indigenous people living in North America perished from diseases like smallpox and the measles as well as forced displacement and warfare, within the first few decades of contact. Despite the immense challenges they faced, Indigenous people preserved their histories and cultures through storytelling, passing down their heritage for generations.
This was complicated, however, by the lack of written indigenous languages, which made recording history and sharing stories among tribes and with colonists difficult. Still in 1809, a Cherokee man named Sequoyah (George Guess) became the first Native American to begin working on a writing system for his nation’s language. He called this project the “Talking Leaves.” A monumental undertaking, especially considering that he couldn’t read or write, it took Sequoyah and his daughter Ayoka over a decade to complete the Cherokee Syllabary, an innovative syllable-based writing system still used today. Today, Cherokee and Navajo, which was used by the Code Talkers in WWII to help win the war, are the two most popular spoken and written native languages. With written languages, the legacy of indigenous storytelling has taken on new dimensions.
Over the last two centuries, hundreds of Native American authors have shared stories orally and written prolifically and provocatively in English and in multiple classical genres—poetry, short fiction, novels, drama, etc. In the last 50 years or so as part of the Native American Renaissance first and second waves, they have woven decidedly Indigenous and tribal topics, themes, and forms into their story telling, creating hybrid works like Cherokee/Kiowa Pulitzer Prize winner N. Scott Momaday’s multi-voiced (tribal, academic, personal, and mythical) and hand-illustrated The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969) and Chippewa writer Louise Erdrich’s critically acclaimed, multigenerational Love Medicine (1984), a text that can be read either as a whole novel or a collection of, stand-alone short stories. Ceremony (1977), by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), places the oral traditions and ceremonial practices of the Navajo and Pueblo people at the center of her story, and Tommy Orange’s Pulitzer-nominated debut novel There There (2018) is a polyphonic, puzzle-like text that focuses on the lives of a dozen people—some Indigenous, some not—who are brought together at an urban pow-wow in Oakland, California. In this extremely popular work, Orange blends elements of his Cheyenne and Arapaho heritage with social, historical, and cultural issues that confront both urban Natives and those living on reservations.
In addition to the above texts, there is a wonderful emergence of creative Native American authored and illustrated texts for children and young adults. Since 2006 the biennial American Indian Youth Literature Award celebrates the best in children's and young adult literature by and about Native Americans, showcasing authentic and engaging stories that reflect Indigenous experiences. Many of these award winners and honors can currently be found as part of the book display on the first floor of the Library including: Berry Song, written and Illustrated by Michaela Goade (Tlingit Nation); We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell (Cherokee); Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians); and Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Muscogee).
Native American Heritage Month was created not only to commemorate a rich, multitribal ancestry and heritage but also to recognize the current achievements and goals of modern tribes and their diverse stories, traditions, identities, governments, and lives on and off reservations. Native Americans are a present tense, forward-looking people. Native American Heritage Month reminds us to honor the resilience, creativity, and ongoing contributions of Indigenous communities, whose voices continue to enrich and deepen our collective understanding. This November, let us celebrate by engaging with these stories that bridge past, present, and future.