Indigenous Peoples' Day

How can Indigenous Peoples' Day inspire learning and remembrance?

We hope that these questions and resources can be used to serve the continued learning of school communities, classroom teachers, and students across a broad range of grade levels.  Our goal is that each teacher identify the question(s) and resource(s) most useful for their and/or their students' learning.

Local Tribal Communities

Inquiry Question: How are Indigenous people in my community reviving cultural practices and organizing for change?

• Who is ancestral to the land I live on?
• Who are the contemporary tribal leaders in my community?
• How can members of the settler community stand in solidarity with Indigenous-led efforts to repair harm?

People, Culture, and Geography

• Native-land.ca

• Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area

• Kanyon Konsulting

Cultural Renewal and Land Rematriation in the East Bay

• Cafe Ohlone

• Call to Action El Cerrito

• Indian People Organizing for Change

• Ohlone Youth Summit, Tule Boat Voyages (video)
• Sogorea Te' Land Trust

Taíno People and the Invasion of the Americas

Inquiry Question: Why are we taught the exact day Columbus “discovered” America yet do not know the name of the peoples he met?

• What are the languages, geographies and cultural practices of Taíno people and their descendants?
• How have Taíno descendants sustained and recovered their Indigenous identity?

Select Sources:

• Taíno Language (overview)

• Taíno Culture and Geography (overview)

• Taínos & Caribbean Indigenous Peoples (ORIAS)

• 1492 Bajo la Tierra del Encuentro: Las Raíces de América (video, in Spanish with English subtitles)

• Las Casas, Devastation of the Indies, 1542. (primary source)

• “Meet the Survivors of a ‘Paper Genocide’,” National Geographic, 14 October 2019.

• “Bringing Taíno Peoples Back Into History,” Smithsonian Magazine, 28 December 2017.

Doctrine of Discovery and Legal Precedent

Inquiry Question: How has the Doctrine of Discovery been used to justify European colonization and American expansion? 

• How does this religious doctrine serve as legal precedent in American courts today? 

• Why is challenging the notion of “discovery” more than a demand for a change in language?

• How does the Doctrine of Discovery help us better understand the process of colonization in what is now the United States?

Select Sources:

• Interview with Iakowi:he'ne' Oakes, American Indian Community House, Democracy Now, 24 February 2016 (video)

• Indigenous Values Network, What is the Doctrine of Discovery? (summary article)

• David Wilkins, “Deconstructing the Doctrine of Discovery,” Indian Country Today, 12 September 2018 (academic article)

• Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature (summary article)

• "Doctrine of Discovery" - Division of the undiscovered world between Spain and Portugal, Pope Alexander VI- 1493 (primary source)

• Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, United Nations - 2006 (primary source)

Note: These questions and resources were informed by participation in a Cultural Competancy Course led by Kanyon Konsulting.