Update for 2024:
Monday, October 14 is Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the so-called United States. Here are some resources for you to check out and share!
We will continue to add to and update this page over time with more resources as we see fit, so you can bookmark this page and see what we add to it over time. The “Last Updated” message below will tell you when we last added resources to this page.
(Last updated: October 14, 2024)
Videos
On Treaty Rights:
Why Treaties Matter — A five-minute NPR video that introduces you to treaty rights and what they mean for Indigenous peoples in the United States.
Importance of Treaties with American Indian Tribes — Diving a little deeper, here’s a twelve-minute video on treaty rights with historian Dr. Nick Estes.
(For more on treaty rights, check out this brief primer from the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.)
On Sovereignty:
Tribal Identity: A Question of Sovereignty — A three-minute video that discusses what tribal identity and sovereignty actually mean for Indigenous peoples.
Federal Recognition Erases Tribes — A three-minute excerpt from the documentary Dancing Salmon Home, discussing how the US government is erasing California tribes through the policy of federal recognition.
Beyond Sovereignty: New Solutions for Self-Determination — Grassroots Native leaders discuss and deconstruct the concept of inherent and tribal sovereignty for environmental protection, economic development, and more (15-minute video).
More:
Kristin Talks about Being an Indigenous Person — YouTube entertainer Kristin Chirico discusses her experience as a reconnecting Native person. Note: occasional use of adult language (28-minute video).
Mishkos Kenomagwen: The Teachings of Grass — Plant ecologist Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer makes a straightforward case as to why the environmental crisis cannot and will not be solved without Indigenous people (21-minute video).
Articles, Essays, Webpages
- Just Transition (Indigenous Environmental Network) — Front and Centered works to advance a Just Transition, but what does an Indigenous Just Transition look like? Check out this webpage by the Indigenous Environmental Network for one interpretation.
- Beyond Land Acknowledgment: A Guide — “Every moment spent agonizing over land acknowledgment wording is time that could be used to actually support Indigenous people.”
- Making Land Back a Reality: An Urban Indigenous Land Trust Rises in California — “People really want to be engaged in Land Back movements. I think that the land trust model allows us to do that.”
- Land-grab Universities — “Chances are you have heard land acknowledgements recited at many of these universities… What many of these statements miss is that land-grant universities were built not just on Indigenous land, but with Indigenous land.”
- In Coastal British Columbia, the Haida Get Their Land Back — “The new agreement will soon be enshrined into BC law, naming the Haida as the rightful owners of all 200-plus islands of Haida Gwaii, which they have been stewarding for millennia.”
- Our Responsibility to Indigenous Land Defenders — “Many of us feel a responsibility to water and to land, but intrinsic to that responsibility is an obligation to people—because it is people, and particularly Indigenous people, who defend water and defend land.”
- Settler “Self-defense” and Native Liberation — “Counter-annihilation is also a key feature of settler colonialism. It is the belief and practice that colonial society must annihilate Native people; otherwise, the colonizers, in turn, will be annihilated in a zero-sum calculus.”
- The Day the Indians Took Over Seattle’s Fort Lawton—and Won Land Back — “It is this willingness to fight, to put it all on the line, including one’s own body if necessary, that protects Native people and cultures from extinction.”
Books
- El-Kurd, M. (2021). Rifqa. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
Estes, N. (2019). Our history is the future: Standing Rock versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the long tradition of Indigenous resistance. Brooklyn, NY: Verso Books.
Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2019). As long as grass grows: The Indigenous fight for environmental justice, from colonization to Standing Rock. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Harjo, J., Howe, L., Foerster, J. E., & Westerman, G. (2020). When the light of the world was subdued, our songs came through: A Norton anthology of Native Nations poetry. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Hernandez, J. (2022). Fresh banana leaves: Healing Indigenous landscapes with Indigenous Science. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions.
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2015). The white possessive: Property, power, and Indigenous sovereignty. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Red Nation, The (2021). The Red Deal: Indigenous action to save our Earth. Brooklyn, NY: Common Notions.
Simpson, L. B. (2017). As we have always done: Indigenous freedom through radical resistance. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Teves, S. N., Smith, A., & Raheja, M. (Eds.). (2015). Native studies keywords. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Thirteen Books That Will Make You Rethink California’s Indigenous History (curated by the Peninsula Open Space Trust)
Thrush, Coll (2017). Native Seattle: Histories from the crossing-over place. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
