Native Heritage Month Kickoff
When: November 1, 2024 at 3:00-4:30pm
Where: 113 Euclid
Lead the Way: A First-Gen Panel Discussion
When: November 4, 2024 at 4:00-6:00pm
Where: Bird Library, Peter Graham Scholarly Commons (Room 114)
Indigenous Film Screening: "Rez Ball"
When: November 7, 2027 at 5:00-7:00pm
Where: 113 Euclid
Native Social with Chris Thomas
When: November 8, 2024 at 5:00-8:00pm
Where: Skybarn
Rock Your Mocs Week
When: November 10 - November 16, 2024
Where: Anywhere!
Indigenous Media with Honni
When: November 10, 2024 at 2:00-4:00pm
Where: Hall of Languages, 107
Indigenous Friendsgiving
When: November 12, 2024 at 5:30-7:00pm
Where: 113 Euclid
Full Moon Ceremony
When: November 15, 2024 at 6:30-7:30pm
Where: Shaw Quadrangle
Celebrating and Honoring our Trans and Two-Spirit Communities: A Trans Day of Remembrance Event
When: November 20, 2024 at 5:00-7:00pm
Where: 113 Euclid
The Libraries' celebration of Native Heritage Month features books and videos selected by Syracuse University students Aysha-Lynn Estrella and Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore, Syracuse University former staff member Bailey Tlachac, and a Syracuse University graduate academic consultant within the Native Student Program Nevaeh Marshall.
Explore the titles featured on this guide, and be sure to visit the in-person display on Bird Library first floor during the month of November.
As the former program coordinator of the Native Student Program and have had the opportunity to help curate the selection of books for Native Heritage Month, I wanted to include books that show who we are in a modern light. I want to also spread awareness of modern Indigenous issues while also showcasing new and upcoming authors. We added the tribe's to authors we could identify. We felt this brought another layer into recognizing Indigenous people and showing that we still exist and are thriving. While looking through the selection, you will find that we chose authors from across Turtle Island. Additionally, we included books that are now banned in a handful of states and school districts. We didn’t categorize them purposefully so viewers can try and determine which books are banned. I hope you find the list engaging and shedding light on authors and people who are the unseen backbone of the United States.
Bailey Tlachac is the former Program Coordinator for the Native Student Program within the Intercultural Collective Department.
For Native Americans, history did not begin when Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas in 1492. Prior to contact from Europe, Indigenous people cultivated the land and flourished in an organized society with moral codes, ceremonies, a complex political structure, and an economic system. State-funded public schools tend to favor a euro-centric approach, which is suffused with remnants of colonial ideologies.
This form of education is assimilative and harmful because it devalues Native American history and ancestry, and perpetuates damaging stereotypes about indigenous peoples. Many historians tend to dismiss Indigenous claims because they were not deemed valid by an “expert.” Unfortunately, Native American history has been taught in a declension narrative, which portrays them as an uncivilized and broken minority, that is not worthy of empathy.
As the curator of this display, I wanted to detach from colonial attitudes, and instead elevate Indigenous voices and cultural knowledge by selecting authors who are a part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy or other Native American tribes in the United States. Natives scholars and community members must have sovereignty over their narrative, in order to combat distorted claims and pass down the cultural traditions to the next generation. Reconciliation requires honesty and public truth-sharing that addresses past harms, which is why I included written topics from
Indigenous authors about Indian Residential Schools, decolonizing methods, oral traditions, First Nation films, and Native American Literature.
Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore
Alumna, Communications & Rhetorical Studies major, College of Visual and Performing Arts
"Dispossession of the Haudenosaunee: A Chronology in Maps" is a StoryMap, an interactive web-based tool combining narrative with a chronological display of maps, detailing the immense loss of land the Haudenosaunee have endured since the arrival of Europeans on the continent.
"This is a brilliant summation of the territorial losses of the Confederacy.”
Doug George-Kanentiio, Bear Clan, Akwesasne Mohawk, is the vice-president of the Hiawatha Institute for Indigenous Knowledge. He previously served as a Trustee for the National Museum of the American Indian, is a former land claims negotiator for the Mohawk Nation and is the author of numerous books and articles about the Mohawk people.
Created by Darle Balfoort, Maps and Government Information, Syracuse University Libraries.
The link to the Story Map is below.
